Information on Genealogical Research
in the Czech Federal Republic

The Embassy of the Czech Federal Republic has the honor to inform you about genealoglcal research done In the Czech Federal Republic by the Czech State District Archives.

This research is based on vital statistics registers (of birth, marriage and death) and can provide you with information about names of searched persons, date and place of their birth, marriage and death, information about their parents,their profession (only in certificates of birth), names of their wives or husbands and name of the witnesses of the marriage (only in certificates of marriage), cause of death (only in certificates of death) etc.

Genealogical research can be done with respect to documentation older than 50 years. As far as vital statistics records of birth, marriage and death are concerned, only records up to the year 1900 are located in the Archives. Research can be done either in the form of a running account or in the form of individual vital statistics records.

We recommend that you complete the application in capital letters or by typewriter, indicating all important information to start the research (name of person searched, date and place of birth). The date of birth can be indicated in a close approximation (max. +3 years). Attaching copies of personal documents issued in Czechoslovakia to the application might contribute to the success of the research as well.

In your application you can also request photocopies or microfilms of the records. Also requests in heraldry can be presented as well as requests for personal research in Czech Archives. If the research is to be done in Czech Federal Republic (Bohemia or Moravia, the application should be sent directly to:

Ministry of Interior and Enviroment

Department of Archives and Internal Administration
Obrancu miru 133
166 21 PRAGUE 6
Czech Federal Republic

No deposits are necessary and you will be advised of the payment of research fee by the Embassy, which wiil receive a report for you. The research fee is calculated on the basis of the amount of working hours and difficulty of the research. In your application please be good enough to specify the limit on research charges.

General Information

Genealogical research in the form of a running account is based on the information about one ancestor. From this information it is possible to trace the parents of the searched person and, under certain circumstances, his or her brothers and sisters (if they were born in the same locality). In order to commence genealogical research about descendents of a known ancestor, it is, however, important to know the date and place of his or her marriage or the date and place of birth of the children. Owing to the fact that the research always depends on the accuracy of information specified in the application, in certain exceptional cases it is possible that the report will be very limited or completely negative. For this reason please indicate everything which could help to identify the person searched for.

Forms for requesting research

To get a copy of the following forms, you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer. You can download a free copy of the Reader program for Macintosh or PC from Adobe.

Application for Individual Statistics (birth/death/marriage)

Application for Genealogical Research Before 1900

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