Random Thinking

My Czech Ancestry

November 19 2006, 2:28 AM

The image above (click the image for full view) is from a book that has been in my family for over 200 years. My family on my father's side is originally from what is now the Czech Republic but at the time they left (late 1860's) it was Bohemia, a part of the Austria-Hungary Empire. The book itself is in the possesion of my brother (the first-born child). The image is taken from a copy of the book.

The book is a notebook with unruled pages (although some of the pages were manually ruled at some point). The cover was made by apparently re-using old paper by glueing the sheets together and covering with a dark brown paper. The cover is splitting at some of the edges revealing the paper underneath, which looks like some kind of handwritten bookkeeping sheets.

The book is a family history. The book lists the births and deaths of various members of our family going back to 1794. The earliest entries are in Czech and the later entries are in English. The existence of the book itself is surprising since literacy was not that common in the late 1700's but apparently someone in my family could read and write.

The image is from the first page of the book. The handwriting makes it difficult to read but I am in the process of trying to get it translated. The last person in my family who could read Czech died in the 1970's. Fortunately I do know some people from Brno in the Czech Republic so I am hoping they will be able to help.

Do you have a book like this in your family? How far back can you trace your ancestors?

Update: I spoke to one of my friends in Brno, Czech Republic and she told me that she thinks this is an old dialect of German and not Czech. It was not unusual for educated people in Bohemia to read and write German because the Emperor was Austrian. So I do not have a translation yet.

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friederike
Senior Member

Joined: 27 Dec 2005
Posts: 290
Location: Germany
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Posted: November 19 2006, 10:34 AM

Hello Tom,

do you know wht is written in that book?

Friederike

Tom
Administrator

Joined: 22 Jun 2000
Posts: 2795
Location: Plainview, NY
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Posted: November 19 2006, 1:17 PM

Some of the later Czech writing was neatly handwritten and I was able to translate that but this first couple of pages is very difficult to read and I have not been able to translate it yet.

Annieo
Super Member

Joined: 03 Jan 2003
Posts: 2645
Location: Minneapolis suburb, MN

Posted: November 19 2006, 9:01 PM

Very cool! What a treasure. Genealogy is a hobby my husband and I share. On the day of our 10th wedding anniversary we went to the Minnesota Historical Society to look up death certificates and obituaries. Not the way most people spend their anniversary, but we loved it! We have nothing like the book you have. The best record I have is a copy of my great grandpa's baptismal record from 1885. The farthest back I've been able to trace is to the early 1800s. My husband has traced back to the 1500s - pretty amazing!

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