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Sudetenland, in gray, around the perimeter of Bohemia |
German-Bohemians have either lived or have ancestry in the outer rim of the Czech Republic. Once this region was part of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation, when people moved and settled freely in Central Europe. When the nation of Czechoslovakia was created in 1919 out of the former Austrian crown colonies of Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia, the German-speaking outer rim came to be known as the Sudetenland, named for the terrain that separates Germany from Bohemia. After World War II three and one half million of these Germans from Sudetenland were forcibly expelled from their homeland and "resettled" throughout Germany. These, too, are German-Bohemians, however, they prefer to me known as Sudeten-Germans. Beginning in the early 1850's, and increasingly throughout the balance of the 19th century, there was a large chain migration to Minnesota and Wisconsin. Motivated by a string of immigrant letters, hundreds of immigrants joined their families and brought with them elements of the culture, crafts, traditions, music and values that characterize the descendents of these German-Bohemian immigrants to this day.
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Sudetenland, in gray, around the perimeter of Bohemia |
After four years of family history research, I started working on the last of my family to arrive in America, Josef and Mary (Gill) Paha. My initial work was without my Ancestry.com subscription, which is a great tool for any genealogist. But I was having some difficulty in locating source documentation for Josef and his family.
As a youngster attending St. Dennis Grammar School on Chicago's Southwest Side, I recall bringing an old passport to school for a class project. The passport was that of Josef Paha, and was written in German. I had no idea of the value of that passport, and I used to keep it in the center drawer of my desk. Unfortunately, this ancestral keepsake got lost somewhere along the years. I wish I had safeguarded it better. In Geography Class, we used to make maps of countries around the world, and I recall when we worked on Czechoslovakia. I remember how I thought the name was pretty neat (sorry about the ancient jargon). In an old atlas we had at home, I remember seeing the capital of Czechoslovakia as Praha. I thought that there must have been some relationship to our surname. I had no idea that after WWII, most city and village names switched to the Czech version, as the cleansing from the German past came to completion, thus Prague and Praha. But all the same, I wasn't that far off from where my ancestors had come from, southwest of Praha.
In my initial research of Josef and his family, my first source document was the 1900 census. This was prior to my Ancestry.com subscription and the find required some timely research. I don't recall the exact find, but I do remember the name was located by locating a neighborhood on Chicago's Southside and reviewing the archive film. Difficulty was complicated by the name spelled as Baha, and the family originated in Germany. In retrospect, I assume the census taker had difficulty in understanding the heavy German accent of my great grandparents - Paha sounded like Baha and somehow he got the impression they were from Germany. This was the last census research I did without Ancestry.com.
After getting Ancestry.com, I thought locating source documentation would be easier and it was. But at times, it was also frustrating. Trying to locate Josef and his family in Chicago was not turning up and hits. Finally, after using some wild card searches, Joe Caha popped out. And low and behold, I had the 1910 census. More confusion though in locating their country of origin; this census details Josef and family from Austria (Polish) - whatever!! I'm thinking the census taker didn't do so well in Geography class. In the 1930 census, Josef Peka is the transcription by the Ancestry.com people, but I've already broken the code for errors. Josef finally details his home country as Bohemia. In 1930, Josef details his home country as Austria.
Well after reviewing these data points for country of record and knowing the complexities of Middle Europe and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, I've pretty much given up hope that I will be able to localize the Paha place of immigration. And on top of that, I was having great difficulty in locating the ship Josef and his family came to America on. Ancestry.com has done some very complete indexing of manifests for ships coming to America, but no matter how many ways I tried, Josef and his family would not come out. Anyway, persistence paid off, and I located Josef Poha and family in a database compiled by Leo Baca called the Czech Immigration Passenger Lists. I finally located this book in Milwaukee's public library and the ships name and date of arrival popped out. back to Ancestry.com, and a review of the manifest and no Josef. How could that be? On review of the numbering of the manifest, I determined that Ancestry.com had omitted just one image of the 15 page manifest and it was the one Josef was on. Back to the Church of latter Day Saints in Milwaukee and a review of the film with the manifest, and (link to page with manifest) Josef from Bohemia is finally located. And as is usually the case, first source documentation has a good chance of being the truth.
Well, I located the originating country, but I really had nothing to go on at that time. I had not done much research on Bohemia, and I was unaware of the ancestral heritage within the country. A new database came online, draft registrations for WWI, and my grandfather, John Paha had registered. And his birth city was detailed - Seirb.
Seirb, Bohemia. Actually, John Paha misspelled the city of his birth on his draft registration. Seirb is actually Sirb. Now comes the real hard work. Surfing the web, locating the place called Sirb. Many google hits, pages written in German. But finally, my background for the area is starting to get some substance. I'm learning about the area called the Sudetenland and the term German Bohemian. I stumble across a German page that may be of interest, the latter half has a bunch of surnames detailed, both Paha and Gill, my great grandparents included. I e-mail the author of the page and ask about ancestors of John and Anna Paha (my grandfather and great aunt). His name is Alfred Piwonka and he responds within a week and states he may have some info. This was unexpected, and I file the e-mail for later review. A week passed, and I realized there was an attachment to the e-mail. I open the attachment, and it is an output file from a family tree program detailing the ancestors of Anna Paha back many, many generations. Birth places, occupations, marriages. Though not related to Alfred by blood, we are related by marriage. This find was like Christmas. Here is a link to the page. More research on the area of western Bohemian brings us back to America and Minnesota of all places.
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| Prague, Pilsen, Bischofteinitz and the shaded area. Josef and family resided in a small farm village southwest of Pilsen and just west of Bischofteinitz. |
Using Ancestry.com generates some census listings for a group of Paha families in Pennsylvania. Andrew and Elizabeth Paha came to America around 1890 and settled in Allegheny County. Their eldest son, Andrew, was born in Czechoslovakia and John, Anne and Steve were bore in Pennsylvania. I am researching their American descendants.
But reviewing Alfred Piwonka's web site generates new questions. What is the purpose of the web page? Who are the people detailed throughout the site?
A very recent find, actually a clarification of an earlier find, occurred at the end of October, 2007. I located Johanness Paha on facebook and after some discussion, I realized that his grandparents were part of the German Bohemians who were forced to leave Czechoslovakia at the end of World War II. After some further discussion, I realized that I had worked with a cousin of his, Gisela Paha, a few years ago. At that time, I was unaware of the actions taken at the end of War, I just assumed they always lived in Germany. But as it turns out this is a portion of their Paha family tree with ties back to Bohemia. But where? More research with Johanness providing help with the language barrier.