Czech Records: Andreas Möckl

Andreas Möckl was the son of my 4th great grandmother, Katharina Möckl. Although my parents didn’t photograph a birth record for Andreas Möckl, they did photograph the birth record of Andreas’ daughter, Theresia Möckl. This is where we learned that Andreas Möckl was the son of Katharina Möckl. The record said, “Andreas Möckl a miner, born in Imligau Number 8, son of Katharina Möckl who is now married to Strunz in Putschirn Number 15.” So, we can see that Katharina Möckl had her son, Andreas, out of wedlock, and that she later married her husband, Anton Strunz. But we cannot tell from this record whether Anton Strunz was the biological father of Andreas Möckl, or not.

Theresia Möckl
Czech Birth Records, Book VI Putschirn, page 60
Photographs IMG_0585 through IMG_0591, IMG_0608 through IMG_0614
Photographs of birth records taken by Amy Lynn Spohr Chidester and Steven John Chidester on their trip to the Czech Republic in February 2008 (digital copies of these photographs in the possession of Stephanie Chidester Bradshaw). Translated on 20 May 2008 by Sister Frieda Kindt of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Milwaukee 1st Ward building, Brookfield, Wisconsin. Transcribed by Stephanie Bradshaw.

"Born 1 September 1872, Baptized 1 September 1872, [name of pastor], name of child: Theresia, Catholic, Female, Legitimate,
Place and House Number: Putschirn Number 18
Midwife: Anna Wurzberger in Altenhlau [or Altrohlau?] testified
Father: Andreas Möckl a miner, born in Imligau Number 8, son of Katharina Möckl who is now married to Strunz in Putschirn Number 15, and she is the legitimate daughter of the deceased Josef Möckl born in Imligau and the deceased Margareth born Fischer of Rausergrun [or Wundertgrun?] Number 13.
Mother: Francisca born Hochberger of Södau Number 8, the legitimate daughter of Franz Hochberger a miner in Ottowitz Number 21 and the deceased Theresia born Funk of Södau Number 8.Witnesses: Katharina Nachbar [this surname means ‘neighbor’] the wife of Franz Nachbar a shoemanker in Altrohlau”

Birth Records from the Czech Republic

So, this is a real treasure. These are the records that my parents were able to photograph from a birth/baptism record book in an archive in the Czech Republic – I don’t believe these records have ever been microfilmed or been made available to the public other than for those who can travel to the Czech Republic and go to the archives in person. So when they found these records, I was ecstatic.

After returning from their trip, having some of the records translated, and sorting through the many papers to piece them together like a puzzle, we learned that the birth record of every child in the book not only provided a birth date and location and the names, residences (often with specific house numbers), and occupations (for males) of the child’s parents, but it also provided that information for the child’s paternal and maternal grandparents too. So, when you find one birth record for an ancestor, you also get information about that ancestor’s parents, and 4 grandparents. And, if the child happened to be born out of wedlock, it seems that they felt a need to include extra information (to make up for the fact that the mother had had the child illegitimately and the name of the child’s father was not often recorded), so they threw in a 4th generation for illegitimate children. The German Catholics sure knew how to keep records!

The other thing we realized is with so many names provided by each birth record, we could potentially connect many of the other residents of the town to the family because they were cousins. Unfortunately, due to time constraints and language limitations, my parents only had enough time to search through the book – taking digital photographs of each record containing a surname that they recognized, and they also didn’t realize until later that there would have also been a separate book for marriage records, and a third book for death records. (So, now it is our goal to somehow get photographs of every page of that birth record book, along with the pages of the marriage and death record books too, and to be able to go through every record to see who was related – someday, hopefully). But it is so exciting to have the records that we do have, and to be able to go through each of those.
First, I’ll give a list of the relatives we’ve found in those Czech records so far, and then I’ll try to show how they are related with some pedigree charts and family group sheets.

(You can click on each chart to zoom in and read it.)

I’ll post the actual photographs and translations of the birth records for these ancestors too, but this post is already pretty long, so I’ll include them in a separate post next.