My great grandparents came to the United States from what became Czechoslovakia. Both of them were Czechs. Here are some names that I really can't find much on. Some of them might not be Czech at all, but married names after they came to the United States. I couldn't find any of my family in the Ellis Island logs on their website :? : Moherek (Mocherek) Vanicek Kremnicka Dvoren Miserark Their first names (likely changed to the English equivalent) were William and Lillian. All of those are approximate spellings, both because many Slavic (and Eastern European names in general) were changed at Ellis Island and I can't really read my grandmother's handwriting. Also, we have been writing to a man in our family who was living in Lapsze Nizne, Poland, which seems to be right up against the border? Does anyone know anything of that town? Thanks in advance.
I don't think these names are the right Czech last names, as you may know many names were changed when the people arrived and custom officers just write them correctly, so they changed them. There could be lot of similar names I think, e.g. Macháček Vanička Kremlička Dvořák Mizera and so on.
Mocherek is correct, since that is the same spelling as the man's name who writes to my grandma. I'm not sure how he's related to us. Moherek is evidentally some sort of yarn made from a certain type of llama-type creatures (mohair in Polish).
Łapsze Niżne is Polish community in Spisz/Spiš (Polish/Slovak, Czech). That's region on Slovakian-Polish frontier. "Mocherek" is really Polish name. Was Mocherek you wrote about from Łapsze Niżne? I googled this name in player list of football (maybe soccer for you ) team in Łapsze Niżne.
My guess: Vanicek - Vaníček is obvious Kremnicka - Kremnický (masc.) and Kremnická (fem.), if Kremnicka is masculine then Kremnička (Kremnice and Kremnička are towns in Slovakia) Dvoren - Dvořan Miserark - Mizerák is the closest Czech surname.
Thank you very much. We thought we might be at least part Polish. That's really cool. My grandma just said he lived in Poland because when they drew the border after WWI or WWII, the town happened to fall there. What was the player's name? He might be one of Jozef's kids.
