HOME    OUR FAMILIES    OUR DNA    FREE DATABASES    RESEARCH TIPS    USING YOUR COMPUTER
 
THE COHENS' WEBSITE AT ROOTSWEB

 

FREE ONLINE EUROPEAN BIRTH AND BAPTISM DATABASES

This page is a partial listing of free online resources for finding birth records for Europe. Some of the webpages are government or library sites, while others are sponsored by religious or genealogy groups. Some sites, such as the Mormon (LDS) Family History resources and a few government sites, allow their visitors to view and download certificates for free. But, in most cases, you will need to order copies of birth certificates from the appropriate county, state, or national government office.

Many of these sites also allow you to search for marriages and deaths as well, but this page will only discuss births and baptisms.

Many of the databases at FamilySearch which are listed below are indexes of information obtained from records which have been filmed by the LDS church. In those instances where the records are not yet online, films can be viewed at Family History Centers or, to learn how to order very inexpensive photocopies before the records get put online, see our ordering tips page.

If you do not find what you need at the free sites listed below, check out our discussions about other general birth records resources on our main Birth Records Page. You may want to also search the Rootsweb Mailing Lists Archiver to see if anyone has transcribed newspaper birth announcements for the area you are interested in.

For more complete, up to date lists of birth and baptismal databases for Europe at FamilySearch, see the menus for Europe at the FamilySearch site. If any FamilySearch menus do not work for you, or you encounter problems using their updated site, please read about the FamilySearch sites below for more information about the FamilySearch sites and how to deal with problems using them.

You may also wish to surf through the more comprehensive list of both free and paid birth and baptismal record sites on Cyndi's List.

We have removed the direct links to FamilySearch Pilot and Search Labs search pages for Europe which were previously listed below, because those search pages have all been removed by FamilySearch. If you are unhappy with the new search, the best we can recommend is to write to them, or post a complaint. For more details, see the sections below about the FamilySearch sites.

If you find, or know of, any free birth index or birth records webpages not listed below, or find any errors or broken links, please email that information to me so we can make this page a more useful resource for everyone. And if you want to learn about what other kinds of truly free genealogy resources there are which you can access from home, see our resources page.

BRITISH ISLES

The entries for England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales are located on our British Isles birth and baptisms page:

http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~thecohens/genealogy/birthindexes-bri.html

CENTRAL, WESTERN AND EASTERN EUROPE

GeneaNet is a family tree site that also has many excellent birth and baptismal records databases. Note that free registration seems to be required. It may take a bit of figuring out, but be sure to visit Geneanet if you have European ancestors.

https://en.geneanet.org/collaborative-indexes/
ARMENIA    AUSTRIA   BELARUS   BELGIUM   CROATIA   CZECHOSLOVAKIA   DENMARK   ESTONIA   FINLAND   FRANCE   GERMANY   GIBRALTAR      HUNGARY   ICELAND   ITALY   LATVIA   LIECHTENSTEIN   LITHUANIA   LUXEMBOURG   MOLDOVA   NETHERLANDS   NORWAY   POLAND   PORTUGAL    PRUSSIA   RUSSIA   SLOVAKIA   SLOVENIA   SPAIN   SWEDEN   SWITZERLAND   UKRAINE

ARMENIA

We would like to list more databases for this country. Please do email me if you have any suggestions.

Armenia, Church Books, 1838-1929. Images of original church register books and of indexes from parishes in Erevan Province, from the National Archives in Armenia. Includes baptisms. Years of coverage are different for each parish. Most records are from the Armenian Apostolic Church but other records may also be included.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1943754 (requires Javascript)

AUSTRIA

If your ancestors lived in Galicia, also be sure to check the Polish resources and Ukraine resources sections below, since many records for areas formerly in Galicia are now housed in repositories in Poland and in the Ukraine. One example of this is the Roman Catholic Church Books from Tarnow, which include records from both Kraków and Rzsezów.

The FamilySearch site has an index of selected births and baptisms in Austria occurring primarily between 1651 and 1940.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1520584 (requires Javascript)

Austria, Oberösterreich, Catholic Church Records, 1581-1910. FamilySearch has browsable images of Catholic Church Records from Upper Austria, including baptisms. Most of the records appear to be from the 1800's. You will need to sign in to view images and search results.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1394580 (requires Javascript)

Austria, Seigniorial Records, 1537-1888. Browse images handwritten in German from Upper and Lower Austria. Along with other records, according to the wiki, this collection includes births, but we could not find any. Maybe you can find birth records here, but we make no guarantees at this point (September 2011). For more details about the collection, which is a work in progress, see it's wiki page. You will need to sign in to view images and search results.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1929847 (Javascript required)

Austria, Tirol, Innsbruck, Sankt Jakob Parish Register Index, 1578-1970. Browsable images of Parish register Indexes including baptisms (taufen) from 1578 to 1874. The more recent years indicated in name of collection are for death records (Toten).

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2046776 (requires Javascript)

Wien, Austria - Evangelical-Lutheran Church Records, 1848-1900. FamilySearch has browsable images of Protestant Church Duplicates for the Evangelische Kirche Augsburgischen Bekenntnisses in Österreich (Evangelical-Lutheran Church of the Augsburg Confession in Austria), including baptisms (Taufen). The records are in German, originals housed in Wein. You will need to sign in to view images and search results.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1393793 (requires Javascript)

Austria, Vienna, Jewish Registers of Births, Marriages, and Deaths, 1784-1911. Includes browsable images of Jewish birth records (Geburtsanzeigen) and handwritten indexes (Geburtsbücher), not indexed for automated searches. Primarily in German, Geburtsanzeigen include handwritten Hebrew names. Precise years of coverage for births vary by locale.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2028320 (requires Javascript)

BELARUS

We would like to list more databases for this country. Please do email me if you have any suggestions.

The following site contains searchable transcriptions of church parish registers including some from Belarus. To view the site in English through Google's translation engine, click here. And for a translation of the page showing which records are available for what areas, click here.

http://www.geneteka.genealodzy.pl

JRI-Poland also has indexed many Jewish vital records from Belarus, which are available via both the JRI-Poland website as well as via the Belarus Records database at JewishGen. You may need to sign in to view search results. The search tab is in the top menu.

https://www.jri-poland.org
 
https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/belarus/

BELGIUM

If your family from Belgium was French Protestant then, in addition to checking the collections for Belgium, you may also want to browse the Bibliothéque Wallonne Card Indexes collection for the Netherlands at FamilySearch, which apparently also has some records from Belgium.

The FamilySearch site has indexed selected Belgian births and baptisms between 1560 and 1890.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1520562 (requires Javascript)

FamilySearch had a general collection of Civil Registrations in Belgium 1795-1910, including births in Antwerpen, Brabant, Hainaut, Limburg, Liège, Namur, Oost-Vlaanderen, West-Vlaanderen. It consisted of browsable images that had not been indexed, but the data seems to have been transferred to the appropriate regional collections.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1576392 (no longer available)

Belgium, Antwerp, Civil Registration, 1609-1909. FamilySearch has indexed civil birth registrations for searches, or you can browse the images. Collection is a work in progress, check back in a few months if you do not find the records you are looking for.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2138481 (requires Javascript)

Belgium, Brabant, Civil Registration, 1582-1912. Search civil registrations in Brabant for births, or you can browse the images. The locations we browsed had handwritten indexes of births (index van geboorten).

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1482191 (requires Javascript)

Belgium, East Flanders, Civil Registration, 1711-1906. Searchable index and browsable images of civil registration records including birth registrations. Availability of birth records and years of coverage vary by locale within this area.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2138513 (requires Javascript)

Belgium, Hainaut, Civil Registration, 1600-1911. Searchable index along with over 3 million browsable images of civil registration records from Hainaut including births (naissances). Availability of records and years of coverage for births (naissances) varies by location (lieu).

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2138500 (requires Javascript)

Belgium, Liège, Civil Registration, 1621-1910. Browse images including birth indexes and birth records from the National Archives in Belgium. Images only available to the public at Family History Centers, and at home to signed in members of supporting organizations.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2138505 (requires Javascript)

Belgium, Limburg, Civil Registration, 1798-1906. Index and images of civil registration records including births (geboorten). Years of coverage for birth registrations vary widely by town, and are intermixed with other record types. Most plaats we checked had records somewhere within the range 1870-1906, but this collection is work in progress, so check back if the years you are interested in are not currently available.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2138507 (requires Javascript)

Belgium, Luxembourg, Civil Registration, 1608-1912. Browse images including birth indexes and birth records from the National Archives in Belgium. Images only available to the general public at Family History Centers, and at home to signed in members of supporting organizations.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2138510 (requires Javascript)

Belgium, Namur, Civil Registration, 1800-1912. Browse images of civil registrations including births, not indexed for computerized searches. Availability of records and years of coverage for births (naissances) varies by location (lieu).

