Plzeň Regional Archives, Czechia Church Records

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Plzeň Regional Archive is in the process of digitizing parish registers and making them available through the digital archive. The database is in Czech and German and one must register to use it. Parish registers from the parishes beginning with letters A-J and the city of Plzeň are now available.

Go to: http://www.actapublica.cz/. Sign-in window will appear.

How to register

Click on: "Registrace/Registration" link.

You only need to fill in the fields marked with star:


 * Jméno/Name
 * Příjmení/Surname
 * Pohlaví/Gender - muž/male žena/female
 * Email/Email address

Do not use diacritics and spaces when selecting login and password.


 * Přihlašovací jméno/Login - choose your user name
 * Heslo/Password - choose your password
 * Heslo znovu/Password again - enter password again

Check the box next to: "Souhlasím s podmínkami užití služeb" (I agree with the terms of use)

Click on: "Odeslat" (Send) box.

You will receive a confirmation e-mail at the e-mail address that you used for this registration.

How to sign in

Click on: "zpět na hlavní stranu" (back to home page) link at the bottom left corner of the sign-in window.

Fill in: "Jméno/Name" and "Heslo/Password"

Click on: "Přihlásit se/Sign In" to enter the database.

How to search

There are 4 different archives that share this database. You can access the archive in two different ways.

1. Click on: "Vyberte archiv" (Choose Archive) to select Státní oblastní archiv v Plzni. This option is not recommended because it does not work most of the time. 2. Put your cursor over the first tab "Vyhledávání" at the top right side of the page. Four links will be displayed. Select the first link SOA Plzeň and click on it. After a few seconds you will see that Státní oblastní archiv v Plzni shows in the "Vyberte archiv" box.

Under "Obec" type the locality. As you type a selection appears below, you may now select locality from the list.

Click the "Hledat" button to display the list of records available for the locality.

Choose the register type and time frame you wish to search.

Narození-baptisms Oddaní-marriages Zemřelí-deaths

Click on the magnyfying glass symbol in the last column under "Obr.data" to browse the images. If you do not see the symbol, the images are not yet available.

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

Click here to access the inventory of the parish registers that is now published online.