Plzeň Regional Archives Instructions

Finding Parish Records in the Plzeň Regional Archives

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Go to: Portafontium: Collection of registries of western Bohemia.

2. You may choose either Czech or German by clicking on "Čeština" for Czech or "Deutsch" for German in the upper right corner of the screen.

3. Click on the religion of the parish registers you want.

4. Select your parish from the drop-down list of parishes.

5. Scroll down to "Digitized books". (Czech--Digitalizované knihy)

6. Study the third column to determine the type of register and the years covered: * for births, oo for marriages and + for deaths.

7. Click on the magnifying glass symbol in the last column under "Obr.data" to browse the images. If you do not see the symbol, 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.

For more information, see the article Plzeň Regional Archives, Czechia Church Records.