Frantisek (Frank) Sismilich, was born May 6, 1833 in Klisinec, Bohemia, the son of Frantisek Sismilich and Anna Bambas Sismilich. As his father and grandfather before him, Frantisek was a stone-cutter; he worked making tombstones. The family lore is that Frantisek was not so much an engraver as a sculptor who specialized in sculpting the angels and other figurines that were part of the more ornate grave markers. Supposedly Frantisek was not allowed to take his stone-cutting tools with him when he emigrated. It does not appear as if he ever practiced his craft in the U.S.

On February 13, 1855 in Kovarov, at the age of 22, Frantisek married Anna Vala, who was three years his senior, having been born on January 16th, 1830. Anna was the daughter of Josef Vala, a house proprietor in Radvanov, and Marie Hlavina, from Zlucina.

They were married by Father Antonin Kypta, the same priest who issued the exit records for the family 13 years later. Their first child, Marie, was born a year later, January 9, 1856. She was followed by Frantisek (Frank) in 1857, Ferdinand in 1859, stillborn twin sons in 1862, Anastasia (Stazie) in 1864, and Anna in 1866.

About 50,000 Czechs emigrated to America between 1850 and 1870, following the revolutionary activity after the end of the Thirty Years War in 1848 and the economic difficulties of the next 20 years. Frantisek, with his wife and family, came to the United States in 1868. The copies of the family's birth and marriage records, marked "to America" which indicates their usage as exit papers, are dated April 14th of that year. They traveled (most likely over land) to the German city-state of Bremen, which was their port of embarkation. They sailed to their new life aboard the Bark Gessner, a sailing ship of the North German Lines. The exact date of their departure is not known, but given that the journey by sail took approximately 6 weeks, early May would be a good guess. Since the ship lists for Bremen were destroyed during the bombing of World War II, this is probably the best we will ever know.

The family arrived in New York City at the Castle Garden immigration center at the tip of lower Manhattan, predecessor to Ellis Island, on July 15, 1868. Frantisek was listed on the immigration list as Franz, and his occupation was recorded as a farmer. Although he likely did farm in Bohemia, it is curious that no mention was made of his occupation as a stonecutter. Anna and all of the children were properly listed in the records. The ship's captain did not distinguish cabin passengers from ones who traveled in steerage.

The family tradition is that they first settled on a farm in Haverstraw, Rockland County, NY. To date, no supporting evidence has been found. Perusing the census records of 1870 reveal a more likely reason in support of Haverstraw: there was a large brick yard in the town which supported a number of workers, most of whom appeared to be Irish immigrants. Frantisek and Anna's penultimate child, their daughter Josephine, claimed she was born in Haverstraw in 1869. Neither Josephine nor their youngest child, John Alois, born in 1874, are listed in the birth records of New York City; this is circumstantial support, at least, for the family living in Rockland County. The 1870 census records are not yet indexed; a cursory scanning of the entries for the town of Haverstraw did not locate them, while looking at unindexed census records for Manhattan is an exercise in futility. This issue will likely remain unresolved until indexed 1870 census records become available.

By no later than 1876, the family was residing at 214 Third Street in New York City, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Their daughter Marie died in childbirth at this house in May of that year. And mother Anna died there at age 46 in December, when little John was only 3 years old. There is some speculation that she had become ill while on the Haverstraw farm, and when Frantisek found himself unable to care for both the children and the farm they moved to New York City.

From 1879 until 1883, the family resided at 100 Cannon Street on the Lower East Side. Though Cannon Street no longer exists (the Baruch housing complex is now situated there; the site is just a block away from the Masaryk Towers, named for the founder of the post World War I Czechoslovakia), the area in which they lived was the major Bohemian enclave in New York City at the time. In the 1880 census, Frantisek - who by this time had Americanized his name to Frank - was employed as a cigarmaker. This was the primary occupation of Bohemians in New York City in that era. The reformer Jacob Riis' famous book, "How the Other Half Lives", documents in detail the miserable plight of the great majority of Lower East Side Bohemians who worked in the cigar industry. Preying on the difficulty Bohemians had learning English and assimilating into the culture, they lived and worked in company-owned, windowless tenements, paying exorbitant rents to their employers and putting in 18 hour workdays, 6 days a week - not only the father, but the children, too. The few fragmentary stories passed down in the family, along with the census data, seem to indicate that Riis' depiction was close to what the Sismilich family experienced. Frantisek's daughters were listed in the census as working in the cigar factory with him; it was said that the girls' job was to paint the hand-decorated labels which adorned the cigars. The terrible working conditions gave rise to nascent American trade unions, and son Frank became close friends with the famous Samuel Gompers, who rose from the ranks of the Cigarmakers Union to the heights of the American Federation of Labor (AF of L) in the early 20th Century.

In 1880, Stazie (Anastasia), Josephine, and John were all attending school, according to the census. By 1883 the family had moved to 7 Manhattan Street.

Frank died at the age of 61 at 67 Avenue C in New York City in November 1894. The NYC death certificate listed his occupation as "car cleaner". Josephine's daughter Gertrude, a little girl at the time, woke up that morning and told her mother Josephine that "she saw Grandpa last night". Later in the day, they received word that Frank had died.

Both Frank and Anna were buried in Lutheran Cemetery. On November 8, 1921, their remains were removed the Lutheran Cemetery in Middle Village, Queens, NY; this plot was owned by their daughter Stazie. Both she and her sister Josephine are buried there as well.

Frank and Anna must have spoken with a very thick, Eastern European accent; this, combined with the lack of formal education in those days, accounts for the many variations in spelling of the Sismilich surname. Some of them were merely a one-time mistake of the listener, others were carried forward to succeeding generations. "Sismilich" is the original spelling in the Bohemian records. It is "Suessmilch" in Anna's burial records, "Sismellish" on the 1880 census, "Sismerlich" on Frank's 1883 naturalization certificate, and "Sismelich" in Frank's burial records. To this day first cousins disagree as to whether it is pronounced with a "ch" or a "k" at the end!

Frank undoubtedly intended to leave Bohemia behind and become an American. This is likely one reason that so few family stories of the Old World were handed down. On March 20, 1875 he filed his Declaration of Intention to become a citizen, and was naturalized on October 22, 1883. His occupation was listed as a laborer. During World War II, his daughter Stazie wrote to a grand-nephew in broken English that the family's "heart and soal was for right here for this country".

	Family Group Sheet for Frantisek (Frank) Sismilich
	Candy store in Jersey City, NJ, owned by Frank's son John Alois (Aloysius) Sismilich, c.1913. Pictured are Henrietta Baumbach Sismilich, and her sons Charles and Walter. Frank Sinatra delivered papers to this store when he was a young boy.
	Frank's grandsons Charles J. Sismilich, Walter J. Sismilich, and their cousin Arthur L. Millette in Jersey City c.1916