Surname Fabritz, Falkenau

Discussion in 'Looking for Ancestors' started by kbeckman, Nov 28, 2005.

  1. kbeckman

    kbeckman New Member

    Hello:

    I've been trying to learn as much as I can about Falkenau. It is the only information I have about where my ancestors came from. On their U.S. census images and on their death certificates, their birthplace is listed as Falkenau (and sometimes together with Austria/Germany/Bohemia). I understand that Falkenau is now Sokolov. That is how I discovered this forum.

    My ancestors' surname is Fabritz. I wonder if it is likely that they changed their name when they came to the U.S. in the 1860s. Does Fabritz sound like a name that would have been common in this region at that time? Is there any way of finding out if any people with that surname live in that area now?

    Are church records easily available for this time period?

    Thanks for your help!

    Kristen
     
  2. Dana

    Dana Well-Known Member

    Hi Kristen,

    You are right, Falkenau is the German name for Sokolov. I tried to look up the last name Fabritz in the phone book at phone.quick.cz and www.zlatestranky.cz (the Yellow Pages) and didn't come up with any results for Sokolov or the whole Czech Republic for that matter.

    Records of births, marriages, deaths etc. would typically be available in the city archive. The Sokolov District Archive seems to be located in Jindřichovice, tel./fax (+420) 352 695 254, email: soka-so at volny dot cz. Information about Sokolov may also be available in the regional archive in Plzeň.

    Good luck!

    Dana
     
  3. wer

    wer Well-Known Member

    As Dana wrote Fabritz is'nt usual name in Czech but it's very usual German name. I saw it also as first name (I think it's german form of Italian name Fabricio). In Sokolov there lived a lot of Germans before 1945 (see http://www.mu-sokolov.cz/www/turista/historie-en.html).
     

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