Danny and I will go to the Czech Republic for the first time ever in a little less than a month. I’m very excited, and of course I’m trying to plan my trip in a way that lets me also do genealogical research! Although, I’m starting to think that I might need to return to the Czech Republic many, many times in order to actually make any breakthroughs, especially for my Vratimovers.
The thing is, I have known for years about rumors that the missing Vratimov records (1785-1834!) might be in Poland. I’ve tried emailing them in the past and gotten no response. I don’t speak a single word of Polish, but hey, I don’t speak that much Czech either, and that hasn’t stopped me before. Since we are going to be so close anyway, maybe we will just have to venture across the border?
I found where we would need to go, which is the Archdiocesan Archives of Wroclaw. I think that this is the website: http://www.muzeum.archidiecezja.wroc.pl/
“I also ran into a similar matrix hole for the years 1785-1834 for the municipality Vratimov, Great Kunčice, Řepiště, Rakovec, Vinohrady (village near Ostrava). I have the luck that most of my ancestors placatila at that time in this area. Although I’ve replaced the Terriers, marriage contracts and inheritance proceedings. But even so, they would much those registers Illustrated. Mine registers could perhaps be said in the diocesan archives in Wroclaw, but from what I’ve read so perhaps they can not find my mail and relevant venerable sister registrar does not respond. That would have had at that time rightly be two copies of the registries and copies to the diocese, I can not believe that nothing is preserved.”
I, too, cannot believe that nothing is preserved for this “black hole” in my research. Maybe I just have to go to this archives and try to find it.
Kate, does your Vasicek family have any connections to any Golka/Golik family? I suspect that my great-great grandmother, Mariana Golka/Golik Stavinoha was from Vratimov or a nearby village, but haven't had any success in finding her in the records. I have DNA matches to people who have Vasiceks from Vratimov in their ancestry and I have tried tracing that family back to see if I can find a connection, but haven't had any success yet with that tactic. Any information that you can provide would be greatly appreciated!
Nancy Schmidt
lilladybug979 at yahoo dot com
Hi Nancy! So, I actually translated a Golik marriage document for my BCG application. This document was the contract between Josef Golik and Susanna Janik, dated 16 october 1822. I am going to send it to you via email. Have you looked at the parish records yet and not been able to find her? I know the gap is 1785-1834, which is enormous, but if it's just your great great grandmother, then I'm guessing she was born after that gap.
I have a finding aid that might help you a lot. The record that is on vademecum is actually a copy of the original register, a "bishop's transcript" if you will. It has no index and is like 800 or 900 something pages long (!!), with births, deaths, and marriages for Vratimov, Gross Kunzendorf aka Velké Kunčice aka Kunčice nad Ostravici, Řepiště, and a couple other towns in that area whose names escape me at the moment, for the years 1835-1895. My cousin and I (mostly my cousin) have created a page number index, which greatly helps speed up trying to read through this register. Do you want a copy of that too?
And by "the record" I mean "the parish register substitute that is most likely to contain the record for Marianna Golik Stavinoha."