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The authors, Prof. R. Gicklhornova of Vienna, Mr. F. Kalivoda, a Czechoslovak architect, and Dr. J. Sajner, a Czechoslovak medical historian on the staff of the Medical School in Brno, Czechoslovakia, reproduce for the first time a facsimile of Freud's birth certificate. A copy of this document was preserved in the office of the Catholic vicarage in Príbor that kept birth records of members of all religious denominations. The records kept by the Rabbi's office disappeared during the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia. The article also contains other illustrations related to Freud's early life in Príbor. The house where Freud was born is preserved virtually unchanged since the time of Freud's birth.
In his biography of Freud, Ernest Jones mentions the Czech nursemaid as a 'Nannie, old and ugly' to whom Freud refers as 'that prehistoric old woman'. She allegedly was dismissed and even jailed for theft when Freud was two and a half years old. This Nannie used to take young Sigmund to the local Catholic Church, whose main altar contains a sculpture of the Holy Virgin, flanked by two large baroque paintings representing Saint Isidor and Saint Vendelin. The authors have discovered the name and identity of the 'prehistoric old woman'. She was Monika Zajícova, a member of the family Zajíc, from whom the Freud family rented part of their home at 117 Zámecnická Street (Schlossergasse). The house has been the property of the family Zajíc, traditionally locksmiths, for four generations. The present owner of the house, Mrs. Vitezslava Balcárková, born Zajicova, reported that her father, Jan Zajíc (1850-1924) remembered Freud as a small child.
The Archives contain information on the occupation of Freud's father: he traded as a middleman in tallow, hemp, honey, woollens, and other goods. Official permits to trade and to sojourn in the