Guest Post by Lukáš Svoboda, author of Kulanův rodopisný blogIf you have Czechs among your ancestors, the probability that they were not all Catholics but Protestants is quite high, especially when they were living in Bohemia. Of course we are talking about times before Bílá Hora, that turning point which changed the course of not…
Month: August 2016
But…my Czechs were Catholic!
I have done a great deal of thinking about my Czech ancestors. I often wish I could just ask them the many questions I have about their lives, not just questions of identity (Veronika Lidiak, can you please tell me who is the father of my illegitimate third great grandmother?), but questions of their personalities,…
Willabald Wrba
Willibald Wrba. Now there’s a name you don’t stumble across every day. I found Willibald because he married Julie Marie Spacek, who was the oldest sister of Albina Spacek (1890-1918). Albina was the first wife of Louis Klecka (1897-1934), who then married Stella Vasicek (1901-1967), who was the second youngest daughter of Joseph John Vasicek…
Robert Kalivoda thinks, “Bilá Hora, to je škoda!”
I would like to try to summarize what I have been learning from this really fantastic book of essays translated into English for the first time, and only very recently available to me via inter-library loan (but apparently almost completely available online!) The book is called Between Lipany and White Mountain: Essays in Late Medieval…
Spoken Czech and the schwa (ə)
On my first trip to the Czech Republic (I suppose I’m supposed to call it Czechia, but that sounds so ridiculous I can’t bring myself to even write it, much less say it), I realized that my beloved Czech genealogy is inextricably linked to the Czech language. Therefore, I must not only learn everything there…
Nitpicking and Translation
I’ve been working on transcribing and translating Czech land records with a friend. I’ve learned a lot in the last three weeks – so much I have yet to share on this blog! For now, some meta data: It’s been extremely fun – surprisingly so, actually. It’s…well…it turns out…I’m…very nerdy. Well, so what. That can’t…
Beware of Lights, Dogs and the Game Warden
I came across this gem in the old newspapers the other day. It was too hilarious not to share. My husband says sarcastically, “I wonder if the newspaper had an opinion about this?” BEWARE OF LIGHTS, DOGS AND THE GAME WARDEN Weimar MercuryNovember 11, 1927 A few days ago, Henry Sumbera, a young man of…