Photos by Mike Cook

June 5, 2010 Meeting Report

What lovely weather we had for our meeting!! Sixteen of us gathered to share and eat the good treats brought by Vicky Quackenbush and Mary Figel. Thank you ladies!!!!

A BIG REMINDER! WE HAVE A WONDERFUL WEBSITE THAT NORB ZIEGLER FACILITATES FOR US. https://sites.rootsweb.com/~wacsig

Send Norb Norb Ziegler the names , etc that you are researching and they can be put on our member surname page. https://sites.rootsweb.com/~wacsig/surnames.html Members have had wonderful results by having their names on this website. Google picks up on it. People can put in the surname and this info comes up! Do it now!!!!

NEW MEMBERS

And a big welcome to new member VICKY QUACKENBUSH who is trying to find the Czech version of the name Foenkoessel or Fenkessel or Fenkes or Finlkas or Kinkess. Can anyone help her out? Welcome to MARY FIGEL also. Mary is researching the names Smazal and Polak in Prague. New member LINDA TOBIN is researching the name Mrazek. MARY LOUISE TOBIN is researching Komar, Szilvasi, Galafa, and Meezarso in Hungary. LOUISE SIRCHIA is researching Janosek and Herman from OH, PA, CT in Slovakia. It was a pleasure to have these new researchers join our group!

JERRY JANDACKA gave a great report on his trip to Prague & Slovakia. He found relatives, had a great researcher contact who helped him there and he was just beaming!!! He made the trip in spite of volcanoes, strikes and smaller airline challenges. He brought the right gifts for these folks, too.

MARY KLANDER shared the December of 1945 issue of National Geographic which was full of Bohemian historical information in the article "A Tale of Three Cities." Prague, Vienna and Budapest were featured. Mary also chuckled as she suggested Googling Texas Czech Music. You can hear some interesting music!!!

SHARON GLENN went with Helen Cincebeaux last summer to Slovakia after doing a river boat trip. She made a beautiful album highlighting her trip. Helene had helped with research before the trip, then Sharon went with a guide to meet her relatives in their villages.

This was the first meeting MIKE COOK attended without his mom RUTH. Ruth's alzheimers is worse now so she can't come. But she enjoyed our group when she could come. Thanks to Mike for being our photographer! Mike can translate Czech to English for one page at a time on the computer and wants to know how to do a whole article. Norb has taken on the job of figuring this out for all of us.It will be in the next tidbits. Mike borrowed the book HANDY CZECH ENGLISH GENEALOGICAL DICTIONARY by Jan Parez to help with his computer translations. You can buy this dictionary on Amazon.com.

HELEN LOWE has been busy. She is finding information on www.myheritage.com about her Joza family from Melnik. Plus she found a want ad about Bohemian glass for sale in the paper, so she went to see the glass. She ended up buying Bohemian Glass and the seller is Czech and was moving back to Bohemia. He will do some research for her there and gave her some books written in Czech. Wow!

BARB CALLAHAN had company in May from the old county who might be related. It is still being researched. Barb had suggestions to help our new and old Slovak researchers, also.

Another success story, MIKE MECHAM'S mom's first cousin went to Slovakia armed with information Mike had about his family and had her look up Juraj Cisnarik as a researcher in Kosice. She also visited two ancestral villages besides hiking in the High Tatras and enjoying the wooden churches. Juraj helped her decide that his relatives were Greek Orthodox. That helps with the researching for sure!! Juraj Cisarik was interested in what information we can find over here about Slovakia research.

ED SCHULTZ brought his computer and helped with lookups. He brought Eastside Genealogical Society membership brochures. That group sponsors us, so he encouraged folks to join. He announced that next year's National Genealogical Society's conference will be in Charleston SC, May 11th- 14th.

NORB ZIEGLER volunteered to research Mike Cook's translation problems. He is trying to wind down his family research. As a past president of EGS he is busy helping the society function.

In April I visited the Czech Village in Cedar Rapids that was damaged by the "big flood." The Czech and Slovak National Museum and Library folks have relocated to the old dime store building in the village. Upstairs are the offices and downstairs there is an informative RISING ABOVE the Story of a people and the Flood. The Cedar rapids Museum of Art has volunteered to let NCSML have an exhibit hall for two years. It has many cultural items on display.

NEXT MEETING IS AUGUST 7TH!!!

Happy researching!!

Rosie Bodien

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