Record Atlas
9 eras · 1200–2026 · 15 places

Southern Istria

Pula, Vodnjan, Rovinj, Svetvinčenat, Ližnjan. 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
1200–1331 Patriarchate of Aquileia · the communes no registers survive

Before registers.

1331–1797 Republic of Venice — Istria da Mar Državni arhiv u Pazinu · FamilySearch

Venetian Istria, diocese of Pola. The registers are in Italian and Latin and the hands are Venetian.

1797–1805 Austria — first occupation Državni arhiv u Pazinu · FamilySearch
1805–1813 Napoleonic — Illyrian Provinces Državni arhiv u Pazinu · FamilySearch
1813–1918 Austria — Küstenland, diocese of Pola Državni arhiv u Pazinu · FamilySearch · ANNO — Austrian Newspapers Online

Pula becomes the imperial navy's main port, and the population triples. Naval and garrison records are Viennese, not local.

1918–1943 Italy — Provincia di Pola Državni arhiv u Pazinu · FamilySearch

Filed under Italy. FamilySearch collection 2152685 covers Buje, Novigrad, Oprtalj, Brtonigla and Materada among others.

1943–1945 Adriatisches Küstenland Državni arhiv u Pazinu · Arolsen Archives
1945–1991 Yugoslavia — SR Croatia Državni arhiv u Pazinu

The esodo: most of the Italian-speaking population leaves between 1945 and 1956. People vanish from these registers without dying.

1991–2026 Croatia — Istria County Državni arhiv u Pazinu

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, 1200–2026, 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.

15 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