Plzeň Regional Archives, Czechia Church Records

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Plzeň Regional Archive is in the process of digitizing parish registers and making them available through their digital archive. The database is in Czech (with some English translation) and one must register to use it. Parish registers from the parishes beginning with letters A-J and the city of Plzeň are now available.

Go to: http://www.actapublica.cz/

How to register

Click on: "Registrace nového uživatele/New registration" at the top of the screen

You only need to fill in the fields marked with star: Jméno/Name Příjmení/Surname Datum narození (den.měsíc.rok)/Date of birth [dd/mm/yyyy] Číslo OP/Doc.No. - enter 0 (zero) Emailová adresa/Email address Přihlašovací jméno (login)/Login - choose your user name Heslo/Password - choose your password Heslo znovu (pro kontrolu)/Password(check) - enter password again

Check the box next to: "Souhlasím s podmínkami užití služeb/I agree with term of use"

Click on: "Registrovat se" [Register]

How to sign in

Click on: "Přihlášení do systému" [Sign In] at the top of the screen to begin using the records.

Fill in: "Přihlašovací jméno (login)" [User Name] and "Heslo" [Password]

Click on: "Přihlásit se" [Sign In] to enter the database.

Under "Obec" choose the locality.

Click on: "Hledat" [Search] to display the list of records available for the locality.

How to search

You may now switch to English. The pull down menu can be found in the upper righthand corner next to "Jazyk:" [Language]. Choose english and click "switch". This feature is still under construction.

Choose the register type and time frame you wish to search.

Narození-baptisms Oddaní-marriages Zemřelí-deaths

Click on the magnyfying 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.

Records Description

Church books contain baptism (birth), marriage, and burial (death) information and are definitely the best source for identifying one’s relatives in the Czech Republic.

Entries are usually arranged in chronological order and, after 1784, in a columnar format. Sometimes, baptisms, marriages, and burials are kept all for all villages in a parish, for each year. Other times, each village has its own section of baptisms, marriages, and burials, listed chronologically. Some records are in preprinted forms. Most records include indexes. Czech church records are usually in one of three languages: Czech, German, or Latin.

While the books have been kept to the present, they are only available for research through 1905 because of privacy laws. The church books cover a majority of the population.

Records Content

Baptismal entries usually contain the following:


 * names of the child, parents, godparents, and sometimes grandparents
 * date and place of birth and baptism
 * residence and religion of the parents
 * whether the child was legitimate or illegitimate

Marriage entries usually contain the following:


 * names of the bride, groom, their parents, witnesses, and sometimes grandparents
 * date and place of marriage
 * residence and religion of the bride and groom
 * age, previous marital status, and occupation of bride and groom

Burial entries usually contain the following:


 * names of the deceased and spouse/parents
 * date and place of death and burial
 * residence and religion of the deceased
 * age and cause of death of the deceased

Click here to access the inventory of the parish registers that is now published online.