More random Czech history/genealogy stuff

The most important thing you need to understand about genealogy and history in central Europe is the 30 Years' War and its effect on the local population. This is sort of confusing in Germany, as mostly it was a war between Sweden and Austria, with the fighting carried out across Germany. Whose side you were on varied from village to village, but everyone suffered. Some areas survived mostly okay, and some (like around Birkenau in Hessen) lost 90% of their population.

Bohemia was different. The lines were much more clearly drawn, because protestant Bohemia was fighting against the Catholic Hapsburgs of Austria. So there were both religious and political lines being drawn. And Bohemia lost.

Most church records start in the mid 1600s, which coincides with the end of this war. People died, houses were left empty, and there was some population shift as a result. Most importantly in Bohemia, the Catholic Austrian leadership wanted to make sure they knew what religion people were professing. (And to make sure they were Catholic, of course!) Prior to this time, baptism was still essential, but it wasn't until now that recording it became required. Church records doubled as legal vital statistics, and accurate record keeping was important.

What I'm seeing in the earliest records is that not everyone has a surname. America was already being settled and on its way to the modern state, so it seems crazy to me that people would still not have last names somewhere! But many people are only recorded as "Tomass and Marya, farmers from Smolivec" or somesuch.

If that's not confusing enough, many other people have TWO surnames. They will have one name listed, followed by "vulgo" or "alias" and another surname. Obviously alias didn't mean the same thing to them as to us, as they were openly listing both names. So, what did it mean? It took me a while to figure this out--I found many people on line with many fanciful theories, but they didn't seem to know much about Czech history. Finally I found out what was going on. Remember the war, how people were relocating following depopulation, etc.? Well, the Massak family might move into the house where the Urbanek family used to live. And they'd get the Urbaneks' name, too! So Jan Massak was his blood name, but sometimes he'd be called Jan Urbanek as an alias. (Only, sometimes your blood name might be listed as your alias, and sometimes your house name.)

One more thing to understand while looking for Czech ancestors is that most people were serfs on an estate (velkostatek in Czech, Herrschaft in German). But, parish lines and estate lines do not line up. So, if you lived in Stary Smolivec, for example, you were in the Oselce estate, and the Belcice parish. But you really were on the line between several parishes, and it might be easier or preferable (if your spouse's people were from the next parish, for example) to have your child baptized in the Kasejovice parish. Or Cizkov. Or Kotoun.

Somewhere, there's got to be a map of estate and parish lines, but if there is, I haven't found it yet.