I knew that 19th-mid 20th century Catholic cemeteries (and perhaps some modern ones too?) had stringent rules about who was allowed to be buried there. My friend from West, Texas (a predominately Czech community) pointed out something to me that was really interesting. In her own words: As I have traversed through many cemeteries over…
Author: Kate Challis
Beide von hier
Here is a phrase that I ran into recently in the parish registers. I kept wondering, “What the heck? I keep seeing h-i-e-r in the place where the village name is supposed to be. But on a different record, this guy was from the same town, Zábřeh. Did he suddenly move?” Uh, no. “hier” is…
You should translate the notes!
Yesterday, Blanka Lednícka wrote an excellent blog post about marriage notes in Czech Parish registers. She proved to me that the notes that sometimes are included in marriage registers should not be overlooked. They may contain valuable information about marriage banns, birth certificates, or church dispensations. I admit, I am guilty of frequently overlooking this…
Soapbox: Genealogy Guilt is Stupid
I’m a family history consultant in my ward. I come in contact with a lot of people who have “Genealogy Guilt.” It is annoying, and needs to stop. It is stupid. One of the goals of the Latter-day Saint (Mormon) church is to redeem the dead. This means you first need to find them. Mixing genealogy research…
Interesting Data Mining from old Czech Records
I read a really interesting post over at Lukáš Svoboda’s blog the other day that really helped me to think about my Czech ancestors in a different way. Using various land records, he made a list of all of the residents of the town of Zlonice (okres Kladno) and their professions. What he found was…
I found a military man!
I found a Czech ancestor in the military the other day! This is exciting because everybody else was a farmer! Here is the FamilySearch wiki page for doing Czech military research. This is where I will start in my search for him.
Wordless Wednesday: Postcard in Czech to my great grandma Betty Vasicek (Elizabeth Agnes Michna) from the Czech Republic
Czech Immigration Routes to Texas: Bremen to Galveston 1880-1886
If you are interested in immigration routes that Germans and Czechs took to Texas, you should read the article, “German and Czech Immigration to Texas: The Bremen to Galveston Route, 1880-1886” by Lawrence H. Konecny and Clinton Machann. The most useful part of this article is a table that lists all the vessels with immigrants…
Texas Czechs Adopted Orphan Train Riders
Tonight I discovered that my 3rd great uncle adopted two children who were born in New York. This probably means the children were from an orphan train. My 3rd great uncle and his wife were Czech immigrants from Vítkovice who farmed in Fayette and Fort Bend counties. There are 10 years age difference between their…
Church Record Sunday: “Defecit a fide” Stamp
I found a really interesting parish record the other day for Czech town of Vítkovice. Here is a direct link. Here is an image of the whole record. And here is a close up of what I found so interesting: It is a stamp that says: “Defecit a fide,manet sine confessione.Regimen distr.deto [date?] ___________________” This…