Czechia Church Records

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Church Records [církevní matriky]
Church Records refer to the records of births/christenings, marriages, and deaths/burials recorded by clergy. There are fragments of church records fragments from the Czech Republic dating from 1441, but the earliest intact registers date from the 1590s. Catholic parishes in Europe were first required to record baptisms and marriages in 1563 by order of the Council of Trent. The requirement to record deaths was introduced in 1614. It took several years before the practice was established in the Czech lands where most preserved registers start after 1620. A new format for the records was introduced in 1771. Because of religious intolerance within the Austrian Empire, the only legally recognized church registers were Catholic registers until 1781 when the Toleration Patent was issued. After 1784 the keeping of church registers was required by law for all religions, but under Catholic supervision. Duplicates of church registers [druhopisy] were made for civil purposes starting in the 1790s. Protestant church registers were recognized as legal records without Catholic supervision in 1840.

Contents:


 * Christening registers – infant's name, name and surname of father and mother, christening date (most also give the birth date); sometimes names of grandparents; names of godparents.
 * Marriage registers – names of groom and bride, date of marriage, often include ages, residences, occupations, previous marital status, names of parents, sometimes the birthplace; names of witnesses.
 * Burial registers–name of the deceased, date and place of death and burial, residence; sometimes cause of death, names of survivors, occasionally the date and place of birth.

Location: In December of 1949, all church vital records prior to civil registration (1895) were declared state property. In 1952 the state began centralizing all these records into state regional archives [státní oblastní archívy]. In many cases records as late as the 1940s have been placed in state regional archives. Registers more recent than those in the state regional archives are still at local city or subdistrict registration offices [matriční úřady].

Research Use: These records are the prime source for information about the vital events in an individual's life. This information can be used to compile pedigrees and family groups and to perform temple ordinances. They identify children, spouses, parents, and often grandparents as well as dates and places of vital events. They establish individual identity and are excellent sources for linking generations and identifying relationships.

Accessibility: Presently, Czech church registers are accessible to those who hire a private researcher to visit the archives for them or who can visit the archives in the Czech Republic themselves and research the records in person. In 2006, several Czech archives agreed with the Genealogical Society of Utah to begin a project digitally imaging church records. Thus far, only a few of the church records from the archive in Litoměřice are available to researchers. Some church records from the archive in Třeboň are also available.