No single website holds Czech and Slovak records. The best Czech registers are on the regional archives’ own portals, many Slovak registers are on FamilySearch, and a tree platform ties it together. This guide compares the main options and says what each is good for. We name MyHeritage first because it is our primary recommended platform, and we say where another site is the better choice. We checked these details in October 2026, and archive portals, access rules and online collections change, so confirm them before you rely on them.
Overview
| Site | Cost to search | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| MyHeritage | Free account to search; some features and records need a subscription | Building a tree, matching and DNA, and a possible source of connections |
| FamilySearch | Free with an account | Slovak church books, Czech church books and censuses, and its research wiki |
| Czech regional archive portals | Free | Digitized parish registers and censuses at the source |
| matriky.online | Free | Finding which register covers a Czech parish |
| JewishGen | Free, with registration for some databases | Jewish records, including Slovak civil registers |
MyHeritage
MyHeritage lets you build a tree and attach records, and the British Czech and Slovak Association says it has extensive Czech and Slovak records that may offer possible connections. We did not verify the details of its Czech and Slovak collections, so search its catalog for your places before you rely on it. Its tree and match tools also help you find relatives who researched the same village. Most original registers remain in the archives, so it does not replace them. See our DNA testing hub for its DNA test.
FamilySearch
FamilySearch is free and nonprofit. For Slovakia, its collection of church and synagogue books for 1592 to 1935 offers images and some indexes from archives in Prešov, Bytča, Košice, Levoča, Banská Bystrica, Nitra and Bratislava, and it has the 1869 census of Slovakia. For the Czech lands it has church books and a collection of Czech censuses and inhabitant registers covering 1800 to 1990, though the regional archives’ own portals remain the main source. Its wiki also explains the records and has word lists.
Czech regional archive portals
Czech regional archives have digitized almost all parish registers, and the portals are free. The portals include the Prague City Archives, SOA Praha’s eBadatelna for Central Bohemia, Porta fontium for Western Bohemia, České archivy for Southern Bohemia, SOA Litoměřice for Northern Bohemia, Acta Publica for Southern Moravia and the Opava Land Archive for Northern Moravia and Silesia, and the National Archives in Prague holds the Jewish registers. Interfaces differ: some offer English and German versions, while Porta fontium has only a German version, according to one guide. See our Czech parish registers guide.
matriky.online
The matriky.online site is a registry of parishes and municipalities of the Czech Republic that lets you search registers across archives by originator and municipality, with a map and links to scans, and it counts 103,610 registers from eight archives. It is a third-party tool, so confirm what you find on the archive’s own portal.
JewishGen and specialist sources
JewishGen’s Slovak civil vital records project digitizes and transcribes Jewish records in civil registration books from Slovak archives that were not microfilmed, and FamilySearch notes that the JewishGen Hungary database includes more than 1.2 million records for Hungary and former Hungarian regions including Slovakia, with free registration. These communities have specialist resources, and we point to them without covering them in depth. See our Slovak records guide.
Slovak archives online
A 2021 beginning Slovak genealogy handout says there were no searchable online records yet in the Slovak archives, which is why FamilySearch is the usual route. Check whether that has changed, because archives add material over time.
A practical workflow
- Build your tree on MyHeritage and attach what you find.
- Identify the parish using the gazetteers and, for Czech parishes, matriky.online.
- Browse the registers on the Czech archive portal or on FamilySearch for Slovakia.
- Add censuses from the archives and FamilySearch. See our civil records guide.
- Use JewishGen for Jewish records.
- Write to the archive for anything that is not online.
Questions to ask before you pay
- Is the place I need covered, and for which years?
- Is the record an image, an index or a family tree, and can I see the original?
- Is the same register free on an archive portal or on FamilySearch?
- Does the subscription include the tools I need, or only the records?
- Can I search in Czech, Slovak, German and Hungarian spellings?
Help from societies and translators
The Czechoslovak Genealogical Society International has resource pages for researchers and translators, a research database and a Czechia research group on FamilySearch’s community site, and the British Czech and Slovak Association lists translators. If a record is beyond you, a translator is cheaper than a wrong conclusion.
How to judge a source
- An image of a register is the closest to the original. Read the entry yourself.
- An index is a pointer. A FamilySearch community post on Slovak records advises reading the records with your own eyes and not relying on the indexing next to them.
- A family tree is a lead, not a source. Check each parent-child link against a register.
- A transcription may contain errors. Compare it with the image whenever you can.
Common mistakes
- Expecting one site to have everything. The best Czech registers are on archive portals.
- Searching only one spelling. Try the Czech, Slovak, German and Hungarian forms.
- Relying on a third-party index. Check the register itself.
- Ignoring FamilySearch for Slovakia. It is the main online source.
- Skipping the portal’s language options. Try the English or German version.
Continue with the complete tracing guide and the records hub, and browse Genealogy Research. Sources include FamilySearch’s Slovakia church and synagogue books collection, a guide to Czech vital records, the matriky.online registry of Czech parishes, a British Czech and Slovak Association research page, a 2021 beginning Slovak genealogy handout and the FamilySearch wiki on Slovak Jewish records.
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