There are many reasons why Czechs decided to immigrate. The year of immigration could give you some important clues. Early immigration (1850-1900) is usually about the desire to farm and own one’s land. Serfdom and Manors existed in the Czech lands until 1848. Even after that, land ownership was restricted to certain classes. It was…
Month: October 2013
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…
What is a “Jmoril”? Answer: “inweib”
Update: A very kind fellow Czech researcher emailed me with a transcription of the word I didn’t understand. I feel kind of depressed that I only got one letter out of six correct on that word. But I am humble enough to admit I made a mistake, correct it, and allow others to learn from the whole…
Illegitimacy in Catholic Czech Records: Different Types
If someone is born out of wedlock, they are illegitimate. But what does this mean? What is the process of legitimizing the child? And why would it be important to do so? What I have learned mostly comes from the New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia on their pages about legitimation and illegitimacy. Basically, if a child is born out…
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…
Maps of Boundary Changes in the Czech Lands
Today I had an associate ask me: “Yesterday we had a man come into the FHC helping a friend on his research. I’m not sure if Ron will be coming back for further research on this family or not. Anyway, on the 1940 census, the family’s country of origin was Czechoslovakia, earlier censuses Austria…