Czechia Deaths - What else you can try
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This page will give you additional guidance and resources to find death information for your ancestor. Use this page after first completing the death section of the Czechia Guided Research page.
Additional Online Resources
Additional Databases and Online Resources
- 1552-1948: Czech Republic, Church Books at Ancestry ($); Also at MyHeritage ($)
Images Only (Browsable Images)
Some collections may not yet be completely indexed, but are available to browse image by image.
Location | Time Period | Record Type | Collection Name | Repository |
---|---|---|---|---|
Northern Moravia | 1571-1905 | Church Records | Northern Moravia, Czech Republic, Opava Archive Church Books (in Czech) | Ancestry ($) |
Substitute Records
Additional Records with Death Information
Substitute records can contain information about more than one event, and are used when records for an event are not available. Because the substitute records may not be created at the time of the event, it may contain incorrect information. Search for as many substitute records as possible to corroborate information found in substitute records to help improve accuracy.
Use these substitute records to locate death information about your ancestor: | ||
Why to search the records | ||
Gravestone inscriptions and cemetery records may include a death date. |
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Tips for finding deaths
Successfully finding death records in online databases depends on a few key points. Try the following search suggestions:
- An individual's name may be listed in Czech, German, or Latin in different records. For example: Vojtěch, Albrecht, and Adalbertus, respectively. Find and search by your ancestor's equivalent name in the other languages.
- At marriage, the bride typically adopts the bridegroom's surname. After marriage, adapt your searching for women to include the new surname.
- Your ancestor’s name and surname may have had many different spelling variations.
- If you are not finding what you’re looking for, try using wildcard characters. That is, use an asterisk * to replace one or more characters.
- You do not always need to search using Czech diacritics.
- Try searching surrounding areas. Your ancestors may have died in another town than where they lived earlier in life.
- Be flexible with year searches. Give a year range of about 2-3 years on either side of the believed year of the event.
Why the Record may not Exist
Known Record Gaps
Records Start
The Roman Catholic Church began requiring birth and marriage registers to be kept in 1563, but the earliest surviving records date to the 1590s. Death records required death registers to be kept in 1614, but they were not widely kept until 1620.
Non-Catholic churches were allowed to keep separate records in 1781.
Records Destroyed
Some church records in the 1500s may exist, but the majority of the records were destroyed during the Thirty Years War (1618-1648). Records kept during and before this time period may or may not have survived.[1]
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References
- ↑ My Czech Roots. "Vital Records", https://www.myczechroots.com/records/vital-records. Accessed 31 October 2021.