Alphabetical military personnel records by surname makes it fairly easy to find soldiers coming from Austria itself and the Czech regions. Unfortunately, records for the remaining regions of the Empire are not organized alphabetically by name. To find these records, you must first determine the regimental number.

A chart showing which infantry regiments recruited in Galacia, listed by districts over various time periods, can be found at Polishroots.com. 13 A list for infantry regiments recruiting in the Kingdom of Hungary can be found at the end of this article in Appendix A.

Blodgett’s tables and the charts in Alphons Wrede’s book that was discussed earlier. That is why I created a separate table for the Hungarian regions based solely on Wrede’s charts. I have no way of knowing which table is more accurate but Wrede is considered by many to be the ultimate authority on Austro-Hungarian military topics.

The final reference on this topic comes from the Dislokations-Verzeichnis des k.u.k. Heeres und der k.u.k. Marine, 1649-1914 by Otto Kasperkowitz15 (Location Index for Recruitment into the Imperial and Royal Austrian Army and Navy Troops). Unlike the other tables which just show the infantry regiments, Kasperkowitz’s tables list all the various types of units including those of the cavalry, artillery and the engineers.

Regiments are listed by county or district for all regions of the Empire. It is available from the FHL on film # 1186632. But unfortunately, the years covered in these tables are very incomplete and may not provide guidance for all time periods.

The above record is from the regimental book of the 6th Hussars. 16 It lists Graf (Count) Orsich of Croatia. He was born in 1827 and he enlisted in 1843 as a regimental cadet. He was just shy of being 17 years old. In 1845, he was promoted to 2nd lieutenant and remained in the service until at least 1852.

I wish I could read his service records, but the writing is just too difficult. Musterlisten und Standestabellen (Muster Rolls and Formation Tables) Prior to 1820, when Grundbuchblätter records started to be kept, military records for all soldiers and officers were kept in Musterlisten und Standestabellen (Muster Rolls and Monthly Reports). These records at the Kriegs Archive cover the years from 1740 to 1820 and are available on microfilm from the Family History Center on 5,104 rolls of microfilm.

Records are organized by regimental unit. Both Grundbuchblätter and Musterlisten und Standestabellen records provide an individual’s year of birth, place of birth, religion, occupation, service record and dates of service. The Standestabellen only indicate changes within the last month.

Musterlisten also list names and ages of children, physical description of the soldier, whether he ever deserted and even information about his horse, if he was in the cavalry. In addition, there is an alphabetical list of all officers by name called the Kartei für Musterlisten und Standestabellen) covering the years of 1740-1820. This list is available from the FHL on 29 rolls of film.

Records for Officers

There are records for all officers in the Austrian and subsequent Austro-Hungarian Army at the Kreigs Archive in Vienna. They cover the years from 1761 to 1918 and are comprehensive for all units. Note, about 10% of all soldiers were officers. Their service records are indexed alphabetically by surname.

The information provided lists the service record of the officer and events and duties that he preformed. They also list the units in which he served. In addition, these records sometimes provide information about the soldiers parents. Officer records can be found in the Dienstbeschreibungen und Qualifikationslisten der Offiziere. These records are arranged alphabetically by last name. They are available on 3,408 films from the FHL.

Other units beyond Infantry

There were several other types of units within the army beyond those of the infantry. There were the Jägers (riflemen), the Artillery, the Engineers and the Cavalry.

Records for the Cavalry

The cavalry units were divided into several types of both heavy and light cavalry.

These included the Cuirassiers (or Kurassiers) who were the heavy cavalry used for head-on attacks against the enemy in close fighting. Cuirassiers wore helmets and some body armor including breast plates. They came mainly from Austria. The Dragoons were a second type of heavy to medium cavalry unit.

They carried a saber and a short carbine rifle but did not wear any body armor. They were often used as quick mobilization troops because they could rapidly ride to the scene of a battle, dismount and fight as infantry. They were recruited from Austria and the Czech region of Moravia.

The Chevauxlegers were medium to light cavalry. They were mainly used for patrolling and reconnaissance. Chevauxlegers were converted to other types of cavalry in the mid 1800s. They were recruited mainly from the Czech region of Bohemia but several regiments were drawn from Galacia, Austria and even Italy.

The Ulans used the lance as their The Ulans used the lance as their weapon of choice. They were light cavalry drawn mainly from Galacia (Poles and Ukrainians). The final type of cavalry unit was the Hussars. They were mainly recruited in the Kingdom of Hungary and were known as superb horsemen. They were also known for their daring and flamboyant personalities, both on and off the battlefield. Hussars were light cavalry used for reconnaissance, raids on enemy supply lines, flank attacks and rear guard actions. They used a short, curved saber in close fighting and favored a somewhat smaller horse (14 to 15 hands) than other units. There were eventually 16 Hussaren regiments with some drawn from Transylvania.

Finding the records for a soldier in the cavalry is a bit harder than that for the infantry. But you still need to determine the regimental unit in which the soldier served. To do so, you can use the Dislokations-Verzeichnis des k.u.k. Heeres und der k.u.k. Marine, 1649- 1914, cited earlier.

There are also various charts available along with maps that show where the cavalry units recruited as well. An example is found in Hungarian Hussar 1756-1815 by David Hollins.18 On page 55 he describes in which counties of Hungary each Hussar regiment recruited around 1800. There is also an excellent map on this page that shows the recruitment districts for the Hussar regiments.

This map is better than some others because it shows the boundaries of the recruitment districts instead of just the location of the home depots of the various units. Note, page 55 of Hollins’ book can be accessed on Google Books but it is inexpensively available from various on-line bookstores. Cavalry regiments usually maintained an association with specific infantry regiments and recruited in the same counties and districts as these IRs.

Therefore, this provides another way to determine the cavalry unit for your county of interest. In books called the MilitarSchematismus, records were kept for each regiment. Beginning in 1867, the regimental numbers of the associated infantry regiments are shown for each cavalry regiment.

By knowing the recruiting counties of the infantry, one then knows the likely recruiting counties for the associated cavalry regiment. But associations changed over time, therefore it must be determined for a specific time period. Look for the MilitarSchematismus on line at Google books. They are available, by year, from 1815 until the 1890s, but only after 1867 do they show which infantry regiments were associated with specific cavalry units.