Contacting the Red Cross

I've read on the internet that the Red Cross can reunite families who lost contact during wars and revolutions. So last week I e-mailed the Red Cross in the Ukraine and sent them a link to this blog/research. I hoped they could help me access birth and death records to find what happened to our Uncles, Great-Uncles and Great-Grandparents.


At first, the Red Cross informed me that they did not recognize the town name, suggesting that perhaps this was in Poland. They further stated that Red Cross responsibility does not cover "Ancestry work."


Not one to give up right away (!) I e-mailed them back with a jpeg image of the Returned Envelope, and explained that I have living relatives who would like to make contact with other living relatives overseas. This is not just a "historical interest" for me.


I'm very excited to report a small breakthrough! On Monday December 6th, I received this information:

Dear Mrs. Chevalier,




We are pleased to advise you that thanks to the copy of the envelope we have been


able to clear the location of the village Jahubec, which is called in Ukrainian


language "Ягубець". It is really located in Ukraine, Cherkasskaya oblast,


Christinowsky rajon.


Taking inro account the above said we made a request (as an exception) to the local


authorities of this village to inform us if somebody from the family of Zvolanek is


still living there.




We'll advise about outcome of this request. While corresponding with us, plesase, cite


our case number 97061/15.




Sincerely,


Tracing specialist


Luidmila Obukhova

More Progress on the 1917 Letter.

Researching my Grandfather's history is like working a puzzle. I make a little progress, I keep searching, I find new pieces, I evaluate whether the pieces fit.


Such is the case with my Grandfather's letter to his parents in Russia. When I started working on this project, I didn't even know his parents lived in Russia. The envelope actually was addressed to Russia, but I didn't know exactly what I was looking at! Both my Grandfather and Great-Grandfather were named Jan. However, I had assumed that someone had added my Grandfather's name to the front of the envelope when the letter was returned to Nebraska. I never initially considered that my Grandfather Jan was named after his father Jan in Russia.


I keep going back to to this letter to get more information - and get it right. It was obviously important to my Grandfather, because he kept the letter for his lifetime (and beyond.) Did he envision that it could be useful to someone, someday? Did he think the connection to his family could eventually be restored? Some day, when I can access the correct databases in Russia/Ukraine, I will have more pieces of the puzzle to use in my search for the whole picture.


With each attempt at a better translation, I am coming closer to the facts. With the latest translation from Reverend Jan Dus, Grandfather sends his greetings to Eduard and Josef. I don't know if these are friends or family, but they must have been important people in his life -- Grandfather named his oldest son Edward and his youngest son Joseph. His middle son John Stanley is, apparently, John Zvolanek III.


Bit by bit, I also become aware of how my Grandfather was feeling about the path he chose in life. Today I learned this:

Dear parents, I think of you and Russia a lot. I recall how I lived there and grew up there, where I walked .... I will never forget about the village I grew up in. I will never forget anything until the end of my life. Dear parents, with a great joy, I ask you not to forget about me as I can promise I will never forget about you.

All of my Grandfather's Documents will be added to this Shutterfly link:

I'm in the process of uploading low-resolution jpegs of all John's documents to this Shutterfly share site:
http://returntojohnzdocuments.shutterfly.com/


You can view them (individually labeled) on Shutterfly. There are several folders of documents to upload, nearly 100 individual scans(!) so check back periodically to view them all. I'll try to organize them according to the "Contents Page" (first image in the Shutterfly album.)


Many of the images on Shutterfly will also be posted within this blog whenever I get translations and other pertinent information about them.


Anyone should be able to access the Shutterfly album. If you have problems, please let me know ASAP!

A Machinist Apprentice

Yesterday Uncle Stan was visiting our house and we talked about his dad. Apparently, John Zvolanek was a Machinist Apprentice in Czechoslovakia for a while, which could possibly explain why he left his Russian birthplace and moved West. Is this what he was doing in Stare Ransko, southeast of Prague?


On some of John's documents, he had listed himself as a "machinist" which I thought was an error because I knew he was a car mechanic. What I didn't realize is that he was able to make car parts too.


Uncle Stan had memories of his dad creating very precise machine parts with a metal lathe. And although his dad died when Stan was very young, Stan remembered using his dad's metal lathe to make fake nickels. A practice that John Z. told him was not only wrong, but cost more in materials to make than an actual nickel!


Both Grandpa John and his brother Jim were also blacksmiths.
I think about them when I'm welding and creating moving-gear wooden art sculptures, called "automata."


Do I have a genetic love of all these things? Maybe this explains why I also love to collect old foundry molds -- big wooden sprockets and cogs used as patterns for big machine parts.
Sure wish I'd met them both...

For Nick and Sam

Yesterday Kirk and I returned from 3 days in Prague followed by a cruise down the Danube River with Kirk's parents Scott and Patsy Moore. A trip to the Nove and Stare Ransko area - southeast of Prague - would have taken a full day of travel by car. Since we loved the city of Prague, Kirk and I decided we would return to this part of the world fairly soon and dedicate more time to ancestry research. By then I'll have more translations completed, more pieces of the puzzle to work with.