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2138511 (requires Javascript)

Oost-Vlaanderen (East Flanders), Roman Catholic Parish Registers, 1588-1799. Supposedly includes browsable images of baptisms and of indexes, but has been temporarily been removed from FamilySearch to assist the Belgian National Archives. It still may be available at Family History Centers.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/show#uri=http://hr-search-api:8080/searchapi/search/collection/1393332

Belgium, West Flanders, Civil Registration, 1582-1910. Browsable images along with searchable index of civil registration records including births (geboorten). availability of records and years of coverage for births will vary by specific location (plaat) in this region.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2139860 (requires Javascript)

CROATIA

We would like to list more databases for this country. Please do email me if you have any suggestions.

Croatia, Church Books, 1516-1949. Images include birth and baptismal records created by priests and rabbis in Croatia. Years of coverage vary by region, most are only up to 100 years or more ago, but we found some birth records up to 1939. For births or baptisms, select from Evangelical, Greek Catholic, Jewish, Military, Orthodox, Reformed Christian, or Roman Catholic and then drill down by location. You will need to sign in to view images and search results.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2040054 (requires Javascript)

CZECHOSLOVAKIA

The FamilySearch site has an index of selected births and baptisms in the Czech Republic occurring primarily between 1637 and 1889.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1784129 (requires Javascript)

Czech Republic, Civil Registers 1874-1937. Browse images including birth registration records (narození) from the Opova district archive, for births in the area of Hultschin in the Moravian/Silesian region.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2207717 (requires Javascript)

Trebon State Regional Archive

The Trebon State Regional Archive is digitizing Catholic parish records, primarily from the 1700's thru around 1900, and is a great birth records resource if you have Catholic Czechoslovakian or Southern Bohemian ancestors. You will need to know the name of the parish where the event took place, and then read the entries on each parish register image page, looking for your ancestor.

The following link is for the English version, Czech and German versions are also available. Be sure to start your search by clicking on the gray oval to reach the Parish Register page and choose a letter of the alphabet to reach a list of parish locations starting with the chosen letter. Note that the website cannot look for specific people. Although the webpages will be in your chosen language, the parish register image pages are in Czech with some Latin and German. If you need help with translation, join an appropriate Rootsweb mailing list or post a query to the genforum board for Czech Republic, which is now at Genealogy.com's regional forum for the Czech Republic..

http://digi.ceskearchivy.cz/index_main.php?lang=en&doctree=1nr_ (requires flash and Javascript)

Bohemian and Moravian Church Books

Northern Bohemia: Litomerice Archive Church Books, 1552-1905. Note this collection seems to have been merged into the Czech Republic Church Books collection. Records were indexed for name searches, but also available for browsing. Included baptisms and births for various religions including Catholic and Jewish.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1429329 (Collection gone. Instead see Czech Republic Church Books

Northern Moravia: Opava Archive Church Books, 1571-1905. Database formerly covered 1650-1900, consists of browsable images of original parish records (not indexed yet). FamilySearch says the database includes birth and/or baptismal entries for Jewish congregations and for Roman Catholic, Evangelical Lutheran, and Reformed Church parishes, but your two choices for browsing the database are "Catholic" and "Jewish". (It may be that Christian and Catholic group images are together in the Catholic section.) The next level of browsing is by town or region, within the religious subcategory you chose. You will need to sign in to view images and search results.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1475346 (requires Javascript)

Southern Bohemia: Trebon Archive Church Books, 1650-1900. Browsable images (not indexed yet). FamilySearch says the database includes birth and/or baptismal entries for Jews and for Catholic, Lutheran and Reformed Church parishes, but your three choices for browsing the database are "Catholic," "Jewish," and "Unspecified". (We are checking into this inconsistency.) After choosing religion, browsing is then by town or region. You will need to sign in to view images and search results.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1472854 (requires Javascript)

FamilySearch has Czech Republic Church Books (Tschechische Republik, Kirchenbücher), including births and baptisms for about 1552 up to 1912. Text search by name is available although not all the records have been indexed, or you can browse the images. We found were from the region of Ústí nad Labem, and the collection now includes records from the archives of Litomerce, Opava, Trebon, and Zamrsk. There are Catholic, Jewish and possibly Protestant records, with exact years covered varying by locale and religion. Records are in Czech, German, and Latin. For more information about this database, see it's FamilySearch wiki page. You will need to sign in to view images and search results.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1804263 (Javascript required)

DENMARK

Great site for Danish ancestral records, including births and other parish records back into the 1600's. Requires Flash and free registration.

https://www.sa.dk/en/

Denmark, Church Records, 1484-1941. Browse images of church records including births (fødte). Years of coverage vary widely by parish.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2078555 (requires Javascript)

Denmark, Baptisms, 1618-1923. FamilySearch has an index of 3,163,929 selected baptisms in Denmark for about 1618-1923. Information in this index comes from a variety of sources, including family records, church records and civil registrations. More recent records may not be available for reasons of privacy.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1778463 (requires Javascript)

ESTONIA

We would like to list more databases for this country. Please do email me if you have any suggestions.

Estonia, Church Books 1835-1940. Browsable images of records including baptisms for various churches in about two dozen areas including but not limited to Paldiski, Pärnu Issanda, Pärnu Katariina, Pôltsamaa, Rakvere, and Räpina. Years included will vary by church and parish. To learn more about this collection, read it's wiki page. You will need to sign in to view images and search results.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1932350 (requires Javascript)

FINLAND

We would like to list more databases for this country. Please do email me if you have any suggestions.

FamilySearch has indexed Baptisms in Finland from about 1657-1890.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1778464 (requires Javascript)

FRANCE

We would like to list more databases for this country. Please do email me if you have any suggestions.

The Internet Archive has the Jacobite parochial registers of Saint Germain-en-Laye, including births:

http://www.archive.org/details/parochialregiste01sainuoft

Association Généalogique des Hautes-Alpes: Dépouillement d'actes de l'état-civil et des registres paroissiaux. Searchable index of birth records including records from the 1500s up to 1905. The search seems to work better if you only enter a surname and then browse the result set for a record of interest. A birth and baptism index may also be browsed at the second link below.

http://www.agha.fr/actes/index.php?xtyp=V&xtypD
 
http://www.agha.fr/actes/index.php?vue=T&xtyp=N

Rootsweb's User Contributed International Databases included selected births from Lihus-le-Grand, Oise, France. This rootsweb database was taken offline but We are looking for archival copies of this particular set of records. The original URL for the search is below, but is not functional. The records we found were transcribed from LDS films in the 1600s, 1700s and 1800s. We were able to find birth transcriptions when testing this collection with the surnames David, Dubois, Fournier, Lefebvre, Martin, and Petit. Most of these transcriptions included names of both parents.

http://userdb.rootsweb.com/intl (offline right now)

FamilySearch Collections for France

Note that all record collections for France have been temporarily removed from the FamilySearch site until arrangements are made with the French authorities. When possible, we have provided links to the appropriate FamilySearch Known Issues pages, where you can learn more about the issues with these collections. In most cases, you can still access the records on film at local Family History Centers, or order scans or photocopies of the records.

However, if your family was French Protestant, you may also want to browse the Bibliothéque Wallonne Card Indexes collection for the Netherlands at FamilySearch, which apparently does have some records from France.

The FamilySearch site had an online index of nearly 7 million selected births and baptisms in France from 1546-1896.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/show#uri=http://www.familysearch.org/searchapi/search/collection/1782519

The LDS FamilySearch site has indexed records from the Coutances Catholic Diocese for 1802-1907.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/show#uri=http://www.familysearch.org/searchapi/search/collection/1408716

FamilySearch has Protestant Church Records online from France including births and baptisms for 1612-1906 - index has less information than the associated images, and database was only 21% completed as of June 2010. The landing page indicates there are nearly 40,000 images in the collection.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1582585

FamilySearch has indexed baptisms in the Quimper et Léon Catholic Diocese, 1772-1909 in the department of Finistère. Images of these records were online, but have been temporarily removed while negotiations are made with the French Authorities. For more details, including other ways to access the records, see this FamilySearch Wiki Page.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/show#uri=http://www.familysearch.org/searchapi/search/collection/1636101

France, Seine-Maritime, Rouen, Indexes to Church Records, 1680-1789. Consisted of browsable images of information extracted from church record indexes, only for surnames starting with the letter B. The church record extracts are on "cards" and organized by family. Includes extracts from all 38 parishes of Rouen. Although it is not what we think of as a Church Record Index, we are listing it here as FamilySearch is calling it one, and it does include birth information.

