[ Home ]
|
+++ CGSI (Czechoslovak Genealogical Society
International) of St. Paul, MN published in March 1995 an index of surnames
submitted by their members. Extracted names from South Bohemia: +++ Kolache recipe. If you were to ask someone in Oxford Jct., IA to
name one Czech food, the answer would be kolaches. A tradition brought
from the old country, they are a favorite pastry in Czech communities.
Recipes are many and varied. Here is my grandmother Alvena's: +++ The Holy Bible was in the Czech language by 1370, per a history book. The German Johannes Gutenberg, ca. 1390-1468, invented printing from movable type in 1448. The Bible was first printed in Latin. Martin Luther (1483-1546) translated it to German in ca. 1530. I can only assume that a Bible in some language was translated to Czech by monks, by hand, if 1370 is correct. Another source states that the "Prague Bible" was the first ever printed in the Czech language, in 1488, and 12 copies survive in 2002, one owned by the Prague municipal library. According to the book Genealogical Research for Czech and Slovak Americans by Olga K. Miller, a committee of Bratrska Jednota (church organized in 1457 by the followers of Jan Hus) prepared an excellent and accurate translation of the Holy Bible (into Czech), published at Kralice and called the "Kralicka Bible". In doing historical research, it is common to find conflicting information about a subject. +++ Oxford Junction Heritage Museum in downtown Oxford Jct., IA has developed into a fine small-town museum. The growing collection is well-displayed and explained, and includes my grandmother's treadle-style sewing machine, one of the Oxford Hayloaders (a farm implement invented and manufactured in Oxford Jct. by Lasacks who emigrated from the Suchdol nad Luznici area, there Lejsek), and other items too numerous to mention. To learn the hours or arrange a tour, contact VonSpreckens at 563 826-2113 or ask at the town hall. Don't forget to leave a donation to this wonderful community project which represents the multi-ethnical heritage of the Oxford Junction area. The museum has a website that includes a long list of obituaries from the Oxford Mirror that you can order for a nominal fee from Rita Balichek, a tireless community activist. Museum Website +++ Tribute to outbound emigrants. At the Masaryk Train Station in Prague, Czech Republic there is a memorial tablet inscribed: "Hundred of thousands of Czech women, men and children passed through this gate after 1848 to seek a new home on the other side of the Atlantic. Dedicated to their memory and their part in the advancement of the American continent, by the citizens of the Republic, on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the discovery of the New World". That station was the starting point for most of the emigrants from Bohemia and Moravia who then went either to Hamburg or Bremen on their journey to America. +++ Genealogists' prose. We live under the shadow of a gigantic question
mark. +++ Coming to America -- Immigration from East Europe by Shirley Blumenthal is a wealth of information for genealogists. The book describes life in "the old country", the reasons for and process of getting here, and conditions in this new world in the 19th and early 20th centuries. +++ The Uprooted by Oscar Handlin contains great background information for genealogists. On page 7: "The immigrant movement started in the peasant heart of Europe. Ponderously balanced in a solid equilibrium for centuries, the old structure of an old society began to crumble at the opening of the modern era. One by one, rude shocks weakened the aged foundations until some climactic blow suddenly tumbled the whole into ruins. The mighty collapse left without homes millions of helpless, bewildered people. These were the army of emigrants." And on page 31: "So Europe watched them go -- in less than a century and a half, well over thirty-five million of them from every part of the continent. In this common flow were gathered up people of the most diverse qualities, people whose rulers had for centuries been enemies, people who had not even known of each other's existence. Now they would share each other's future." +++ Land Use around Suchdol nad Luznici, South Bohemia. According to a Czech website:
+++ Photos of South Bohemian antiquities. The book Sto Let Jihoceskeho Narodopisu , in English 100 Years of South Bohemian Ethnography (the systematic recording of human cultures), was printed in 1995 by the South Bohemia Museum at Ceske Budejovice. Large, color photos of antiquities from So. Boh., a model of a typical village house, and discussion of same, in Czech, are in this book, borrowed on interlibrary loan. The crop rotation system is described: fallow, revive, field/meadow, crops, etc. +++ German-Bohemians are the immigrants to other countries who have either lived or have ancestry in the outer rim of the Czech Republic. Once this region was part of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation, when people moved and settled freely in Central Europe. When the nation of Czechoslovakia was created in 1919 out of the former Austrian crown colonies of Bohemia, Moravia, and Slovakia, the German-speaking outer rim came to be known as the Sudetenland, named for the terrain that separates Germany from Bohemia. On a map that marks the regions where Germans lived in Bohemia, the Suchdol nad Luznici area is included. Some surnames from the Suchdol area are Germanic (Benischek, Haumer, Schneider for example), and people who lived there could speak German as well as Czech (although this could be explained by the Austria-Hungary Empire's requirement of German being taught in the schools and used in business and government offices). Further, I had the pleasure of knowing two emigrants, one from Hrdlorezy and one from Nepomuk by Salmanovice and thought their accents sounded German-like. The Suchdol area is not considered Sudetenland, but our ancestors from there might have been German-Bohemians. I suspect that one day when I trace my Benischeks back far enough, I will read "came from Bavaria with the noble Schwarzenberg's purchase of 30 serfs"! +++ Czech Language. In the family tree of language, Czech is classified
as West Slavic, a branch of the Slavonic languages which branch from Indo-European.
