CGSI's Conference 2019 researcher sessions

Yay! Another CGSI's Conference is coming! It will be held between 17th and 19th October 2019 and I'll be there as one of the speakers. I have already bought a plane ticket and I'll fly in on Monday Oct 14. 

I was already asked about a possibility of consultations and record reading sessions. I'm willing to do up to 10 one-hour sessions during my stay in Lincoln - from Tuesday Oct 15 to Sunday Oct 20. You'll get my time and expertise on any problem or any brickwall you have in your Czech (Bohemian, Moravian or Silesian) research. 

We can meet in Lincoln downtown (Tuesday and Wednesday, Sunday) or in the Marriott Cornhuster Hotel (Wednesday evening to Sunday morning).

If you are interested in the research session, send me an e-mail to blanka.lednicka@nase-koreny.cz.

See you in Lincoln!

Czechia or Czech Republic?

I had two encounters with this word lately and I think this topic also belongs here... :)

Knackers and knackeries

There is a number of trades that don't exist anymore in our modern world of Europe or Northern America. One of those trades is being a knacker - in Czech pohodný, ras, drnomistr or antoušek, in German Abdecker, Wasenmeister or Kaffiler, in Latin excoriator or canicida. There were many families in Bohemia and Moravia in the past which were in this trade...

"A Dead Horse on a Knacker's Cart", drawing by Thomas Rowlandson (1756–1827).

100 years old lady

Stoletá dáma (100 years old lady) is a name our republic was given this year. We celebrate 100 years from the creation of Czechoslovakia - and I use word "creation" because the Czechoslovak republic was more created than founded.

Czechoslovak republic in 1920.

Serfs register according to their faith from 1651

One of the oldest sources which covers most of Bohemia is the Serfs register according to their faith (soupis poddaných podle víry) which was created in 1651. It covers just Bohemia, not Moravia or Silesia. If your ancestors were from Bohemia, it is a wonderful source of information.

Specifics of records prior to 1784

Michaela wrote a huge post about the structure of the parish records, but there are some specifics worth mentioning in case of records prior to year 1784. Why this year? Because it was the year when parish books happened to become part of the official state administration even they were still administered by the church. A decree by the Emperor Joseph II. stated new structure of the records in 1784 so after this year all the records should contain the same information. Well, should - it took several years before this was fully in place.

One example of a record prior to 1784.

Guide to the Zámrsk archive website

The regional archive in Zámrsk has probably the most confusing system to access digitized materials of all Czech archives.

Area: In this archive are stored materials for North-East Bohemia and North-West Moravia. More precisely we are talking about areas of today Hradec Králové region (districts: Hradec Králové, Jičín, Náchod, Rychnov nad Kněžnou, Trutnov) and Pardubice region (districts: Chrudim, Pardubice, Svitavy, Ústí nad Orlicí), but as usual, there could be also areas from around borders of both regions (so from SOA Praha, SOA Třeboň, ZA Opava, MZA Brno) and vice versa.

Map of digitized parishes (and therefore of the area covered by Zámrsk materials.)