John Zvolanek is my mother’s father --1/4 of me -- yet I knew very little about him. Over time, my research has given me answers to some questions. But the urge to know about John's early life grabbed me several years ago -- and still won’t let me go.Here's why:
- I never met my Grandfather John, he died 12 years before I was born.
- I never knew his exact birthplace. Neither did the rest of my family.
- We didn't know the names of his parents and siblings.
- Neither John nor his descendants knew what happened to the family he left behind in Russia. A letter he had written to them in 1917 was returned to him in Nebraska, and, as the story goes, he lost touch with his family at that moment. Having spent my life in close contact with my parents and siblings, the idea of being cut of from one's entire family is impossible for me to accept.
- No one in our family could read the paperwork that John Zvolanek left behind. We wondered - is the language Russian, Czech -- or a little bit of both?
- In his letter of 1917 - Who is my grandfather writing to, and where do they live?
- What does he want the recipients to know?
- Why was his letter returned to DuBois Nebraska -- undelivered?
Nearly a century later, his descendants were STILL keeping that letter.
But the letter is no ordinary keepsake.
To me, the letter is alive because it contains clues to a MYSTERY:
Hidden messages that were Untranslated, Undelivered and Unexplained for nearly a century.
Personally, I love to solve puzzles. So my Grandfather’s letter continually calls on me to FOLLOW UP on it. There's a strong pull to translate, find answers, explore Grandfather's life, connect with who he was, then expand the connection to the rest of my family. Ultimately, I need to deliver that letter.
*****
The internet has shattered many age-old barriers to finding details about our heritage.
I began wondering about Zvolanek family history when I was a child, hearing that Grandfather had completely lost touch with his parents in Russia. In the mid-80's Mom gave us Xeroxes of Grandfather's untranslated documents, and a copy of his family photo - with no date or names written on the back. All were beautiful to look at, but impossible to fully understand. Quite a contrast to other family photos my parents kept which were neatly labeled and organized for future generations.
My father, Rene Benjamin Chevalier had done Family Tree research for both sides of our family. The Chevalier and Benjamin branches could be traced back to the 1600's and beyond. My mother's Darveau branch was nearly as robust as the Chevalier branch, teeming with beautiful French names and lively stories about Grandma Mabel's parents and siblings. My mother's Zvolanek branch, however, grew forward from just one person: her father, John Zvolanek.
Unlike researching my French ancestry, gathering any useful information from Russia or the Czech Republic was nearly impossible when I first became interested in genealogy. Eastern Europe and Russia were inaccessible until the late 1980's and early 1990's. All existing methods of communication were laboriously slow.
Early 1994: When Kirk and I finally got internet access at home, one of my first activities was to Google "Zvolaneks in the Czech Republic." Nothing. However, I did find the address of the Czech Embassy in Washington D.C. and mailed them Xeroxes (of previous Xeroxes) of all Grandfather's paperwork. The embassy mailed me information about the town of Chotebor because of information on "Wenzel's" Austrian passport. (And who was Wenzel?! Was that my grandfather's real name?)
For over a decade I then (wrongly) believed Chotebor was Grandfather's birthplace. I decided that my first goal would be to pinpoint my Grandfather's exact birthplace on a map. Accomplishing this simple task took another 17 years.
While searching the early (and slow!) internet I also found a few names of people who could possibly translate Grandfather's letter, but prospective translators never followed through. Grandfather's papers went back into the file cabinet.
April 2001: When the Ellis Island website was launched, it provided me with essential data about new immigrants Jan and Wenzel Zvolanek. Birth dates confirmed that Wenzel was Grandfather's younger brother, who was known as Uncle Jim. I could confirm exact years of birth, their height, weight, occupation, place of birth. I had their exact dates of arrival in the United States. I could see photos of the ship they arrived on. There was also the name and address of closest living relative -- their father. At the time I couldn't clearly read the handwriting on the manifests, nor did I fully grasp how important some of this information was to my overall research. But I kept all information in my Ellis Island account file and ordered hard copies of these documents.
Late 2007: I joined the Czechoslovak Genealogical Society International website -- 16 years after I first began actively researching the Zvolanek family. Joining this group led to an e-mail correspondence in 2008 with translator Jan Dus -- and the first attempts at translating Grandfather's letter to his family in Russia. Making a connection to the Czech Republic - and reading parts of this letter - gave me hope that there was a real chance of solving our family mystery.
Early 2010: I learned how to create this blog. Thanks to my Uncle Edward Zvolanek's wife Belle, I obtained and carefully scanned all John's original documents. To connect the family to these documents, I shared them as a link on Shutterfly.
John's original letter to Russia had more pages than the 3 Xeroxes I knew about, so Jan Dus re-translated the entire letter for me. Some new family members' names appeared in that translation. Also, I realized that the "Jan Zvolanek" addressee on the front of the envelope was, in fact, my great-great grandfather. I'd always thought "Jan Zvolanek" had been added when the letter was being returned to my Grandfather John. However, John had been named after his father, Jan. This fact was confirmed by information on both brothers' Ellis Island ship manifests, once I knew what I was looking at. An important detail hidden in plain sight on the front of the envelope for 93 years!
In May of 2010, Kirk and I traveled to Prague for the first time. We didn't have sufficient information to pursue genealogy research, but we got a wonderful feel for the culture and vowed to return soon.
