Record Atlas
8 eras · 1409–2026 · 36 places

Rab, Pag and the Zadar archipelago

Rab, Novalja, Ugljan, Pašman, Dugi Otok, Silba. 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: Rab, Pag and the Zadar islands Archivio di Stato di Venezia · Državni arhiv u Zadru · Državni arhiv u Rijeci · FamilySearch

Rab submitted to Venice in 1000 and was held by it continuously from 1409. Pag is dated to Venice from 1409, after Louis I sold his Dalmatian claims in 1403. Venetian Dalmatia ended with the fall of the Republic in 1797.
1797–1805 First Austrian rule: Dalmatia administered from Zadar Državni arhiv u Zadru · Archivinformationssystem (Österreichisches Staatsarchiv) · FamilySearch

Under the Treaty of Campo Formio the Habsburgs took Dalmatia and ran it from Zadar, keeping most of the Venetian system.
1805–1813 Kingdom of Italy, then the Illyrian Provinces Državni arhiv u Zadru · FamilySearch

Dalmatia passed to France at the Peace of Pressburg (1805) and was linked to Napoleon's Kingdom of Italy and later the Illyrian Provinces.
1813–1918 Austria: Kingdom of Dalmatia from 1815 Državni arhiv u Zadru · Archivinformationssystem (Österreichisches Staatsarchiv) · ANNO — Austrian Newspapers Online · GenTeam.at · FamilySearch

Austrian forces retook Dalmatia in 1813-14 and the Congress of Vienna created the Kingdom of Dalmatia in 1815, with Zadar as capital; Rab is described as annexed by the Habsburgs in 1815. Islands, mainland coast and Zadar all sat in the one crown land.
1918–1941 Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, then Yugoslavia Državni arhiv u Zadru · Državni arhiv u Rijeci · ARHiNET — Croatian State Archives

Rab was ceded to Yugoslavia in 1921. Zadar itself became an Italian semi-enclave under the Treaty of Rapallo (12 November 1920), so a town record and an island record of the same family can lie in two different states' archives.
1941–1943 Italian annexation: Governorate of Dalmatia and Province of Fiume Državni arhiv u Zadru · Državni arhiv u Rijeci · Archivio di Stato di Trieste

From 1941 the islands in front of Zadar belonged to the Governorate of Dalmatia (Province of Zara), and Rab was joined to the Province of Fiume. Fascist Italy ran the Rab concentration camp at Kampor; its memorial dates from 1953.
1943–1991 Yugoslavia, SR Croatia Državni arhiv u Zadru · Državni arhiv u Rijeci · ARHiNET — Croatian State Archives

Badoglio cancelled the Governorate administratively on 19 August 1943; German forces took over and the territory was absorbed into the Independent State of Croatia. Parish registers were kept by religious communities until 1946; the State Archives in Zadar has a branch at Novalja.
1991–2026 Croatia Državni arhiv u Zadru · 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.

36 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.

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