Czech and Slovak genealogy rewards a methodical start. These seven steps take you from what your family already knows to the first Czech or Slovak record, and then back through the generations.
Step 1: Gather what you know
Write down names, dates and places for yourself, your parents and grandparents. Collect certificates, letters, baptism and marriage papers, passports and photographs. Enter everything in a tree, for example on MyHeritage, where you can attach records as you find them.
Step 2: Find the place of origin
Records are kept by parish and archive, so you need the village or town, not just “Czechoslovakia.” Look in immigration and naturalization papers, passenger lists, church and cemetery records and obituaries in the country where your ancestor settled.
Illustrative composite (not a real family): A reader knows only that her great-grandfather “came from Bohemia.” His naturalization papers name a village, which she finds under a Czech name and a German name on old maps, and she begins her search with the parish that covered it.
Step 3: Learn the place names
A village may appear under a Czech, Slovak, German or Hungarian name, depending on the period and the record. Before 1918 Slovakia was part of the Kingdom of Hungary, and official records of that period may use Hungarian forms. Write down every form you find.
Step 4: Find the archive
For the Czech lands, most pre-1900 parish books are in the regional archives, and for Slovakia they are in the state archives. See the records hub for how the archives are organized.
Step 5: Search the digitized registers
Czech regional archives have digitized almost all parish registers, and they are online for free. For Slovakia, FamilySearch has digitized and indexed many registers. Browse the register for your parish and years, and note the volume and page.
Step 6: Learn the languages
Registers may be in Latin, German, Hungarian, Czech or Slovak, depending on place and period. Word lists for Latin, German and Hungarian help you read them, and our guides will cover them.
Step 7: Cross-check and extend
Confirm every parent-child link in at least one record, and use DNA matches to find cousins who share your line. Our DNA hub explains where to begin. For the full walkthrough, read How to Trace Your Czech and Slovak Ancestry.
Sources used here include the Czech Genealogical Society International on archives and My Czech Roots on vital records.
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