Czechia Beginners Corner Finding Your Ancestor in the Records

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Before finding your ancestor in the records, you will need to know:


 * The actual name of an ancestor
 * The date of birth, marriage, and death (can be approximate)
 * The place of origin
 * The religion of an ancestor

Click here if you are missing any of the above listed information.

Find your ancestor in the records

The best sources of genealogical information in the Czech Republic are the church records kept by the local parishes. The Family History Library has microfilms of vital records from only a few German-speaking communities and a limited number of published census returns. Use the Family History Library Catalog to determine what records are available for the locality.

Presently, some Czech vital records are being digitized and being made available on the Internet. If the records you want are not available through the Family History Library they may be available through the individual Czech regional archives.

To find out which regional archive holds the records that you need go to http://www.ihff.at/indexstarte.htm. Click the gazetter and picture cards link on the left and then click continue link at the bottom of the page. When you know the respective archive, go to the Czech Republic portal page and check under the Research Tools if records are available.

Research by mail

However, most of the Czech family history research still requires that you write to the Czech Republic for genealogical records. Please refer to the Letter Writing Guide for detailed information. Remember to enclose photocopies of any old documents or mementos that you may have.