Updated! All Czech archives are publishing the registries (parish books) online nowadays. The first archives to start was the State Regional Archives in Trebon in 2008 and was followed by the other archives during the following years. Not all registries are available yet, but they should be available in few years time. Here are the links to the digital archives (with comments).
To determine which archive you need, you need to find out where was the village of your ancestors located - you may use http://www.mapy.cz and/or gazetteer on https://www.genteam.at/ (you need registration, but it's for free), but sometimes there are more villages of the same name or it was renamed, so feel free to ask in our FB group or contact us in the message board below.
Prague City Archives: http://www.ahmp.cz/katalog/
Available partially in English, the Inner Prague has quite many parish books online, outer Prague only some of them. As the website is not whole in English, I'll prepare step-by-step guide how to find the registries (I hope it will not take me long time to do so).
State Regional Archives in Prague: http://ebadatelna.soapraha.cz
New system of Prague regional archives (covering Central Bohemia) is in place from May 2014. This system is available in English and provides very comfortable browsing through the registries. Let's hope there will be more sources available in future.
New system of Prague regional archives (covering Central Bohemia) is in place from May 2014. This system is available in English and provides very comfortable browsing through the registries. Let's hope there will be more sources available in future.
Moravian Land Archives in Brno: https://www.mza.cz/actapublica/matrika/hledani_obec
You may use our guide to this website.
State Regional Archives in Litomerice: http://matriky.soalitomerice.cz/matriky_lite/
Available in English (however the description of the parish books is in Czech). You need to know what means which word and so on, so I'm preparing a small dictionary of words used in Czech archives.
State Regional Archives in Pilsen: http://www.portafontium.eu
Quite new application available in Czech and German language. Not only registries (parish books) are available there but also municipal chronicles and (if you are lucky) photos from villages and towns in Western Bohemia.
Note: Pilsen archives previously had registries in ActaPublica system but left it in the beginning of 2014.
State Regional Archives in Pilsen: http://www.portafontium.eu
Quite new application available in Czech and German language. Not only registries (parish books) are available there but also municipal chronicles and (if you are lucky) photos from villages and towns in Western Bohemia.
Note: Pilsen archives previously had registries in ActaPublica system but left it in the beginning of 2014.
State Regional Archives in Trebon: http://digi.ceskearchivy.cz/
Fully available in English. Definitely the most user-friendly website, offers not only registries, but also censuses, chronicles and much more.
State Regional Archives in Zamrsk: http://vychodoceskearchivy.cz/zamrsk/matriky/
Well, well, well... This is a bit more complicated. The registries are not available to be browsed online, you have to download them to your computer in zip file, unzip them to your local folder and then browse. So you should be sure that the registry you are downloading is the one you really want. A bit complicated, right? We have a guide that may help you.
Land Archives in Opava: http://matriky.archives.cz/matriky_lite/
It has the same system as archives in Litomerice. It is in English, but the descriptions are in Czech. Again, small dictionary will help. Let's hope it will not take me a lot of time to prepare it.
National Archives - Jewish registries: http://www.badatelna.cz
Quite new website containing Jewist registries from our area. It's a bit more complicated so I've decided to prepare a separate blog post. Hopefully coming soon.
Last, but not least: FamilySearch.org
National Archives - Jewish registries: http://www.badatelna.cz
Quite new website containing Jewist registries from our area. It's a bit more complicated so I've decided to prepare a separate blog post. Hopefully coming soon.
Last, but not least: FamilySearch.org
FamilySearch provides number of materials from the Czech Republic. The link above leads you directly to those materials which are available for our country. Website partially covers those archives which signed a contract with FamilySearch - Litomerice, Opava, Trebon and Zamrsk. It contains not only parish books, but also censuses (yay!), land records and so on.
Please remember: not all parish books are available online yet. It can happen that you will not find what you are searching for and you'll have to wait until the archives publish it.
The Trebon online archive is so beautiful. Yes, I need the matriky, but having the maps and gazetteer and all of that local background information online is SO helpful to understand how it all fits together. I love how you can sign in and then print out a page if you need to really stare at it for a bit. I love how high quality the scans are. It's incredibly user friendly!
ReplyDeleteGood to have found this website. I'm from Brazil and I have researched a lot of Bohemian families through the Acta.Publica and the Family Search websites. Now I am trying to find where the parish records from Lomnice nad Popelkou are avaiable in. As I have seen, they are not avaiable yet. Am I right? Can you help me in this? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteYou are unfortunately right - Lomnice nad Popelkou is in Semily district which is administered by the archives in Zamrsk. And this district is not yet available online there. Hopefully next year.
DeleteNot yet? =). I saw that there are some updates in the Zamrsk archive website, but I still can't understand if there is something avaiable for on line research. There are references about .zip files, but I haven't found any of them. Thanks again.
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ReplyDeleteDear Blanka,
ReplyDeletewould you help me to find the Matriky, register for Volfirov? I would like to find my ggggg-grandfather Joseph Svoboda, was born about 1700. In which Archive should I search? Thank you for this excelennt homepage! greetings Eszter from Hungary
Hello Eszter, Volfirov belongs under State Regional Archives in Třeboň, so you should check their website - prior to 1712 it should belong under Dačice parish.
DeleteFrom what I have seen, the parish registers of Semily are available on the "Family Search" site.
ReplyDeletehttps://familysearch.org/search/image/index#uri=https%3A%2F%2Ffamilysearch.org%2Frecapi%2Fsord%2Fwaypoint%2F3NC5-4WL%3A979674501%2C979809801%3Fcc%3D1804263
But I think they still have not provided all the records, have they?
I'm still looking for the records of Lomnice nad Popelkou. Records of Nová Ves nad Popelkou are online, but not the Lomnitz records.
I hit a dead end with ancestry and Fam Search sites
ReplyDeleteFound and took a chance on Trebon and Plzen archive sites and found some good ancestors. Thanks for the insight!!
Need some help reading script, I found myself hoping for neat handwriters!
I am searching for Jarmila Churlova from Pardubice. She would be my third cousin who I met when she visited my grandmother in the US.
ReplyDeleteI misspelled the last name, it should be Cuhlova.
DeleteAny idea when the Moravska Trebova census records will be digitized and put online? Apparently the Litoměřice archives began the digitization process but I wish there was a way of knowing how long that will take. I am very anxious to see those records!
ReplyDeleteI am looking for information on Simon and Maria Chmoust Kouba in early 1800s. Marlene, 5/9/2019
ReplyDelete