Exploring Jan Zvolanek's Connection to Nove Ransko

On his Ellis Island immigration papers, Jan Zvolanek listed his last city of residence as Stare (Old) Ransko. He had also received (and saved) letters from the Briza family in Nove (New) Ransko. So as part of our visit to Prague, we hired a guide/translator and drove 2 hours southeast to visit these towns.

On our way to Nove Ransko, we stopped to eat lunch in the town square at Chotebor, where Uncle Jim perhaps lived prior to coming to the U.S. (Either that or Chotebor is merely listed as the county seat on Jim's records - hard to decipher.)



After lunch we proceeded to Nove Ransko to search for the house where the Briza family lived as indicated by two letters that Grandpa had kept. We stopped at City Hall to ask where house #66 was located. The ladies seemed excited to have a visitor searching for family clues. One of them disappeared into a side room, brought out a thick old ledger book and started searching for the #66 address. The ledger revealed that Antonie (one of Anton Briza's daughters mentioned in his letters) inherited the house and married Karel Smelc.



We discovered that Antonie passed away, the Briz house was torn down recently and a new house was built on the location. The ladies at the office called one of Antonie's neighbors, a watchmaker (hodinar) to see if we could come visit him and possibly obtain more information through our translator, Marek.



Although he had no memory of any Zvolaneks in the area, the watchmaker took our address and offered to (hopefully) find and send me an old photo of Antonie Briza Smelcova in front of #66.


I was being careful not to offend or frighten the current neighbors by photographing their homes, but permission to take a couple of photos of the street that Grandpa undoubtedly walked. This is looking up the street toward #66.



This is the new house located at #66:
But I think this photo of the house next to #66 gives us a better idea of what the original Briza home looked like - the house that Jan Zvolanek must have visited many many times.



If Jan Zvolanek worked as a machinist in Nove Ransko, it could have been at the factory at the opposite end of the Briza's street.


This factory was originally founded by Jan Pujman and was noteworthy at the time Grandpa lived in the area.
Note the bicycles on the right. Men were leaving work, getting on their cycles and riding away.



Next update will be about our visit to Stare Ransko where Jan Zvolanek actually lived -- just a short drive (or bicycle ride) from this factory and the Briza home.


And yes -- we did find a few distant Zvolanek ancestors there!

Preparing to visit the Czech Republic in May 2011

Kirk and I will return to Prague in mid-May, and have planned a guided visit to the New Ransko/Stare Ransko area where Jan Zvolanek lived and worked before coming to America. We will also try to find the exact address of the Briz family using letters that Grandfather received from them in the 1920's. The Rev. Jan Dus is doing some preliminary research and will be our driver, our guide and translator during this day trip southeast of Prague.

Meanwhile, I am continually looking for help with research in the Ukraine, and have recently made contact with this company. http://www.genealogy.kiev.ua/research.htm They have asked for information and copies of the Returned Letter. I've also sent them a photo of Grandfather's family. I hope this organization can find some answers for us about what happened to my Great-Great Grandfather and his family.

I won't give up until I have some very good answers about what happened to the Zvolaneks in Russia!

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