Researchers of ancestors who lived in the Empire may also wish to visit our regional page for the state of Austria which at its capital Vienna maintains an enormous number of the Empire's records.
The Predecessor: The Holy Roman Empire.
The Austrian Empire had formerly been a leading state of the centuries-old Holy Roman Empire. Over the latter centuries of its existence, the House of Habsburg had not only managed to lock up the Imperial throne exclusively for its family, but had also significantly increased the size of its hereditary lands, Austria, including large holdings outside the Empire proper. (The Habsburgs were essentially forced to do this because much of their ancestral land was in the southwest of the Empire, bordering France, which could only effectively be countered by the full weight of the Empire.)
However, following the Thirty Years War (1618-1648), which was a disaster for Germany and won by France and Sweden, the empire had ceased to mean anything except an abstract concept. The emperor was powerless except in his own dynasty's territories, nor was he able to inspire leadership among the other German states. Still this concept was to linger on for over 150 years.
Austrian Empire.
The Holy Roman Empire however came crashing to an end as result of the conquests of France led by Napoleon. Thus on August 6, 1806, the last Holy Roman Emperor officially laid down the scepter of the old empire and retained only the title Emperor of Austria.
There were several exchanges of territory before peace returned and final boundaries were set at the Congress of Vienna, which met from September 1814 to June 1815. Over the next century, there were additions to the Empire, as for example when in 1846 when the city of Cracow participated in the Polish Revolution and the Empire took the opportunity to annex the city and surrounding area to Galicia. It was around this time also, in 1854, that Bukovina was separated from Galicia and in 1861 that it became its own duchy, as did Gorizia-Gradisca and Istria.
However, more often there were losses, for example when as part of the wars for Italian unification, the Empire in 1859 lost Lombardy, in 1860, Modena and Tuscany, and in 1866, Venetia. In 1867, Trieste remained part of the Empire, but was granted status as its own province.
Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Also in 1867, the Empire tried a new tack in its dealings with the Kingdom of Hungary which had essentially been under martial law since the resolution of the 1848 revolution. The decision was to compromise and the Ausgleich of 1867 created a dual monarchy known as Austria- Hungary or the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Borders remained the same, but now Hungary and the rest of Austria became two separate states ruled by a common Habsburg monarch.
In 1878, the Empire was given the right to occupy the duchies of Bosnia and Hercegovina, even though they were nominally still under the control of the Ottoman Empire. The region was administered by the Ministry of Finance. This right of occupation was consolidated by outright annexation in 1908.
The Aftermath of World War I.
Following the First World War, new borders were set by the Treaties of Saint Germain-en-Laye (September 10, 1919) and Trianon (June 4, 1920). As a result, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was utterly transformed into a much smaller state, German-Austria, which had been first proclaimed in October 30, 1918. It was thought that it would be joined with Germany, but this was forbidden by the Western Powers.
Austria had become a much smaller nation consisting only of Carinthia, Carniola, Lower Austria, Salzburg, Styria, Tyrol, Upper Austria and Vorarlberg and not all of these in their entirety. In addition, it received from Hungary in 1921, the mostly German-speaking area of Burgenland with the exception of the municipality of Sopron/Ödenburg and immediately surrounding area where local resistance led to a plebiscite and the area remaining with Hungary. In Burgenland, records are mostly in Hungarian and some secular records are still in the state archives in Budapest. In contrast with the rest of Austria, there is a considerable number of Protestant parishes.
Hungary became an entirely separate nation, but lost large portions of its territories as well, retaining only core Hungarian-speaking areas. Retained were West and Central Hungary plus a small western portion of the Banat, the northern portion of the Batschka, the Central Hungarian Highlands, and the northern portion of Swabian Turkey.
A newly-formed country of Czechoslovakia was formed from the Bohemian Crownlands (Bohemia, Moravia and Austrian-Silesia) and a portion of Upper-Hungary (Slovakia and Karpato-Ukraine).
A new country of Yugoslavia was also formed including the former Austro-Hungarian lands of the southern portion of the Banat, the southern portion of the Batschka, Bosnia-Hercegovina, the southern portion of the duchy of Carinthia (Slovenia), most of the of duchy of Carniola, Croatia-Slavonia, the kingdom of Dalmatia, the southern portion of Swabian Turkey, the southern portion of duchy of Styria, and Syrmia.
Beyond this, several areas were annexed by existing neighboring countries of Europe. Italy took for itself the southwestern portion of duchy of Carniola, the county of Gorizia-Gradisca, the margraviate of Istria, the town of Trieste, the southern portion of the county of Tyrol, city of Zadar (formerly part of the kingdom of Dalmatia), and the islands of Cherso, Lusino, Lagosta (formerly of the kingdom of Dalmatia).
Romania annexed the eastern portion of the Banat, the duchy of Bukovina, Sathmar and Transylvania.
Poland annexed the western portion of the kingdom of Galicia-Lodomeria and part of the Crownland of Austrian-Silesia.
Finally, Ukraine annexed the eastern portion of the kingdom of Galicia-Lodomeria (Karpatho-Ukraine).
The names of officers are indexed and thus relatively straightforward to locate. The names of enlisted men are more difficult because they are organized by the name of the regiment. There are strategies for determining the regiment based on their recruitment districts -- which is different than the locality where they were stationed. The recruitment location index which is essential for determining the name of the regiment in which the soldier served is Dislokations-Verzeichnis des k.u k. Heers und der k. u. k. Marine 1649-1914 by Kasperkowitz. (See also FHL microfilm 1186632 item 1.)
The following collections are available:
Gazetteers
Atlases
Maps