Slovakia Genealogy Research Strategies

The following notes apply to the cataloging and filming status of Family History Library Records added between July 2007 and April 2008.

Compiled and reported by Bill Tarkulich DETAIL UPDATED May 8, 2008

SLOVAKIA - Records filmed long ago are being catalogued and made available in record time!

The FHL has been posting records more quickly than usual. There was a large "film backlog" of records that were microfilmed some time ago. These releases are for microfilmed records only. The current FHL order was to "clear out the backlog." The majority of the records are church and synagogue vital records (birth, marriage, death.) These records are from the Bytca and Bratislava archives, in Western Slovakia. These are some of the very last records to be filmed and posted. A total of 168 new titles have been issued. Each title relates to a specific village and faith. Each title may contain multiple microfilms.

Cautionary Note: These metrical records have been released for film rental without the benefit of having been thoroughly analyzed by a cataloguer. On the catalog entries you will see the notice, in red, "This is a preliminary description provided to allow immediate microfilm access." The researcher must proceed with caution, since the title may or may not be entirely descriptive of the actual contents. Specifically, omissions in the catalog titles/descriptions such as ancillary/associated village names and dates are things to watch out for.

Other Items Several village histories, maps and other items have been recently added. See Appendix I.

What's coming. Microfilming of metrical records in Slovakia is nearing completion. The final filming is underway in the Bratislava archives. There are more records forthcoming and there will still be more catalog rework in the near future.

UKRAINE - Active Filming in Berehove district (Old BEREG County)

Records for this area, births, marriages and deaths for Berehove district, for years 1787-1898 have begun to be microfilmed again. 33 new titles have been added, primarily from Reformed churches. See Appendix II below for details. They are all from the old Hungary County of BEREG. They are in the process of cataloging as soon as the films arrive from the archive. Remember, they are adding records regularly, so go to their catalog and check you village name when you are in doubt. These records are primarily in Magyar (aka "Hungarian".)

Record Indices for Greek Catholic Church records in Ukraine

There are some other interesting additions. Greek Catholic, Military and Emigration records. For the large collection entitled, "Greek Catholic Church records (births, marriages, deaths, extracts, miscellaneous church records and correspondence) for multiple locations of Mukacheve Eparchy in Munkacs, Bereg, Hungary" There are several indexes for this project, you can check the main inventory on film 2376464, item 1. You might also check title number 1411333 in the catalog that lists all inventories.

CZECH REPUBLIC - Digital Records of Regional Archives are being filmed and released to the Public NOW!

This is very exciting times for Czech Republic after a very long wait. "Filming" is underway in all are three of the state regional archives: Trebon, Litomerice. and Opava. They will never be on actual microfilms - at least as far as we know - but they are digital images and will be available online. There are three Czech projects going right now, one for each regional Archive

Trebon is being digitized by the FHL for internet posting, but rather than wait for the FHL to catalog and host the images, there is a better way. You can go to http://digi.ceskearchivy.cz/index.php?doctree=1nr to look at the images posted by the Trebon archive themselves. Once the FHL has "filmed" them, the Archives post the images (and they're quite a bit faster than the FHL). Also, they have inventories, which are much more detailed. At some point the FHL will post the complete set also

Litomerice This Regional Archive is not posting their image to the internet, but The FHL is posting the images to the internet as soon as they get them. To view them, you look at http://labs.familysearch.org periodically to see what's been put up. Click on "Record Search" and sign up. Each time you sign on, you will need to enter your e-mail address to get on, and you'll be set. The Opava records will probably take a few months to be completely posted to the web.

Opava Some red tape needs to be cleared before these records can appear on the Internet.

NOTES:

Note 1: "This is a preliminary description provided to allow immediate microfilm access." When you see this note in a catalog entry, it means:

For Slovak Republic: it means basically that births, marriages, and deaths get recorded, but confirmations and conversions don't make it into the catalog record at this time. It will take a couple of years probably. They will have to wait until one day the films are looked at.
For Ukraine: the records were entered into the catalog directly from the reports sent by the archive to give immediate access for the patrons until the films can be analyzed thoroughly.

Note 2: For all records, the catalog entry copyright date indicates the year or years when the items were microfilmed.

Note 3: For Czech and Slovak Republic: Filming versus Digital Images - Apparently any further recording of records will be done digitally, there will be no new microfilms produced, at least in this region. During this transition, many items that were already filmed, but not catalogue indexed will still be entered into the Family History Library as microfilm.

Sources: Family History Center Cataloguing staff.

Links to off-site webs will open in a new window. Please disable your pop-up stopper.