Croatia, Delnice Deanery Catholic Church Books, 1571-1926

What is in This Collection?

This collection consists of church records from Delnice Deanery located in Western Croatia for the years 1725-1926. This collection of church records from Delnice dates to a period when Croatia was not yet an independent country, so it includes records created under different governments, such as Hungary and the former Yugoslavia. Church registers were created to record important events in the lives of parishioners, such as baptism, marriage, and death. This documentation would later officially prove the validity of such events. Church records are some of the most reliable sources of information available in Croatia for genealogical research before the civil registration implementation. As of 1868, the Ministry of Internal Affairs took over the right to supervise the maintenance of these records.

Additional records and/or images may be added to this collection in the future.

Reading these Records

These records are written in Croatian. For help reading them see:

• Croatian Glagolitic Script
• Serbo-Croatian Genealogical Word List
• Croatia Language and Languages
• Croatian Roots

What Can These Records Tell Me?

The following information may be found in these records:

A patent, ruled by Emperor Joseph II in 1784, mandated the inclusion of certain sections in all parish record books maintained by the clergy. These register records were later used also as civil vital records. The contents were as follows:

• Baptism records had to contain separate sections for the date and place of birth. Some pastors, however, frequently recorded only the following in this section: date of baptism, name, religion, gender, legitimacy of child, first and last names of the parents (including mother's maiden name), parents' occupations, as well as the first and last names of the godparents and their occupations. In 1812, a special decree ordered that the date of birth be recorded separately and always before the date of baptism. In reality, both of these dates, birth and baptism, were listed in the same section until the emergence of new templates for vital records, which contained predetermined places for each separate fact
• Marital records had to contain information about the year, month and day of marriage, place of residency with the street number of the groom, first and last names of the groom, religion, age and marital status (single or widower), first and last names of the bride, her religion, age, and marital status (single or widow), the first and last names of the best man and bridesmaid, as well as their occupations
• Death records had to contain the following sections: the year, month, and day of death, residence place and street number, first and last names, religion, gender, and age of the deceased. Later, through a decree from the Imperial office in 1788, the cause of death was added if it was known

Collection Content

Digital Folder Number List

This collection contains a digital browse. Only the DGS numbers are displayed. This collection was created from selected films on multiple titles. Not all films were included. To see a list of all films for a specific parish click the link in the 'Title column. Click on the link in the DGS column to open a new tab to view the images for that film.