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Subject: [CZ] About Parishes
Date: Mon, 1 Jan 2001 15:09:17 EST

The J G Sommer books give a history of each parish that they mention. But
the history stops as of the day the book was published.

The books are good for information prior to 1848 only. After 1848 the
parish arrangement may have remained the same for several decades and then it
may have changed.

Most villages without churches had a small chapel where there were services
on the saint's day of the village patron saint and one or two other special
occasions or village festivals. These chapels were very small and few
people could be inside so most of the villagers stood about outside while the
doors of the chapel were kept open during a service.

Some of the Heimat books I have read tell of a village being in a parish in
another village for a long time when they finally got a church of their own.
At first it was just a "filial" church -- one affiliated with the parish
church in another village -- and it was only used for Sunday services. Most
other parish activities (baptisms, weddings) still took place at the parish
church and that is where the vital records register was kept. At a later
date the church may have become a "lokalie" church with its own chaplain.
Then all services were performed there but there is a question of where the
records were kept. Since a "Lokalie" is not a parish church in the strict
sense -- it is still like a branch of another parish -- it may not have kept
its own vital records -- they may still have been kept at the Parish in
another village.

Eventually the local church received the status of a Parish in its own right
and from that time all records and all services were available locally. As a
parish church people from other nearby villages would attend services there.

So you really have to know what the status of a parish was during the time
that your ancestors lived in a certain place, and the farther back you go you
have to be sure that it was always the same. You may find some of your
records in one parish and some of them in another depending on how many years
you go back.

The gazetteers available from Vienna on the web site I mentioned yesterday
have an important detail in them. They give the parish that each place
belonged to. I do not know if they give the parish in 1945 only or if they
trace how the parish situation changed at various times. If you decide to
order a Gazetteer you might ask that question.

Karen

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