Moses, The Kingdom of Bohemia included 16 Kriese (Kraj) in the province of Bohemia with Prague as the provincial and royal capital. The kingdom also included 6 more Kreise (Kraj) in the province of Moravia where Brno was the provincial capital. Each Kreis also had its own administrative central city. Today's Czech Republic is roughly the same territory but the political organization is somewhat changed. Brno is still the main archive for Moravian records and Prague is the central archive for old royal records up to 1918 when Czechoslovakia reorganized it all again. CZ included what was left of the old Duchy of Austrian Silesia in eastern Moravia as a sort of part of today's Moravia. Opava / Troppau was its political center and most of the old Silesian records are still there. Bohemian genealogy depends on doing one's map-reading homework. There are a lot of old Bohemian and Moravian and Austrian Silesia maps in parchement atlases online at various university libraries in the US. The maps are not only beautiful and worthy of framing but they show how the various Circles/ Kreis / districts within the province of Bohemia or Moravia (usually on different pages) looked at a time when many of our ancestors first settled in that kingdome after the 30-Years War. A little more research of old maps on the internet will show changes in the borders of the various "Circles" (Kreis) with some growing in size while others shrank a bit. All of that is significant when one wants to know in which archive one might find records. An ancestor may have settled in one " Circle" but ended up in another without moving anywhere. Moravia seemed to have a fairly stable political organization with the number of Circles there at six or seven just about forever, if I recall. There were 14 circles in the province of Bohemia in the 1620s but in 1848 there were 16. The number of counties (Bezirke, Obec) changed too from an early number of about 32 to well over 100 after 1918. So a map showing counties may also be helpful if one is looking for the FIRST location of the oldest records that were kept by County Commissioners -- often at the Rathaus in the county's central town. Many of the county archives have now been moved to regional archives but it is still worthwhile to ask at the county level (if possible) what is still there. It may be necessary to hire a Czech researcher to do that for you. Such a professional would also be able to tell you to where any other records were moved and might also be able to find what is needed at the new repository. Maps are an important genealogical resource and maps that represent the time period when one's ancestors were born, died, served in the military, married or emigrated would serve one much better than a modern map of the Czech Republic. Karen -----Original Message----- From: Theimer, Moses <[email protected]> To: [email protected] <[email protected]> Sent: Mon, Mar 29, 2010 10:10 am Subject: [GERMAN-BOHEMIAN] Theimer- Bohemian or Moravian ? Dear All: I just received some documents from the Czech Republic that my Grandfather Bruno Theimer was born in Sternberg. I always thought that the this area was Bohemian however I am finding out that it was Moravian. Can someone please clarify this and if this may be correct guild me to a website for Moravians. Any information is greatly appreciated. Thank you. Moses Major Moses C. Theimer Assistant Professor New Mexico Military Institute Communications Department 101 West College Boulevard Roswell, New Mexico 88201 (505)624-8202 [email protected] www.nmmi.edu Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail, including all attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure, or distribution is prohibited unless specifically provided under the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender and destroy all copies of this message. German-Bohemian Heritage Society web site http://www.rootsweb.com/~gbhs/ ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message