Burgenland genealogy does not work like the rest of Austrian research, and the reason is history. The province was part of Hungary until 1921, so its records follow Hungarian practice, its church books passed through Hungarian dioceses, and its civil registers began decades earlier than elsewhere in Austria. If you try to apply the standard Austrian rules, you will look in the wrong places. This guide explains the history, the record layers and the portals.
A Hungarian border land
A conference presentation by genealogist Markus Schönherr summarises the background. Burgenland was part of Hungary until late 1921. It was formed from parts of three Hungarian counties, Moson, Sopron and Vas, and the population was a mix of German and Croatian settlers, many of whom arrived after the Ottoman wars of the 1520s and 1680s. German was the predominant spoken language, while Hungarian was the language of administration. That mix explains why a Burgenland record may be in German, Hungarian or Croatian forms, and why place names have several versions, such as Eisenstadt and Kismarton.
Burgenland was not among the Austrian crown lands, as our crown lands guide explains. It belonged to the Hungarian half of the monarchy, so records from before 1921 may also appear in Hungarian archives, and the Hungarian county archives are named in the references of Burgenland studies.
Civil registration since 1895
Civil registration started in Burgenland in 1895, following Hungarian law, while the rest of present-day Austria only began in 1938 and 1939. A FamilySearch course handout and a conference presentation both note this difference. For a Burgenland ancestor born after 1895, the registry office may hold a civil entry, while a person born in neighbouring Styria at the same time will only appear in a church book. Access to these entries follows the rules in the current personal status law, so ask the municipality which period applies. Our post on ordering civil records explains the general request.
Church books
After the division of Burgenland in 1921, the church registers of the 172 parishes in the new province remained in Burgenland. The Apostolic Administration of Burgenland was created on 18 May 1922, taking part of the territory from the Hungarian dioceses of Győr and Szombathely, and it became the Diocese of Eisenstadt in 1960. Older documents remained in Győr, the seat of the original diocese.
The Diocesan Archive in Eisenstadt holds registers from 107 parishes from their beginning to about 1820 as deposits, and duplicates from 1922, which have been kept as indexes since 1967, according to the diocese’s own publication. The diocese runs a portal, matriken.at, for the digitised registers, which a course handout describes as paid and incomplete, with the originals partly there and the second copies partly on FamilySearch. Access terms may have changed, so check the portal. Matricula Online also lists Burgenland collections, for Roman Catholic parishes and for the Evangelical churches of both confessions, so check there too.
Because the older books were split between Eisenstadt and Győr and the nineteenth-century books were restored and digitised in a cross-border project, the place to look depends on the century. For the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, start with the portal and Matricula. For earlier centuries, ask the diocesan archive and consider the Győr diocesan archive.
| Period | Likely holder | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Before about 1820 | Diocesan Archive, Eisenstadt, or the older diocese archive in Győr | Deposits from 107 parishes at Eisenstadt |
| 19th and 20th centuries | matriken.at portal, Matricula, FamilySearch duplicates | Check access terms and cut-offs |
| From 1895 | Municipal registry office (civil registers) | Hungarian-style civil registration |
| From 1922 | Diocesan duplicates held as indexes | Apostolic Administration period |
Protestants, Jews and Croats
Burgenland had Evangelical communities, and Matricula lists collections for the Evangelical churches of both the Augsburg and the Helvetic confessions. It also had Jewish communities, and a research handout notes that duplicates of Burgenland Jewish registers are partly available. See our non-Catholic records guide. Croatian-speaking villages are a distinctive feature of the province, and their records may show Croatian forms of names alongside German and Hungarian ones. Our guide to spelling variants explains how to search across them.
The provincial archive and other resources
The Burgenland Provincial Archives in Eisenstadt hold the province’s administrative records, and the research handout notes that the archive and Esterházy-related collections in Eisenstadt are significant. The Burgenland Bunch, a volunteer genealogy group, publishes pages for each district and a guide to the available records, which many researchers use as a starting point. Our guide to state and provincial archives explains how to approach the archive.
Invented example: Imagine an invented family called Horvath in a village in the north of the province. A birth in 1890 appears in a church register, now at the diocese or on its portal, in a German-language entry that uses the spelling Horvath. A marriage in 1912 appears both in the church book and in the civil register, which began in 1895. The groom’s family is Croatian-speaking, and an older entry in the Hungarian-era book gives the name as Horvát. A search for the German form alone would have missed the older entry. The family is made up, but the spelling pattern is typical.
Practical steps
- Check the date first. Before 1921 you are in Hungarian territory, after 1921 in Austria.
- Search the portal and Matricula. Then check FamilySearch for duplicates.
- Use civil registers from 1895. They may hold what a church book does not.
- Write to the diocesan archive for older books. Ask about Eisenstadt and Győr.
- Search Hungarian forms of names and places. Both Croatian and Hungarian spellings occur.
Where to go next
Read the Austrian genealogy guide for the general method, and the Matricula guide for the platform. The Burgenland Bunch and the diocese’s own pages are the authorities for current access, and a presentation on vital records for Burgenland is a good overview.
Portal terms, fees and holdings change, so confirm them with the holder before you rely on this guide. A good habit is to note the date you checked each portal in your research log.
