House numbers in the Czech lands are great. But they were not a thing until the 1770s/1780’s. And not all of our ancestors were the “knedlíky” kind. If you have ever eaten dumplings before, you know exactly what I’m talking about. They sit in your stomach forever, like bricks. Well, it’s nice when ancestors are…
Category: Czech Research Tips
Gender, the temple, and another reason to learn some Czech
In order to do proxy temple work for your ancestors, you need four things: a name, a date, a place, and a gender. This last category is because people who stand as proxy are either women or men. After I first went through the temple for my own endowment and started doing it by proxy…
Book Review: “Deciphering Handwriting in German Documents” by Roger P. Minert
This is an excellent book for anybody who is researching family who lived somewhere that was influenced by any iteration of German rule. So, basically almost all of Europe. The principles found in this book are really useful to anybody who studies archaic paleography of any kind. Minert takes the reader through a concise history…
Mappy Monday: Finding House Numbers on Mapy.cz
I found an interesting article about House Numbering on wikipedia, with a whole section for Czech House Numbers. There are currently at least three kinds of house numbering in the Czech Republic: Popisné číslo – This is the “old” or “descriptive number.” Maria Theresa ordered the first descriptive numbering in 1770-1771. According to the article, “The…
Can you get Czech Records that have not been digitized but are old enough to be made publicly available?
My Czech cousin answered a question I have had for a very, very long time. I thought it would be good to post this for others who may be wondering the same thing. Privacy laws in the Czech Republic limit public viewing of records to those older than 100 years for birth records, older than 75…
Velkostatek: the Estate
The Czech word for “Estate” is Velkostatek. According to Wikipedia (as translated from Czech to English by Google translate):“The estate is the name for a farm with an area greater than 100 ha [ha = hectares. 100 hectares = ~247 acres] agricultural area. In the history of this term also denoted a feudal estate . In the Middle Ages, and especially in the early modern…
What day of the week were your ancestors married?
I recently read a fascinating post over at one of my favorite blogs, Czech Genealogy for Beginners. You really should read the whole post, because it is quite interesting. Blanka Lednicka is the author if this blog. She wrote:If you take careful look on the wedding dates and you translate them into days, you’ll find…
Czech Privacy Laws
Every locality has variations in privacy laws that affect which genealogical records you can access and which remain forbidden. My 5th cousin in Řepiště was kind enough to help me understand Czech privacy laws. I thought I would share what I learned. Keep in mind that I am not a legal authority or expert, etc….
Why should you look for village of origin records in the country of arrival?
So, you have a vague clue about a village of origin, say in the village “Hradiště.” You look up Hradiště on the Czech Parish finder and discover that there are over 20 different places with this name. But you don’t know which Hradiště is your Hradiště. Since so many of the Czech parish records are available online now, should…
Search for records in the bride’s home village
I have recently been doing research on some Klečka ancestors. I solved a problem using some basic knowledge about Czech customs in family migration. Here are two general pieces of knowledge that I have discovered in my experience researching my Catholic Czech ancestors. 1. Marriages often took place in the village of the bride. 2….