Ma href="https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1987637">https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1987637

GERMANY

The Baden-Wuerttemberg archives have placed copies of primarily Jewish vital records and family registers from many dozens of towns for about 1808 to 1875 online. There also are Catholic and other births and baptisms for some of these locations. These browsable images are from the Gatermann films of the records which were made during the Nazi era. Start your browsing by clicking on the letter for the town you want to search at the second link below. Website is in German, records are primarily in German and Hebrew. For tips about understanding the records, try reading Jewish civil records of the 19th century in Southern Germany.

Note the web addresses for landesarchivbw and landesarchiv-bw are not typographic errors. The following links do work for the specific pages listed.
Home page https://www2.landesarchivbw.de/ofs21/olf/startbild.php?bestand=5632
 
Start Browsing https://www2.landesarchiv-bw.de/ofs21/olf/struktur.php?bestand=5632

The Mennonite Genealogy site has transcriptions of many Mennonite Prussian births and baptisms 1600s-1800s, including some villages in areas now in Germany

http://www.mennonitegenealogy.com/prussia/#Church

Rootsweb's User Contributed German Records Databases included baptisms for the Schader and Schaider surnames from 1759 through 1856, but has been taken offline. We are looking for archival copies of this particular set of records. The original URL for the search is below, but is not functional.

http://userdb.rootsweb.com/deu

FamilySearch Collections with German Births and Baptisms

If your family was French Protestant, in addition to visiting the collections listed below for Germany, you may also want to browse the Bibliothéque Wallonne Card Indexes collection for the Netherlands at FamilySearch, which apparently also has some records for Germany.

The FamilySearch site has numerous church and baptismal databases for Germany. For a more complete, up to date list of birth and baptismal databases for Germany at FamilySearch, go here.

FamilySearch has indexed millions of Births and Baptisms from selected localities in Germany for about 1558-1898. The time period varies by locality.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1473000 (requires Javascript)

Bonndorf Parish, Baden - The LDS site has an index including births recorded in the Church Book Duplicates for 1810-1869. Also includes some entries from Ebnet. For more details about this database, see the FamilySearch Wiki page about the Baden Church Book Duplicates.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1395660 (requires Javascript)

Germany, Bavaria, Neumarkt: Miscellaneous City Records, 1453-1973. This collection of browsable images includes handwritten records of Jewish births in category "Jüdische Geburts- und Steuerlisten-1891-1903".

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1941342 (requires Javascript)

Germany, Bavaria, Nördlingen, Miscellaneous City Records, 1385-1943. This collection of browsable images includes selected birth records (Geburtsbriefe) for 1453-1794.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1941333 (requires Javascript)

Germany, Bavaria, Passau, Miscellaneous City Records, 1700-1940. This collection includes Catholic and Protestant records of baptisms. Select Kirchenbücher (church books) for either Evangelische (Protestant) or Katholischen (Catholic) for the locale of interest, and then Taufen (baptisms). Years of coverage for baptisms varies by locale. We only found baptisms for the 1800s in the collection.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2015585 (requires Javascript)

Germany, Brandenburg, Heegermühle, Church Records, 1664-1824. Protestant Evangelical church records including baptisms (taufen). We found baptisms for 1664-1800. The 1824 date seems to be for marriage records (heiraten). Maybe check back if you are seeking baptisms after 1800, to see if other records have been added.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1968531 (requires Javascript)

Germany, Hessen, Civil Registration, 1874-1927. FamilySearch has browsable images of birth registrations from Hessen, but the images in this collection is only available online to the public on Family History Center computers and at home to signed in members of supporting organizations (i.e., LDS church members). Years of coverage for births (geburten) vary by locale within Hessen.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1921142 (requires Javascript)

Germany, Prussia, Brandenburg, Angermünde, Miscellaneous City Records 1706-1922. The only births in this collection are for 1852-1853 for Franzosische Reformed Community (as of November 2012). It is a browsable collection that has not been indexed for searching by name.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1952881 (requires Javascript)

Germany, Prussia, Brandenburg, Cottbus, Miscellaneous City Records, 1672-1919. The only birth records in this browsable image collection seem to be for Jewish children born 1815-1847. Select the category "Verzeichnis der geborenen Kinder jüdischer Glaubensgenossen."

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1974179 (requires Javascript)

Germany, Prussia, Pomerania, Labes, Church Records, 1647-1764. Browse Catholic Church record images including baptisms (taufen) from Labes Parish for 1647-1760.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2064113 (requires Javascript)

Brandenburg, Church book duplicates from Brandenburg for 1794 to 1874 - includes births - browse images. For more details about this database, see the FamilySearch Wiki page about the Germany, Prussia, Brandenburg and Posen, Church Book Duplicates collection. Note that this database was temporarily taken offline to comply with the contractual agreement with the archive requiring a watermark. But that was years ago, it may have been rolled into other collections.

http://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html#p=waypoint&s=waypointsOnly&c=fs%3A1478677&w=0

FamilySearch has indexed Posen, Germany, Church Book duplicates for about 1794-1874, including births. Nearly 290,000 images are online. Area covered was also temporarily part of Brandenburg and then given to Poland after World War II. For more details about this database, see the FamilySearch Wiki page about the Posen Church Book Duplicates.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1491272

Germany, Ludwigshafen Church Record Extractions and Family Registers - created by clergymen who extracted birth, christening, marriage, death and burial information from Parish Registers. Browse images, includes very old records, some back into the 1600's. You will need to sign in to view images and search results.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1475962 (requires Javascript)

Germany, Hessen-Nassau Civil Registers and Church Books, 1701-1875. This collection was removed from FamilySearch for technical reasons. It consisted of records filmed at the Marburg State Archive. For more information about the collection and a link to the database once it has been restored, visit the following wiki page.

https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Germany,_Hessen,_Marburg_Civil_Registration_and_Church_Books_(FamilySearch_Historical_Records)

FamilySearch has Pomerania, Germany, Church Records, including baptisms from about 1544 onwards into at least the late 1800's. Browsable images. The records currently online are primarily from Protestant churches, including Lutheran and Evangelical, but include some Catholic churches as well. Years covered will vary by location and type of record. To learn more about this collection, see it's FamilySearch wiki page. You will need to sign in to view images and search results.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1874205 (requires Javascript)

Germany, Saxony, Bautzen, Church Records, 1699-1915. Browse images of Lutheran Church records for Bautzen, including baptisms from about 1800-1900.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1952867 (requires Javascript)

Germany, Prussia, Saxony, Various Protestant Church Records, 1594-1936. Browse images from many Protestant parishes in Saxony, Prussia. Includes birth records (taufen).

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2068323 (requires Javascript)

Germany, Brandenburg, Bernau bei Berlin, Jewish Records, 1688-1872. Browsable books of Jewish records including birth certificates mixed in with other types of records.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2060204 (requires Javascript)

FamilySearch's collection of Miscellaneous City Records from the Bavarian Archives in Germany for the period of about 1500-1900 included Jewish births. The Wiki page has more information about this database.
NOTE: This collection has disappeared from FamilySearch, and has been absorbed into one or more specific regional City Record Collections. See the listing above for the City Record Collections for Neumarkt, Bavaria. If the records you are seeking are not in Neumarkt, see the other listings on this page for Germany listing City Records or Jewish births, and also FamilySearch Menu for Europe for additional Miscellaneous City Record Collections from Bavaria.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/show#uri=http://hr-search-api:8080/searchapi/search/collection/1876416

GIBRALTAR

We would like to list more databases for this country. Please do email me if you have any suggestions.

