Often times in the old Czech parish registers, illegitimate births were recorded right alongside legitimate births. But, sometimes they aren’t. For example, in the parish book “Merklín 03” on actapublica.eu, the births go from 1736-1770, and then at the end is a small section of pages of births of illegitimate children from 1769-1771. http://actapublica.eu/matriky/plzen/prohlizec/5646/?strana=162 So…
Czech Cadastral Maps
Maps are awesome. Czech cadastral maps are available online at this website: http://archivnimapy.cuzk.cz/ >> click “stabilní katastr” (the box that is on the top row all the way to the left) >> Click the arrow just to the right of the drop-down menu that says “vyhledat” (“search” in Czech) >> Select “Názvy – Geonames Česká…
S and Š names might be indexed separately
Organization of Czech parish records was up to the individual enumerator. This means that there are inconsistencies in how these records are organized and indexed. Present day Czech researchers can easily find themselves frustrated by the seeming lack of organization. Fortunately, careful observation and application of knowledge about Czech linguistics can help researchers use indexes…
Zinger by Orson Hyde
This is not related to Czech genealogy in any way whatsoever, but it’s interesting! I am doing some interesting research on my Mormon ancestors who lived in Iowa. One of them operated the south of the Platte river ferry route for at least 6 months in approximately 1849-1850. I have been looking for clues about…
Follow Friday: Judy Nelson
I’ve started participating in geneabloggers. Sometimes I will be participating in the daily blog prompt. Today is “Follow Friday” where I get to recommend another genealogy blogger, a specific blog post, a genealogy website or a genealogy resource.Today I would like to introduce my colleague Judy Nelson. She is a fellow Czech researcher, also located in Iowa….
Czech Privacy Laws
Every locality has variations in privacy laws that affect which genealogical records you can access and which remain forbidden. My 5th cousin in Řepiště was kind enough to help me understand Czech privacy laws. I thought I would share what I learned. Keep in mind that I am not a legal authority or expert, etc….
Nachdem Vatters todt gebohren
I am really glad I crowd-sourced this problem! I believe the mystery of the middle word is now solved. Thank you, father in law of my sister (what is that relationship called!?). Thank you also to Yvette Hoitink, of Dutch Genealogy (a really great blog! Go Czech it out!). It appears that the middle word…
Nachdem ______ todtgebohren
This question has been solved! See this post. http://vademecum.archives.cz/vademecum/permalink?xid=be85e76c-f13c-102f-8255-0050568c0263&scan=132 I found an interesting and sad baptism entry while doing some research for my own family. I wish I could share a cropped image of this on my blog, but vademecum.archives.cz specifically says, “Publishing of any textual or visual part of this database is subjected to…
Reasons why Czechs immigrated to the United States between 1850-1930
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…
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…