England Research can help Czech Research

If my husband wants to do genealogy research, he basically needs to become an expert in Northamptonshire, England – its history, repositories, available records, etc. Mostly we are concentrating on the early 1800’s and earlier. As we have worked together to start figuring this out, it has struck me that understanding manorial laws and customs in England definitely will help me understand Czech manorial laws and customs. Obviously, one should not assume that they are the same. However, I’m sure the systems were much more similar to each other than they are to the governmental system I live under here in the 21st Century United States!

I found a really excellent online class about the UK Census records located here. It really helped me to understand the record better – why it was made, who made it, and how it was made. I really think that a thorough understanding of the document itself is key to extracting information from the document.

I wish there were a similar free online lecture about Czech Census records. So far, most online courses for Czech research that are available on familysearch.org have to do with how to navigate Czech archival sites, which is really good information, too. I just hope that when a similar resource becomes available, it will at least be dubbed in English!