FamilySearch has indexed selected births and baptisms in Gibraltar for 1704-1876

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1770864 (requires Javascript)

HUNGARY

You may find the following page helpful for reading records written in Hungarian. Scroll down to the alphabetical genealogical word list.

https:/www./familysearch.org/wiki/en/Hungary_Genealogical_Word_List

Jewish Births in Hungary, transcribed from LDS microfilms, from 1800 up to the 1920's. Requires free registration. If dropdown boxes for narrowing initial search do not work in your browser, click on the List Records box by "Hungarian births" to view your results.

https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/Hungary/Births.htm

Hungary, Jewish Vital Records Index, 1800-1945. Index of Jewish Vital Records from Hungary including births. Index also available at JewishGen (see above listing). Index was created from LDS microfilms of the originals.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1787825 (requires Javascript)

Hungary, Civil Registration, 1895-1980. This FamilySearch collection for Hungary includes images of Civil Registrations, with births for about 1895-1920. Includes records from the counties of Abauj-Torna, Bihar, Borsod, Fejér, Gömör, Hajdu, Komárno, Szabolcs, and Szatmár as well as the city of Budapest including Pest-Pilis-Solt-Kis-Kun district. The most recent records may not necessarily be displayed due to privacy laws. These are browsable images which have not been indexed yet. You will need to sign in to view images and search results.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1452460 (requires Javascript)

FamilySearch has also indexed selected baptisms in Hungary between 1704 and 1895.

Hungary Reformed Church Christenings, 1624-1895. Ongoing indexing project consisting of extracts of christenings in Hungarian, Latin and Greek, nearly 2.5 million names so far.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1858355 (requires Javascript)
https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1804226 (requires Javascript)

Hungary Catholic Church Records - FamilySearch is indexing Catholic Church records including christenings. Collection includes events in the 1800's and possibly earlier, eventually can include baptisms from the 1600's and 1700's. You will need to sign in to view images and search results.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1743180 (requires Javascript)

ICELAND

We would like to list more databases for this country. Please do email me if you have any suggestions.

FamilySearch has indexed Baptisms in Iceland for 1730-1905.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1584974 (requires Javascript)

ITALY

The entries for Italy have been moved to our new special page for free birth and baptismal databases just for Italy:

http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~thecohens/genealogy/birthindexes-italy.html

LATVIA

We would like to list more databases for this country. Please do email me if you have any suggestions.

Jewish Rabbinate vital records - this great website containing the work of Christine Usdin has transcriptions of Rabbinic vital records from the Latvian State Historical Archives, including births from Riga, Dvinsk (Daugavpils), Libau, Malta (Silmala) and more from around the 1830's thru the early 1900s. The years covered vary for each community. Formerly at premiumorange.com/rigavitalrecords, the records are all at the following page.

http://usdine.free.fr/thexrigaxvitalxrecords.html

LIECHTENSTEIN

We would like to list more databases for this country. Please do email me if you have any suggestions.

FamilySearch has indexed Births and Baptisms in Liechtenstein for 1650-1875.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1708589 (requires Javascript)

LITHUANIA

We would like to list more databases for this country. Please do email me if you have any suggestions.

The following site contains searchable transcriptions of church parish registers including some from Lithuania. To view the site in English through Google's translation engine, click here. And for a translation of the page showing which records are available for what areas, click here.

http://www.geneteka.genealodzy.pl

JRI-Poland's Polish Jewish Records Indexing project has many Jewish vital records from Lithuania. You will need to sign in (after free registration at JewishGen) to view search results. The "search database" tab is in the top menu.

https://www.jri-poland.org

The JewishGen Lithuania Database is another project which is indexing Jewish Births in Lithuania, and often contains more detail than is in the JRI-Poland index. If you are able to help translate more Polish, Russian, or Hebrew/Yiddish records, visit Litvak SIG's Volunteer Opportunities Page.

https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/Lithuania/ (requires Javascript)

LUXEMBOURG

We would like to list more databases for this country. Please do email me if you have any suggestions.

Index of about 7,800 births and baptisms from a selected localities in Luxembourg for 1662-1840. Years covered vary by locality.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1520578 (requires Javascript)

The LDS site has browsable Luxembourg Civil Registration records from 1793-1923. These are not indexed but do include some births. You will need to sign in to view images and search results.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1709358 (requires Javascript)

MOLDOVA

Moldova, Church Books, 1811-1936. Browsable images of births from Bessarabia, Kherson, and Romania. Menu items are in Cyrillic in Russian language. The actual church books are in Russian and Romanian. Years of coverage for births vary by parish.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1943763 (requires Javascript)

NETHERLANDS

WieWasWie/Genlias

Genlias had birth information for all provinces in the Netherlands. its database included birth records for the period 1811-1903, as well as some parish records of baptisms dating back well beyond 1811. But the project was discontinued in 2012 and replaced by WieWasWie.nl

Home page: https://www.wiewaswie.nl/en/ (requires Javascript)

Netherlands Digital Genealogy Portal

The Netherlands Digital Genealogy Portal covers vital records for the Hague and the municipalities of Amersfoort, Delft, Eindhoven, Haarlem, Leiden, and Rotterdam. Each municipality has its own search page, but you can search for all of them through the Netherlands Digital Genealogy Portal. Which records are online does vary by region.

http://www.digitalestamboom.nl/search?q=

Note that each of the above municipalities has its own page as well, all of which are individually hyperlinked above.

FamilySearch - Netherlands

FamilySearch has both Church Records and Civil Registrations from the Netherlands in several databases. Be sure to check the other databases listed in this section if the records you are looking for do not appear in the first database you search. Also try variant spellings and likely mistranscriptions in your searches, you may find the records you are seeking by doing that.

Index to births and baptisms Netherlands in selected locations 1564-1910. The time period covered varies by locality, and more recent records may not be displayed for privacy protection.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1778468 (requires Javascript)

Netherlands, Bibliothéque Wallonne, Card Indexes, ca. 1500-1858. Collection includes baptism extracts from French Protestant parish registers for Belgium, France, Germany, and the Netherlands. Baptismal records are mixed in with other types of records but are in alphabetical order by name.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2134301 (requires Javascript)

Netherlands, Drenthe Province, Church Records, 1580-1911. Browsable images. Availability of birth and baptism records and years of coverage vary by location and religion. This collection includes Dutch Reformed (i.e., Nederlands Hervormd) and Roman Catholic (i.e., Rooms Katholiek) records.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2037882 (requires Javascript)

Netherlands, Drenthe Province, Civil Registration, 1811-1942. Browse images of civil registration records including births. Years of coverage for births (geboorten) vary by municipality. We found birth record images for as recent as 1912, the more recent years in collection name are other record types.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2026974 (requires Javascript)

Netherlands, Friesland Province, Civil Registration, 1811-1950. Browse images of civil registrations including births. Years of coverage for births vary by municipality, but we did find records for 1811-1912 in the collection. The more recent records in this collection will only be marriages and deaths.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2026975 (requires Javascript)

Netherlands, Gelderland Province Civil Registration, 1811-1950. This collections includes birth registrations from LDS films 0211581, 0211582, 0211742, 0211745, and 021174, which are also available for browsing. As of July 4, 2012, we only found births through 1882 using name search. The later date indicated in collection name may be for other types of records, and births after 1882 may become indexed as time goes on. This collection includes some records from the area now in North Brabant. If you wish to browse the records by region, try the other Gelderland Province Civil Registration collection below.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1949343 (requires Javascript)

Netherlands, Gelderland Province, Church Records, 1405-1966. Browse images. Collection includes records from at least 10 different religious denominations as well as civil registrations. Note that Kerkelijke registers are church books. Years of coverage vary by religion and location.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2038506 (requires Javascript)

Gelderland Province, Netherlands - this collection consisted of browsable images of Civil Registrations 1811-1950, including births. Part of this area is now in North Brabant. The images from this collection have been absorbed into the Gelderland Province Civil Registration collection listed above.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1554394

Netherlands, Groningen Province, Church Records, 1595-1864. Browse images including early civil registration records and baptisms from variety of denominations including Dutch Reformed, Roman Catholic, Lutheran. Also includes some Jewish records. Years of coverage vary for each town and religion.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2037901 (requires Javascript)

Netherlands, Groningen Province, Civil Registration, 1811-1940. Browsable images of civil registration records in Groningen Province, including births (geboorten). Births seem to only go up to 1912 at the very best, and the availability of records and years of coverage for births will vary by municipality.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2026219 (requires Javascript)

Netherlands, Limburg Province, Civil Registration, 1792-1922. Browsable images of civil registration records, including births (geboorten). We found birth records for up to 1912 in this collection, and the availability of records and years of coverage for births will vary by municipality.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2026214 (requires Javascript)

FamilySearch also has Limberg Parish register transcripts containing baptisms for various towns during the years 1600-1822. Images can be browsed, are not searchable by name. You will need to sign in to view images and search results.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1404156 (requires Javascript)

Netherlands, Limburg Province, Church Records, 1542-1910. Browse images of baptismal records (dopen) from many religions, including Evangelisch from Namen; Evangelisch Luthers from Maastricht and Vaals; Hoogduits Hervormd (High German Dutch Reformed) from Sittard and Urmond; Katholiek (Catholic) dopen from Oirsbeek; Nederlands Hervormd (Dutch Reformed) dopen from about 14 municipalities; Regiment Zwitsers of Grosons from Maastricht; Rooms Katholiek (Roman Catholic) from dozens of municipalities; and Waals dopen in Eijsden, Maastricht and Vaals. Years of coverage for baptisms vary widely by municipality and religion, but most records in this collection are from before 1800.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2037001 (requires Javascript)

Netherlands, Noord-Brabant, Church Records, 1473-1909. Browsable images of Church records including births (geboorten), baptisms (dopen), and of indexes (klapper, tafel). Years of coverage vary by region and type of record, but among choices are civil registration (Burgerlijke stand), Dutch Reformed (Nederlands Hervormde), English (Engelse), Lutheran (Lutherse), Roman Catholic (Rooms Katholieke) and Jewish (Joodse).

