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Vienna, Austria Genealogy

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Guide to Vienna Capital City and State ancestry, family history and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, parish registers, and military records.

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Beginning Research
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Vienna Capital City and State


Online Records

Digitized FamilySearch Films

Includes names, birth date and place, residence, sometimes parents', spouse and children's names. Arranged alphabetically with males listed first, then females.
Includes names, birth date and place, parents, residence, spouse and children's names.
Includes name, date and place of death, residence, age, spouse's name, sometimes parents' names. Alphabetical by death year.
Includes name, date and place of death, residence, age, spouse's name, sometimes parents' names. Arranged by death date.
Records for over 40 different cemeteries in Vienna have been filmed. ::Includes name, date and place of death, age, sometimes names of relatives. Arranged by death date.
Register of Jewish births, marriages, deaths, and indexes for Wien, Niederösterreich, Austria. Includes Leopoldstadt, Ottakring, Hernals, Währing, Fünfhaus and Sechshaus.
Circumcision and births of Jews in Wien, Niederösterreich, Austria.
Registers of male births for military conscription. Also includes death dates and towns where individuals relocated.
Registers of births, marriages, deaths, and some burials for the Jewish Community of Vienna (Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien).
Passports of citizens recorded at Vienna, Niederösterreich, Austria.

Lehmann Directories

The Lehmann directories were produced irregularly from 1859 to 1870 then annually until 1942 with the exception of a single edition for 1921-1922. Whilst the reliability of the data is considered to be generally high, complete accuracy can not be assumed. The editorial regularly complained about the tardiness and poor legibility of letters received. Moreover, the publishers decided that with the rapid expansion of the city, they could no longer aspire to be complete, especially in the personal directory.

  • Alphabetical sorting order: the Lehmann uses some sorting rules which would not be found today. For example, in some editions the letters "I" and "J" are treated as the same letter; the street name "Kleine Pfarrgasse" is found under the letter "P" and not "K".
  • Generally speaking, the directory has five parts of genealogical interest although the order and naming of the parts change over the course of publication:
  • names of residents in alphabetical order. Only household heads who own or rent a dwelling; does not include sub-tenants or servants so many working class families and individuals will not be found. An entry will typically give the surname, given name, occupation rank or status, Vienna district, street name and number.
  • street register. In the early years, the naming and numbering of streets was neither stable nor consistent and this is reflected in the Lehmanns. It can be even more confusing to find that housenumbering was not continuous. The 1859 first edition divides Vienna into three parts: the inner city, the 34 :Vorstädte (inner suburbs outside the old city wall but within the Linienwall) and the 36 Vororte (outer suburbs). Over editions one can see the effects of reforms in the naming of streets and the numbering of houses (for example, from 1862-1864), urban expansion (in 1874 the creation of Favoriten as the 10th district, the first outside the city limits, then set by the Gürtel ring road; the decision in 1890 to integrate the Vororte into the city proper; in 1904 the creation of the 21st district from villages on the left bank of the Danube) and the changes following the great political upheavals (1918, 1934, 1938). Post war developments mean that it can be difficult to map old Vienna addresses using modern mapping tools such as Google Maps.
    For the editions of 1925, 1926, 1932-36 and 1938-42 the street directory is expanded into a home listing which adds to the alphabetical listing of Vienna streets by listing the dwellings in that section with the details of the householder.
  • Company.
  • Industry.
  • Authorities. The content of this section varies over time but includes government offices, infrastructure, educational institutions, health care institutions, associations, newspapers. Some groupings moved into and out of this section according to the times; for example: landlords, banks, doctors and lawyers. There are details of embassies and lists of elected officials.

Additional Important Microfilm Collections

As of August 2021, these important collections are only available on microfilm. See Catalog: Austria, Niederösterreich, Vienna for more records.

Births, marriages and deaths of Austrian Jewish military personnel in Wien, Niederösterreich, Austria. Text in German.
Household Registration Cards for families living in the city of Vienna, Austria. The cards contain the name of the head of the household, spouse and children and include birth dates and places, occupation, religion, dates and places of former and current residence.
Population Registers for individual residents of the city of Vienna, Austria. The cards include name, birth date and place, marital status, old and new places of residence, dates of arrival and departure.

