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Updated Links_Vital Records and Directories

Updated 08 May 2024

General

FamilySearch is owned by the Mormon Church.  They have filmed a vast collection of vital records from many countries. Access to the portal is free after registration.  There has been  lot of progress in recent years in digitization of the films in the collection.  Most are available to view on-line, although some records are subject to restrictions.  As only a small proportion of films have been transcribed, you will need to be come familiar with using the catalogue. FamilySearch has ongoing transcription projects that anyone can contribute to.  These are very useful particularly when you are working with foreign language records and  can help you  to familiarize  yourself with the structure and terminology used in the records.

Just because a record has been transcribed, the transcription is not necessarily correct!  Old handwriting can be extremely difficult to read.  Transcribers may not understand the  grammatical rules of the language  of the record they are trying to transcribe.  In many collections, but not all, Family Search does allow researchers to provide corrections to the transcriptions.

In recent times, FamilySearch has been making use of  AI technology to speed up transcription.   Note that genealogy companies such as Ancestry and MyHeritage obtain the majority of their records from FamilySearch.

Slovakia: The majority of birth records have been transcribed.  There are also some transcribed marriage and death records available.  Recent transcriptions do not list the village name, Just 'Slovakia, Czechoslovakia' .  This is not very useful for common surnames.  I suggest checking the catalogue for the catalogue film number (s) of your village of interest. Then use the film numbers for your village to filter  the listing .

Hungary:  You will find the majority of the films have been digitized and can be located in the catalogue.  Only a small proportion have been transcribed.  There are considerable collections of  transcribed christening records for the Catholic and Reformed churches.  Some progress has been made with transcription of  Civil registry records.  There is a large collection of obituary notices (not transcribed)

 

Ukraine:   There are relatively few records for Transcarpathia present in the FamilySearch catalogue, and those that are present are not well-categorized or indexed.  Please refer to the main database on this website for a list of fragments of Transcarpathian records in the FamilySearch collection.  There are a few digitized records, mostly for the Reformed church and some civil registry records in the catalogue.  None have been transcribed.

FamilySearch is currently digitizing many records from archives in other parts of Ukraine at risk due current military conflict.  There is also a good collection of records from Ternopil that was transcribed some years ago.

Romania:  There are very few records in the FS catalogue for Maramures, Satu Mare, Bihor and Salaj counties.  There are some records available for Cluj-Napoca

Ancestry is a genealogy site that may have additional records not held by FamilySearch if you have membership.  Most of their records is licensed from other providers. They do also have their own transcription projects.  Useful for connecting with American,  Canadian, Australian and UK relatives.

MyHeritage is a genealogy site that may have additional records not held by FamilySearch if you have membership.  Most of their records is licensed from other providers.   Useful for connecting with European relatives.

Geneanet is a genealogy site specializing in Western European (particularly French)  genealogy.  They have a large collection of donated vital records and a few ongoing transcription projects. Very few records  for Eastern Europe. gain many of their listings are licensed from FamilySearch

Bad Arolsen Archives hold the largest database of archival material for those persecuted by the Nazis.   In addition to Jewish records, under the Nazis, the collection also contains records for this in displacement camps. A very useful site for those who have family who migrated as World War II refugees.

Transcarpathia (Ukraine)
Hungary,  Transcarpathia, Ukraine, Romania, Slovakia
Hungary,  Transcarpathia, Ukraine, Romania, Slovakia
Hungary,  Transcarpathia, Ukraine, Romania, Slovakia
Hungary,  Transcarpathia, Ukraine, Romania, Slovakia

Most comprehensive collection of historical newspapers from  Hungary. Can view snippets of content. To view entire document requires a subscription

Hungarian Telegraph Office News 1920-1956

Free collection of Hungarian historical newspapers

Electronic library of historical and modern Hungarian periodicals [www.epa.oszk.hu]

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