In the Czech Republic the best source of ancestral records are Church Book Records. Here is what you need to know to access the Church Books and find your ancestors.
1. Forget about a quick look up! The Czech Records are only now being digitalized. There is no or very little indexing. First you should know of the location of you ancestor. The Czech Republic is divided into 8 regions that manage the Church Book Records. Log into Genealogie.cz and select the region your ancestors are from. Don't forget you can view the pages in English!
2. The Region websites are not all the same but they are similar enough to orient yourself easily in any of them. Search by 'Place'. If your place doesn't show up there are 3 possible reasons: it is misspelled; you are in the wrong region; or the location is registered under another, perhaps larger, village or town.
3. The search results are organized by abbreviations (N birth, M marriage, Z deceased, I index), year range and location name and book numbers/volume. Select the one you are interested in and click and the book icon. Here you are!
4. At this point 2 things can make your search much much easier. First if the book is indexed and typically at the end of the book you will find the names & years and the pages the records are written on. Second is if you know the date (of birth, marriage or death) then you can navigate the the page of interest.
5. The Church Books are typically written in these languages: Czech, German & Svabach and Latin. Some are written in such a bad handwriting that it really doesn't matter what language it is in anymore. Of course the older it is, the poorer quality it will be.
6. Going through the Czech Church Books takes a lot of time and patience but it can be done! If you have questions or need help just let me know!
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