Czech/Slovak Interest Group Report for March 16, 2002

In spite of snow, sleet, and rain, we had a great meeting! Mike Van Schoik brought the video of his relatives in Slovakia telling about the Slovak Robin Hood Janosik and the valasska. I will also forward Mike's scan of another article about this Robin Hood to you. Many Slovak families prize their valasska!

Welcome to Jean Heath! What a first meeting to attend! Jean's Jirtle, Hirtl family come from Wisconsin and are originally from Dobrikov in Bohemia.

Bob and Gladys Shipek brought carved wood figurines and delightful pictures, etc to share.

Eric Taylor patiently waits for his archive information and brought an old Czech/English language book that his grandmother must have used to learn English.

Cheri Smith had a lovely Amphora vase that is in her family.

Olga shared her lovely garnet necklace from Czechoslovakia.

I brought decorated wooden plates and Easter eggs from Moravia, and Mara's lovely wedding headdress, painted box,the box that carried the good lemon cake and Czech oplatky, figural pitchers, embroidery on pillows, beaded bags, and etc were JUST LOVELY! Made us proud of our ancestors' culture!

To top this off were the kolacky (wedding cakes) made by Olga and the lemon cake and oplatky made and brought by Mara. Yum! Thank you!!!

Tom Zahn drove all the way here from Olympia to share his expertise with us. Where do I start with his sharings! First, He and his wife Marie attended the grand opening of the Prague Archives. The study rooms are open, but they still have much work to do in other parts of the building. He brought a catalog from the historical collection to share.

Tom is putting together a slide of unknown treasures (towns, castles, etc.) to visit when in the Czech Republic for the CGSI Conference in Prague 2005. He will show these slides at the 2003 CGSI Conference in Houston, Texas. He has been working on a project to start getting the 6,000 Bohemian and Moravian Kadastral maps digitalized so the CGSI can have a copy!

I thought his commments about who inherits the family farm in the old country were very interesting. My gr-gr-granddad was the oldest and didn't get the farm so he came to the USA in 1880. It was the youngest who got the farm. Tom said that started in the 1850's. Comments about Maria Theresa's influence on the serfs' lives gave broader understanding to midwives. They had to be educated,plus taught NOT to made the serfs' families smaller. Families became larger with her influence. The Czech and Slovak phone books online are good, but most people over there have mobile phones, so we need to find a directory for those. You can email Tom Zahn if you are interested in his Pathfinders business in Prague.

THREE CHEERS FOR TOM HELPING CHERI SMITH. She showed Tom the birth certificate from church records here in the USA and Tom recognized the area! Cheri has been looking at that for years, it seems, and with Tom's help now can do further research.

BILL TOBIAS thinks he has finally found his people in the US Census. Of course the name is misspelled, but the family members are right.

IF RESEARCHING IN AREAS OTHER THAN the Prague region, your requests will be mailed to the other regions and they will not take as long as the Prague Regional Archives which just moved!

THE NEXT MEETING: We are scheduled for June 29, but if we can find another place we will schedule a May meeting. THE THEME: Motivating Eric Taylor to put his Czech republic trip pictures in an album. So. Those of you who have visited the old country and have albums, BRING THEM for sharing! Tom will still be here so we can learn more about researching, too!

Happy hunting, Rosie

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