I am working on genealogy and a great grandfather came to the US in 1905. His obituary states that he came from Vratislavka, Moravia. Other spellings that I have found are Vratislava and Vrocteslavka, Austria. Was the town of Vraclav called Vratislav in the 1900's? Thanks for any help! Kathy
I don't know about any previous names or spellings of Vraclav, but I did find a village of Vratislávka outside of Brno. Google maps also finds it.
Interesting - until 1918 Brno was the capital of Moravia (at least that is what Wikipedia says - don't scream at me if it is wrong :wink: )
That’s most likely the village Vratislávka nearby Brno presented by Sova. It’s the only likely possibility in Moravia. Formally, Vratislávka is diminutive of Vratislav(a), so Vratislava could be an alternative name for Vratislávka. Vrocteslavka is misspelling of some sort (American? German?). And calling all the Habsburg Empire Austria is common confusion. What town Vraclav? There exists an ancient settlement Vraclav in Bohemia, never called Vratislav as far as I know as a local. Vratislav (and formerly also Vraclav/Wraclaw) is also the Czech name of the capital of Silesia, Wrocław in Polish, Breslau in German, Vratislavia/Wratislavia in Latin. And finally, Vraclav(a) and Vratislav(a) are also ancient alternatives, Latin B-V confusion of a sort, for the name of Slovak capital Bratislava. All the local names are based on the same noble male name Vraclav, in its ancient form, or Vratislav, in its later form. The form Vraclav is very unlikely alternative name for Vratislávka because as the male name the form became obsolete long before the first note on Vratislávka (1358). On the other hand, for the local names the masculine and feminine alternatives (-av × -ava) are frequent, and so are the diminutive and non-diminutive alternatives (-vka × -v(a)). Why interesting? It is still informally considered the capital of Moravia. Why until 1918? ????-1641 one of the Moravia’s centres 1641-1948 the only centre of Moravia’s administrative 1782-1849 the administrative centre of Moravian-Silesian Country 1918-1928 formal capital of Moravia 1928-1948 formal capital of Moravian-Silesian Country 1949-???? Moravia as a political district doesn’t exist 1993-???? the centre of Czech Republic’s justice I don’t scream, just remark. 8)
well, interesting to me because I didn't realize that it was the capital - I'm a sort of typical American, don't know squat about most European history
Thanks to everyone for your replies. I did find Vratislavka on Google maps, as was sugguested, so I'll go with that. K.
