John - Currach

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Jul25

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Review: You Can Write Your Family History

Posted in: Books

You Can Write Your Family History by Sharon Debartolo Carmack
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a terrific book.

Written in an easy, descriptive style it does not just tell you various ways of writing a Family History, but provides concrete examples, background tools and tasks and alternative sources to use.

In short: The Why is important, but the How is essential. This book has them both.

I borrowed this book from the library, but will be buying a copy for my shelf to keep as a touchstone and reference that is always at hand.
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Jul16

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Wine of Cardui

Posted in: Articles, Fun

LADIES of 1898 YOUR “TROUBLES” ARE OVER. Because, you know, WINE.

Found in the Kansas City Star, Sunday November 6, 1898, Page 20 and everywhere fine alcoholic female products are sold.
Jul5

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Czech Family Locations

Posted in: Czech, Maps

I have begun to keep track of my Czech family homes listed in records I find on Actapublica. Here are the first – 4 of which found in a 1886 single marriage record for my great-grandparents Vaclav Vanac and Antonia Straka.

Each location still has the original home in place – although the Zamlyni home has been added onto or had portions replaced. (See my previous post Then and Now: Simanek Family Home for a family photo matched to the Predmir home.)

I am hoping that as I find more records on Actapublica, mapping them will give me a better picture of the local emigrations that occurred, as well as provide a nice tool to show to the rest of the family.

Also, using the rich text functionality of Google Maps markers I can include links directly to the original records right on the map. This one marriage record, for example, has 3 different family homes listed in it: the Vanac family in Luckovice #34, the Brousilova family in Pisek #6, the Straka family in Zamlyni #3 and the Komanova family in Dobsic #8.

(Pisek #6 has three potential results and needs further research – all have been added to the map for now.)

Finally, Czech folk: Please excuse my not using the diacritics for these location name in this post.

View Czech Family Locations in a larger map
Jul3

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Grandfather, Fresh Off The Boat

Posted in: Czech, Immigration, Photo

While resurrecting my family photo scanning project again (now aka PROJECT LAZARUS) I stumbled upon one of my very favorite family photos: my 15 year old grandfather Josef Vanac and his sister Marie all dressed up for a photo in New York city.
I love this photo not only because we have no other photos of my grandfather and great-aunt at this time, but because he is right off the boat from the Czechoslovakia. (Around this time known as Bohemia, Austria Hungary, and/or Galicia depending on the record and they area people came from.)

Marie had been in New York since she arrived in 1902 at the age of 16. The contact listed on her ship record was a cousin (actually listed as a sister, oddly) who had been here for many years.

My grandfather came over in 1907 when he was 15 years old, and his ship record has Marie as his contact.

I’ve included detail of his immigration record below.

The Vanac family came from a rural farming background in the town of Zamlyni in Czechoslovakia and my grandfather was a stone mason at a monument company in the middle of the cemeteries of Queens for his entire career. I would love to know what my Grandpa was thinking at this point in time.

In any case, they look terrific, and serious and at the beginning of their adult lives in a new country. And Aunt Marie looks especially beautiful.
Jun28

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Affectionate

Posted in: Fun, New York, Newspaper

Found when trolling old newspapers for hints of my Tierneys in New York City and environs. I can claim no relation to this affectionate young man, but the writer’s style is razor sharp!