Romania Vital Records

About the Database

This database contains vital records from various regions of Romania. The majority of records in this database come from the historical regions of Moldavia and Wallachia, including the largest two communities of Iasi and Bucharest, as well as many others.

The Romanian civil registration system began in the 1860s, before which records were kept by religious authorities. For much of Romania, those records have not survived (with the exception of the Transylvania region, which was formerly part of the Hungarian Empire). Vital records are stored in the Romanian regional archives; there is one for each county in the country. Generally speaking, the vital records are not available anywhere online; the LDS Church has also not scanned records from the majority of present-day Romania. There is currently a pending project by the Romanian National Archives to scan all vital records across the country and place them online; this project is expected to be finished in 2023.

Romanian records, which are generally civil records and held together with those of all religions, are generally an entire handwritten page (or for marriages, several pages). Birth records contain date of birth, place of birth, names of parents, ages and residence, and witnesses. Marriage records contain similar information for the bride and groom. Death records unfortunately generally do not include names of parents, except for the death record of a child; most also do not identify a cause of death. All of the records will likely include original signatures as well.

To search the entirety of JewishGen's Romania Collection, and to see a complete list of available databases, click here.

Note: this collection does not contain records from certain regions of present and former Romania, which are instead accessible at the following links:

• Bukovina: here.
• Maramures: here.
• Bessarabia (Moldova): here.
• Parts of Western Romania that were formerly part of Hungary: here.

Data Inventory

As of April 2023, there are 64,161 records in this database:

• Births: 39,437
• Marriages & Divorces: 17,758
• Deaths: 6,966

A complete inventory of records can be accessed by clicking here.

Acknowledgements

Special thanks are in order to the numerous volunteers who have worked very hard to transcribe and index Romanian records throughout the years, who at this point have become too long to even list! We are privileged to have so many wonderful volunteers assisting with our projects. Special recognition is currently due to our Volunteer Coordinator and Iasi Town Leader, Dana Lugassy; our Bucharest Town Leader, Rahel Eynan; and our incredible validator, Didina Burok.

Thanks to Marcel Glaskie for his contribution of transcribed vital records from Bacau and Raducaneni.

Many thanks as well for all the historical help of Roseanne Leeson, Barbara Hershey, Bob Wascou z'l, Bruce Reisch, Jeni Armandez, Avraham Groll, Warren Blatt, and Michael Tobias.

Please contact Michael Moritz, Director of Romanian Research, if you have any questions about these databases.  If you are able to transliterate, translate, or transcribe Romanian, or if you wish to help on this project in any other way (or for a new town), please fill out the volunteer form at the following link: here.

Search the Database

The Romania Vital Records Database can be searched via the JewishGen Romania Database.