Database of researched surnames
files updated 04-02-2004 - about 2700 entries
What is the purpose of these files ?
The most important step in the process of recovering the family history in the old country, is finding the place of origin. Once having the correct place, all the next is a question of time. Unfortunately, sometimes it is not so easy to find this place, as it is not necessarily recorded in the documents you can access. If you have absolutely no guidance, these files will likely not help you. But, in many cases, you have some information about the place, nevertheless, not precise enough for to be able to start the research. Regional center can be recorded instead of the very place of origin, you can have some info, determining the region only from the family lore, etc. Then, it would be fine to try to access some list of surnames. The first - and good - chance is the telephone book. However, in many cases this leads to a dead end, as, during the past (100-150) years, the surname and place of stay of your relatives might have changed, due to the weddings and/or movements. Another pretty good source is the index to Berni Rula, but, again, it's from completely different time-frame (about 1655) than you need (1800-1890). Address registers are accessible for the big cities, but lists of inhabitants of smaller places are maintained separately for each place (or group of places), so that it's hard to guess where to start.
I am working as a professional genealogist for years,and, during this time, I read thousands of Church and Land records from the XIXth century. And I have most of them in my remarks. I decided to release this informations now.
Of course, it is only a small piece of the list of inhabitants of Bohemia and Moravia in the XIXth century, and, it would be useless and futile if the list was chosen by a random choice. But it is not. Each and every name in the list has some relationship to an individual, who left for America. This relationship can be distant, or even not consanguineous (e.g. wittness, God father ), but there is some reason why I made the remark. ( I do not write down each and every surname I read. It's no time to do so, and it's not worth it.) This increases the chance on success, I think it's no need to explain why.
This is the first piece of my database, I will fill in much more. I did not have a notebook at the very start, so that I have to rewrite it from my handwritten remarks, made in the archives. I'm starting with about 2700 entries, and I plan to post an upgrade everytime I will be able to add approximately 300 new entries.
I cannot check it for possible typos, nor I can write down more detailed information. I will repair and supplement some entries, in the moment I will need them myself.
How are the files organized ?
There are only three columns : name, file, year.
Name ... the surname, as I found it in some record.
File ...... it's heading of my working file, where I have the data (remarks) stored. For every file the place is given, at least in one entry. If the entry of the surname, you are interested in, does not contain the place, you can be sure that the place is somewhere near, mostly in the same parish. Were it different, it would be remarked.
All the files signed by a number contain the information looke up by me in the archives. The word "book" implies the source (usually a monograph about the place/area - where some families emmigrated from). The sign "CAC" or "CIC" means that the entry is not verfied, it comes from an old look up request - it can contain misspellings, wrong information .... I hesitated whether to include this type of records or not ... meanwhile, one such an old entry helped me to localize the family - and the decision was plain.
Year ..... it's mostly blank. You can imagine "XIXth century" filled in. If e.g. 1670 is recorded, it means that the surname would be possible to be traced as far back. I do not insert the record, if I have a remark only from 1670 ... it's better to use Berni Rula for look-ups in this time-frame.
The file sbNN-A.txt is sorted alphabeticaly by surname, sbNN-F.txt is sorted by file. NN is the number of the version,
It is one and the same file, only the sorting is different.
What does it mean when I find the researched surname ?
That means only one thing : I have found a record of some individual of this surname, related - in the sense explained above - to someone who left for America. I can easily find this record in my remarks, I know the exact place, and, working in the archives, I can find the record once again quickly.
It does not mean that it is your family.
What does it mean when I do not find the researched surname ?
Absolulely nothing. No negative information can be deduced from these files.
How to use the files ?
You will likely elaborate your own method. I think that's enough to read the (artificaly created) example below, for to catch the idea, how it may work.
Example - how it works, IF it works
Let's say you are interested in the Kočí surname, with some occurance of the name Souček in the family history. You do not know the place, you only know "South of Prague". Open both the files linked to above, and open some searchable map. Find Koci in the A-file, there are 3 entries, but you should consider the entry Koc as well, especially because it's unverified record (CAC). O.K., four of them. Try the same for Soucek - and you will see that both the surnames occur together in the fille 49. Look at other names listed in F-file under 49 : any of them familiar to you ? Look at the map - Mesice (Měšice) . If you have no better choice, this place might be a trial. Both the surnames occur them for sure, and both of them are related so some family that came over (not necessarily Koci or Soudek). It's better than nothing, isn't it ? The more names will be in the database, the better the chances, of course.