My brother found a discrepancy in a Texas death record and wanted for us to research it further. So we spent the afternoon together researching this ancillary Czech line of ours. How are they related to us? Anton Černoch married Filomena Kobersky. Filomena Kobersky is the daughter of Anton Koberský and Marianna Vašíčková. Notice that…
Želary
Last night I watched the 2003 Czech film Želary. I wanted to write about it here because of how it added to my background knowledge and understanding of my ancestors. Spoiler alert! Would I recommend this film? Yes, but with a big warning: it is really graphic and violent. I am sure that the language…
Czech archives catalogs are hard for me to search!
Why is it so difficult for me to search the various Czech Archives’ catalogs? My husband and I are planning our itinerary for our second trip to the Czech Republic this fall, and of course it largely revolves around the archives and when they are open. Now that I realize what a small percentage of…
Church Record Sunday: Velké Heraltice 1737, pálení čarodějnic, “I’m not a witch, I’m your wife!”
Today is pálení čarodějnic in the Czech Republic. It is a holiday for celebrating…witch burning. Whereas in the United States, the only time of the year that we really think about witches, broomsticks, and spooky stories told around campfires is at the end of October with Halloween, in the Czech world on the evening of April…
Tuesday’s Tip: Backwards Searches using Národní archiv site badatelna.eu!
How do you do a backwards search from a badatelna.eu link? Recently I have been using www.badatelna.eu for some client research. This is the website for the National Archives of the Czech Republic, aka Nárdoní archiv. Sometimes, you end up with a link to an image. I was trying desperately to figure out the book…
Gender, the temple, and another reason to learn some Czech
In order to do proxy temple work for your ancestors, you need four things: a name, a date, a place, and a gender. This last category is because people who stand as proxy are either women or men. After I first went through the temple for my own endowment and started doing it by proxy…
Watch out for that final a!
I was doing some research for my own Frenštát ancestors. Here is a link to this 26 April 1784 birth. A very quick glance with my tired eyes, and at first I saw, “Johann Chodurin.” I should have noticed three things: 1. There is a third little nožičky – what looks like a final “n” is…
Church Record Sunday: Holešov, 1650’s Pythagorean Theorem
This goes on for several pages. I wonder what the story is behind this. I also wonder about the person keeping these records. Perhaps being a clergyman was not his original dream… Loading…
Church Record Sunday: Drahonice, 1883, “Ohhhhh…byslov…!”
Can you pinpoint this place on a map? I’ll admit, it took me a long time. Loading…
Why Czech Matters: Part I
If it seems I’ve fallen off the face of the earth (or…blogosphere), there are a few good reasons why. First, I went to this crazy huge conference called RootsTech. It was awesome. And after being gone for a week, my email inbox was like…a mountain. There were so many things to do when I got…