Austrian Land Cadastres, which include both written documents and detailed maps, are among the most underutilized yet richly informative sources available to researchers tracing ancestors in the Hapsburg Monarchy/Austrian Empire and its former crownlands.

Created for taxation and administrative purposes, Austrian cadastral records contain precise details about land ownership, property boundaries, land use, and associated buildings. These records, written primarily in German, often list landowners by name, describe the value and productivity of the land, and a later collection includes beautifully detailed maps that can offer the ability to pinpoint ancestral residences (bauparzellen) and farming plots.

Archival Collections for Galicia

• Josephine Cadastre [Józefińska metryka], 1785
  The collection for the crownland of Galicia is held by the Central State Historical Archives in Ukraine, Lviv (TsDIAL) [Fond 19, Йосифінська метрика (Перший поземельний кадастр Галичини)].
• Franciscan Cadastre [Franciszkańska metryka], 1817
  This collection for the crownland of Galicia is held by the Central State Historical Archives in Ukraine, Lviv (TsDIAL) [Fond 20, Францисканська метрика (Поземельний кадастр Галичини)].
• Stabile Cadastre [Stały Kataster Galicyjski], 1830s–1860s
  Archival collections of this land cadastre are spread throughout Poland and Ukraine. Three main collections can be found in the Polish National Archives in Kraków [Kataster galicyjski, 29/280/0], State Archives of Poland in Rzeszów [Kataster gruntowy, 59/1313/0], and the State Archives of Poland in Przemyśl [Archiwum Geodezyjne, 56/126/0], but other smaller collections may exist in other archive locations in Poland. Smaller, regional collections are also held by State Archives of Ukraine in the Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Ternopil oblasts.

For genealogists, these records offer unique insights into the economic status (pre-and-post abolition of serfdom), residence, and familial relationships of individuals—filling in information gaps which cannot be provided through metrical records (civil/religious registrations) and helping to place ancestors in their physical and historical landscape.

Key genealogical benefits include:

• Identifying ancestral homes and farmlands by name and location.
• Correlating property records with parish registers, notarial files, and migration records.
• Linking landowners across generations to reconstruct family composition through revisions made based on inheritance and legal actions.
• Gaining a deeper understanding of an ancestor’s social and economic environment.