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2037960 (requires Javascript)

Netherlands, Noord-Brabant Province, Civil Registration, 1811-1942. Browsable images of civil registration records, including births (geboorten). The availability of birth records and years of coverage for births will vary by municipality. In some cases, there will be more years covered in mixed indices than books containing only births.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2026223 (requires Javascript)

Netherlands, Noord-Holland, Civil Registration, 1811-1950. Browsable images of civil registration records, including births (geboorten). The availability of birth records and years of coverage for births will vary by municipality, and not all municipalities in Noord-Holland have birth registration records in this collection (as of January 2014). We only found birth records up through 1902.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2020117 (requires Javascript)

Netherlands, Noord-Holland Province, Church Records, 1553-1909. Browse images of records from over a dozen types of churches including Baptist, Catholic, Episcopal, Lutheran, Presbyterian. Dutch Reformed and a number of other Christian denominations. Years of coverage vary by religion and locale but most of the records are for no later than 1811.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2037985 (requires Javascript)

Netherlands, Overijssel Province, Civil Registration, 1811-1960. You can search for civil registrations of births using search boxes, or browse the images in this collection. Browsing, we found births (geboorten) through 1912. The more recent records in name of collection are other record types.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2026211 (requires Javascript)

Netherlands, Utrecht Province, Civil Registration, 1811-1950. Browsable images of civil registration records, including births (geboorten). The availability of birth records and years of coverage will vary by municipality. As of January 2014, we only found birth records up through 1902. In some cases, geboorten will only be found in mixed registers or indexes of vital records.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2023934 (requires Javascript)

Netherlands, Utrecht Province, Church Records, 1542-1902. Browse images including births and baptisms from many denominations, primarily from 1811 and before. Precise years of coverage vary by locale and religion.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2037906 (requires Javascript)

Netherlands, Zeeland Province, Civil Registration, 1796-1940. Browsable images of civil registration records, including births (geboorten). The availability of birth records and years of coverage will vary by municipality.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2026206 (requires Javascript)

Netherlands, Zeeland Province, Church Records, 1527-1907. Browse images including births and baptisms from several religions including Roman Catholic, Lutheran and Dutch Reformed. Some Jewish records are also available but it is not clear if these "notulenregisters" include birth records, they may be baby namings.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2036997 (requires Javascript)

Zuid-Holland Province, Netherlands - FamilySearch has browsable images of Civil Registrations 1811-1942, including births. You will need to sign in to view images and search results.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1576401 (requires Javascript)

Netherlands, Zuid-Holland Province, Church Records, 1367-1911. Browse images including births and baptisms from many religious denominations, There may also be some civil birth registrations from before 1811. Years of coverage vary by locale and religion but most records are for 1811 and before, despite the official name of the collection.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2037907 (requires Javascript)

FamilySearch had indexed births from Civil Registrations in Netherlands in this collection, from about 1792 onwards. However, this collection was part of "beta" familysearch, and is not available as of October 2018. It had online images. See the other collections for the Netherlands, into which it's records may have been absorbed.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1831469 (not online Oct 2018)

NORWAY

The following is a great site for Norwegian genealogy, and has digitized parish records going back several hundred years.

http://digitalarkivet.uib.no/cgi-win/WebFront.exe?slag=vis&tekst=meldingar&spraak=e

Baptisms in Norway - indexed by the Norwegian Historical Data Centre at the University of Tromsø (UiTø), baptisms from Parish Registers from 1664 to 1929 for selected parishes. Years covered vary for each parish, and this is an ongoing project.

http://www.rhd.uit.no/kirkebok/kirkebok_sok_e.aspx

Index to selected baptisms in Norway 1634-1927. The time period covered varies by locality, and more recent records may not be displayed for privacy protection. You will need to sign in to view images and search results.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1467014(requires Javascript)

POLAND

The following site contains searchable transcriptions of church parish registers including records from Lodz, Lesser Poland, Mazovia, Subcarpathia, Podlachia, Pomerania, Swietokrzyskie, and Greater Poland. To view the site in English through Google's translation engine, click here. And for a translation of the page showing which records are available for what areas, click here.

http://www.geneteka.genealodzy.pl

All Saints Parish in Warsaw - Ongoing transcription project - includes births and baptisms for 1866-1909. You may wish to visit with a translation engine, such as this Google Translation or paste the following URL of the site, written in Polish, into another engine. However, once you get oriented, you may need to visit the site without the use of a translation engine to view or download the databases because of their size:

http://sites.google.com/site/wszswwawametrykalia/Home/dane-2

Blichowo - Indexes of government registry records of the Roman Catholic parish for 1826 to 1910 - ongoing work in progress

http://plock.ap.gov.pl/historia/acts_en_blichowo.php

Plock - Indexes of government registry records of the Evangelical Lutheran parish from 1826 to 1910 - ongoing work in progress including births

http://plock.ap.gov.pl/historia/acts_en_ea.php

Pl/ock - index of birth records from the Roman-Catholic parish registry office from 1826-1907 - ongoing transcription project of the Pl/ock Archives

About the project:   http://plock.ap.gov.pl/historia/acts_start_en.php
 
Search:  http://plock.ap.gov.pl/historia/acts_en.php

The Pomorskie Province Genealogical Association (Pomorskie Towarzystwo Genealogiczne) has a detailed index of baptisms from about 1595 through 1909 for Pomorskie Province. One of their ongoing genealogy database projects. Their home page also has beautiful pictures of old buildings.

http://www.ptg.gda.pl/index.php/certificate/action/searchB/

Radziwie - index of birth records from the Roman-Catholic parish registry office from 1826-1909 - ongoing transcription project of the Pl/ock Archives

Search:  http://plock.ap.gov.pl/historia/acts_en_radz.php

JRI-Poland (Jewish Records Indexing) has indexed many Jewish vital records for Poland and the surrounding countries. You will need to sign in (registration is free) to view search results. The search tab is in the top menu.

https://www.jri-poland.org

The Mennonite Genealogy site has transcriptions of many Mennonite Prussian births and baptisms 1600s-1800s, some in villages which are now in Polish territory. They specifically have transcriptions of Mennonite Births for 1787-1817 found in the Catholic Church Records of Culm, West Prussia. Culm was in Germany, has also been referred to as Kulm, and now is in Poland and called Chelmno. (To see the listing of all their Prussian church records, use the second link below.)

http://www.mennonitegenealogy.com/prussia/Culm_Mennonite_Births.html
 
http://www.mennonitegenealogy.com/prussia/#Church

PolandGenWeb has transcriptions of births and baptisms for many districts, some from as early as the 1600's. They provide a FreeFind search engine box. Be sure to click on the link for "Search hints" to learn about using their wild card options if your first search does not yield the desired results. And check back soon - many people are working on transcriptions for the site.

http://sites.rootsweb.com/~polwgw/polandarchives.html

Poland, Roman Catholic Church Books, 1600-1950. FamilySearch has browsable images of Roman Catholic Church Book extracts, including baptisms from Lublin, Gliwice, and Czestochowa. You will need to sign in to view images and search results.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1867931 (requires Javascript)

Poland, Częstochowa Roman Catholic Church Books, 1873-1948. Browse nearly 2 million images which include births, but only up to 1912. Availability of online births and precise years of coverage vary by locale. We found births in Katowice, Kielce, Lodz, Opole, Poznan, and Wroclow in this collection.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2115410 (requires Javascript)

Poland, Gliwice Roman Catholic Church Books, 1599-1976. Browse images of church book records for births up to 1912 which include records from provinces of Katowice and Opole under jurisdiction of the Gliwice diocese. Actual years of coverage for births vary by parish.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2114433 (requires Javascript)

Poland, Radom Roman Catholic Church Books, 1587-1966 - based on over a million images, this database was offline temporarily but is now both searchable and browsable and includes baptisms.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1407440 (images should be available at Family History Centers or on film if they do not display for you)

FamilySearch's collection of Pomeranian Church Records includes records from Neustattin, Poland. Browsable images. To learn more about this collection, see it's FamilySearch wiki page. You will need to sign in to view images and search results.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1874205 (requires Javascript)

Poland, Tarnow Roman Catholic Diocese Church Books, 1612-1900. Searchable name index , no images online. Note the Tarnow Diocese in Poland was formerly in Galicia, Austria. Includes information extracted from baptism records from parishes in many towns in Kraków and Rzsezów. Original records are in Latin. Years of coverage do seem to vary by location, and we only found baptism records for 1704 thru 1900 as of January 2012.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1985025 (requires Javascript)

PORTUGAL

We would like to list more databases for this country. Please do email me if you have any suggestions.