Also in 2010, I searched Google, contacted and e-mailed a digital scan of Grandfather's "returned envelope" to the Ukrainian Red Cross. They verified Grandfather's exact birthplace on a map - with GPS co-ordinates. (1994's goal = completed!) Even more impressive, I could view Jahubec, Ukraine via satellite. But the Red Cross was unable to find any living Zvolaneks in that town or in that region of the Ukraine. I hadn't given them much to work with.
2011: I searched Google again, this time for someone to help me research Ukrainian records. I found Serhiy Kutniy of Interinfo, who was quite helpful in finding relevant and useful ancestral records.
In May 2011, Kirk and I again traveled to the Czech Republic and visited Stare Ransko, a town where Grandfather briefly lived before coming to America. We were warmly welcomed by the Coufal family, descendents of Mary Zvolanek and Frantisek Coufal -- whose name was written in my Grandfather's address book! Are we all related? It's certainly possible, and this question has inspired another branch of research. Kirk and I still keep in touch with our friend Frantisek Coufal by e-mail, with the help of Google Translate.
Interinfo provided crucial information about our ancestors in the Ukraine. However, a need for more specific facts about the birth of our Great-Great Grandfather and Great-Uncles in Krucemburk CZ prompted me to hire Dr. Miroslav “Mirek“ Koudelka to expand our research into the Czech Republic. Mirek holds a degree in Teaching History, a higher degree in Czechoslovak History, and has been working as a professional genealogist since 1993. His researching expertise and his historical perspective have been most beneficial.
In late August 2011, a more accurate Ukranian translation provided by Interinfo revealed that The Returned Letter was not written by my Grandfather, but instead by Uncle Jim. This was a big revelation indeed. The translation allowed us to read the letter in detail, and verify the names of many of John and Jim's siblings who were living in Russia/Ukraine in 1917.
In September 2011, Miroslav Koudelka completed his Zvolanek family research, and provided me with names and digital scans of Zvolanek ancestral records dating as far back as 1787! I can now delineate an accurate and robust Zvolanek branch of our family tree.
I will need continued help with further research. After all, I still do not know what happened to Grandfather's family members, and whether I have living relatives in Eastern Europe.
In late December 2011, I received both Russian and Czech translations of a previously undated letter written by my grandfather. Commentary on the last page of this letter indicates that it was enclosed within the Returned Letter of 1917. In it, my grandfather gives his parents a few details about his marriage to my grandmother, Mabel Darveau. The Returned Letter contained news from both Grandfather and Uncle Jim after all.
Also in late December I received disappointing news from Interinfo that they were unable to find any information about my Great-Grandparents and Great Uncles beyond 1917:
"Today, we completed the research. Despite all our efforts no traces. We checked numerous lists of foreign residents who resided in Kiev Gubernia after the revolution of 1917. For example, one of the files (State archive of Kiev Oblast: f.R112, оp.2, file №31) contains lists of foreigners from 1926 till 1930. I think they could leave Ukraine during the Civil War before 1921, or they obtained Soviet citizenship and moved to some other place..."*****
In addition to obsessive Curiosity about tangible pieces of Evidence from Grandpa John's life, I am pulled forward by two major Creative influences on how I might research and share this Ancestry Project:
Writer Jon Krakauer, author of Into the Wild, believes that a clinical study of the Evidence is not enough. Equally important is Experiencing the Ground we walk on and Understanding the Time we walk on it.
Artist Candy Jernigan created her witty and insightful art as if she were a forensic pathologist: drawing, writing, collecting and documenting the “physical proof” that she had walked this earth.
To Experience my grandfather's world, I will continue to research and visit the Ground he walked on:
- I feel well connected to my French roots. I speak French, I've been to France three times. But I have no idea about my Bohemian and Russian roots.
- What do Bohemia (the Czech Republic) and the Ukraine look like, sound like and smell like?
- How does Grandfather’s homeland feel - compared to the American home he created in Nebraska?
- How will it feel to put my feet on John Zvolanek’s Ground?
- Why did John's Bohemian/Czech family live in Russia?
- What political or economic situation compelled my grandfather to leave his parents and siblings in Russia, move to the Czech Republic -- and eventually emigrate at age 20 to an unknown world, knowing that he would probably never see them again?
- What made his 1917 letter to his family undeliverable? Was it because of the Russian Revolution, or something else?
- Was his family displaced? Where did they go?
- And finally, what ultimately became of John Zvolanek's father, mother and brothers? Did they continue to live somewhere in Europe? If they did, why did this family permanently lose communication with each other?
What will future “evidence” tell me about Grandfather Jan Zvolanek and our family roots?
What translations and new information can I find to re-connect with his family in Europe?
What can interviewing his surviving family tell me about my Grandfather?
How can modern technology/social media like e-mail, Google, Google Translate, Facebook, Linkedin, EllisIsland.com and Ancestry.com help me complete this puzzle and repair the lost connection?
Today, the Ukraine and Czech republic are more open and accessible than ever before. I’m excited to see - after 90+ years - how many connections I can make while exploring my grandfather’s life.
I will be tenacious in finding out exactly how FLAT today’s world can be!
*****
Join my fact-finding journey and read the "Latest News" as it unfolds:
- Updated translations and examination of the Evidence that my grandfather left behind.
- New World connectivity being used to repair Old World lost connections.
- Words + images being combined to create an emotional, multi-layered visual essay.
- A progressively clearer understanding of John Zvolanek’s Life, the Ground he walked on, and the Time he walked on it.
