Vital registration of the Jews before the World War One may be divided into two bodies: registered prior to 1895 and after 1895. Religious congregations were responsible for registration of birth, marriages and deaths before 1895, so records for each religious group were registered separately. All places in Slovakia were grouped in above 130 Jewish vital registration districts. People living in villages were obliged to register vital events in vital registration district center to which the village belonged (usually the nearest town).

In 1895 the Hungarian State (which Slovakia was a part of) took over the responsibility and thus made vital registration civil. Since that year vital events were registered together, regardless religious divisions.

LDS Church have microfilmed all pre-1895 vital records of the Jews held in the Slovakian archives. Records registered after 1895 are available only in local archives in Slovakia. Due to privacy law only records till about 1905 are freely searchable. Records for most eastern part of Slovakia (former Ung district) are held in Zemplén, Hungary and Uzhhorod, Ukraine.

We are updating our map with a new layer showing Jewish vital registration districts in Slovakia. Only districts with actually existing vital records in archives in Slovakia and Zemplén are shown. In the layer for Jewish vital registration districts in Galicia we show all districts, also those for which all vital records are lost.

Feel free to contact us if you need assistance in genealogical research of the vital records of Jews in Slovakia, as well as Zakarpattia (Podkarpatská Rus, Carpathian Ruthenia, Trans-Carpathia).

Source: Sarmányová-Kalesná Jana, Cirkevné matriky na Slovensku zo 16.-19. storočia (Bratislava: Odbor Archívnictva Ministerstva Vnútra SR, 1991).