What people ask

Moje historie is a service that starts from one name and finds your ancestors in old Czech parish registers, usually back to the 1700s. Every record is transcribed, checked by a person and backed by its source. The family gets the tree online (tree, map, timeline, stories) and a Family Book in PDF. We try to find one ancestor's record for free, usually the same day, within a week at the latest. What we find beyond that, you unlock right in the app for $25 (€22), including ownership of the tree. Further ancestors we search for $9 (€8) each one we find: you choose how many at most (5, 10, 30 or 60), pay the maximum, and for those we do not find we refund $9 (€8) each. How long the search takes depends on the number of ancestors: 5 to 10 ancestors usually within a week, larger searches within two to three weeks.

Unlocking is a finished result: the ancestors we found beyond the free sample appear locked and you unlock them all right away for $25 (€22). Then the tree is yours. We do not search for more ancestors, only for the houses of the direct ancestors already in your tree. Searching further is new work in the registers: $9 (€8) for every ancestor we find, and it takes 5 to 10 ancestors usually within a week, larger searches within two to three weeks.

The name of the oldest ancestor your family knows, and one event with a year and a village: a birth, a wedding or a death. For women also the maiden name, if you know it. Parents' names, birth or marriage certificates, obituaries or a family bible all help. The rest your family fills in a questionnaire we send.

Priests recorded every baptism, wedding and burial. From the village and the year we find the book, the record names the parents, the parents lead to another book, and so on, generation by generation. Family documents can help us establish the starting person and continue into earlier generations.

From 1784 on, the registers have columns and name the parents. There we look for every ancestor and usually find 90 to 100 %. In older books, from 1784 back to 1650, we usually find 65 to 80 % of ancestors in Moravia and 45 to 70 % in Bohemia and Silesia. Single lines often reach the 1600s, and through lists of farmers back to the years after the Thirty Years' War. In our own family we reached the year 1630.

Sometimes the road in the registers ends: at a child born out of wedlock, where the priest did not record the father, at an ancestor who came from abroad or left for it, at soldiers, who have military registers of their own, and at Jewish families, whose registers begin only in 1784. In the Sudetenland some books from 1938 to 1945 were lost, and the records there were in German. An ancestor we do not find, you do not pay for: we refund $9 (€8). Family documents can help when we cannot find the starting record.

You choose how many ancestors to search for at most: 5 for $45 (€40), 10 for $90 (€80), 30 for $270 (€240), 60 for $540 (€480). You pay that maximum up front. At handover we count how many ancestors we actually found and documented with a record, and for each of the rest we refund $9 (€8) to your card. Example: of 30 we find 26, we refund 4 × $9 (€8) = $36 (€32) and the search costs you $234 (€208).

The example in a picture on the pricing page →

A free sample: you enter one ancestor (name, year and village) and we find their record in a parish register and transcribe it into plain English, with their parents and often the grandparents. Other ancestors we found appear locked (year and village yes, name after unlocking) and we tell you how far back your family goes in the registers. The result comes usually the same day, within a week at the latest and you are not committed to anything. We search parish registers from Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia. An ancestor born in 1920 or earlier.

The free sample costs nothing. If we do not find the record, we write why and what to try instead, such as another year or village; you can make up to three attempts. When searching further you pay only for ancestors we find: At handover we count whom we did not find and refund $9 (€8) for each to your card within 10 days of handover.

The example on the pricing page →

The computer leafs through thousands of register images, finds your ancestors' records, reads them (Latin, German and old handwriting included) and puts them into plain English. But every link between parents and children in the direct line is checked by a person over the record itself. For every fact you see where it comes from and how certain it is.

Your family tree in Moje historie is behind a sign-in and only the people you invite can see it. We never publish anything about living people. The samples on this site come from the public part of the Hromek family tree: only ancestors born before 1910 who have died. The data is yours: you get it as a GEDCOM file and we delete it on request.

The parish registers of all Czech state regional archives and the Land Archives in Opava, and Slovak registers up to 1895 from FamilySearch. Besides those, land registers, the tax roll of 1654, censuses and old maps. We know our way around them and where to look. You do not have to visit any archive.

For now we work with Czech, Moravian, Silesian and Slovak registers. Austrian, Polish or German books we assess on a call.

The free sample comes usually the same day, within a week at the latest. Unlocking in the app is immediate after payment. How long searching further takes depends on the number of ancestors: 5 to 10 ancestors usually within a week, larger searches within two to three weeks. We read each record and check that it belongs to the right person. Ancestors before 1780 and the houses of other relatives we search on request and tell you the date in advance.

Your family tree stays in Moje historie until you yourself ask us to delete it. You can also download the Family Book in PDF and all the data at any time.

For every fact there is a transcript of the record, its meaning in plain English, the exact place where the record is (archive, book, page) and a link to the image in the digital archive. Cut-outs of the records straight from the registers are in your tree for signed-in family only, wherever the archive allows it.

They are words from old registers and land books. A quarter farmer worked a quarter of a hide of land, about 5 hectares of fields. A lodger had no house of his own and rented a room at a farmer's. A retirement portion was what parents kept when they handed the farm to their children: a room, grain and care until death. In the app every such word has an explanation, and the glossary explains 126 of them.

Open the glossary in the live sample →

Online by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay through the Stripe payment gateway, in US dollars or euros. Unlocking you pay at once and have access right away. When searching further you pay the maximum for the number of ancestors you chose, and for those we do not find we refund $9 (€8) each to the same card. Ancestors before 1780 and the houses of other relatives you pay in advance through a link, $24 (€22) per ancestor in the round, and we refund $24 (€22) for each one we do not find. Prices are final and include VAT. A gift voucher is paid in full in advance, and we start searching within 14 days of the recipient redeeming it.

Yes, a gift for Christmas or a birthday is the most common reason. A search for 10 ancestors for $90 (€80) or 30 ancestors for $270 (€240) comes as a voucher in PDF to print, and the recipient redeems it with the code from the stub, or you fill it in for them. We start searching within 14 days of redeeming. For ancestors we do not find, we refund the buyer $9 (€8) each. Gift vouchers in English are coming soon; for now write to us and we will arrange it.