However, my Uncle Stan's granddaughter and her husband are currently traveling in Europe and hope to visit Prague and ancestral sites in the area.


To that end, I'm posting this address of the Briz family. It's my belief that both Grandfather John and his brother Jim (Jan and Waclav) lived in this area just before emigrating to the United States. The Brizs' were either friends or cousins. I'm not sure why the Zvolaneks left their birthplace in Russia to live outside of Prague, but I'll guess that there was more work for them, since John was a machinist and Jim listed his trade as blacksmith. We saw a LOT of ironwork in and around the buildings of Prague.


Below is a letter from the Briz family - showing their address in Nove Ransko during the 1920's - two years after my mother was born in Nebraska. More about the Briz family - and a translation of another one of their letters - is contained in a different blog post. I hope Sam and Nick Draper can uncover more information about this family and this period of John Zvolanek's life!


Update as of October 12, 2010: Mr. Tomas Zvolanek of the Czech Republic, whom I contacted through LinkedIn, an internet business contact website, has translated the letter below for our family. This letter - from Anton Briz dated 1920 - was among my Grandfather's papers. Sadly, it does not appear that they were able to keep in touch after Grandfather left for America. Thank you Tomas for the translation which appears after the letter.




PAGE 1
Dear and precious friend
Accept from us many cordial greetings
I write to you after four years and wish that the letter will be delivered.
I still expect that you know about yourself but we do not have any report from you
no message about you but we are still remember you what you are doing.
We expect that you are married and you have your own home and nice wife with children


PAGE 2
By me a lot of things change, girls are bigger, Františka is 21 year old, Tonička 18 year old and Růža is 11 year old


Me and my father is very old, he was 18 months at war in Russia and for all that time he wasn't at home, I cant write how was it terrible.
Now is little bit better but my type of work is still not going well, father was going to sawmill and must work at Ždírec.
All is very expensive especially clothes and boots.
Good old times passed away when you visited us we never not remember you.


PAGE 3
We wish you all the best and when you obtain our letter and you answer to us
we after send you our photos.
We will be waiting for your answer


with God
family Břízova
Antonín Bříza, Nové Ransko in this time under Ždírec

Grandfather's Czech Folk Songs

While scanning more documents tonight, I noticed that a couple of them appeared to rhyme. I think the handwriting below belongs Ludmila, one of Grandfather's friends or relatives in Nove Ransko:

And here's where the internet comes in handy: I went to Google translate, typed in the handwritten words, chose "translate from Czech to English" and voila! I was able to tell that this was definitely a song about Posvicini, the name of a religious harvest festival held in Czech Republic. People thank God for the good harvest and ask him to bless the crops.

I remember my mom telling me that Grandpa had a little "squeeze box" that he liked to play. It seems clear to me now that quite a few of "his documents" are Folk Songs. Wish I could have heard him sing them.

I found a link with translations of several Czech Folk songs. Some internet searches allow you to listen to a portion of these songs which are still being recorded by Czech musicians!

Very roughly, here's a translation of the song. I can refine it later.
But it's after midnight...

The feast,
All the smells,
As in apatyce:
The smells of the sausage, the cakes from the oven again
He who would not go to the feast,
This is crazy after all.

I love the little flower doodles at the bottom of the page!

Here is photo of Grandfather's Honer squeeze box, taken by his Great-Grandson Matt Zvolanek. Thanks, Matt, and thank you Uncle Stan for the additional comments.


I'll publish the other photos of the accordion later. Once again, it's 2 a.m. and I've got to work tomorrow...

Archival Scans of Returned Letter -- with 3 "new" pages!

The other night as I was scanning the original "Returned" letter of 1917, I realized that I had given the translator, Rev. Jan Dus only 3 Xeroxes, 3 pages to translate. However, each page of the original letter had writing on the back!

Since my new digital scans of the original letter capture so much more detail than the digital scans of the old Xeroxes, I feel very hopeful that having Jan re-translate the letter will reveal much more information.
This morning, I e-mailed Jan 6 pages total, and I'm excited to hear back from him. Stay tuned!

Meanwhile, here's the scan of newly-discovered page 1b.
I will post the new digital scan of this entire letter on the blog page "Undelivered Letter."

Citizen of the United States of America

On July 20th, 1920 - after living in America for 9 years - my Grandfather became a Citizen of the United States. This Department of Labor Certificate of Naturalization confirms that prior to residing in the United States, Grandfather was a citizen/subject of Austria.

John was 29, Mabel was 21 and my mother Marjory Ruth was 2 years old.
They had apparently moved from DuBois and were living in Humboldt Nebraska.

Chairman of Rulo Nebraska School Board

Here is a 1939 diploma from Rulo High School, indicating that my grandfather served as Chairman of the Rulo School Board. My grandfather would have been 48 years of age at the time.

Thanks to his son, my uncle John Stanley Zvolanek for sharing this document!

