Hvar and Vis, the outer Adriatic islands
Hvar, Vis, Komiža. Which empire held this ground in which years — and, the part that matters, which archive that means.
Whose archive this ground was
| Years | Who held it | Whose archive that means |
|---|---|---|
| 1409–1797 | Republic of Venice: Hvar and Vis | Archivio di Stato di Venezia · ARHiNET — Croatian State Archives · FamilySearch Hvar passed to Hungary in 1358 and was held briefly by Bosnia in 1390 before Venice became its long-term owner in 1409. The Hvar Rebellion belongs to the 16th century. Vis was Venetian until 1797. |
| 1797–1805 | Austria, after the Treaty of Campo Formio | Archivinformationssystem (Österreichisches Staatsarchiv) · ARHiNET — Croatian State Archives The Habsburg monarchy annexed the islands in 1797 when the Venetian Republic fell. |
| 1805–1811 | Kingdom of Italy, then the Illyrian Provinces | ARHiNET — Croatian State Archives · FamilySearch Vis is described as part of Napoleon's Kingdom of Italy from 1805 and the Illyrian Provinces from 1809; French forces seized Hvar in 1806. |
| 1811–1815 | British naval occupation: Vis from 1811, Hvar from 1813 | FamilySearch The Royal Navy secured Vis after the Battle of Lissa on 13 March 1811, and British marines and sailors took Hvar from the French in 1813. The Congress of Vienna gave the islands to Austria in 1815. |
| 1815–1918 | Austria: Kingdom of Dalmatia | Archivinformationssystem (Österreichisches Staatsarchiv) · ARHiNET — Croatian State Archives · ANNO — Austrian Newspapers Online · GenTeam.at · FamilySearch The Austrian fleet under Tegetthoff defeated a larger Italian fleet north of Vis in the Battle of Vis on 20 July 1866. |
| 1918–1991 | Yugoslavia, SR Croatia from 1945 | ARHiNET — Croatian State Archives · HR-HDA-883 — Zbirka matičnih knjiga (Hrvatski državni arhiv) Italian forces occupied Hvar and Vis from 1918 to 1921. In 1941-43 Vis was part of the Italian province of Spalato, while Hvar was occupied but not formally annexed. Vis was Tito's headquarters in 1944, and the Yugoslav army kept it as a closed naval base until 1989. |
| 1991–2026 | Croatia, Split-Dalmatia County | ARHiNET — Croatian State Archives |
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.
3 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.
- Croatia, Church Books, 1516-1994 ↗ 1515–1994 7,007,772 records
- Croatia, Delnice Deanery Catholic Church Books, 1571-1926 ↗ 1570–1926 233,088 records