Tip 13, Military Records

Austrian Empire Military Records

EEG publication Spring 2003, article by Karen Hobbs:

Austrian Military Records: Determining the Recruiting Regiment. Includes instructions, info, maps and charts to help you. May also be ordered from the EEG.

GGD publication #12, October 1997, article by Steven Blodgett: Research in Military Records of the Austrian Empire. It is available to members who have been with us for more than 3 years. See the link to old newsletters on our newsletter page. A similar article is available for free at FEEFHS Journal, Vol IX, 2001.

Slovakia Genealogy Society has a comprehensive article covering all of the Austro-Hungary Empire by Carl Kotlarchik:

Guide for Locating Military Records.

PolishRoots, "The Polish Genealogy Reference" has an article called Austrian Military Recruitment within Galicia.

The location index is at: Dislokations-Verzeichnis des k.u.k. Heeres und der k.u.k. Marine, 1649-1914 Otto Kasperkovitz, 1969. 320 p.

FamilySearch (FHL Film # 1186632 item 1).

A detailed web page on Austro-Hungarian Land Forces 1914-1918 at http://www.austro-hungarian-army.co.uk/

WW I – German Casualty Lists

Most of the records of German casualties in World War I were lost during allied bombing in 1945, however "Verein für Computergenealogie" (Society for Computer Genealogy) has discovered casualty lists which have become among the most important surviving resources about German soldiers during the 1st World War. There are over 8.5 million records that can be searched.

Their website about these casualty lists is at http://wiki-de.genealogy.net/Verlustlisten_Erster_Weltkrieg/Projekt (in German) but the search page at http://des.genealogy.net/eingabe-verlustlisten/search is mostly in English.

These lists are of interest to GGD members because German casualties in these lists are reported over the entire area where German soldiers fought during WW I including Austria, Poland and Russia. Each event is recorded so an individual could be recorded multiple times like one soldier could be missing, then wounded and then lost/died. This site will also search for village names just by typing in a village name either for Germany or Galicia.

The search box contains:
"Last name"
“First Name”
"Ort"	Birthplace
"Liste"	Casualty list number
“Reg.o.ã”	regiment or similar military unit
Wildcards (*) can be used with names. However, if the name being entered has ã, ō, ü or β, it is suggested one also search “a” and “ae” or “ss” variants.

The Casualty List is printed in German Gothic typeface. Some of the terminology used includes:
Schwer verwundet	seriously wounded
Leicht verwundet	slightly wounded
Vermiβ	missing
Schw. v.u. vermin	wounded & missing
Gefallen	killed
l.verw. In Gefgsch.	Slightly wounded in prison camp
tōdlich verunglückt	fatal accident