Czech Roots Project Reliable Sources

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: [unknown]

Reliable Sources

Reliable Sources with Conditions

• Church books for baptisms, marriages, and deaths start generally in the late 16th to early 17th centuries and are the most reliable source for dates. Records are in Latin, Czech, or German.
  • Early baptismal records only give the date of the baptism, not the date of the birth, although as a general rule baptisms took place on the day of birth or the next day. Gradually the date of birth is introduced by the use of "born today", "born yesterday", or "born on ...". Newer books give both dates.
  • Early marriage records may only give a given name for the bride and no place of origin.
  • Death records may sometimes list the date of death and sometimes the date of burial, only later both dates are given. Burials generally happened two days after death.
• Seigniorial Registers list families of subjects by town and address. Helpful for determining family and farm names since both are often given. Ages may be off by 1 - 2 years.
• Land Registers may indicate the origin of a buyer of a farm or house. They can also be helpful in determining family relationships as those are often mentioned in the lists of recipients of the purchase price.

Unreliable Sources