FamilySearch has many more collections in it's menu that contain births and baptisms for Portugal than we have listed below, including ones for Braganca, Lamego, Faro, Leiria, Porto, Setubal, Viana do Castelo and Vila Real. This is because most of them are "limited access" online collections which can only be viewed by LDS Church members. We have placed more information about the restricted collections containing births or baptisms and which do not have open access, on our restricted access collections page. For the complete list of all collections in Portugal, see the FamilySearch Menu for Portugal.

FamilySearch: Index to selected baptisms in Portugal for about 1570-1910. Includes baptisms in Beja, Coimbra, Évora, Funchal, Leiria, Lisbon, Portalegre, Porto, Setúbal and Viseu. This collection of over 400,000 records is based on the International Genealogical Index (IGI) and you have the option of searching by batch number. The time period varies by locality.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1520601 (requires Javascript)

FamilySearch has Catholic Church Records from Braga, Portugal (Registros Paroquiais da Igreja Católica, Arquidiocese de Braga) for 1530-1911. Browsable images of records handwritten in Portuguese, includes baptisms. Includes records from districts of both Braga and Porto. To learn more about their history and about using these records, see the wiki page.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1913410 (Javascript required)

Coimbra, Portugal: Catholic Church Records, 1459-1911. Browse images including baptismal records, currently primarily for 1895 through 1911 from towns in the municipalities of Coimbra, Condeixa-a-Nova, Figueira da Foz, Montemor-o-Velho, Penela, and Vila Nova de Poiares. Original images are from the Archive of the University of Coimbra. Collection is a work in progress, more baptisms records to be added as available.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1928593 (requires Javascript)

Portugal, Diocese of Vila Real, Catholic Church Records, 1575-1975. This collection of browsable images includes baptismal records, but is a work in progress and we found very few books of baptisms available as of November 2012. The ones we found were in the Diocese itself and not in the separate drill down for Vila Real. Check back in a month or two if you do not find a book containing baptisms for the parish of interest.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1928592 (requires Javascript)

PRUSSIA

If your ancestors came from Prussia, finding old country records for them is not likely to be an easy task, as the former Prussian government ruled a large part of Europe, much of which is now in either Germany, Poland, or the Ukraine, as well as in smaller neighboring countries.

But, whatever the faith of your Prussian ancestors, if you know the town or village they came from, then you can search the following database to identify the current ruling government most likely to have any civil records which have survived the ravages of time. This may also help you identify where to hunt for any surviving church records.

https://www.jewishgen.org/Communities/LocTown.asp

The FamilySearch Site has a number of collections for Bavaria, Brandenburg and Saxony, areas formerly in Prussia, so be sure to see the collections we have listed above for German births and baptisms if your ancestors came from those areas.

If you are looking for Prussian Mennonite births or baptisms, the Mennonite Genealogy site may also have records of interest to you.

http://www.mennonitegenealogy.com/prussia/#Church

RUSSIA

If your ancestors came from Russia, finding old country records for them is not likely to be an easy task, as the Russian government formerly ruled a large part of Europe and Asia, much of which is now in either Germany, Poland, Kazakhstan or the Ukraine, as well as in smaller neighboring countries.

Your first task will be to ascertain where they came from in Russia, so you know where to look for records. If you know when it was that they said they were from Russia, that can give you clues as to whether they were truly Russian, or simply from an occupied territory. Besides old letters or family bibles, good places to look are census records, immigration records, passenger lists, social security and military records. To learn more about many free online resources you can access from home to help you figure this out, see our online database resources page.

FamilySearch also has a few databases containing specifically Russian records, and we have listed those in the Asian section of our Birth Indexes Home Page, since the current country of Russia is geographically in Asia.

SLOVAKIA

For a brief explanation of the different origins and histories of the countries of Slovenia and Slovakia, see the following:

http://www.slovak-republic.org/slovenia/

Slovakia: Church and Synagogue Books 1592-1935 - browsable images of births and baptisms in Slovakia including parishes for many religions, including Greek Catholic, Roman Catholic, Evangelical, Evangelical Lutheran, and Reformed Christian parishes, as well as Jewish congregations. The original records are now housed in the State Regional Archives. This is an ongoing project, currently including records from the Archives in Presov, Bytca, Kosice, Levoca, Bansk, Bystrica, Nitra, Bratislava. Entries are in Latin, Hungarian, Slovak, and German. You will need to sign in to view images and search results.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1554443 (requires Javascript)

SLOVENIA

For a simple explanation of the differences between the countries of Slovenia and Slovakia, you may wish to read the following:

http://www.slovensko.com/slovakia/slo.htm

Slovenia, Prekmurje, Civil Registers, 1895-1918. Browse images including birth records (születtek) for Slovenian towns, formerly in Hungarian Vas and Zala counties.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1985107 (requires Javascript)

SPAIN

The Basque national archive website has historical Sacramental Records from the Dioceses of Bilbao, San Sebastian, and Vitoria. The search form is at the first link. Select "Bautismo" for baptisms, and in the dropdown menu, "Todo" means "all", "Buscar" means search. The name blanks are Nombre, and Apellido, play around with where to put first and last names for best results. "Ano inicial" means start year, "Ano final" means ending year. On the results page, "Fecha" is obviously the date, "Padre" is father, "Madre" is mother.

https://dokuklik.snae.org/default.php (in Spanish)
 
http://www.artxibo.euskadi.eus/en (partly in English) (in Spanish)

FamilySearch's collection of Municipal Record images for 1837-1870 from Cadiz, Granada and Malaga included births and baptisms. Text search was available for the images in this FamilySearch Beta collection, but it seems to have been taken offline.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1594998 (not available Oct 2018)

Spain, Cádiz, Civil Registration Records, 1870-1960. Browse images of birth registrations (nacimientos) for the city of Puerto Real for 1893-1900. Earlier and later years indicated in name of collection are for marriages and deaths. Collection was not yet fully online as of September 24, 2012, check back for births in other cities in the provincia of Cádiz.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2064496 (requires Javascript)

FamilySearch Index of nearly nine million baptisms in Spain from selected localities for about 1502-1940, including baptisms in Alava, Albacete, Badajoz, Barcelona, Burgos, Cantabria, Ciudad Real, Gerona, Jaén, La Coruña, Lugo, Murcia, Pontevedra, Santander and Valladolid. The time period varies by locality, and more recent records may not be displayed due to privacy laws.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1500692 (requires Javascript)

The FamilySearch site has Catholic Church Records from Spain for about 1500-1930, which include baptism records from Albacete, Avila, Ciudad Real, Gerona, Murcia, and Salamanca. These records are indexed for searching by name as well as browsable. You will need to sign in to view images and search results.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1784529 (requires Javascript)

Diocese of Albacete, Spain: Catholic Church Records, 1504-1979. FamilySearch has indexed over a million Catholic church records, some of which are baptisms in the province of Albacete. The images of these records are included, and are primarily in Spanish, with some Latin in the earlier records. Precise years of coverage will vary by parish. The wiki has a more complete description of the collection. You will need to sign in to view images and search results.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1431011 (requires Javascript)

Diocese of Avila, Spain: Catholic Church Records (Registros Parroquiales de la Diócesis Católica de Ávila, España), 1502-1975. This collection includes images of Catholic church records which have been indexed for searching by name. Years of coverage will vary by parish, we only found baptisms up to around 1900, but you may be able to find more recent baptisms in some parishes. To learn more, read the wiki page. You will need to sign in to view images and search results.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1449880 (requires Javascript)

