Actually, I will be coming to CzechRepublic in September to search out the town of my mother's family. It took my mother and me a long time to find the paperwork on my grandfather because his name was changed from Vaclav to James when he arrived in the US and we didn't know it. Grandpa had told me stories of his home to put me to sleep at night when I was a kid. He was just a kid himself when he came to the States, and I think he had a very romanticized memory of his homeland. If anyone knows of this town, Dolni Bezdekov, any information would be greatly appreciated. I think I have located it to be about 17 miles NW of Prague.
I didn't get to go to the Czech Republic that year, but I did just get back from my first trip there a few weeks ago. I found 'my village' with the help of the people that I stayed with while in Prague. It was quite an adventure to go see the village where my Grandpap was born, the one that he told me about. I walked down the road and thought 'Oh, he told me about this or that!'. I took a lot of photos, although I didn't meet anyone from the family, I did see a line of us in the cememtary and I met a few village people who tried to be very helpful. It wasn't an easy thing to do, finding the town, figuring out how to get there, bus schedules and taxis, and the road getting narrower and narrower ... but I encourage anyone who has the ability to travel to go see their roots first hand. It was quite an eye-opener! I also tried finding records at the 'radnice' (city hall) but that is another story altogether.
Nice to hear you enjoy a trip to Czechia . I have a similar expierence from the second side - I had a visit my distant relatives from US a few weeks ago and I have to say I've liked it. I hope the pleasure of the meeting was on both sides . I wish you to find a relevant notes at radnice shelves . But :!: - radnice usually keeps a "living" chronicle, i.e. chronicle in which a records are written. The old chronicles are at Okresní státní archiv (state county archive). Registry are saved at Státní oblastní archiv (state regional archive).
Thanks Karel! I went to the Radnice in Prague first and was pointed to the big Archive out at the edge of the city. I was only looking for records of my great-grandmother there as we think she was born in Prague. I just got a letter from the Archive saying (I think, it's 4 paragraphs in Czech and my dictionary couldn't translate the conjugated words ...) that they have no record of her. The guy at the Radnice at Prague said I would want to avoid the national archive if I could. I got the image of the movie Brazil in my head as he said it What you said could also be the reason why I did not get a response from the Radnice in Bratanice, the town that holds the archives for 'my village'. Anyway, how to find the Okresní státní archiv for the little villages??? Who do I ask? Where do I look? Any URLs to get me started?
Hallo Kimba, Carefully with Radnice and radnice :arrow: radnice is city hall, Radnice is town at west Bohemia :wink: . Státní oblastní archiv (SOA) was organised by formely Czechoslovak regions. Dolní Bezděkov is at formely region Středočeský kraj (Central Bohemia), his SOA is at Praha. Link is http://www.soapraha.cz/. Unfortunately it is only Czech, as it seems me. You can also write at soapha2@mvcr.cz. Okrasní státní archív (SOkA) is at every county. By your description at your first message I expect, that "your" Dolní Bratronice is at county Kladno. So, SOkA is at town Kladno. http://www.soapraha.cz/kladno/, or you can try to write at vaclav.kruta@archiv.kladno.cz. Name Bratanice is unknowen me as well as to web map. Similar is only place Bratronice, which is at county Kladno, county Strakonice or also at Mladá Boleslav. Good links are http://www.cesarch.cz/foreign.aspx?lang=en or http://www.genealogie.cz/ or mine http://progenies.info/. Contact me if you need.
THANK YOU! Yes, the town that has the radnice for Dolni Bezdekov is Bratronice, not too far from Kladno. That was my memory that spelled it incorrectly. Thanks for the links ... I will check them out and see if my dictionary will do it's job Otherwise, yes I may have some questions! radnice with a capital R is a town ... And we all wonder why Czech is so confusing
Be free to ask me, if you feel necessity. English is same with names :arrow: Long Island / long island, Island / island, etc... 8) Czech is not so confusing, not more, than other languages (if you not know them :lol: ) Regards Karel
Ah, but I can safely say that there is not town in the US called City Hall, and when we talk/write about THE City Hall it is capitalized.
We have more city names which mean common things - Písek / písek (sand), Tábor / tábor (camp, but town was named by mount Tabor of Bible), Teplá / teplá (warm), Chlum / chlum (forested hill), Kočí / kočí (coachmen) etc. I didn't mean it bad if I wrote about knowledge of language. For me it is just not confusing and I found similar examples in English. I hope you not take my words bad. Karel
Oh no, not at all ... language is a funny thing ... This also happens to me all the time in French, a language I am very familiar with. We name our towns after things too such as Hot Springs/hot springs, Bend/bend. It's just that City Hall would never be a name of a town in the US so therefore I would never think that radnice could be Radnice. I was just pointing out something interesting.
