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GSU (LDS) Microfilming in
the Republic of Slovakia
and
Conducting Genealogy Research in
the Czech Republic - early 1999
by Duncan Gardiner, C.G., A.G
© copyright Duncan Gardiner and FEEFHS, all rights
reserved
First Posted: 26 May 1999
Webmaster's Note: As the leading Czech and Solvak professional
genealogist, Duncan Gardiner visits these countries on client assignments once
or twice a year. We always appreciate the eMails from him when he stops by
the Internet Cafes at Bratislava and Prague. On his return to Lakewood Ohio
from a trip in early 1999, he shared his observations of the European
genealogy scene there with us. It is is always a pleasure to post Duncan's
interesting insights.
Here is a bit more on the status of LDS filming of parish
registers and other material in Slovakia as of early 1999. In
the Nitra archive I learned that their personnel had just been
trained to microfilm parish registers and were beginning filming
the week of 21 April 1999. The Nitra archive has materials from
southwestern Slovakia.
Work was continuing on completing the filming of materials in the
Bytca archive (covering northwestern Slovakia).
At the Presov archive, I learned that the 1869 census materials
were temporarily unavailable because they had been sent elsewhere
for LDS filming.
By the way, it appears that Nitra has a collection of 1869 census
materials for practically all the towns within its coverage area.
The 1869 (Austrian) census is marvelous and gives the town and
county and year of birth of everyone in the household.
Both the Nitra and Banska Bystrica state regional archives in
Slovakia have new buildings. Banska Bystrica's new building has
been in use for over a year, while Nitra has had its new plant
for four or more years, though the parish registers were only
recently transferred from its branch in Sal'a.
A standard guide to Slovak town names, with cross references to
and from Hungarian, German, Slovak and Latin forms of the name,
has recently been re-published in a new, updated version:
Milan Majtan, Nazvy obci slovenskej republiky (Vyvin v rokoch
1773-1997). The publisher is Veda, the Bratislava publishing
house of the Slovak Academy of Sciences.
The price of the volume and the address of the publisher are not
shown on the book. The ISBN is 80-224-0530-2. Since many older
documents show the Hungarian or German names of Slovak towns,
this is an indispensable reference.
The Czech state regional archives continue to restrict use of
parish registers. Both Brno and Prague state regional archives
limit the number of archive items per patron per day to five -
other archives will supply six.
The Zamrsk archive counts microfilms of registers in this limit,
but others do not. The archives collect a 20 crown (= about 60
U.S. cents) fee per archive item, aside from recent published
books and microfilms. The same is true in Slovakia, where Slovak
crowns are 39 to the dollar (vs. Czech crowns at 34 to the
dollar).
In the Czech Republic, the following archives require advance
reservations of places in the study rooms: Prague, Trebon, Zamrsk
and Brno.
It is clear by now that, despite rumors to the contrary, the
Czech archives have no intention of allowing filming of their
materials by the LDS. They regards the entire collection of
parish registers, land records, and dozens of other original
source materials as their copyrighted property. Permission must
be requested to publish reproductions of single records and the
archive administration may decide to charge a fee for each
publication.
A guide to parish registers in the Czech archives has recently
been published by Felix Gundacker at Vienna, Austria. One is a
list, parish by parish, of the vital registers. The other is a
list of towns showing their Roman Catholic parish affiliation,
allowing quick reference to the listing of registers extant for
the parish. The source also identifies the archive which holds
the parish registers. The guide is in several volumes each of
which costs about US$50.00.
Duncan B. Gardiner, Ph.D.
Certified Genealogist; Accredited Genealogist
12961 Lake Avenue
Lakewood, Ohio 44107-1533 USA
Telephone (216) 221-9460
eMail: duncan@en.com
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