Record Atlas
7 eras · 1409–2026 · 17 places

Cres and Lošinj, the northern Kvarner islands

Cres, Mali Lošinj, Veli Lošinj, Osor, Beli. Which empire held this ground in which years — and, the part that matters, which archive that means.

Whose archive this ground was

YearsWho held itWhose archive that means
1409–1797 Republic of Venice Archivio di Stato di Venezia · Državni arhiv u Rijeci · FamilySearch

Cres and Lošinj are described as Venetian until 1797; the start of Venetian rule is dated differently by source (1409 is the date given for neighbouring Rab).

1797–1805 Austria, province of Istria Archivinformationssystem (Österreichisches Staatsarchiv) · Državni arhiv u Rijeci · FamilySearch

The Treaty of Campo Formio (1797) gave Lošinj to Austria as part of the province of Istria.

1805–1814 French rule, then the Illyrian Provinces Državni arhiv u Rijeci · FamilySearch

Istria is dated to the Napoleonic period 1805-1814, with the Illyrian Provinces from 1809; the islands are described as French after Austria's defeat in 1809.

1814–1918 Austria, then Austria-Hungary: Istria and the Austrian Littoral Archivinformationssystem (Österreichisches Staatsarchiv) · Državni arhiv u Rijeci · ANNO — Austrian Newspapers Online · FamilySearch

Austria regained Istria in 1814. Istria lay in the Kingdom of Illyria from 1816 to 1849 and then in the Austrian Littoral (Küstenland), which excluded Trieste.

1918–1947 Kingdom of Italy: Cres and Lošinj Archivio di Stato di Trieste · Državni arhiv u Rijeci · FamilySearch

The transfer to Italy is dated 1919 (Saint-Germain) or 12 November 1920 (Treaty of Rapallo, which named Cres, Lošinj and Lastovo) depending on the source. Rab, nearby, was ceded to Yugoslavia in 1921, so neighbouring islands fall under different states. Italy lost Cres and Lošinj after the German and Croatian occupation of 1943 and ceded them by the 1947 peace treaty.

1947–1991 Yugoslavia, SR Croatia Državni arhiv u Rijeci · HR-HDA-883 — Zbirka matičnih knjiga (Hrvatski državni arhiv) · ARHiNET — Croatian State Archives

A 1946 state law moved the keeping of parish registers from religious communities to state services, and an order of 13 May 1949 required registers made before 1860 to be delivered to the State Archives in Zagreb. Cres and Lošinj were handed to Yugoslavia in 1947.

1991–2026 Croatia, Primorje-Gorski Kotar County Državni arhiv u Rijeci

The rings are approximate — deliberately. They exist to shade which filing system a place fell under, not to adjudicate a border. A place near a ring's edge should be checked against both neighbours.

See the whole span, 1409–2026, on the map →

The map takes a range, and a range that crosses one of the rows above is where records get lost: the family never moved, and the archive on the far side of the handover will tell you it holds nothing.

17 places on this ground

2 FamilySearch collections reach this ground

Ranked with the regional ones first — a collection for a province is usually a better lead than a national index, though the national index is often where a name is actually written down. A free account opens the images.

All record regions · The map