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Month: November 2016
The Case of Both Barbara’s Births
My Grandpa Vasicek said that his mother (Elizabeth “Betty” Michna) never got along with her mother in law, Agnes Steffek. “They tolerated each other and were civil, but argued nevertheless.” Betty’s parents, Anna Šumbera and Bedrich Michna, were not social equals. In fact, Bedrich was the hired hand on Anna’s father Ludvig Šumbera’s farm in…
Workday Wednesday: Pasekář, Farmer
This is one of those untranslatable words that means a specific kind of farmer in Czech. You cannot simply translate it to, “a farmer on a clearing” without losing the nuanced, rich meaning of this word. When my husband and I went to Trojanovice, we were told point blank, “this is a paseka.” Well, actually,…
Tomáš G. Masaryk Papers, 1887-1955
Randomly, today at lunch in Salt Lake City, we sat down next to this guy at a cafe whose wife’s father, Stephen Taggart, was a significant contributor to Czech history. Later, I also met his wife. They are a lovely senior missionary couple from Idaho serving a mission in the FamilySearch record preservation (or something…
Church Record Sunday: Měchnov 1809
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Rustic Baroque by Jiří Hájíček
Rustic Baroque by Jiří Hájíček [While reading:] “Wait until you work your way through to the old handwritten script they call Kurrent.” This had me laughing out loud. This is very fun to read. I feel like I am there. I’m glad I am reading this after having been there. It’s validating to watch another…
Dispensations: a Case Study
Written and translated by Lukáš Svoboda and Kate ChallisOriginal post in Czech found here.I want to build on a previous post about affinity in another branch of my family tree, in which the issue of consanguinity, which we see in parish register margin notes, is not only an interesting curiosity, but also a valuable and…
Travel Tuesday: Daylight Saving/Summer Time in the Czech Republic
It has been a little over a week since daylight saving time has ended in the US (except for weirdos AZ and HI). I have to write about one of the strangest observations I had while in the Czech Republic: the time on the clock absolutely did not correspond to my feeling of what time…
Motivation Monday: Breaking Down Czech Land Records One Section at a Time
It can be easy to get intimidated by Czech land records. At first glance, they look like a giant wall of text. By breaking the text into smaller chunks one section at a time, they become much easier to read. “Land records” are not actually one uniform kind of record; in fact, they are a…
Church Record Sunday: Frenštát 1781
I want to start a new series of interactive matriky record transcriptions. It will be a fun, motivating way for you to challenge yourself, and who knows, maybe we can both learn something in the process! The first record is found here. I hope you enjoy! If you have other matriky records you would like…