Source Information
About Carinthia, Austria, Catholic Church Registers, 1614-1940
About the Carinthia, Austria, Catholic Church Registers, 1614-1940
General collection information
This collection contains Catholic Church records from Carinthia, Austria between 1614 and 1940. Records included in this collection cover many types of church events, such as baptisms, confirmations, marriages, lists of families in the parish, and burials. Records in this collection may be written in Latin or German. Most of the records in this collection are handwritten in ledgers, but newer or transcribed records may be typed.
Using this collection
Birth records may contain the following:
Marriage records may contain the following:
Death records may contain the following:
Because there are many different types of records in this collection, you may find multiple records for your ancestor. For example, you could find a baptismal record, confirmation record, and a marriage record for the same person. You may also find your ancestor mentioned in records concerning their spouse, children, or parents.
Most baptisms occur shortly after birth, but some parishioners may have been baptized as adults if they converted to Catholicism.
Knowing some common Latin phrases will help you to explore these records
If you don't speak German, knowing a few common words can aid in your search:
Collection in context
The Catholic church began recording marriages in 1564 by decree of the Council of Trent. Baptisms and deaths were recorded starting in 1614. These records predated civil registrations of these events in the country by hundreds of years.
As the seat of the Habsburg Monarchy and part of the Holy Roman Empire, the Duchy of Austria was largely Catholic until the Protestant Reformation. During the Counter-Reformation, the Habsburg Monarchy instituted an aggressive regime to return the Empire to Catholicism. The Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II of Austria enacted the Patent of Toleration in 1781, which granted religious freedom to non-Catholic Christians.
In 1806, the Holy Roman Empire came to an end but the Habsburgs continued to rule as the Austrian Empire. In 1867, the Austro-Hungarian Compromise (Ausgleich in German or Kiegyezés in Hungarian) granted sovereignty to the Kingdom of Hungary and led to the birth of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After being defeated in World War I, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was divided and the Republic of Austria was born.
Bibliography
Ancestry.com. "Reading Catholic Records." Last modified October 16, 2021. https://www.ancestry.com/cs/catholic.
Austrian Embassy. "Religion- Austria." Last modified January 5, 2022. https://www.austria.org/religion.
Mutchlechner, Martin. "The Struggle for People's Souls - The Habsburgs and the Counter-Reformation." The World of the Habsburgs. Last modified March 20, 2021. https://www.habsburger.net/en/chapter/struggle-peoples-souls-habsburgs-and-counter-reformation.
Visiting Vienna. "What is "Austria?" Last modified April 16, 2021. https://www.visitingvienna.com/culture/austria/.