By Tracy A. Burns. English speakers in Prague can get acquainted with the highly praised plays about the fictional character Jára Cimrman, who was chosen the Greatest Czech in a survey in 2005 and who has greatly influenced Czech culture. The Cimrman English Theatre performs three of the Cimrman works in English – The Stand-In (Záskok), Conquest of the…
Cesta z Čech až na konec světa: část druhá
For the first part of this series, see část první here. If you don’t want to bother with that, the gist is that my husband and I are riding a time traveling bike across the Czech lands. We started in the geographical center of Europe in Kouřim and have not stopped since. On 3 May 1653…
The Good Soldier Švejk
This month for the Czech Book Club I read the first volume of “The Good Soldier Švejk and his Fortunes in the World War.” The entire book is divided into four volumes (Behind the Lines, At the Front, The Glorious Licking, The Glorious Licking Continued), each of which are some 150-200 pages long, so I…
SOA Třebon: How to use the “index” tab
SOA Třebon seems to be the pioneer in online Czech archives. I was extremely pleased to find a new helpful feature – new to me, at least. I am calling it the “index tab.” It turns out that it is also new for some people on the Czech Genealogy Facebook group, too, so here is…
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I’ve been thinking a lot about possibilities for the future. My recent trip to the Czech Republic basically re-exploded my brain with the possibilities for projects and my future in the Czech Genealogy world, which seems to be a recurring theme. I guess there’s nothing like travel to stimulate dreams. Instead of moving blindly ahead…
Tři Bratři Review
In case you did not already know this, Czechs are really into their fairy tales. In fact, ’tis the season to deck the halls – or at least the televisions – with cinematic adaptations of classic fairy tales. Remember, the Czech lands are literally the land of fairy tales, castles, knights, dragons… Of course we have also been watching…
Cesta z Čech až na konec světa: část první
And so we embarked on our voyage along the coasts of Bohemia, inspired by pan Lva z Rožmitálu. A rather difficult task, as this is a completely landlocked country. Those ponds you see everywhere? Man-made creations devised for irrigation and keeping carp fresh until Christmas. My friend lent me his time machine, and we could…
Jewish Gravestones in Kouřim Cemetery
On our recent trip to the Czech Republic we went to Kouřim. Fun fact: this is the location of the geographical center of Europe! Here we went to a cemetery to view some graves of my friend’s ancestors. In this cemetery there was a corner that was reserved only for Jews. I photographed every headstone…
Silesian Emigrant Ancestor Indexes 1879-1881, 1889
If your ancestors emigrated to America from the Czech lands in the second half of the 19th century, records of their emigration might exist in the local archives, in particular for those who left later. For example, here are Silesian applications for foreign emigration 1877-1879. Here are Silesian applications for foreign emigration 1880-1881. Here are…
Czech Birth Matrika Templates
A request was made on the Czech Genealogy Facebook group for a some templates for Czech matriky records. Here is my work in progress, which you may freely use. It is not complete. I welcome any additions and corrections. To add: anything from the 15th*-17th centuries, early 18th century, 20th century *It is not common…