Enquiry Services of the Municipal and Provincial Archives of Vienna

In case you are interested in tracing your ancestors, please make sure to gather as much background information (like place of birth, date of birth or death) as possible before turning to us. If your question is not answered by the information on this site, you are welcome to contact us.

Opening hours and contact

We can

• advise you and give you information about relevant sources in our Archives,
• advise you about access to these records and
• make copies of documents subject to their physical condition and any restrictions on access.

We cannot help you with

• requests to compile family trees,
• requests which involve our staff in lengthy searches of documents,
• general historical enquiries involving staff in extensive research,
• enquiries which could be answered through published books and
• requests for photocopies from printed works.

Notes about enquiries

• We only answer requests that are signed with full name and adress.
• Be specific. What information, document or individual are you trying to find? Please mention any sources you have already consulted so we do not recommend them to you again.
• Signing your message: If you intend sending us an E-Mail please include your name and conventional address. Many of the messages we receive appear to be anonymous which makes the retrieval of the message difficult on subsequent occasions.
• We respond to every communication we receive. Receiving more than 1,000 inquiries per month we respond to each E-Mail in sequence. We aim to answer them within the time limit of two months which is prescribed by regulation or at least to send an intermediate answer within that period.
• The enquiries are answered in German.