Microfilm Copies of Records at a FamilySearch Center

If the locality and time period you need are not included in the online records, the next step is to check for them in the microfilm collection of the FamilySearch Library. Some microfilms may be available for viewing at FamilySearch Centers around the world. To find a microfilm:

a. Click on "Places within Austria, Niederösterreich" (Vienna province was part of Niederösterreich during the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The catalog is organized by Austro-Hungarian Empire place names.)
b. Select your record type: Church records and civil registration are the most important.
c. Click on the blue links to specific record titles.
d. Choose the correct record type and time period for your ancestor.
e. Some combination of these icons will appear at the far right of the microfilm listed for the record. FHL icons.png. The magnifying glass indicates that the microfilm is indexed. Clicking on the magnifying glass will take you to the index. Clicking on the camera will take you to an online digital copy of the microfilm.

For Vienna Research, You Must Know Your Ancestors' Address

  • To begin using the records in Vienna, just knowing that your family came from Vienna will not be enough. Vienna is made up of 23 districts; each district is made up of multiple parishes. Records are kept on the local level, so you will have to know in which parish they lived. For people who were not Roman Catholic, it is essential to know the where nearest Evangelical Lutheran, Catholic, Greek Orthodox, etc. parish church was (depending on their religion).

If you do not yet know the address in Vienna where your ancestor lived, there are several resources you can use:

Once you know the address, follow these steps to identify the parish:

  • Navigate to the map search for Matricula Online
  • In the upper right corner, type the street name, then "Vienna"
  • On the map, the address is highlighted by a red bubble marker. Surrounding parish churches are also highlighted by red bubble markers. Identify the nearest parish church and click on the marker.
  • A pop-up will appear with the Vienna district number, followed by the name of the parish church. Click on the name of the church.
  • View the map on the parish page and make sure that your address is within the parish boundaries.
  • Scroll down and look in the section Historische Abweichungen (Historical Deviations). If you cannot read German, use Google Chrome to view the website. Right-click on the website and select the option to translate to your language.
  • Read the historical development of the parish to make sure the address was within the parish boundaries at the time of the event. If not, navigate to the parish listed in the historical deviation section.

Research Help

Writing for Records

See German Letter Writing Guide for help and translations.

Civil Registration

Civil registration, the government records of births, marriages, and deaths, began in Austria on 1 January 1939. The office that keeps these records is the Standesamt.

Archives

Diocesan Archives Vienna (Catholic, see map.)

Wollzeile 2 (Archbishop's Palace)
A-1010 Vienna, Austria

Tel .: 0043/1/51 552-3239
Fax: 0043/1/51 552-3240
Email: daw@edw.or.at www.erzdioezese-wien.at/pages / Inst / 14428073


Archive of the Evangelical Church in Austria (Lutheran)
Evangelical Church in Austria Church
Severin Schreiber-Gasse 3
Dept. of Matriculation, Archives, Library
A-1180 Vienna, Austria

Tel .: +43/1/4791523/519
Fax: +43/1/4791523/440
E-Mail: archiv @ Evang.at


Magistratsabteilung 8, Wiener Stadt- und Landesarchiv (State)
Guglgasse 14, 5th floor, Top 508
1110 Vienna, Austria

E-Mail: post@ma08.wien.gv.at
Phone: +43 1 4000 84808
Fax: +43 1 4000 84809

Local Churches

Reading the Records

  • It's easier than you think! You do not have to be fluent in French and German to use these records, as there is only a limited vocabulary used in them. By learning a few key phrases, you will be able to read them adequately. Here are some resources for learning to read German records.
German Genealogical Word List
German Handwriting
  • These video webinars will teach you to read German handwriting:
  • Also online interactive slideshow lessons are available to help you learn to read these records:

This converter will show you how any phrase or name might look in German script:

  • Kurrentschrift Converter (enter German genealogical word, click on "convert", view your word in Kurrentschrift (Gothic handwriting)

Latin Records

Records of the Catholic church will usually be written in Latin:

Search Strategy

  • Search for the relative or ancestor you selected. When you find his birth record, search for the births of his brothers and sisters.
  • Next, search for the marriage of his parents. The marriage record will have information that will often help you find the birth records of the parents.
  • You can estimate the ages of the parents and determine a birth year to search for their birth records.
  • Search the death registers for all known family members.
  • Repeat this process for both the father and the mother, starting with their birth records, then their siblings' births, then their parents' marriages, and so on.
  • If earlier generations (parents, grandparents, etc.) do not appear in the records, search neighboring parishes.


References

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