A brief lesson in European research

I was wrong.

European records are a challenge. I was wrong about this one.

Understanding European records

I have investigated my deep American ancestry for decades and still have much to share from my findings. Several years ago, I finally took the dive into my wife Dee’s European ancestry. I have posted articles previously about a few of my discoveries.

It helps to have some awareness of history and geography. This is certainly true in America, and more important in European research.

One of Dee’s grandfathers was an immigrant from Flanders in Belgium, where his family appears to have been resident for centuries. Flemish Belgian records are in Flemish Dutch, French and Latin.

Dee’s other three grandparents were children of immigrants from the Bohemian region of the Austrian Empire. Czechoslovakia, which did not yet exist, was one of the nations created when the empire was dissolved at the end of the Great War (World War I) in 1918. The term Bohemia is the English rendering of Germanic Böhmen, which in Czech is Čechy. Bohemian records are in Czech, German and Latin. Reading these records is further complicated by the old German handwriting and typeset that was unlike our familiar rendering of the alphabet.

We have much to learn from European records. I can assure you that this entails a lot of work.

Help is available

The FamilySearch Research Wiki is a good place to start. The wiki offers research information about European countries as well as links to many online records. Wikipedia is a helpful source of information about European nations and history. I have listed several links to European resources on my Research links page. While I have mixed feelings about Facebook, I have found focus groups there to be helpful.

The following discussion pertains to Czech research but could be helpful for working with records in other countries.

Searching for a birth record

Dee’s five-times-great grandmother Alžběta [Elizabeth in English], wife of Bartoloměj Prochaska, died September 28, 1792, in house 2 of Běštín in the Beroun district of Bohemia, at that time part of the Holy Roman Empire. Alžběta was reported to be 64 years old at her death.^[1] Her death registration is provided online by the State Regional Archives in Prague.

I set out to find a record of Alžběta’s birth, which would have occurred around 1728. Birth records for her children appeared to identify her as Alžběta Rodizuw or something like that. I couldn’t find an entry close to this name in the Bezdědice birth record index for 1664-1733. Because these indexes are subject to omissions and mistakes, I browsed Bezdědice church records for 1721-1733 looking for an Alžběta Rodizuw. After a few iterative page views, I found a potential record in September 1727, containing Alžběta and something like Rodizuw. but I was not able to understand much of its content. I decided to look for help in the Czech Genealogy group on Facebook.

We shouldn’t expect volunteers to do extensive work, so I asked for very specific information. With permission of other participants, I am sharing edited bits of the ensuing discussion as I think it is instructive.

Ron: I’m having a heck of a time today with this penmanship. What is Alžběta’s second name and family name and her father’s given name in this birth record in the second entry on the right page?: https://ebadatelna.soapraha.cz/d/3968/184
Mary: A snip to help us out [she provided the image]. I see the first line (repeated in all the records) as saying something like “I, XXX, baptized”. I could be wrong, but it’s a stock phrase, so it doesn’t matter. Then the word in front of Alžbeta looks sort of like “jmeno” in Czech, which is name. Ok, then her surname is on the second line. I really wanted to see “Mazour”, because that’s a known name where I’m from, but it’s not. It could be Mazera. Or maybe it’s Marya… The word after that sort of looks like the word that means family, born of, etc. and Vrba follows it. Or maybe that’s the father’s given name, and it’s Vit, and it’s genitive case. AH! the word that follows IS genitive for Vesely! And he’s a kovář. So this record IS in Czech, not Latin. Sorry for the long analysis, but this is an example of how us non-experts have to think things through.
Ron: I was reading some semblance of Mayrna as her second name and couldn’t make anything of her father’s given name. It looks to me like her mother was Kateryn. Was their family name Rodyizur?
Virginia: I think the second name is Marzena, not a surname, then a standard word meaning born of (?Rodjczur?), then Wyta (?Vit?) Weselyho kovarz…unless Kovarz is the surname…and materze (mother) Katerzyna.
Ron: Is there no family name given in this record?
Virginia: I’m not sure if it’s the Vesely word or the Kovař. Both are Czech surnames in my home county. Kovař could be an occupation. I’d lean toward Vesely being the surname. You’ll need to check indexes to see if it occurs in this area. Maybe some Czechs will look before they head to bed, unless they’re all asleep now.

There was, however, a little problem with my request for clarity in this birth record.

Michaela: it’s not a birth/baptism record…

Oops!

Michaela: Dne 17ho Zaržy Pohrzbeno ditie Gmenem Alžbieta Maržena Rodycžuw Wyta Weßelyho Kowarže a Materže Kateržyny gßa Zywo na Swietie 2 leta Umrželo na auplawiczy
Michaela: so, on 17th September was buried a child named Alžběta Mařena of parents Vít Veselý, a blacksmith, and of mother Kateřina, being alive in this world for 2 years. She died of dysentery.

This record was, in fact, a death record for a two-year-old girl!^[2] Thinking this was a birth and baptism record, I unintentionally misled volunteers trying to help me.

Note that Michaela first transcribed the record, interpreting the characters, and thus the written words, in Czech. Then, with a typed transcription in hand, she translated the record to English. This is good methodology.

Note also how much richer the record is when we can read the whole thing.

What can we learn?

