Last month I posted the death certificate of Anton Smihal, which said, “Can Not Remember” when listing the name of his mother. I was very happy to be able to connect the living descendant of this family to their Czechs in the old country a few days later, and of course I started writing a…
Category: Immigration
Valentin Haidusek and the founding of Dubina, Texas
I have been doing some research on the Valentin Haidusek family who immigrated from Mniší, Moravia. Specifically, I have been trying to find other Haiduseks that were related to Valentin Haidusek, who was one of the founders of Dubina in 1856. I love the story of Dubina’s founding. I have read several versions of it…
They Came In Groups
If you are interested in Texas Czech genealogy, you should “czech” out Robert Janak’s “Janaks Texas-Czech Articles and Photos” website. It is excellent, in particular the articles section. Here was a useful post that he wrote called: “Dubina, Hostyn and Ammannsville. The Geographic Origin of Three Czech Communities in Fayette County, Texas.” Janak used tombstone…
Czech Immigration Routes to Texas: Bremen to Galveston 1880-1886
If you are interested in immigration routes that Germans and Czechs took to Texas, you should read the article, “German and Czech Immigration to Texas: The Bremen to Galveston Route, 1880-1886” by Lawrence H. Konecny and Clinton Machann. The most useful part of this article is a table that lists all the vessels with immigrants…
Why should you look for village of origin records in the country of arrival?
So, you have a vague clue about a village of origin, say in the village “Hradiště.” You look up Hradiště on the Czech Parish finder and discover that there are over 20 different places with this name. But you don’t know which Hradiště is your Hradiště. Since so many of the Czech parish records are available online now, should…
Texas Immigration Agent Records: Private agent “F. Russek”, the North German Lloyd line, and a new repository of records!
My hunch was that I might find some advertisements for immigration agents in old newspapers. That hunch was verified in about two seconds. I’m in the midst of researching several immigration agents I found this way. One was a man in New York who brought at least 120 people from the German and Czech lands to…