Spain, Province of Córdoba, Municipal Records, 1509-1947. Includes just a few years of births and baptisms, from Cordoba and San Lorenzo parishes, as of April 2013. Records we found were only for about 1836-40, 1870 and 1914. This collection is a work in progress, so more births and baptisms could be added later.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2015354 (requires Javascript)

Spain, Province of Granada, Municipal Records, 1607-1955. Includes civil registrations of births (nacimientos) in Granada for 1837, 1841-1870 and bautismos in Loja from about 1653-1910. This collection is a work in progress, so more births and baptisms could be added later.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2015356 (requires Javascript)

Spain, Province of Lérida, Municipal Records, 1319-1940. Browsable images including births and baptisms. Years of coverage for both types of record vary widely by locale, in part because this collection is a work in progress.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2015597 (requires Javascript)

Spain, Province of Málaga, Municipal Records, 1842-1925. This collection consists of a searchable index as well as browsable images. Includes baptisms. Collection is a work in progress. Years of coverage vary by location within the province.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2015362 (requires Javascript)

Spain, Diocese of Santander, Catholic Church Records, 1538-1984. Browse images which, as of June 2013, include baptisms (bautismos) from the provinces of Burgos and Cantabria. Years of coverage and availability of baptism records vary greatly by parish. Most of the parishes which have bautismos inline only have books only up into the 1800s but we did find some up into the 1900s.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2078544 (requires Javascript)

Spain, Diocese of Segovia, Catholic Church Records, 1533-1987. Browse images including baptisms (bautismos). Years of coverage for and availability of bautismos vary widely by parish. But the images in this collection are only available to the general public on the computers at LDS Family History Centers.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1433451 (requires Javascript)

The LDS site is indexing Catholic Parish Records from the Lugo Diocese in Spain for 1550-1930. To search Beta, select the country from your choices on the left, and then narrow your selection by clicking on the appropriate choices (one at a time) for state or province, city, type of record and possibly time frame.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1583608 (requires Javascript)

This next page has births in Bezana, Spain from about 1770 to 2000, but very few have actual dates. Although the website disappeared when Geocities shut down, you can still access the site's pages through the Internet Archive. The catch is that none of the links on the pages there will work. If you want to view any other page from the old site, you will need to paste the web address of that particular page into the "Wayback Machine" search box at the Internet Archive. If you find where the site has moved, please email me.

Cache of http://es.geocities.com/bezana_valledevaldebezana/archivosotros/nacimientos.html

SWEDEN

The LDS site has searchable baptisms from selected localities in Sweden from about 1611 onwards. The time period varies by locality.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1520594 (requires Javascript)

Rootsweb's User Contributed Swedish Records Databases included selected births from Orebro: Lindesberg. However, this rootsweb database was taken offline by rootsweb. We are looking for archival copies of this particular set of records. The original URL for the search is below, but is not functional.

http://userdb.rootsweb.com/sweden/

FamilySearch Collections from the Swedish Archives

FamilySearch has many databases for Sweden which index or link to records from the National Archives in Sweden. The searchable, detailed indexes created by FamilySearch volunteers are free. But we are sorry to say that the images from the Swedish Archives that they list as available for browsing for free, and those which were used to create the searchable indexes, are only available for free at Family History Centers and to "members of supporting organizations". We are still listing the collections below, even though that free access is restricted, so folks looking for them will know whether and how they can access them for free. If you are not able to obtain free access, paid access to the National Archives of Sweden website is available for a fee.

Note that if you click on the words "Learn more" on the opening screens of the collections below, most of them will provide a translated list of Swedish words essential to understand in doing research in the records. The word "socken" means parish, and "signum" means type of record. Birth record books are generally labeled as "Födlese och dopböker" in your browsing choices.

Sweden, Blekinge Church Records, 1612-1916; index 1646-1860. Browse images of birth indexes and registers (Födlese och dopböker) kept by the Lutheran church in the county of Blekinge. The Wiki page for this collection includes a list of important Swedish words translated to English. The images for this collection are only free under certain conditions. See details above.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1978771 (requires Javascript)

Sweden, Gotland Church Records, 1582-1940; index 1655-1860. Browse images of birth indexes and registers from birth and christening books (Födlese och dopböker) kept by the Lutheran church in the county of Gotland. The images for this collection are only free under certain conditions. See details above.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1978340 (requires Javascript)

Sweden, Gävleborg Church Records, 1616-1908; index 1671-1860. Browse images of birth indexes and registers from birth and christening books (Födlese och dopböker) kept by the Lutheran church in the county of Gävleborg. The images for this collection are only free under certain conditions. See details above.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1978770 (requires Javascript)

Sweden, Göteborg och Bohus Church Records, 1577-1932; index 1659-1860. Browse images of birth indexes and registers from birth and christening books (Födlese och dopböker) kept by the Lutheran church in the county of Göteborg och Bohus. The images for this collection are only free under certain conditions. See details above.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1978769 (requires Javascript)

Sweden, Halland Church Records, 1615-1904; index 1615-1860. Browse images of birth indexes and registers from birth and christening books (Födlese och dopböker) kept by the Lutheran church in Halland county. The images for this collection are only free under certain conditions. See details above.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1978341 (requires Javascript)

Sweden, Jämtland Church Records, 1582-1928; index 1642-1860. Browse images of birth indexes and registers from birth and christening books (Födlese och dopböker) kept by the Lutheran church in the county of Jämtland. The images for this collection are only free under certain conditions. See details above.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1978136 (requires Javascript)

Sweden, Jönköping Church Records, 1581-1935; index 1633-1860. Browse images of birth indexes and registers from birth and christening books (Födlese och dopböker) kept by the Lutheran church in the county of Jönköping. The images for this collection are only free under certain conditions. See details above.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1930273 (requires Javascript)

Sweden, Kalmar Church Records, 1577-1907; index 1625-1860. Browse images of birth indexes and registers from birth and christening books (Födlese och dopböker) kept by the Lutheran church in the county of Kalmar. The images for this collection are only free under certain conditions. See details above.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1930243 (requires Javascript)

Sweden, Kopparberg Church Records, 1604-1900; index 1628-1860. Browse images of birth indexes and registers in birth and christening books (Födlese och dopböker) kept by the Lutheran church in the county of Kopparberg. The images for this collection are only free under certain conditions. See details above.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1977549 (requires Javascript)

Sweden, Kristianstad Church Records, 1585-1910; index 1646-1860. Browse images of birth indexes and registers in birth and christening books (Födlese och dopböker) kept by the Lutheran church in the county of Kristianstad. The images for this collection are only free under certain conditions. See details above.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1978124 (requires Javascript)

Sweden, Kronoberg church records to 1860. Browse images of birth indexes and registers in birth and christening books (Födlese och dopböker) kept by the Lutheran church in the county of Kronoberg. The images for this collection are only free under certain conditions. See details above.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1978118 (requires Javascript)

Sweden, Malmöhus Church Records, 1541-1918; index 1646-1860. Browse images of birth indexes and registers in birth and christening books (Födlese och dopböker) kept by the Lutheran church in the county of Malmöhus. The images for this collection are only free under certain conditions. See details above.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1974200 (requires Javascript)

Sweden, Norrbotten Church Records, 1612-1923; index 1658-1860. Browse images of birth indexes and registers in birth and christening books (Födlese och dopböker) kept by the Lutheran church in the county of Norrbotten. The images for this collection are only free under certain conditions. See details above.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1978781 (requires Javascript)

Sweden, Skaraborg Church Records, 1612-1921; index 1625-1860. Browse images of birth indexes and registers in birth and christening books (Födlese och dopböker) kept by the Lutheran church in the former county of Skaraborg. The images for this collection are only free under certain conditions. See details above.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1978775 (requires Javascript)

Sweden, Stockholm Church Records, 1556-1939, index 1634-1860. Browse images of birth indexes and registers in birth and christening books (Födlese och dopböker) kept by the Lutheran church in the county of Stockholm. The images for this collection are only free under certain conditions. See details above.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1979433 (requires Javascript)

Södermanland Church Records, including selected baptisms for 1640-1860. Indexed, includes links to the images at the Swedish Archive Website. To search this database, select the country from your choices on the left, and then narrow your selection further by clicking on the appropriate choices (one at a time) for state or province, city, type of record and possibly time frame. The index is freely available, but the images are only free under certain conditions.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1647693 (requires Javascript)

