Brno Moravian Land Archives Instructions

Finding Parish Records in the Brno Moravian Land Archives

Step-by-Step Instructions

Illustrated instructions are available in the FAQ section of the website.
You must initially register for free at Acta Publica: New user account

1. Go to: Acta Publica: Moravském zemském archivu v Brně (Moravian Provincial Archive in Brno).

2. In the upper right corner, choose English, Czech, or German language. In the upper left corner, click on the "Search" symbol (magnifying glass) on the left. This brings up all search options. Depending on your computer, these may already be visible.

3. Here is the most commonly used search option: The first field of the search page will be labeled "Der Name des Dorfes"(German), "Návez obce" (Czech), or "The name of the city"(English). Here you will enter the name of the town or parish you wish to study.

This will be the name of the Catholic or other religious parish which held jurisdiction over your ancestors' home town. It is occasionally in a different, nearby town. To determine that parish, use the GenTeam Free Gazetteer.
GenTeam Instructions.
Also, by entering a partial spelling of town, you will generate a drop-down menu of locations containing those letters, from which you can select a desired town.

4. Next, click on the "Search" button at the far right: "Suche"(German), "Vyhledat" (Czech), or "Search"(English).

5. Subsequently, you are shown a list of all the available registers which contain records of births, marriages, deaths for the searched locality. Each line of the list shows the available years in one of the columns. The column shows the type of record. Column titles:

Narození or Geborene--births/baptisms
Oddaní or Getraute--marriages
Zemřelí or Gestorbene--burials/deaths

6. If the register contains an index, this fact is indicated by the time span on the second line, written in italics.

7. When you see the record you wish to search, click on the button at the far right: "Anzeige"(German), "Zobrazit" (Czech), or "Show"(English). This takes you to the digitized images. If you do not see a button, the images are not yet available.

8. To work with the digitizer itself, you can use tools to enlarge the image to full screen size, reduce it again (house symbol), rotate the image, move the image, or enlarge and reduce it.

9. Search the collection by image, comparing the information with what you already know about your ancestors to determine which one is your ancestor. You may need to compare the information about more than one person to make this determination.

10. If indexes are available in the images, check these for the name first. Indexes are usually located at the beginning of a group of images or at the end. They can also be found in individual folders. Find your ancestor's name and look for the locator information next to the name (such as page, entry, or certificate number). This will help you find the record you are looking for in the collection.

A second search option:

The second search field gives a different option of first sorting the type of record by "originator"--a specific religion or the government, followed by the parish name: "Wählen Sie den Urheber Typ"(German), "Typ pudvoce" (Czech), or "Originator name"(English).

A drop-down menu gives originator options to select. By clicking on the up and down arrows in the field, you will generate a drop-down list of different originators.
Originator Translations:

českobratrská církev evangelická—Czech Brethren Evangelical Church
československá církev—Czechoslovak Church
civilní matriky (okresní národní výbor, dříve c.k. okresní hejtmanství a okresní správa politická)—civil registries (district national committee, formerly c.k. district governor's office and district political administration)
Jednota baptistů—Baptist Unity
Jednota bratrsk—The Unity of Brethren
Milosrdní bratři—Merciful Brothers
německá evangelická církev—German Evangelical Church
německé vojenské matriky—German military registries
německý stavovský úředník—German civil servant orthodox chyrch
pravoslavná církev—Greek Catholic Church
řeckokatolická církev—Roman Catholic Church
řimskokatolickácírkev—Roman Catholic Church
starokatolická církev—Old Catholic Church

After selecting the originator, enter the town name in the next field (see #3 above).

For more information, see the article Brno Moravian Provincial Archives, Czechia Church Records.