Guide

The registry book as a type of record had different names depending on the time of creation and the territory. The name “matrix” comes from the Latin word matrix, which means a public list, census, or from the Latin word matricula, which means a census book, a list of births, baptisms, marriages or deaths of a parish. Another name for this type of book is “register” which also comes from the Latin registrum (regestum, regestrum), which means list, inventory. It is also called “protocol” derived from the Latin word protocollum, which means to write a document bearing an official seal or to fill a public register.

Church registers were public documents in the period before the Law on State Registers came into force on Hungarian territory on December 18, 1894. Duplicates and transcripts of these registers were handed over every year to the authorities and later submitted to the Archive of Vojvodina for safekeeping as part of the county archive. Therefore, they are not subject to the Law on the return (restitution) of property to churches and religious communities.

Church registers (in the former Kingdom of Hungary)

The official language and the language of registration in church registers
Data in church registers
- Chronology of basic data
- Specifics
- Causes of death