The chapter Languages of the Slavic Group in The World's Chief Languages
by Mario A. Pei, Ph,D., 1960, reads "This imposing group, extending
from the shores of the Baltic and the Adriatic, across central and eastern
Europe........ Czech, the official tongue of Czechoslovakia, is native
to over 7,000,000 inhabitants of Bohemia and Moravia, while its variant,
Slovak, is spoken by about 3,000,000 (the rest of Czechoslovakia's 15,000,000
inhabitants have German, Hungarian, Ruthenian, and Yiddish as primary
tongues)........The grammatical structure is very similar to that of Polish........"
Olga Drahozhal explained in an article in Nase Ceske Dedictvi, March 2000
issue, "In the early 9th century the Slavs...... had a spoken language
but not a method of recording in the written manner."
born = narozeni, m. = snatek, d. = umrti & zemrel, groom = zenich,
bride = nevesta, witness = svedci, name = jmeno, age = vek, father = otec,
mother = matka, son = syn, daughter = dcera, widower = vdovec, child =
dite, children = deti, bury = pohrbit/pohrbena, legitimate = zakonnost,
illegitimate = nemanzelsky, natural = vlastni, baptize = kresti, Godparent
= kmotri, cemetery = hrbitov, siblings = sourozenci, year = rok &
let, day = den, month = mesic, at rest (seen on graves) = v odpocivat,
on/at/in/for/as = v, at = u, female name-ending is ova, male name-ending
is y. +++ Czech-English dictionaries. The bigger the better, for less frustration trying to translate to or from this Czech language of 99 word endings. In book form, Czech-English, English-Czech Dictionary by Nina Trnka, published by Hippocrene Books Inc., has 7500 entries in the 1991 edition. It is inexpensive, easy to find, and adequate. Anglicko-Cesky A Cesko-Anglicky Slovnik by collective authors, published by Nakladatelstvi Olomouc in 1997 has 65,000 entries. It gives the root of the word plus the varied endings, but was written for one whose first language is Czech. Velky cesko-anglicky Slovnik (large Czech-English dictionary), by Ivan Poldauf, professor of English at Charles University in Prague, published by Hippocrene, 1986, has 68,000 entries which is almost double Nakladatelstvi's book because all of the words are Czech with English definitions. Poldauf's book is more expensive, but the most helpful of the three. I've purchased two translator programs for my computer. The results of both were laughable. I think that one must spend several hundred dollars for a program that will translate Czech with success. Some translation services can be found on the internet. Teri Thorpe (editor of a weekly e-mailed newsletter for Czech researchers) suggested www.geocities.com/Heartland/Fields/1404/czech.html for assistance, and one of her subscribers has had success translating at www.slovnik.cz/bin/ecd I will add URLs here as I learn of them. Human translators can be hired, of course. Your "Czech" document might be in Latin or in German, or in the old German script also called Sutterlin Schrift and Kurrent (see TRANSLATIONS candy). Unlikely for a church or civil record, but possible for personal letters is the Czech language written in the old German script. You will need a translator who can read both, or have the one who translates the old German script type the letter in Roman letters (like this), then seek a Czech translator. +++ Borovany, the little book presented to the Oxford Jct. representatives
by Staniglau Malik, mayor of Borovany contained some history of the area
(Borovany is west of Jilovice and Suchdol nad Luznici). "The archaeological
findings allow us to discover the earliest history of Borovany and its
surrounding area.......the evidence of the presence of our Slavic forefathers
in this region is confirmed quite well. The tumulus (mound grave) burial-place,
..... is one of the largest ones in southern Bohemia and the Slavs used
it from around the end of the 8th century till the end of the 9th century
A.D. They used to live in small settlements, not more than one kilometre
away from their own burial place." from page 4. And on page 31, "After
the liberation (end of WWII) and especially after the year 1948 there
were significant changes not only in society, but also in the economic
sphere, which were connected to the liquidation of the private companies
