The Roman Catholic Parish of Zbečno (Zbečno, Raknovík, Czech Republic), Zbečno Deaths 1844-1869, digital image 49, page 46, first entry, Frančiscuš [Černy] entry, 18 December 1856; “Zbečno 08”, State Regional Archives of Prague (SOA Praha), Praha, Czech Republic; SOA Praha, Acta Publica (http://actapublica.eu/matriky/praha/prohlizec/8853/?strana=49 : accessed 13 December 2013). Rok, měsíc a den narozeni a křtu…
Author: Kate Challis
Surname Saturday: “Kreczmarska”
This post is about the surname “Kreczmarska”, otherwise known as Krečmar. My fourth great grandmother was Anna “Kreczmarska”. This is the spelling variation that was in the records my dad gave to me when I first started doing genealogy. This spelling is probably based off information found in the book, “A History of the Sumbera,…
Excerpt from “Bohemia and the Čechs” that discusses land ownership
Here is a really interesting excerpt from the book Bohemia and the Čechs, the History, People, Institutions, and the Geography of the Kingdom, Together with Accounts of Moravia and Silesia, by Will Seymour Monroe. This book was published in 1910. I have found it a fascinating read, especially from my vantage point in history. There…
My Human Context for Austerlitz
I disliked “History” as a subject yet love Family History. I was reminded of why this is yesterday while doing some research on Austerlitz. In most of my High School/College History classes, there was a huge focus on political movements, aka wars. And I could never keep them all straight in my mind, because there were…
Mappy Monday: Finding House Numbers on Mapy.cz
I found an interesting article about House Numbering on wikipedia, with a whole section for Czech House Numbers. There are currently at least three kinds of house numbering in the Czech Republic: Popisné číslo – This is the “old” or “descriptive number.” Maria Theresa ordered the first descriptive numbering in 1770-1771. According to the article, “The…
Church Record Sunday: Valentin Folta’s birth record
In keeping with yesterday’s surname theme, I decided to do a transcription of Katařina Folta’s father, Valentinus. You can find his birth record here. Born/baptized on 8 February [1799][Clergy who baptized him:] Christianus Wayn, coop [this is an abbreviation for some sort of clergyman]house # 8 Vítkovicename: ValentinusMale, Catholic, LegitimateFather: Wenzel Folta, bauer [farmer]Mother: Theresia…
Surname Saturday: Folta
As part of geneablogger’s Surname Saturday prompt, I have decided to start a series in which I post a little bit about each of my Czech ancestral surnames. I decided to start with my 4th great grandmother, Kathařina Folta. Folta is a fairly common surname in the Czech Republic today, as you can tell from the…
Follow Friday: Carl Linert’s Czech Land Record Research Tips
Hey everybody! Today I would like to spotlight a fellow Czech Genealogist named Carl Linert. He doesn’t do social media, but is very involved in online Czech genealogy forums. He both answers and asks very pertinent questions, most notably about Czech Land Records (for example, this thread). I have come across his name dozens of time in…
Kolaches
Today I made a ton of bread and kolaches. Technically these are klobasnik, but in Texas Czech culture, they are called kolaches. Aka pig in there blanket. I used whole wheat flour. It is definitely not as silky delicious as a traditional kolache dough, but healthier and still very, very tasty. The sausage was from…
Step by step transcription of interchangeable letters.
When analyzing old Czech records, expect certain letters to be interchangeable. For example, there wasn’t a distinction between v and w. I have heard Texas Czechs from my grandpa’s generation say, “Vesele Walentine’s day.” Here is an example of a text that uses j, ý, y, i, and í almost interchangeably. This is from a…