Thursday, December 29, 2011

Ready to Write the Next Chapter!

2011 was a year of progress in finding answers about my Czech heritage.  I never believed I'd find exact names of my great-grandparents and great-uncles in my grandfather's family photo, but this year I did!  Clearly, these brothers were beloved by my grandfather, because he named his own sons after his two oldest brothers.  This year I also learned that my grandfather had one, possibly two sisters, which was a complete surprise since there were no young women in the Zvolanek family photo.


This year I verified exact names, dates and aquired documents pertaining to the life events of my Grandfather, Great-Grandfather, Great-Great Grandfather and Great-Great-Great Grandfather!  So detailed are these documents that they bear not only the names, addresses and occupations of the main characters at each event, but also details about wedding witnesses and godparents at baptisms.  Such a treasure to have digital copies of these documents!


There remains the question of what happened to the Zvolanek family after 1917 when John and Jim's letter to the Ukraine was Returned to Sender.  But after so much progress this past year, I feel more hopeful than ever that the answers are out there somewhere.  I'll just need to be persistent!