Announcement: Czech Research Seminar in one week!

 I wanted to announce that FamilySearch is hosting a Czech Seminar in one week on November 3rd.  It's a free virtual event which will focus on teaching how to use the gazetteer at GenTeam.at to find out which Czech archive holds the records of the town where you are researching, followed by instruction about how to use each of the Czech Regional Archive websites, and then three classes about reading the birth, marriage, and death parish register books.  I will be leading the instruction about how to use the Litoměřice Regional Archive, and Amy will be leading the instruction on the Plzeň Regional Archive.  And after the seminar the recordings for each of these lessons will be posted on familysearch.org for anyone to view.  Use the link below to register for the seminar.

There is a Czechia Research Seminar Day on Wednesday, 3 November 2021 from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM MDT.  The classes will be 20 minutes with a 10-minute question and answer. All times are Mountain Daylight Time (MDT). Here is a list of the classes:

9:00 AM - GenTeam Gazetteer and Maps

9:30 AM - Finding Jewish Records at the National Archives

10:00 AM - Plzeň Regional Archives

10:30 AM - Litoměřice Regional Archives

11:00 AM - Prague Regional Archives

11:30 AM - Prague City Archives

12:30 PM - Třeboň Regional Archives

1:00 PM - Zamrsk Regional Archives

1:30 PM - Brno Regional Archives

2:00 PM - Opava Regional Archives

2:30 PM - Reading Czech Parish Registers – Births

3:00 PM - Reading Czech Parish Registers – Marriages

3:30 PM - Reading Czech Parish Registers – Deaths

Click here to learn more, register, and attend: https://churchofjesuschrist.zoom.us/webinar/register/4616074459401/WN_coqRxxuFRbeF-je8rQ2kRA

Litoměřice Archive Website Guide

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unfortunately they were made a few years ago, and since then the archive website has been changed and those guides are no longer current.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