Litoměřice Regional Archives, Czechia Church Records

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Church books from the Litoměřice Regional Archives that cover the time period approximately 1552-1905 were digitized.

Go to: http://matriky.soalitomerice.cz/matriky_lite/

To enter the database click anywhere on the book image. You may choose the Czech, German or English language by clicking on the cs|en|de characters in the upper right corner. You do not need to use diacritics when searching for the locality.

Online lesson Using Online Czech Records: Regional Archives in Litomerice will teach you how to use the online record collection.

These records are also being posted gradually on the FamilySearch website. To access the database click here.

Records Description

Church books contain baptism (birth), marriage, and burial (death) information and are definitely the best source for identifying one’s relatives in the Czech Republic.

Entries are usually arranged in chronological order and, after 1784, in a columnar format. Sometimes, baptisms, marriages, and burials are kept all for all villages in a parish, for each year. Other times, each village has its own section of baptisms, marriages, and burials, listed chronologically. Some records are in preprinted forms. Most records include indexes. Czech church records are usually in one of three languages: Czech, German, or Latin.

While the books have been kept to the present, they are only available for research through 1905 because of privacy laws. The church books cover a majority of the population.

Records Content

Baptismal entries usually contain the following:


 * names of the child, parents, godparents, and sometimes grandparents
 * date and place of birth and baptism
 * residence and religion of the parents
 * whether the child was legitimate or illegitimate

Marriage entries usually contain the following:


 * names of the bride, groom, their parents, witnesses, and sometimes grandparents
 * date and place of marriage
 * residence and religion of the bride and groom
 * age, previous marital status, and occupation of bride and groom

Burial entries usually contain the following:


 * names of the deceased and spouse/parents
 * date and place of death and burial
 * residence and religion of the deceased
 * age and cause of death of the deceased

To read more about the records content click on the following link:

Czech Republic Church Books (FamilySearch Historical Records)

How to access the records online

Click on the following link to access digital images of the original parish records created by local priests of each parish:

Czech Republic Indexed Historical Records

Tutorial

Using Online Czech Records: State Regional Archives in Litomerice