Searching for any living relatives or ancestors of the following: JOHN/JAN BRABNIK, born 1837. Married to JOSEFA KLIKA, born c. 1844. Immigrated to USA in 1906 with their daughter MARIE BRABNIK. Their son, JOSEF BRABNIK was born in 1874. He immigrated to the USA in 1902. The last known residence of the Brabnik family was the town of ZAHORANY. JOSEFA VETYSKA (also spelled as Wetyska, Vetefyskova.....) was born c. 1879. She immigrated to the USA in 1903. Had a brother VACLAV and a sister MARIE who also immigrated to the USA in the early 1900s. The family was from the towns of Stekna & Strakonice. The parents of Josefa, Vaclav and Marie did not immigrate. Thank you
There are 8 towns or town districts listed on http://www.mapy.cz named Zahořany. With a hint from your signature, I was able to eliminate 3 of them (1 in Ústecký, 1 in Plzeňský, and 1 in Karlovarský region), but the other 5 are all in Středočeský region, to the south of Prague. Do you by chance know any additional information which might narrow this down? The Czech Ministry of the Interior lists only 12 people by the surname of Brabník and 18 by the feminine variant Brabníková. Only 2 Brabník's show up in the online phonebook, both in the area of Mariánské Lážně and Karlovy Vary, and 3 Brabníková's, 2 in Prague and 1 in Zruč nad Sázavou, which is at the southeastern edge of the Středočeský region (not particularly close to any of the Zahořany's though). Of course, many Czechs living in small towns and villages don't have phones. As for Klika (note that the feminine form is Kliková), there are about 640 Klika's and 800 Kliková's in the Czech Republic. There were 124 Klika's and 94 Kliková's in the phonebook, so I didn't do a thorough look through, but at a glance, I found 1 Kliková in Sázava, which is very close to one of the Zahořany's in the Středočeský region. This was the only apparent online correlation I found between the surnames you gave me and the town name of Zahořany. Try to narrow the place further, if possible, so as to simplify any archive search you might attempt in the future. As for the second entry, the town Štěkeň is close to Strakonice. Note that if used in the context of "Josefa Vetyšková of Štěkeň" would be written in Czech as "Josefa Vetyšková ze Štěkňa," so I'm fairly confident that this is the place. There are only 36 Vetyška's (5 in the phonebook) and 40 Vetyšková's (3 in the phonebook) in the Czech Republic. All but one of these listed in the phonebook are in either Prague, Brno, or Jihlava. The lone exception is in Husinec about 15km south of Strakonice. Good luck with your search!
Thank you for all the information! On the ship manifests, Zahorany was listed as the town where the Brabnik family last lived. That is all the information I have.
…ze Štěkně (model “píseň”) The form “Štěkna” is mentioned as a historic variation of the name - see the official page of Štěkeň or the page of the municipality office (a separate page for the office is quite unusual :roll. But in this case, it’s rather a typo, I guess. I found 20 (18 persons and 2 firms) Vetyškas/Vetýškas (including 7 in South Bohemia) and 8 Vetyškovás/Vetýškovás.
Oops! Thanks, wer! Only, now I'm not sure if I mistakenly declined it by Slovak or Russian rules. Hmm... I'll have to think about that one. Now that's just bizarre! How did I manage to come up with fewer names? Oh! I see! You typed větýška/větýšková, whereas I typed vetyška/vetyšková, which is how it appeared in the Czech Ministry of Statistics files. Silly diacritical marks! :roll:
I found the name of the relative my aunt used to write to and I am going to write her a letter. How do I address it? Do I write it the same way it is shown on the telephone directory? náměstí Milady Horákové 17/2136 32600 Plzeň
btw, in your post signature, you normally say "stredocesky kraj" and "jihocesky kraj" ("kraj" meaning "shire" or "county") without the word "kraj", it can refer to anything, as it's just an adjective - eg. "středočeský chmel" ("central-bohemian hops") or "jihočeský rybník" ("a fish pond in southern bohemia")
I received a letter back from my relative in the Czech Republic! Included in the letter was a family tree - back to my gr-gr-gr-grandparents! Some of the surnames listed were: Haba/Habova of Jemnice (?not sure of spelling), Marowskova, possibly of Krastovice(?), Prokop/Prokopova and Nencova, possibly from Lhuty(?), and Vacha/Vachova and Silha, possibly from Katovic(?). Also included were copies of baptism records and the marriage certificate for my great-grandparents Vetyska/Prokopova. Just wanted to share the good news!!!
