Czech/Slovak Interest Group Mtg Report - Nov. 13, 2004

Greetings!

Another meeting full of great sharing and fellowship. The announcements were:

1. SPECIAL THANKS to Norb Ziegler for his great work on our website!!!!!!! https://sites.rootsweb.com/~wacsig/

2. NEXT MEETINGS: JANUARY 29, 2005; MARCH 5, 2005; AND APRIL 23, 2005

3. CGSI Symposium Feb 11-12, 2005, Orange, CA One of the speakers covers Rusyn-Carpatho research. See website for more details!

4. I had the handouts for writing letters to the address of your ancestor or the mayor, chronicler, or recorder keeper in your ancestral village.

5. I brought the old research books form Chicago with surname indexes

6. The Castle Garden ship records from 1851 thru 1891 are ON LINE NOW! They can be found at Ancestry. com. Frank Kreiner, our Family History Center expert, told us you can use Ancestry.com, with no charge, at some of the Family History Centers. First go to Search Records, then New York Passenger Lists. Call your local FHC to see if they have Ancestry.com for you to use. Here are the Seattle area FHC: http://www.google.com/local?hl=en&lr=&sa=G&q=FHC&near=Seattle,+WA&oi=localr

7. I also had the handout for ordering Czech, Slovak or Ruysn-Carpatho t-shirts for Christmas or whenever.

8. Please send Norb [email protected] your information for the FAMILY SURNAME section of our website.

Welcome to new attendees Marjorie and Don Bianco. Marge is finding information on the surname Klimt. Marge and Don belong to Western Fraternal Life Association Lodge # 181 here in the Seattle area. This is a Czech life insurance society where lodges do community service activities. This all started back when Czech arrivals needed financial help in 1897.. The next Lodge #181 meeting is Nov. 21. Email me for information. When discussing book search sites, Don suggested: http://www.addall.com/ This site compares the prices for stores that carry the book.

Also a big welcome to new attendee Thomas Sernka. He is researching Sternka, Srnka in Ohio, Prague and Cesky Krumlov. Tom has returned from a trip to Eastern Europe with Earthbound Expeditions. Our Jan. meeting will be about travel in the the Czech and Slovak republics. Tom will show us his trip pictures and tell about Earthbound Expeditions trips. Tom found our website on the internet. Thanks to Mary Kozy and Norb Ziegler!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Judith Lum took our advice. She called her relatives, looking for information. She received three large envelopes full of pictures and info!!!

Karol Osusky visited and helped with Slovak place names and culture.

Barb Callaham has started an Irish Interest Group for So. King Co Genealugy Soc. She also visited the Czech/Slovak Culture Fair at Crossroads.

Norb shared the book BACK of the YARDS by Robert Slayton with us. It tells abut life in a two mile square neighborhood in Chicago back when his ancestors lived there. It lists the Catholic churches in Chicago.

Collum Liska visited the Cedar Rapids Library and Museum in Iowa this fall and the CCSI Library in the Twin Cities (MN). He shared the "Slovo" magazine that is published by the Czech and Slovak Library and Museum for its members. He still looks for those ancestral villages in Slovakia!!!

Steve Soucek shared an interesting article about the Bohemian blue blood lines of both presidential candidates and how they were related to each other. He found this on Czech Radio: http://www.radio.cz/en/article/59830

Martha Soltesz has found two wonderful sites for getting vital record information for NYC. http://www.italiangen.org/NYCDeath.stm and http://www.italiangen.org/NYCMarriage.stm

Bev Ryer brought OUT OF THIS FURNACE to share. It is an interesting book about life of the Slovaks who were working in Pittsburgh. It really helps us understand what life was like for our ancestors.

Bob and Gladys Shipek had an interesting article form "The Iowan" about the Cedar Rapids Mushroom Festival.

I just have to share this! We work so hard to find our people, sometimes are so frustrated! Mary Kozy recently wrote me:

WOOHOO!!!! I'm SO excited. Today I checked my email and lo and behold I received a report from a Czech researcher who I had written to back in August regarding checking Svetec parish records in the Litomerice archives for the SUSAK family. I gave him what I knew from the Polish parish records about Jan SUSAK and his parents Wenceslaus SUSAK and Josefa Wlosischek. I had forgotten that I had even written if you can believe that. He told me that he had some research to do there in late Sep/early Oct and that he would check for them for me, and if he didn't find anything, he wouldn't charge me. But BOY, did he find them! It has to be them, the names of the parents match exactly, but the disappointing thing is that my Jan wasn't born there. He did have 4 older siblings that were born there however, and I now have their names and birth dates. It appears they were born in the "castle" there, which was House #1. Fun, eh? Wenzl (as he was listed in the records) was the son of Wenzl SUSAK, the "master box-maker from Rodobrawitz", which he cannot equate with a current village. It appears that Wenzl, Jr. (Jan's father) was a brewer at the castle. Cool, eh?

Yeah, Mary!

A note: Wenzl is Vaclav in Czech. NO "w's" in Czech. Vaclav in English is James.

Many thanks to Steve Soucek and Marge & Don Bianco for the super treats. Yum! And Karol Osusky for the coffee!

JANUARY WILL BE THE TRAVEL MEETING. WE WILL HAVE INFORMATION ON THE VARIOUS GROUPS THAT OFFER TRIPS TO THE OLD COUNTRY. I WILL TRY TO GET RICK STEVE'S LATEST TRAVEL VIDEO TO EASTERN EUROPE!!

HAPPY RESEARCHING!

Rosie

Copyright 2003-2020
Czech-Slovak Interest Group
Webmaster: Mary Kathryn Kozy
Web Design by Mary Kathryn Kozy
Flower Folk Art Drawings by Marie Stryckova