Census Lists of Jewish Families in Bohemia, 1723/1724–1811
Census Lists of Jewish Families in Bohemia, 1723/1724–1811

Summary/Abstract: In January last year, the Department of Auxiliary Historical Sciences and of Archive Studies at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague, launched a three-year project with the support of funds from the Rothschild Foundation (Europe). This project focuses on processing and providing access to a database of census lists of Jews in Bohemia that were taken in the years 1723/1724–1811. This source of information is quite unique in character and is of major significance for the history of the Jews in Bohemia in the eighteenth century and early nineteenth century. It provides data concerning not only the nature of Jewish settlement in the given period and the number of Jewish residents or familiants in each locality, but also to a large extent shows the structure, size and livelihoods of Jewish families, including information on the contribution amounts levied, etc. Due to the fact that the lists, in a relatively continuous way, cover the period from the eighteenth century to the beginning of the nineteenth, they make it possible, to a certain extent – not only in themselves but also, and primarily, in comparison with other written sources – to record and monitor changes and trends in the life of the Jewish population in this period. They are an important source of information for genealogists, researchers in the field of regional history, demographers and researchers in social and economic history.

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