F. Missler Bremen Advertisement and Linen Wallet

The F. Missler is one of the more famous "ghost" ships in emigration/immigration lore. No ship by that name existed.

The confusion stems from the fact that Freidrich Missler was a 19th century travel agent. He was the biggest ticket agent in Bremen who made an offer of passage to emigrants from Germany to America, Canada, South America, and South Africa in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Missler established a good working relationship with the North German Lloyd shipping line.

Missler's ad at left (which I found on the internet) is an interesting piece of immigration history. It is from the Pecirkuv Narodni kalendar - 1900, published in Prague, and appeared on the back page of the almanac and calendar.

In the early 1900's there was a wave of immigration from what is now the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic to America and other destinations throughout the world. Missler's advertisements promoted this immigration. This particular ad features passage to America, Africa, and Australia from the Port of Bremen, Germany.

By 1903 the Austro-Hungarian government was making a serious effort to stem the tide of emigration and passed the Hungarian Emigration Law of 1903. The Emigration Law contained some pretty strong measures to slow the immigration from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Ads like the one above were banned throughout the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It became illegal to even bring information like this ad into the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Article 46 of the law states, "Any one who encourages emigration at a public meeting by speeches, or by distributing printed matter or pamphlets, or by exhibiting these publicly, shall be punished with imprisonment for not more than two months, and by a fine not exceeding 600 crowns." In Austria-Hungary, taking Missler's brochure to an inn, meeting place or church and showing it to other people could land you in jail!

A similar ad may have helped my Bohemian ancestors make their decision to emigrate to America or other countries at the turn of the century -- and given them information about making that voyage.

Below is the F. Missler Bremen linen folding ticket and document wallet, given to either Grandfather Jan (John) Zvolanek in 1911, or to his brother Waclav (Jim) in 1914 as they left Bremen, Germany for New York City. I have scanned the front and inside (2 pockets!) of this wallet.

Translation of Polish phrases on inside wallet:
Line 1: "Taking passengers"
Line 2: "Fast steamships to America"
Line 3: "House Banking and Money Exchange"

My thanks to my Aunt Belle and cousins Gale Zuest and Darrell Zvolanek - the wife and children of John's oldest son, my Uncle Edward Zvolanek, who were kind enough to loan all of Grandfather's papers for me to scan and share on this blog.

Names of Grandfather's Family & Friends near Prague

When my Great-Uncle Wenzel Zvolanek boarded the F Missler Bremen for the United States in the Spring of 1914, he listed his residence as Kreizenburg in the district of Chotebor, Crown Land Bohemia. There is also a note about a village called Rankov.

In a letter written to my Grandfather on May 10, 1923 from relatives in New Ransko some names appear. A digital scan and translation will be provided on this site.

The names mentioned in this letter are:
Anton and Frank Briz, their daughters Frances, Toni, Rose.
Ludmila and Mary (last name uncertain) from Ransko.
Aunt Madam Muttl (Muttlova) who died in 1922.
And "Father" who is "already very old" but still weaving.

Another paper mentions Ludmila Briznova.
I have a copy of a letter from Ludmila, so she could be a relative or close friend.

Yet another paper appears to record this address (as best I can read the language)
Od Antonin Briza
Nove Ransko c 66
Cechy Europa.

Here are addresses written in Grandfather's little notebook.
I have no reason yet to believe that they are relatives.
Perhaps he met them on the ship to Ellis Island?

Velecteni Pan
p. Jozep Malit
u.p. Merkea Chotebor
Kraij (or Kray) Castari
Bohimen

Yet another address:
Vaclav Obradovsky,
Krucemburk,
Cechy

Uncovering Names of Grandfather's Relatives in Russia

By studying a couple of official documents on-line and Grandfather's returned letter to Russia, I've decided that there are a few names that I can try to track down. An important name shows up on Ellis Island documents and US Census documents: Jan and Waclav's father's name was recorded a few times as Jan Zvolanek (senior.)

Just the other day, while writing about the Returned Letter, I said that there were no Zvolaneks on the address, other than the name of my Grandpa to whom the letter was being returned. I thought Grandfather's name was written on the front and on the back as the "Returnee."

But now that I realize that my Grandfather and his father were both named Jan. It's entirely possible that Grandfather John addressed the envelope to his father Jan Zvolanek in addition to someone named Kijevshoy (sp?) Huberni. The Elder Jan Zvolanek's name has been hiding in plain sight all along -- underneath the SERVICE SUSPENDED rubber stamp.

According to Reverend Jan Dus' translation of this letter, other people and names appear in my grandfather's letter:
Parents and brothers: the plural seems significant. Grandpa's mother is apparently still alive and he's writing to more than one brother. (By this time, his brother Waclav (Jim) is already living in Nebraska...

Antonie Kopernicka, Antonin (friend or cousin?) and brother Ivanovi Zvolanek.
As I find more names on documents, I will post them for follow-up.

I'm enjoying how handy this blog is for organizing, adding and sharing information!