My name is Steve Holat. I live near Chicago, Illinois. My grandfather was Stanley Joseph Holat, born in Vodnany in 1895(?). He married Sylvia Cermak and they had a son, my father, Stanley Thomas Holat (born 1935 in Chicago). My father recalls that his grandfather was named Joseph Holat. He had 5 sons and 5 daughters. My grandfather, Stanley Joseph, was the oldest son. His brothers' names included Thomas, Carl and Frank (the youngest). My father is certain that one of the brothers was mayor of Vodnany at one time. Vodnany has a website, but I don't know the language, unfortunately. TIA
Here's an e-mail address you can use to try to contact the city hall: muvod@muvodnany.cz They did have one English page, so perhaps there is someone there who speaks English (or if not, they probably have someone they contract with to translate). Also, I found the telephone number of a Jaroslav Holat living somewhere in the Vodnany/Radcice area: 383 383 160 Of course, whether or not anyone speaks English at that number is anyone's guess, plus I don't know what side of the river he's on (one of those Bavarov--Vodnany things, if you're familiar with the song). There's also another Vodnany site (perhaps the one you mentioned, which has no English page), which has a guest book you might try posting your question in, even if it's in English. It appears someone else has done so recently. They say they are going to shut down the guest book soon, however, in favor of an already established forum which requires registration. Go to http://www.vodnany.cz/phpBB2/profile.php?mode=register&agreed=true (Note, this skips the legal rigamarole you have to agree to, that you are over 13 years old, will not post offensive material, blah, blah, similar to what you had to do for the MyCzechRepublic forum) and fill in the form to register (sadly for you, this page is only in Czech, but perhaps the basics are understandable). There were only 7 registered users, when I looked, so the pickings are slim, but then again, you never know.
I think we may be brothers. My dads name is Stanley Thomas Holat and my grandfather was Stanley Joseph Holat. I also live in the Chicago area. Brother??????????
