GuidedResearch:Why Can't I Find the Record - Czechia Births

This page will give you additional guidance and resources to find birth information for your ancestor. Use this page after first completing the birth section of the Czechia Guided Research page.

Additional Databases and Online Resources

 * 1552-1948:  Czech Republic, Church Books  at Ancestry ($); Also at MyHeritage ($)
 * 1637-1889:  Czech Republic, Select Births and Baptisms  at Ancestry ($); Also at MyHeritage ($)

Images Only (Browsable Images)
Some collections may not yet be completely indexed, but are available to browse image by image.

Additional Records with Birth Information
Substitute records may contain information about more than one event and are used when records for an event are not available. Records that are used to substitute for birth events may not have been created at the time of the birth. The accuracy of the record is contingent upon when the information was recorded. Search for information in multiple substitute records to confirm the accuracy of these records.

Virtual Genealogy Consultations
Schedule a free online consultation with a research specialist:

Ask the Community
Select a community research group where you can ask questions and receive free genealogy help.

Tips for finding births
Successfully finding birth records in online databases depends on a few key points. Try the following search suggestions:
 * An individual's name may be listed in Czech, German, or Latin in different records. For example: Vojtěch, Albrecht, and Adalbertus, respectively. Find and search by your ancestor's equivalent name in the other languages.
 * At marriage, the bride typically adopts the bridegroom's surname. After marriage, adapt your searching for women to include the new surname.
 * Your ancestor’s name and surname may have had different spelling variations, or indexing mistakes in indexed collections.
 * If you are not finding what you’re looking for, try using wildcard characters. That is, use an asterisk * to replace one or more characters.
 * You do not always need to search using Czech diacritics.
 * Try searching surrounding areas. Your ancestors may have been born in another town than where they lived later in life.
 * Be flexible with year searches. Give a year range of about 2-3 years on either side of the believed year of the event.

Known Record Gaps
Records Start The Roman Catholic Church began requiring birth and marriage registers to be kept in 1563, but the earliest surviving records date to the 1590s. Death records required death registers to be kept in 1614, but they were not widely kept until 1620. Non-Catholic churches were allowed to keep separate records in 1781. Records Published by FamilySearch Collection coverage tables show the places and time periods of original records published by FamilySearch. For any FamilySearch collections you did not find your ancestor in, check the coverage table for gaps in the online collection. If the time period or location your ancestor lived in is missing from the collection, it may require searches in records found at original repository or finding substitute records for the event.

Records Destroyed Some church records in the 1500s may exist, but the majority of the records were destroyed during the Thirty Years War (1618-1648). Records kept during and before this time period may or may not have survived.
 * Czech Republic Births and Baptisms (FamilySearch)