Sometimes in the old Czech church records, the husband and his family had a second surname. This occasionally occurred when the husband acquired a cottage or farm through his wife's family, taking on her family's name. It also occurred when a man acquired property named after a previous unrelated owner. In some cases, the vulgo name entirely replaced the birth surname. The Czech word "vulgo" might appear between the two surnames- it means "alias" or "also known as." Also, the Czech words "jinak" (alias) and "a" (and) were used. If the record was in Latin, "et" (and) and "aliter" (otherwise) would be applied.
Marriage Records
The church records might add the wife's maiden surname to the husband's birth name when the husband acquired a cottage through his wife. For example, in 1743, Matej Kuratko married Katerina, the daughter of Jakub Havlicek, in Vlastec, South Bohemia. Later, in 1757, at the Havlicek cottage, Matej (junior) was born. His father was listed in the baptismal record as "Matej Kuratko jinak Havlicek."
In some cases, even the second husband of a woman would acquire the surname of the first husband, along with the cottage. For instance, eighteen year old Ludmila Czejka married Bartolomej Kerian of the village of Pasice in 1674. Ten years later, the widow Ludmila Kerian married Matej Bauza in Pasice. However, the father of their children was listed in the baptismal records as "Matej Kerian," with no indication of the Bauza surname. Therefore, it is a good idea to check marriage records to supplement the baptismal records.
Not too far away in the village of Chrestovice, Vaclav Svihlik married the widow of Jan Kothanek, Katerina, in 1728. By 1757 real estate records show that Vaclav took on the vulgo surname Kothanek, but was still legally Svihlik. He sold the Kothanek cottage (cottage # 41 in Chrestovice) that year to his stepgrandson, Jakub Kothanek. Again, do not just examine baptismal records when it comes to surnames.
Cottage Name
The house name appears to be involved in the case of the Strnad-Raz family of Zahori. A 1722 marriage record has "Jakub Strnad jinak Raz" marrying Veruna, daughter of Jan Kriz. Baptismal records of their children have their father listed as either "Strnad," "Raz," "Strnad jinak Raz," or "Raz jinak Strnad." The Raz name disappeared over the years as the family moved. Jakub's death record in 1769 in Zahori has him listed as just Strnad. His son Jan, living in Zahori and then Vlastec, was listed as just Strnad on his children's baptismal records.
Another example concerns the Antonin Chalupsky family of Zabori. Upon his marriage to Anna Hajek in 1776, Antonin was living at cottage # 16, the Supitar (or Shupitar) home. Born a Chalupsky in 1755, Antonin's marriage record and the baptismal records of most of his children listed him as just "Antonin Supitar," not Chalupsky. But when Antonin's family moved from cottage # 16 to # 37, they changed to Antonin's birth surname of Chalupsky in various records.
Although a majority of the individuals in the old Czech records got their surname the traditional way- birth surname of the father- you may find a few families in your research that have a vulgo surname added to their birth name. In some instances, the vulgo name has replaced the birth name. The only way to meet this research challenge is to look at all records- baptismal/birth, marriage, death, property- as you methodically go back generation by generation to find the birth name of an ancestor.
Sources
Digital Archives, State Regional Archives, Trebon, http://digi.ceskearchivy.cz
Vulgo Names, http://www.oxfordjctgenealogy.com/main/?page_id=191
Historie domu v Chrestovicich, http://chrestovice.wz.cz/kockahisdomuchrest.htm
William L. Wunder - BA in History, University of Iowa, 1994, with Dean's List honors. History Buff- constant reader of books in American ...
