Inspired by my friend’s post here, who was inspired by familysearch’s post here…
- You are excited when you learn that your ancestors came from a small city, rather than a tiny village, because there are more records to look at. 1225 pages in a land register, woohoo! Yesss!
- You curse the clerk who, though he did manage to write an index, for unknown reasons wrote it alphabetical by year…
- You always breathe a sigh of relief when you see the words: “pouze indexy: ano.” (even if it’s a terrible one – even if it’s alphabetical by first name!)
- Three computer screens are a necessity: one for the original image, one for your transcription, and one for google translate. (and even still, you suffer from “too many tabs” syndrome)
- You use Google chrome browser’s right click – “Translate to English” constantly – but never have the site automatically translate.
- And you never use the website’s built in “English” function, because the content shrinks by 75%.
- You have ever snuck away from a movie (or the Olympics) to work on transcriptions
- You have ever seen your friends or family’s eyes visibly glaze over in boredom as you try to explain to them what you’ve discovered about the potash industry, bleaching linen, “caroling” obligations, do kouta (“cornering”) after birth, výměnek obligations, etc.
- While canning pears, you crack yourself up by comparing what you’re doing to your ancestor’s manorial obligation, “She preserves fruit for her husband and children, same as other housewives, for the required time, for free.” bahaha that is still funny.
- You spent hours trying to find a toponymic place on multiple old and new maps.
- You know what toponymic means.
- You know when St. George’s feast day is.
- You mix up the letters b and k.
- When you went to the Czech Republic, you had more fun in the Opava archives – Olomouc branch than in Prague (despite being sick from 10 days worth of eating dumplings and then hiking Lisa Horá).
- And you never confuse Lisa Horá with Bila Horá.
- One parish record can take you back four generations!