The Development of Parochial Vital Registers in Bohemian Lands with Special Emphasis on the East Bohemian Areas (the Historical District of Chrudim)
by Karel Kysilka
In genealogical search, the parochial records in the Vital Registers
I know "parochial" is not incorrect, yet I would use parish or church instead. Parochial in English is today more a synonym for local.
referring to Births/Baptisms, Marriages and Deaths (in Czech: Matrika, matricni kniha, in German: Matrikeln, Kirchenbuecher) are the most used, though not the only available source. In the following article I would like to describe their development in the territory of Bohemia and Moravia, with special interest in the region of the former Chrudimsky kraj (Chrudimer Kreis - the District of Chrudim) that included the towns and cities of Chrudim, Policka, Litomysl, Lanskoun (Landskron), Pardubice and Vysoke Myto.
Should these places not also be listed in German for these purposes?
West European countries have a richer and older history of the Vital Registers going back to the 13th century. The Lateran Council of 1137 and the Council of Paris in 1212 already provided the duty of recording the Vital Statistics of the Christians. Unfortunately duty and the reality were different things.
Basic instructions for the keeping of vital records were set by the Trident Council in 1563. The duty of parishes, and parochial
Council of Trent
circuits (in Czech: farnost, fara, in German: Pfarrei, <-Kirchsprengel->) was to establish two
- stimmt "Kirchsprengel" ? oder soll das "Kirchspiel" heissen?
Im Alpenland (also Oesterreich) nannte man ein eine Kirchspiellandgemeinde auch Parochia oder Kirchsprengel. I would just use parish district.
kinds of books where the most important data referring to the sacrament of baptism and the matrimonial state should be written. The duty of recording the information on deceased people came later.
All these books contained births, marriages and deaths, and all were written in Czech except for the pure German town of Lanskroun. These
Landskron in this case as pure German.
registers reflect the complicated religious situation of that time and are even written in the spirit of Protestant reformation.
The contents of the records are very simple and brief: for instance, the names of the bride (nevesta) and the groom (zenich), names of the witnesses (svedek), and time and place of the marriage (oddavky). More comprehensive information, for example, the parents of both, and domicile is missing in most cases.
The baptismal records contained the name of the child (dite), the baptismal date (not the date of birth !!) (den krestu), parents (rodice) as well as witnesses, and name of village. For a long period, records were written in one long sentence. The records were
time
Translation: AD 1686, on the day 15th of the month May after three banns, I, P. Antonius L., the administrator of this parrochial cathedral,
parochial cathedral? I don't know what the Czech says.
coupled the honorable lad XY and honorable virgin XY in matrimonial ties. In presence of witnesses AB, BC thereof..
probably 'ehrbar' in concept and 'esteemed' in English
though the registers had already been kept since 1711 for the <-circle-> of
- statt "circle" ???
Kreis or county
the filial church. But this church existed already in 1641 and the respective parish in the 17th century was Brandys nad Orlici.
afiliated church, but this ... ? Fred Fred Rump http://www.k2nesoft.com/~fred 26 Warren St Beverly, NJ 08010 fred@compu.com or 609-386-6846 fred@k2nesoft.com