After all these years of doing family research, I seem to
still be a rookie making dumb mistakes.
I should know enough to search all possible sources of information
however unlikely I think they are to bear fruit. Why did I not think that a site like Billion
Graves would give me any clues in the Czech Republic?
Case in point: Trying to find Filek family roots in Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic, I
searched all of the immigration records found thus far looking for “last
residence”. I’ve been learning to use DigiArchiv of SRA Trebon databases; and I searched another Czech site, KdeJsme looking for people
with that surname currently living in the Czech Republic. Of course, there is
little chance that Filek families
today are living where their ancestors lived 150 years ago.
Armed with the names of towns where these families live now,
I turned to Family Search again in hopes of being able to find them in digitized
but unindexed films. I selected SEARCH and then RECORDS and then clicked on
Europe on the map and selected Czech Republic.
The site first gives a list of those record collections that are
indexed; then lists the unindexed records.
Billion Graves was among the indexed records. For some reason, I was not aware that Billion Graves data
extended beyond North America. I should
have at least tried it. 
It gave me a
list of 10 individuals with death dates ranging from 1868 to 2009.
I have not yet found the people I’m looking for, but I have
many more clues to follow.
Moral: Leave no stone
unturned.
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