Can't find Parish Records in Perusic, Croatia
Hi, we are researching Croatian ancestry. We are trying to find baptism and marriage records, from the Perusic area, in Croatia, from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but can't. The only parish records that we can find, from that area, date between about 1710 and 1870. Can anyone tell us why that is?
Best Answer
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There are several possible reasons. If you are searching only for indexed records, it's possible that the records simply haven't been indexed. FamilySearch may still have them available through the catalog, which is available under the search tab, though it would be harder to find your family through there. It is also possible that the records have not been made available to FamilySearch. Unfortunately, there is also a chance that some records have been lost or destroyed. There is also the unlikely chance that records were not kept during that time, though I've never heard of that happening once a country starts keeping records.
The best way to answer your questions would probably be through the FamilySearch Research Wiki, available under the search tab. There may be an explanation for the missing records there. You simply select the country or region you want to research, and you will be brought to a page giving information of the different records kept there.
I hope this helps, I wish you luck in your research!
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Answers
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I had a look for Perusic in the Catalog (https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/results?count=20&placeId=164097&query=%2Bplace%3A%22Croatia%2C%20Peru%C5%A1i%C4%87%22&subjectsOpen=555199-50). There are Catholic records for 1712-1862 and Catholic records from a nearby parish Zmino for 1679-1850.
I do not know enough about Croatian history and genealogy to say why records stopped at that point. The parish may have closed/merged/moved. The state rather than churches may have started keeping vital records. FamilySearch may have not filmed later records (either for privacy reasons, legal reasons, or because the existence of civil registration made it unworthwhile to film church records)
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Civil registration in Croatia began under Tito, so that can't be the reason for the missing registers.
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@John Luger_1, I must first apologize that I have experience with Croatian records, but hopefully I might add a suggestion that makes sense.
First, you might find some help by joining the Austro-Hungarian Empire Group, where you may find researchers that are more familiar with the area of your interest.
If you haven't already used this resource, you might try the FamilySearch Wiki page for Croatia Genealogy, found here:
I also found, via the wikipedia, that Perušić is municipality in Lika-Senj County, Croatia. Thus, broadening your search to Lika-Senj County, Croatia might lead you to some records that fall within your area of interest. For example, doing a keyword search of the Catalog yields several sources that may be fruitful. You can see the results of this search here:
Searching for Places in Croatia, we do find Pučišća; and then searching the Catalog, we find: Croatia, Perušić - Church records ( 2 ). The records found here may have already been mentioned above.
Finally, you may find the Collection, "Croatia, Church Books, 1516-1994" to be helpful.
I did a very quick search of this collection, using the place name, "Perušić" and did find several records for indviduals in Perušić, Lika-Senj, Croatia.
Hopefully, there is something here that may be of value. Best of luch.
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There are for good reason governmental privacy restrictions on the release of vital records in many countries, including Croatia. Some countries use 100 years, some 125 years. There also may be local restrictions imposed by local religious communities; for example, at one time some Jewish congregations and Roman Catholic parishes were talking about not allowing the LDS access to records for filming purposes since the records are used to rebaptize people by proxy into the Mormon faith and they objected to the practice. It also could be simply that people hadn't gotten around to filming the records yet. Some records in some locations were destroyed in WW2 & in the Homeland War, but generally the central archive and the archbishop's offices have copies but they are often not for public use.
In the United States, individual states have gotten greedy and have sold even recent vital records to entities such as ancestry.com that should never have been allowed.
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