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From: "G. Martisek" <>
Subject: Re: [CZ]Manorial records
Date: Mon, 01 Jan 2001 14:04:20 -0600
References: <20.1017a4a1.27822dff@aol.com>


How does one go about finding the manorial records or large estates owned by
nobility in a particular of Moravia?

wrote:

> One good source of information on your earlier ancestors are the old manorial
> and court records and the copies that may be in the archives of noble
> families that once administered Bohemia.
>
> For example, I know that my ancestral village was Mariafels (Slavice) just
> north of Stribro a few miles. At the time my great grandfather was born
> that village was the administrative center for the estate owned by the noble
> von Aehrenthal (Baron) family. That particular von Aehrenthal estate was
> called Herrschaft Mariafels -- the von Aehrenthals also had a huge estates in
> Eastern Bohemia. It included perhaps 2 dozen villages in the area
> surrounding Mariafels. The Ortsamtmann (general overseer/ administrative
> chief of the Herrschaft) lived in Mariafels and had his offices there.
>
> During the period prior to 1848 the nobility was responsible to administer
> justice as well as to administer land transactions, marriage contracts, last
> wills, and other routine tasks that go with keeping track of what is going
> on. The justice proceedings -- law suits, criminal cases, petitions are
> kept in COURT records. The other Herrschaft records are called "MANORIAL"
> records. They document anything that did not take a judge or magistrate to
> decide. There will be tax records, records of who lived in what house in
> what village and how much rent they owed (paid by cash, a percentage of
> produce and forced labor on the noble lords own farmlands) as well as
> documentation of who owns what piece of land and how it is used.
>
> Each noble family had their own archives. Some of the descendants of the old
> nobility still have their archives. In other cases the archives have been
> turned over to the state. In many cases those archives contain copies of all
> court and manorial records that go as far back as that family owned that
> estate. I know that the von Aehrenthal archives are in Litomerice -- 132
> boxes of them!!! Fortunately the boxes are indexed so the information I
> want about the years when my great great great uncle was the Ortsamtmann of
> Mariafels should not be too difficult to find. I plan to ask a professional
> to work with me on this.
>
> I mentioned above that the von Aehrenthals had more than one estate. The
> estate in the west was at Mariafels and, in theory, the archive of choice for
> those archives would be at Plzen. But the most important von Aehrental
> estate was in the east near to Litomerice and that is why ALL of the archives
> ended up in that city. The point is that when you are looking for noble
> archives you might not find them stored "locally."
>
> It can be important to your research to know the names of noble lords who
> once ruled your ancestors. There is a history of the ownership of each
> Herrschaft in Bohemia in the books "Das Königreich Böhmen" by J. G. Sommer.
> The books are a survey of Bohemia written between 1833 and 1849. There are
> 16 volumes, one for each of the greater districts of Bohemia at that time.
> There are about 8 research libraries around the US that will lend the books
> on interlibrary loan. The CGSI library also has photocopies of all of the
> books that were made by an American who purchased the entire set in a Prague
> used book store. (His set may eventually be for sale)
>
> Each book has a foreward section that describes the general geology, streams,
> climate, flora and fauna of the greater district and then tells what
> regiments are recruited there, how the population is made up of Germans,
> Czechs, Jews, other and what religions are practiced there. There is also a
> general assessment of the economic data -- what people do to make a living in
> farming, industry and crafts or in the professions.
>
> That foreward section is followed by descriptions of each Herrschaft in the
> district with the history of noble ownereship, size, how the land is used,
> number of inhabitants and their trades, etc. Each village town or city in
> the Herrschaft is listed with a short description of its size (number of
> houses and number of residents) and where the PARISH church for each village
> is. (If the church is not in your village you go to the listing of the
> village named and will find the name of the church there. That makes it easy
> to ask for parish records.)
>
> The books are in old Gothic German and are based on what it was like when
> they were written. It is not too difficult to learn to read the Gothic type
> (called FRAKTUR) with the help of Frank Soural's booklet or some of the aids
> you find at the LDS. It is easy to pick out names of people (noble lords)
> and places in the list of villages owned by the Herrschaft. You can also copy
> the pages you need and then have them translated.
>
> There are a series of similar books for Moravia by Gregor Wolny (Die
> Markgrafschaft Mahren).
>
> Karel Kysilka has a web site that has some rare and very valuable maps of
> Moravia on it. The maps show the borders of the old noble Herrschafts prior
> to 1848. Each one has the major administrative town marked and the location
> of the parish churces (shown as either protestant or catholic) and any market
> towns in the Herrschaft.
>
> The maps can be downloaded and printed. They print very large, taking from
> 6-14 sheets of paper per map which can then be assemled into one large map.
> It is not a good idea to try to reduce the size -- it skews the printing on
> the maps.
>
> To find Karel Kysilka's site about Moravia search on: Kysilka
>
> I gave you his Email address earlier. If you cannot find the site, write to
> him and ask the URL.
>
> Karen
>
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