Over the past couple months, I’ve been working on transcribing documents I photographed in 2017 from the archive in Ljubljana, Slovenia and creating a sort of database using Google Docs. The Catholic family records known as status animarum translates to “the state of souls” and are documents enumerating people in a particular parish. In my case, the parish is the village of Veliki Slatnik where my great-grandfather Anton Pene was born. Kept by the parish priest, status animarum contained family members names, relationships, birth, house numbers, house name and sacraments such as confirmation, confession, communion, marriage and death. All highly valuable genealogical information.
Below, I’ve included the 1834 and 1854 status animarum for house #15 for the Pene Family. Unfortunately the 1893 S.A. was destroyed during World War II however I believe there are some older documents before 1834 that still survive. Just like United States Census records, status animarum trace families over time. In 1834, Jacob Pene was head of house and his wife Gertrud is listed below him. Her name is written as “Radesh”, the German spelling of Radež. This isn’t uncommon and along with Latinized spellings seen on the 1854 document, i.e. “Antonius” for Anton.
Looking closer at 1834 you see “Pene, Anton” and others listed below. I know these are the children of Jacob and Gertrud by the abbreviation of “fil” or the Latin word filius (male) or fill (female) which means child. By 1854, Anton (Antonius) married (copulatus) 28/1 “63” (28 January, 1863) Franciska Blažič “ux” or uxor (wife). Once again, below them are their children including my great grandfather Anton. That’s the basic tutorial for reading Slovenia status animarum in a nutshell!
1834 Status Animarum for house #15 in Veliki Slatnik. These documents are only available at the Nadškofija Ljubljana, the Archdiocese of Ljubljana, Slovenia or by order through email.
1854 Status Animarum for house #15 in Veliki Slatnik.
As people married and died then shifted into other residences, I found it difficult to keep all the information straight and thus my purpose in creating a single document to view all the data. For example, Franciska Blažič, was born at #9 Veliki Slatnik and then married into house #15 so she appears in two sets of status animarum. You can look at the database for yourself. Currently it’s formatted by “House #1” or birth house and any subsequent house number would be a relocation. As you can see a number of individuals have the same surname as well as given name. As I obtain more S.A., for Veliki Slatnik they will be added. There you have it, all the things you never thought you would learn. Thanks for reading!!