It certainly would have helped if I had recognized the capitalized term after Alžběta Prochaska’s name in her children’s birth registrations. I’m familiar with the term rozená (nee) in more recent records but I didn’t recognize the old term used here. Syn (son of) and dcera (daughter of) were also used in later centuries. Here is a guide to common terms used in Czech records: Czech-English parish books dictionary.

I should have been more careful in looking for records around 1728. Some church books contain only birth, marriage or death records, which must have been what I had in mind here. Other books, including this one, include all three events in separate sections, with births at the beginning of the book. In gauging my starting point for browsing records I failed to account for marriage and death records in the parish register. I must have initially landed in early death records and moved forward in time by increments from there.

Now what can I do?

I have found Bartoloměj’s birth record in 1728.^[3] I have identified four sons and a daughter born to Alžběta and Bartoloměj but I have not located their marriage record. Birth records of four of their children mention her maiden name, which I now understand to be the word after the term I thought to be her maiden name.^[4] ^[5] ^[6] ^[7] My best guess after reexamination is that Alžběta’s maiden name might have been Podánzik. The birth record of their youngest son doesn’t give Alžběta’s maiden name but identifies the estate (Wohsoviensi?) to which Bartoloměj and Alžběta were subject.^[8] Alžběta might have been born in another town belonging to the same estate and they might have been married there. I think my next step might be trying to identify the estate and looking further afield for their marriage record.

Final thoughts

It is important to spend time with European records to become familiar with common terms, handwriting, families and occupations. With patience and translation tools like Google Translate, it is possible to plumb records in unfamiliar languages, places and times. It is very much worth the effort.

Addendum

Further communication with Michaela revealed that the birth records of Bartoloměj‘s and Alžběta’s older children also indicated the estate (Osov) to which they were subject as serfs, not her maiden name. These were in Czech whereas the reference in their youngest child’s record was in Latin. An 1848 compendium of Bohemian estates confirms that Běštín was in the Osov estate.^[9] I found the marriage record for Bartoloměj and Alžběta^[10] and then her birth record^[11] in the Osov parish.

Notes

^[1] Death registration, Alžběta Prochaska; Czech Republic, Beroun District, Roman Catholic Church, Bezdědice Deaths, 1784-1806, page 110, house 2; online at https://ebadatelna.soapraha.cz/d/4051/112,accessed August 3, 2024.

^[2] Death registration, Alžběta Mařena Veselý; Czech Republic, Beroun District, Roman Catholic Church, Bezdědice Deaths, 1721-1733, September 17, 1727, Radausse; online at https://ebadatelna.soapraha.cz/d/3968/184, accessed August 5, 2024.

^[3] Birth registration, Bartoloměj Prochaska; Czech Republic, Beroun District, Roman Catholic Church, Bezdědice Births, 1721-1733, page 141, August 28, Biechczyna; online at https://ebadatelna.soapraha.cz/d/3968/76, accessed August 6, 2024.

^[4] Birth registration, Josef Martin Prochaska; Czech Republic, Beroun District, Roman Catholic Church, Bezdědice Births, 1734-1757, page 301, October 29, Biechczina; online at https://ebadatelna.soapraha.cz/d/3969/154, accessed August 6, 2024.

^[5] Birth registration, Jan Krtitel Prochaska [Dee’s direct ancestor]; Czech Republic, Beroun District, Roman Catholic Church, Bezdědice Births, 1734-1757, page 346, May 31/June 1, Biechczina; online at https://ebadatelna.soapraha.cz/d/3969/177, accessed August 6, 2024.

^[6] Birth registration, Ondrej Prochaska; Czech Republic, Beroun District, Roman Catholic Church, Bezdědice Births, 1734-1757, page 394, November 19, Biechczina; online at https://ebadatelna.soapraha.cz/d/3969/201, accessed August 6, 2024.

^[7] Birth registration, Anna Dorota Prochaska; Czech Republic, Beroun District, Roman Catholic Church, Bezdědice Births, 1758-1784, page 41, December 10, Biechczyna; online at https://ebadatelna.soapraha.cz/d/3970/24, accessed August 6, 2024.

^[8] Birth registration, Jakub Prochaska; Czech Republic, Beroun District, Roman Catholic Church, Bezdědice Births, 1758-1784, page 117, April 29, Biechczin; online at https://ebadatelna.soapraha.cz/d/3970/62, accessed August 6, 2024.

^[9] Popis Králowstwí Českého Čili Podrobné Poznamenání V Jazyku Českém I Německém, pages 269-270; online at Google Books: https://books.google.cz/books?id=C94BAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover, accessed August 10, 2024.

^[10] Marriage registration, Bartoloměj Prochaska and Alžběta Havelik; Czech Republic, Beroun District, Roman Catholic Church, Osov Marriages, 1747-1771, page 238, November 25, Biechczin and Lazovitz; online at https://ebadatelna.soapraha.cz/d/10731/123, accessed August 10, 2024.

^[11] Birth registration, Alžběta Kateřina Havelik; Czech Republic, Beroun District, Roman Catholic Church, Osov Births, 1727-1746, page 6, November 16, Chlumetz; online at https://ebadatelna.soapraha.cz/d/10729/7, accessed August 10, 2024.