• Scope of activities of the SOA in Prague and its structure
• What are the possibilities and conditions of studying archival records?
• Online research of archival records
• How to search for your ancestors?
• What paid services do the archives provide?
• Are the specialized archives libraries accessible to the public?

SOA in Prague is an organisational component of the state established by Act No. 499/2004 Coll., on Archival Science and File Service, as amended.

The administrative district of the archives is delimited to the territory of the regions of Central Bohemia and, in some cases, to Prague. The archives are divided into seven specialised departments and twelve state district archives being the organisational units of the SOA in Prague. Other state archives tend archival records from various regions of the Czech Republic, for more information click HERE.

There are thirteen reading rooms available for those interested in research (headquarters SOA in Prague, State District Archives Benešov, Beroun, Kladno, Kolín, Kutná Hora, Mělník, Mladá Boleslav, Nymburk based in Lysá nad Lbem, Prague-East based in Přemyšlení, Prague-West based in Dobřichovice, Příbram, and Rakovník). It is possible to send potential requests for archival records and other questions to studovna@soapraha.cz not only in Czech, but also in English and German languages.

A potential researcher shall denote list of archival records, which he/she wishes to study, in the application. The archival records require certain time to be prepared and that is why it is essenatial to send requests in sufficient advance (at least two weeks in advance). Research of materials is usually possible only with compiled archival fonds owing to archival aids (f.e. inventories, catalogues, and registers).

The digitalised records are available in the Archival VadeMeCum application enabling full text research, and reservations for study material via e-basket. The rest of archival records, existing merely in paper versions, a researcher has to study in person in the respective reading rooms where he/she fills in the application and arranges a date for the archival records to be issued. During the visit in the reading room, the researcher has to abide by the rules determined by the Rules of Research Procedure.

Upon prior approval of the institution, the researcher may use his/her own digital camera or scanner for acquirment of reproductions of archival records for his/her personal need. For this purpose, the researcher fills in the Request for Consent to use his/her own means of reproduction.

Research of selected archival records is possible via eBadatelna where digitalised study copies, deposited in SOA in Prague, are published. The full collection of birth and death registers of the Central Bohemia region is available on the website and a number of other archival records is still on the grow (for example, land registers, municipal chronicles, documents).

The birth and death registers of the area of the today's Central Bohemia region are the only registers deposited in the headquarters SOA in Prague. Since their research copies exist, original volumes of the registers are not submitted for research. For the digitalised research copies and further information about research of registers, click . Other archival records applicable for family trees may be found in the individual state district archives with the possibility to consult the staff via their e-mail addresses.

For the public, the archives provide services such as reproductions of archival records (especially electrographic and digitalised copies), specialised research and so forth where a fee is imposed by the Scales of reimbursement of costs related to service provision by the State Regional Archives in Prague.

Archives libraries are integral parts of the respective archives and these enable studying books solely on the spot. The overview of publications from the library fonds of all of the SOA in Prague's workplaces is available in the union catalogue.