An attempt at describing the cadastral records that Austrian authorities made. The presentation will start with the times of early land surveying (pre-1785), move on to Josephinian and Franciscan land surveys (1785 – 1789 and 1819-1820, respectively) and, last but not least, include the information about Galician landowner census (1844 – 1854), the results of which are particularly helpful in tracing one's ancestors.