Frequently Asked Questions

A structured database built on top of digitized census forms from Slovak municipalities for the years 1930 and 1940. The source scans come from the Slovak National Archive via the Slovakiana portal and the scitacieharky.sk project. ARCHIVIO enriches these records — enabling search by person, linking them to properties, cemeteries, and associations, and allowing corrections after AI extraction.

The system contains:

• Census forms with scanned original documents
• Person records (name, gender, date of birth, nationality, religion, occupation)
• Properties (houses, land) and their owners
• Geographic hierarchy: districts, municipalities, settlements with historical names
• Cemetery records linked to persons
• Registry of association and society members

The system currently contains data from the census years 1930 and 1940.

It is a combination of historical and legal reasons:

1920 census — destroyed The census forms from 1920 were physically destroyed (shredded). This year simply cannot be in the system — the records do not exist.

Before 1920 Records from the Austro-Hungarian period (censuses of 1869, 1880, 1890, 1900, 1910) exist, but are written predominantly in Hungarian and older Latin script styles. Their processing is considerably more demanding and is a long-term goal.

1940 census — 90-year protection The 1940 census forms are subject to a 90-year personal data protection period. The system displays only data that can be made available within this period.

After 1940 Censuses from 1950 onwards are non-public and their inclusion is not planned.

More information about census forms is available on the Ministry of Interior of the Slovak Republic website.

Log in to the system and use the person search — simply enter a first name, surname, or municipality. Results display demographic information as well as a scan of the original census form.

The system is accessible to registered users. Registration is currently available by request only.

Fill in the registration request or contact us through the contact form. After verification, access will be granted to you.

The data is extracted from historical documents, partly automatically using AI. It may contain errors caused by the quality of the originals or inaccuracies in extraction. We therefore encourage verified users to correct and supplement records.

Each census form includes a link to the original scan, or a direct preview within the system.

A bulk export feature is not currently available. Individual records can be viewed and copied from the person or census form detail page.

After logging in, you can correct an erroneous record directly, or contact us.

The primary source is digitized census forms from the Slovak National Archive and regional archives, accessible through the Slovakiana portal.

The project is called ARCHIVIO — a Latin-Italian form of the word archive, referencing historical records and their European roots.

The motto is: "Radix. Record. Ratio." — Root. Record. Order.

The logo is an impossible triangle (Penrose triangle) composed of three interlocking arms with no beginning and no end. Each arm carries one word of the motto:

• Radix — origin and context
• Record — preserved information
• Ratio — meaning and structure

Together they form an endless cycle: knowledge that has roots, is recorded, and is organised.

AI is a supporting tool in the system — not a replacement for human review. Specifically, it is used for:

• Extracting data from scans — AI reads scanned census forms and automatically pre-fills names, dates, occupations, and other details into the form
• Handwriting recognition — historical forms are handwritten in various styles and languages; AI handles this significantly better than classic OCR
• Fuzzy municipality matching — AI helps match historical place names (often in Hungarian or German) to their modern equivalents

All AI-extracted data is flagged and awaits human verification. The goal is to speed up data entry, not to replace accuracy.

ARCHIVIO is primarily intended for:

• Descendants of Slovak emigrants — especially from the USA, Canada, Australia, and other countries, who are searching for the roots of their ancestors in Slovakia. That is precisely why the entire system is available in English.
• Genealogists and amateur researchers — anyone tracing their family history who wants to access historical records
• Historians and researchers — the system provides structured data on the demographics, ethnic composition, and geography of Slovakia in the 1930s and 1940s
• Volunteers — people willing to help correct and supplement records

The vision of the project is to become a place where a descendant of an emigrant from Pittsburgh or Buenos Aires can find a record of their great-grandparents within minutes — their house, village, neighbours, occupation.

The system is actively being developed. Upcoming planned features:

• Family trees — visualisation of family relationships and genealogy across census records, linking persons across years into a clear family tree.
• Baptism records — import and browsing of church baptismal registers linked to census persons.
• Historical documents — ability to attach additional archival documents (deeds, records, official papers) to a person or property.
• Photos and albums — organising historical photographs linked to persons and places.

Expansions to existing modules are also planned: broader municipality coverage, enriching historical place names from Wikidata, and improvements to AI extraction from scanned documents.

scitacieharky.sk and Slovakiana scitacieharky.sk is a community project that aggregates census form scans from the Slovak National Archive and the Slovakiana portal — doing what a state institution could not: making them accessible and free. ARCHIVIO was inspired by this project and builds on it. Scans in ARCHIVIO link back to the originals there. The difference is what ARCHIVIO adds on top: a structured database of persons, properties, and addresses, links to associations and cemeteries, AI extraction, and curated data management. scitacieharky.sk is an archive of scans — ARCHIVIO is a database with context.

MyHeritage and Ancestry Both platforms are foreign, globally oriented, and paid — you pay a monthly fee for the privilege of entering your own data, not for them giving you theirs. Slovak records are represented marginally and without deeper context. ARCHIVIO, by contrast, is focused exclusively on the Slovak region with an emphasis on depth and accuracy of data.

FamilySearch FamilySearch is a free platform, but its main weakness is openness to uncurated changes — anyone can edit records without verification. This leads to errors and contradictions that are difficult to track. ARCHIVIO takes a curated approach: changes go through review and every record has an audit log.

These platforms are not mutually exclusive. ARCHIVIO can be a useful complement when verifying findings from any of them — and vice versa.

What does BETA mean? The system is functional and actively used, but still undergoing intensive development. Errors in display, unexpected behaviour, or unfinished features may occur. Data is safe — BETA applies only to the interface and functionality.

Where to report a bug? Use the contact form and describe:

• what you were doing
• what happened
• what you expected

A screenshot or a link to the specific record also helps. Every reported issue helps improve the system.

This is a hobby project born out of a personal interest in genealogy and the history of Slovak municipalities. The goal is to make historical census records accessible to the general public and to simplify the search for ancestors.

The project is self-funded. If the system has been helpful to you and you'd like to support it, donations are welcome — they help cover hosting costs and further development.

More information on how to help financially or professionally can be found on the Support the project page.

Yes. The database contains historical records of persons that are part of the public archival heritage. Details are provided in the Privacy Policy.