and establishment of the standard Farming Co-operative (1949). During
the period the construction of the new Calofrig (peat processing plant)
complex closer to the railway station was carried out, another plant for
the production of crockery pipes was established between the year 1970-1973
and the factory became the largest employer of people from the surrounding
areas." Not your ancestors, but these factories might have employed
some of your living or living-then relatives. +++ Stropnice. A 22 page booklet, Through the Landscape of the River Stropnice was published in 2001, the English translation by Dr. Robert Dulfer of the Rozmberk Society. The river Stropnice flows from south of Nove Hrady which is approximately 24 kilometers south of Trebon, continues northeast for a bit and takes a turn to the northwest, a short distance from Oxford Jct.'s sister city Jilovice, passes between Borovany and Trhove Sviny and meanders on west. The photos and descriptions in this booklet convince me that it is a lush and beautiful landscape. There is a drawing of the village layout for Kojakovice in 1827 and actual photographs taken in Kojakovice in 1921 and 1930. Page four tells an interesting story…. At Jirikovo Udoli, between Salmanovice and the river's big bend to the northwest, there was a glass factory started in the late 1700s. In 1817 the factory made a new kind of glass -- black, very hard, and compact -- called Hyalite. It was renowned throughout Europe. The photo of a Hyalite vase proves it was indeed elegant. The production process was so secret and well guarded that the "recipe" was lost. I suspect that surviving pieces of Hyalite are very, very valuable. +++ History of the Czechs in Missouri 1845-1904, was published 1988 by the St. Louis Genealogical Society, editor June Sommer, translator Frank Frank. This book is actually a reprint of the chapter on Missouri in History of Czechs in America by Jan Habenicht with a tad bit from another source. Missouri was entered into statehood in 1821. The first Czech in the state was Simon Polak, a Jew born in 1814 in Domazlice, who went to Missouri in 1845. The first Catholic church in St. Louis was established in 1854. In 1904 there were approximately 8000 Czechs in St. Louis. Even though I had extracted names with known origins of Oxford Jct. people from Habenicht's book which included this Missouri data, I scanned this book, too. The only name I saw was: Jan Josef Posler from Vamberk settled in Cainesville (MO) in 1859 or 60, having spent time in Caledonia WI and Cedar Rapids IA prior to that. Also noticed -- Missouri received many Czechs from the Pisek area as well as lesser numbers from other Czech places. +++ Grant Wood. On the title page of This is Grant Wood Country, prepared and published by the Davenport Municipal Art Gallery (in Dvpt., Iowa) where there is a large Wood collection: "Grant Wood is one of America's great artists. He belongs to Iowa and he painted Iowa almost every year of his life. He viewed the hills, fields and people in a way that they had never been seen before. Grant Wood painted his vision of Iowa so strongly, so clearly that we too can see landscapes and scenes that look like Grant Wood paintings. He gave his images to the world and the work becomes more treasured with each passing year." Wood was born in 1891 in Iowa and died there in 1942, burial Riverside Cemetery, Anamosa, IA. A regionalist painter most famous for American Gothic, his paintings are popular among Iowans. If you want to see what the countryside around Oxford Jct. is like, look in a book or website for the paintings Stone City, Young Corn, Fall Plowing, Iowa Cornfield, and Seed Time and Harvest. The Cedar Rapids (IA) Art Center also has a Wood collection. The Grant Wood Tourism Center and Gallery, 124 E. Main St., Anamosa IA 52205 has a good inventory and helpful staff. "Suddenly I became aware that my very best ideas of art had come to me while milking a cow in Iowa." -- Grant Wood, 1939. +++ Slavic Surnames by Margaret Tinashenka Clark, 1988. The title is seductive, but I am not able to get this book on interlibrary loan. It is owned as reference-only at Grand Rapids (MI) Public Library, State Library