FamilySearch has Church Records from Uppsala, Sweden, including extracts of selected baptisms for 1613-1860. An index and links to the images at the Swedish Archive are available. To search this database, select the country from your choices on the left, and then narrow your selection further by clicking on the appropriate choices (one at a time) for state or province, city, type of record and possibly time frame. The index is freely available, but the images are only free under certain conditions.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1647598

Sweden, Värmland Church Records, 1509-1925; index 1640-1860. Browse images of birth indexes and registers in birth and christening books (Födlese och dopböker) kept by the Lutheran church in the county of Värmland. The images for this collection are only free under certain conditions. See details above.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1978776 (requires Javascript)

Sweden, Västerbotten Church Records, 1619-1896; index, 1688-1860. Browse images of birth indexes and registers in birth and christening books (Födlese och dopböker) kept by the Lutheran church in the county of Västerbotten. The images for this collection are only free under certain conditions. See details above.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1979430 (requires Javascript)

Sweden, Västernorrland Church Records, 1501-1940; index 1650-1860. Browse images of birth indexes and registers in birth and christening books (Födlese och dopböker) kept by the Lutheran church in the county of Västernorrland. The images for this collection are only free under certain conditions. See details above.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1949331 (requires Javascript)

Sweden, Västmanland Church Records, 1538-1901; index 1622-1860. Browse images of birth indexes and registers in birth and christening books (Födlese och dopböker) kept by the Lutheran church in the county of Västmanland. The images for this collection are only free under certain conditions. See details above.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1978777 (requires Javascript)

Sweden, Älvsborg Church Records, 1642-1897; index 1681-1860. Browse images of birth indexes and registers in birth and christening books (Födlese och dopböker) kept by the Lutheran church in the former county of Älvsborg. The images for this collection are only free under certain conditions. See details above.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1978773 (requires Javascript)

FamilySearch has indexed Örebro, Sweden Church Records, including selected baptisms for 1641-1860. An index of these records and links to the online images at the Swedish State Archive are available. To search this database, select the country from your choices on the left, and then narrow your selection further by clicking on the appropriate choices (one at a time) for state or province, city, type of record and possibly time frame. The index is freely available, but the images are only free under certain conditions.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1647578 (requires Javascript)

Sweden, Östergötland Church Records, 1555-1911; index 1616-1860. Browse images of birth indexes and registers in birth and christening books (Födlese och dopböker) kept by the Lutheran church in the county of Östergötland. The images for this collection are only free under certain conditions. See details above.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1979429 (requires Javascript)

SWITZERLAND

FamilySearch has indexed over a million baptisms from selected localities in Switzerland, including baptisms in Baselland, Basel-Stadt, Bern, Genève, Luzern, Switzerland, Thurgau, Vaud, and Zürich from about 1491 onwards. The time period covered varies by locality.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1520585 (requires Javascript)

Switzerland, Church Book Extracts, 1550-1875 - FamilySearch has browsable images of family register cards, currently at least including information about baptisms in Basel, Bern, Graubünden, Solothurn, Valais and Zürich. Most of the records are from the 1800's. You will need to sign in to view images and search results.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1790933 (requires Javascript)

Switzerland, Bern, Civil Registration, 1792-1876. Includes birth registration records from many orts in Bern. But not available from home computers to non-LDS church members. May be available if you go to a family history center.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1883390 (requires Javascript)

Switzerland, Church Records, 1277-1992. FamilySearch has over 500,000 browsable images of church books, from Basel City and Bern, for about 1277-1992. Not indexed for searching by name; database includes images of baptism records (taufen) and of baptism indexes (taufenregister). Precise years of coverage vary by parish. But this is a limited access collection. The images for Basel City and Schaffhausen can be viewed by everyone, but the records for Bern are only will available at Family History Centers and to members of sponsoring organizations (e.g., the Mormon Church).

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1640373 (requires Javascript)

UKRAINE

The following site contains searchable transcriptions of church parish registers and has some Ukrainian records. To view the site in English through Google's translation engine, click here. And for a translation of the page showing which records are available for what areas, click here.

http://www.geneteka.genealodzy.pl

Odessa births and baptisms in the 1800s from the St. Petersburg Lutheran Evangelical archives

http://sites.rootsweb.com/~ukrgs/odessa/index.html#Births

Volhynia - births and baptisms from the 1830s to 1885 from the St. Petersburg Lutheran Evangelical archives

http://sites.rootsweb.com/~ukrgs/volhynia/index.html#Births

Ukraine - the LDS FamilySearch site has indexed about 14,000 births and baptisms from selected localities, including Lviv and Odesa, for about 1784-1879. The time period varies by locality.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1771086 (requires Javascript)

The Mennonite Genealogy site has transcription of the Mennonite Fuerstenland (Fürstenland) Colony's Baptism Register for 1885-1932

http://www.mennonitegenealogy.com/russia/Fuerstenland_Baptism_Register.htm

Ukraine, Kyiv Orthodox Consistory Church Book Duplicates, 1840-1845. Browsable images including birth records. Menus are Ukrainian using Cyrillic alphabet. But this collection is only available on Family History Center computers unless you are a member of a supporting organization (i.e., an LDS church member).

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1503045 (requires Javascript)

Ukraine, Western Ukraine Catholic Church Book Duplicates, 1600-1900. Browsable images. Greek Orthodox Church book duplicates including records of baptisms. Some records are from the area of Eastern Galicia (Galizien), which was formerly in the Austrian Empire. Menus use Polish and Austrian Place names. But this collection is only available on Family History Center computers unless you are a member of a supporting organization (i.e., an LDS church member).

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1910265 (requires Javascript)

JRI Poland's Polish Jewish Records Indexing project has indexed many Jewish vital records including some Ukrainian births. You will need to sign in for free at JewishGen to view search results. The search tab is in the top menu.

https://www.jri-poland.org (requires javascript)

Register of Jews born in Odessa in 1846.

http://sites.rootsweb.com/~ukrodess/page5.html

JewishGen's Ukraine Special Interest Group is actively working on procuring and transcribing additional Jewish vital records from Ukraine. For updates or to help, go to the webpage for the UkraineSIG.

FamilySearch Labs and Pilot

The birth and baptismal databases formerly listed above at FamilySearch Labs and Pilot have been transferred to the main FamilySearch site, so we have removed the links to the Search Labs and Pilot search pages, as those links now simply take you to the main FamilySearch website search pages.

If any of the above FamilySearch database links break, you should be able to find the database you want to access at the other links we have provided. In those cases where there is no associated link to the main site, if the Labs link dies, you can visit the current menu for Europe at FamilySearch to try to locate a replacement.

We will continue to update the links as soon as we know about any changes. But do let us know by emailing us if you find any broken links. Be sure to specify which link on what page or for exactly which database.

But if you are having difficulties with any of Family Search's sites or databases, we strongly recommend you let them know so they know what is giving people trouble or needs fixing. See more about how to do so in the next section about Beta and New FamilySearch.

FamilySearch Beta and New FamilySearch

The links we have provided above for specific European birth and baptismal databases at FamilySearch were the best we could find on a website that is under major revision. The links are likely to change and may not yield narrow enough search results because they are still working on the site. If you find searching there too frustrating, we do recommend you let them know what kinds of problems you have with the site.

For more information about this, see the FamilySearch section on our Birth Records home page. And remember that even if there are too many or inappropriate results, you should be able to narrow the results by clicking on the selection criteria on the left panel.

If that does not work, you definitely should let them know whether by submitting your problems, constructive criticism and suggested improvements using their feedback links, posting in an online forum, especially http://getsatisfaction.com/familysearch/topics/, or by emailing [email protected] as they will only work on specific issues if enough people complain about them. However, we have found that the first email to them on any particular issue often gets a frustrating generic response. What we suggest is that, if you are not satisfied with the response you get, do write back and emphasize your point or ask for clarification. They do seem to pay more attention and make more sense on followup responses.

If you have an old link to a specific database at FamilySearch that contained birth or baptism information, and are having trouble getting it to work or finding the replacement database, you might want to scan our lists of old FamilySearch database links to see if that can help you find a replacement. Feel free to email us if you continue to need help finding its replacement.

We will be updating the links above as we learn about changes. But please do email us if you find any broken links on this page.

This page is http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~thecohens/genealogy/birthindexes-eur.html
 
Original URL: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~thecohens/birthindexes-eur.html

Revised March 14, 2021

Search this site


 
Search Performed by FreeFind

 

               Contact Us