A user on the Czech FamilySearch Communities recently expressed interest in learning to search for her ancestors using the website for the Litoměřice State Regional Archive (Státní oblastní archiv v Litoměřicích). After searching online for a good guide to the archive website for English speakers I found that there are some really good resources, but unfortunately they were made a few years ago, and since then the archive website has been changed and those guides are no longer current.
So I decided to make my own guide. I ended up making a screen & voice recording -- this is my first time creating something like this (please excuse my pronunciations). I'm hopeful that this recording will be helpful to those learning to navigate the Litoměřice Archive website. It also contains examples & tips for those who may be new to searching for their Bohemian and Czech ancestors, regardless of which archives their ancestors' records are found in.
The the Litoměřice State Regional Archive website: http://vademecum.soalitomerice.cz/vademecum/index4Clear.jsp
Here is a break-down of the contents of this recording:
Table of Contents: 0:00 Navigating the Archive website 1:00 Searching for a Town 1:51 Selecting a Book 5:22 Details about a specific Book 6:44 Looking at a Book: Website Tools 8:59 Note: Saving a Direct Link to Scan 9:47 I Found the Book, Now where is my Ancestor? 12:35 Example: Searching for a Birth Record 14:37 Column Headings for Birth Records 19:45 Words Continued on the Next Line 22:55 Getting Back to your List of Books 24:54 Using Books with Indexes 32:33 Page Numbers vs. Folio Numbers 35:25 Example: Searching for a Marriage Record 35:41 Column Headings for Marriage Records 42:25 Meanings of "cross" or "X" Symbols 44:36 Remember, Indexes Aren’t Perfect 46:12 Example: Searching in a Longer Book with Many Towns 55:42 Symbol for the Latinized name ending “us” 57:35 Sources 58:32 Example: Searching for a Death Record 58:47 You CAN do This! (Even if you don’t know the Language) 59:27 Recognizing Patterns 1:00:56 Using Resources such as FamilySearch Communities 1:02:06 Symbol indicating Abbreviations 1:03:29 German Female Surname ending “in” 1:08:00 How to quickly Find the Same Book Again
This is one of the most helpful and clear presentations I have listened to. Can't wait to start searching. Thanks! Kristy
ReplyDeleteThanks Kristy, I'm glad it could help!
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for this amazing post!
ReplyDeleteDo you know about services who can read and transcribe the handwritten notes in these registers?
You're welcome Santiago. When you first encounter the old German alphabet & script it can be daunting, especially if you don't have any experience with the language, but many people have been able to teach themselves how to translate their genealogical records even without any prior language experience. There are some resources on this site to help you get started. And here are a couple more resources that may be helpful: Family Search's page on German Handwriting Examples & Tools: https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Germany_Handwriting & Charlotte Champenois' German Paleography Seminary video series: https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/lessons/german-paleography-seminar-introduction. Along with these resources, the most helpful thing you can do to improve your ability to understand & translate the records will be to practice, practice, practice -- you may start out (like we did), spending a really long time translating even a basic record, frequently consulting our sample alphabet print out, along with Ernest Thode's German English Genealogy Dictionary & Google Translate -- but if you keep at it and continue to practice, you will be amazed at how your ability to read and understand the records will continue to improve over time. Good luck!
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