of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia?), and the public library of Edinboro, PA. A copy is also held by CGSI (Czechoslovak Genealogical Society International, linked from this site's home page) in their library in Golden Valley MN. The book I.D. is Frgn Pol 074 Cla. They will do research for $5 per ½ hour for members or $10 per ½ hour for non-members, plus photocopy cost and postage. Write to: CGSI, P.O. Box 16225, St. Paul, MN 55116-0225. CGSI also has all the Baca volumes of Czech passenger lists and an index of deaths of ZCBJ members. Perhaps someone from one of those cities will read Slavik Surnames (over 2500 names) and send a book report that I can include on this website. +++ The Presence of the Past -- "The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is nothing new under the sun". So wrote the wise author of the Old Testament book Ecclesiastes (1:9). The search for roots and beginnings is really the quest for continuations. As the French philosopher Henri Bergson described it, time is "the continuous progress of the past, which gnaws into the future, and which swells as it advances." The past is constantly alive and ever present. Ever since Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden, crisis and change have been built into the human experience. The more things change, the more they remain the same. That from Arts & Ideas, 6th Edition, by William Fleming, 1980. +++ Old Czech greeting. After having some letters translated, I discovered that a standard greeting or opening line in letters from Czechs was "We greet you and kiss you a hundred times, and hope that our lines will reach you in good health". +++ Our affliction. Name a genealogist who isn't behind in his/her genealogy
work and I'll show you one who's in the first month of research. This
activity expands itself. While the tangents it takes us on are usually
interesting and life-enriching, the stack/list of "to do's"
can be frustrating. Calm yourself by remembering that this is a hobby
and the only deadlines are self-imposed. I've found it helpful to go through
the stack and prioritize ( I use priority 1, 2, and 3). Eliminate tasks
that are not necessary. Perhaps you do too much for others -- get selfish.
Perhaps you're on a tangent that you need to close and return to base.
Move the unread newsletters to your nightstand and give up fiction reading
and some TV until your genealogy reading is caught up. Consider giving
a portion of your lineage to a related genealogist who promises to continue
it. Hire someone to translate for you if you do it slowly with your double
language dictionary. Consider narrowing your scope, like not wanting siblings
of ancestors born before 1800. Replace office equipment and software that's
costing you time and trouble. Convince your spouse to develop a hobby
so that he/she won't resent (which limits) your genealogy time. Block
out time on your calendar for genealogy and let yourself have it. Try
to connect with others working on your lineage (message boards, newsletter
queries, etc.) so that you aren't re-inventing the wheel, seeking something
that another genealogist has and will share. Organize your genealogical
material for easy access to shorten the time you spend looking for things.
Rearrange your work area for better efficiency. If you return frequently
to the same book or CD at a library, buy a copy for yourself. +++ Images of Europe. The book What Life Was Like In Europe's Golden Age, Northern Europe AD 1500-1675 has great art to show you what Europe looked like then. I'm sorry that I did not note the author or compiler. +++ Michigan. Czech immigrants from the Trebon area who settled near Bannister, Michigan included: Bubla and Kostal from Trebon, Marek from Vesele, and Strnad from Spoli, Trebon. This from an article in Nase rodina, March 2002, compiled by Tom Bradley. +++ Solomon Pence, pioneer of Oxford and Wyoming Townships in Jones Co.,
IA. +++ Early Census of Oxford Township, Jones County, Iowa: +++ Nobility in South Bohemia........... a future tidbit. +++ Money of the 19th century........... a future tidbit. +++ Cost of Emigration (train, ship, etc.)........ a future tidbit. +++ Cost of Land (old & new countries, 19th & early 20th centuries)........ a future tidbit. |