Wenceslaus, born 1 March 1755 in Vlčovice to Barbara Kladivi. After her name is the Latin note: “de-florata” which means, “deflowered, no longer a virgin.” I had assumed this meant “raped” but I suppose there are multiple scenarios, and the actual meaning of this word does not let us know what exactly happened, except that…
Month: February 2014
Přemysl the Ploughman
I came across an interesting Czech legend about a man named Přemysl. From wikipedia: According to a legend, Přemysl was a peasant of the village of Stadice who attracted the notice of Libuše, daughter of a certain Krok, who ruled over a large part of Bohemia. Libuše succeeded her father, and her councillors demanded that she married, but because…
Ultimogeniture
Apparently Czechs practiced ultimogeniture, which is “the tradition of inheritance by the last-born of the entirety of, or a privileged position in, a parent’s wealth, estate or office” according to Wikipedia. So, before the laws passed allowing land to be subdivided (circa ~1850), the youngest son would inherit the father’s house. I wonder if this pertains…
Uhersko, Banat
Yesterday, feeling frustrated, I contacted several of my Czech research contacts. Dr. Josef Šimíček emailed me back. He is a genius. He has written volumes and volumes of books that pertain to the exact area that I am researching, about the emigrants from the Moravian Czech lands to the United States, and mostly to Texas….
I need help with my Haidusek research
I’m reposting what I wrote on the Czech Heritage Society Yahoo Group page, because I am truly stuck and need help finding out what to do next. I’m frustrated because I used to have high hopes that this would turn into a component in my BCG portfolio application, but it looks like it won’t be…
Augustin Haidusek Quoted in Czech Newspaper
I love living in the digital age. Did you know that not only can you access historic American newspapers online for free, but also historic Czech newspapers? The National Library of the Czech Republic has digitized many, many newspapers, most of which are OCR’d (aka searchable). I did a search for “Haidusek” – the family that…
Wordless Wednesday: Agnes Steffek
Follow Friday: Czech House Numbers
Today it is my great pleasure to have a guest post by Lukáš Svoboda. He has an excellent Czech genealogy blog called Kulanův rodopisný blog that anybody interested in Czech genealogy should look at. If you open the page in google chrome, you can right-click and select “translate to English” if you don’t speak Czech. He…
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…