
Penal registers where mainained by municipalities. They chronologically record the offenses & crimes committed by local inhabitants with a reference to the verdict of the court and the exact start and end of imprisonment.
Samples
Faq
Penal register 1899 (District archive Brno-venkov located in Rajhrad, Czech language)
This is an example of the penal register from the village Opatovice. The first entry records the misdeeds of Jan Kordík, 29-year-old worker, married, belonging to Růžová, born in Moravské Bránice, who was sentenced according to the 9th, 197th, and 199th letter of the law and articles 202 & 55 of the penal code to 6 weeks (in jail) with fasting each 14 days. Jan Kordík had previously been sentenced on 9 December 1897 to 2 months in heavy jail in Brno for theft. He was to start the sentence on 1 September 1899. He is able to read and write.
WHY were they collected? | Evidence of offenses and crimes committed by inhabitants |
WHEN were they collected? | 1850-1950 |
WHO collected the records? | Municipalities |
WHAT information can be found? | Name and surname, age, birth place, right-of-domicile, previous penalties, subject of delict, verdict, beginning & end of the imprisonment, physical & mental status |
In which ARCHIVES are they held? |
District archives |
In which archive FILES can they be found? | Archive of town (Archiv města), Archive of village (Archiv obce) |
LANGUAGE of records | Czech, German |
AVAILABILITY | Rarely preserved, if available very interesting |
What must be KNOWN before getting started? | Name, place of residence and time scale when the offenses could happen. Records are kept in chronological order. |
Czech expression | Trestní kniha (plural = Trestní knihy) |
German expression | Index |
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