Yesterday I posted about Czech Orphan books. I posted an example of an entry from an orphan book and said I would post a transcription later. Instead of a word-for-word transcription, which is really time consuming, I decided instead to walk you through the actual process of deciphering the words and figuring out the document…
Category: Transcription Tips
Step by step transcription of interchangeable letters.
When analyzing old Czech records, expect certain letters to be interchangeable. For example, there wasn’t a distinction between v and w. I have heard Texas Czechs from my grandpa’s generation say, “Vesele Walentine’s day.” Here is an example of a text that uses j, ý, y, i, and í almost interchangeably. This is from a…
Czech Handwriting Transcription Test 1 ANSWERS
Here are the answers to yesterday’s transcription test. Note how there actually are some major differences in the “answers” copy. Names and words were Latin-ized. So I will give you the answer to the original. 1. Mičhal Leičht Michael Leicht 2. Waczlaw Majer Venceslaus Mayer 3.Ondřej Reidl Andreas Reidl 4. Jakob…
Czech Handwriting Transcription Test 1
I found something really awesome on actapublica.eu: two registers that had identical information, but their legibility varied drastically. Why would two parish registers have identical information? One of the registers was the original, and the other was a copy, sort of like the Czech Catholic equivalent to bishop’s transcripts in England. The copy was made…
S and Š names might be indexed separately
Organization of Czech parish records was up to the individual enumerator. This means that there are inconsistencies in how these records are organized and indexed. Present day Czech researchers can easily find themselves frustrated by the seeming lack of organization. Fortunately, careful observation and application of knowledge about Czech linguistics can help researchers use indexes…
Czech Parish Records – Latin transcription example
Czech parish records are found in Latin, German, Czech, and strangely mixed versions of any or all of the above. I recently did some transcriptions for a client from Latin, circa 1750. It was very fun, and I wanted to blog about the process, so I picked a record that was very similar those I…
Czech Cursive Handwriting Examples from 1600-1935
My cousin in Řepiště shared two extremely useful PDF documents with me. They have handwriting examples in Czech script and how it has changed through the years. These are especially useful in Czech research when dealing with letters with hačeks. There are many German current script examples floating around the internet, but far fewer Czech…
Czech Land Record Transcription Process
I want to publicly pat myself on the back for correctly transcribing and translating page one (of two) of a 1799 Czech land record written in German current script, in Czech. This record is like a cross between a deed and a will; it has lots of information about the land, and who was going…