Brno Moravian Provincial Archives, Czechia Church Records

Back to Czechia Page► Back to Brno Moravian Land Archives► Brno Moravian Land Archives Church Records

Step-by-Step Instructions
Illustrated instructions are available in the FAQ section of the website. You must initially register for free at Acta Publica: New user account

1. Go to: Acta Publica: Moravském zemském archivu v Brně (Moravian Provincial Archive in Brno). 2. In the upper left corner, choose English, Czech, or German language. In the upper right corner, click on the Search symbol (magnizying glass on the left. This brings up all search options. 3. Here is the most commonly used search option: The first field of the search page will be labeled "Der Name des Dorfes"(German), "Návez obce" (Czech), or "The name of the city"(English). Here you will enter the name of the town or parish you wish to study.
 * This will be the name of the Catholic or other religious parish which held jurisdiction over your ancestors' home town. It is occasionally in a different, nearby town. To determine that parish, use the GenTeam Free Gazetteer.
 * [[Media:1-Genteam_Gazetteer-Instruction.pdf|GenTeam Instructions]].
 * Also, by entering a partial spelling of town, you will generate a drop-down menu of locations containing those letters, from which you can select a desired town.

4. Next, click on the "Search" button at the far right: "Suche"(German), "Vyhledat" (Czech), or "Search"(English). 5. Subsequently, you are shown a list of all the available registers which contain records of births, marriages, deaths for the searched locality. Each line of the list shows the available years in one of the columns. The column shows the type of record. Column titles:
 * Narození or Geborene--births/baptisms
 * Oddaní or Getraute--marriages
 * Zemřelí or Gestorbene--burials/deaths

6. If the register contains an index, this fact is indicated by the time span on the second line, written in italics. 7. When you see the record you wish to search,  click on the button at the far right:  "Anziege"(German), "Zobrazit" (Czech), or "Show"(English). This takes you to the digitized images. If you do not see a button, the images are not yet available. 8. To work with the digitizer itself, you can use tools to enlarge the image to full screen size, reduce it again (house symbol), rotate the image, move the image, or enlarge and reduce it.

A second search option: The second search field gives a different option of first sorting the type of record by "originator"--a specific religion or the government, followed by the parish name: "Wählen Sie den Urheber Typ"(German), "Typ pudvoce" (Czech), or "Originator name"(English).
 * A drop-down menu gives originator options to select. By clicking on the up and down arrows in the field, you will generate a drop-down list of different originators.
 * Originator Translations:
 * českobratrská církev evangelická—Czech Brethren Evangelical Church
 * československá církev—Czechoslovak Church
 * civilní matriky (okresní národní výbor, dříve c.k. okresní hejtmanství a okresní správa politická)—civil registries (district national committee, formerly c.k. district governor's office and district political administration)
 * Jednota baptistů—Baptist Unity
 * Jednota bratrsk—The Unity of Brethren
 * Milosrdní bratři—Merciful Brothers
 * německá evangelická církev—German Evangelical Church
 * německé vojenské matriky—German military registries
 * německý stavovský  úředník—German civil servant orthodox chyrch
 * pravoslavná církev—Greek Catholic Church
 * řeckokatolická církev—Roman Catholic Church
 * řimskokatolickácírkev—Roman Catholic Church
 * starokatolická církev—Old Catholic Church
 * After selecting the originator, enter the town name in the next field (see #3 above).

Parish Registers and the Information They Contain
'''Parish registers contain baptism (birth), marriage, and burial (death) information and are definitely the best source for identifying one’s relatives in the Czech Republic. '''

Sometimes, baptisms, marriages, and burials are kept 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. While the books have been kept to the present, they are only available for research through about 1910 because of privacy laws. The parish registers cover a majority of the population. Important details that will help identify your ancestors:

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.

See also, Czech Republic Church Records.

Reading the Records
Reading the records will be easier than you might think! Parish registers use only a few basic terms in any language, such as: father, mother, son, daughter, born, baptized, married, died. Personal and place names don't need to be translated, and dates often look very similar to English. More recent records are in columns, and by translating the column title, one can then easily read the pages. The basic vocabulary can be memorized for easy recognition, and other terms, such as occupations and relationships can be quickly translated, by consulting a genealogical word list.


 * Czech Republic Genealogical Word Listt
 * German Genealogical Word List
 * Latin Genealogical Word List

Czech was not recognized as an official language until 1877 in Bohemia and 1905 in Moravia. Except for modern records of the 1900s, records in the Czech Republic were written mostly in Latin and German. These materials for learning to read German, Latin, and old Gothic script will be helpful in preparing you to read Czech church records.
 * German Handwriting (article)
 * Online interactive slideshow lessons:
 * . In this lesson, you will explore several types of German genealogical records, including birth, baptismal, marriage, and death records.
 * German Script Tutorial
 * . In this lesson, you will explore several types of German genealogical records, including birth, baptismal, marriage, and death records.
 * German Script Tutorial

This converter will show you how any phrase or name might look in German script:
 * Kurrentschrift Converter (enter German genealogical word, click on "convert", view your word in Kurrentschrift (Gothic handwriting):*

Building a Family Record with a Search Strategy
Many articles on strategy are available on the Wiki, but here is a simple set of steps to guide you
 * Search for the relative or ancestor you selected. When you find his birth/baptism/christening record, then search for the births of his brothers and sisters.
 * Next, search for the marriage of his parents. The marriage record will have information that will often help you find the birth records of the parents, and even the names of their parents.
 * You can estimate the ages of the parents and determine a birth year to search for their birth records.
 * Search the death registers for all known family members.
 * Repeat this process for both the father and the mother, starting with their birth records, then their siblings' births, then their parents' marriages, and so on.
 * If earlier generations (parents, grandparents, etc.) do not appear in the records, search neighboring parishes.