The "Sweet Milk" Site:
Klisinec in 1998
In February, 1998, Nancy (my wife) and I traveled to Versailles, France to meet with our daughter, Kate. Kate was spending the 1998 school year studying architecture at L'ecole d'Architecture at the Palace in Versailles. The three of us traveled to Berlin by train where we picked up a car and drove south to Prague. In Prague we met with Jirí Malík. We stayed in the Czech Republic for a total of four days, spending two days traveling, one day sightseeing in Prague and one day in Klisinec.
Roughly six months prior to the trip I saw John Marvin of Madison, Wisconsin speak at a meeting of the Czech/Slovak Genealogical Society of Illinois. In subsequent conversations with Mr. Marvin he suggested contacting Jirí . My initial contact with Jirí was about six weeks prior to our trip. I provided Pane (Mr.) Malík with the research completed by Bob Sismilich and information I had accumulated relevant to Jirí's research concerning our family. The day before we arrived in the Czech Republic, I contacted Jirí and asked him to meet us about 20 miles north of Prague in Veltrusy to guide us to our hotel. Once settled in at our hotel, Jirí presented us with his initial research concerning the family. Kate, Jirí and I met the first evening at the restaurant of our hotel, the Park Hotel, to review the research. Our second day in the Czech Republic was spent sight seeing in Prague. Our third day, we traveled with Jirí to Klisinec. The initial research which is in the letter from Jirí dated, February 16, 1998, proved that our family did indeed come from Klisinec (KLEES e nets). Klisinec is a village of about 60 people located near Dobrošov (DO bra sov) which is a town of several hundred located near Milevsko (mi LEV sko), a town of several thousand which is located east of Tabor and south of Prague. According to our family stories, we have believed that our common tie has been four brothers, Ludwig, Karel, Alois and Hynek, who we believed had traveled to the United States in the late 1860's. The research showed however that the "four brothers" of which we have all spoken were not brothers, but rather cousins. Klisinec was fascinating and definitely one of the highlights of the trip. I had coffee and cake at the home of Frantisek Kubicek. Frantisek is the son of Ludmilla Sismilich. I was unable to figure how I am related to him. Frantisek is also related to Vaclav Sismilich, but even THEY don't know how! In talking with Vaclav, we discovered that his great grandfather and my great great grandfather were the same person. I also had lunch (roast pork, dumplings and sauerkraut) with Jaroslav Bambas whose home is directly next door to the ancestral home at #21. He knew my great grandfather's brother because he (my great great uncle) continued to live in the yellow house #21 that was the Sismilich ancestral home until his death probably sometime in the 50's. I suspect that Jaroslav Bambas is also related to the Sismilichs (Anna Bambas was the wife of Frantisek (Frank) Sismilich), but couldn't prove it and with the language problems couldn't pursue it. Jaroslav was actually "appointed" as the town chronicler in 1974 and continues to document important happenings in the village. He "interviewed" my wife, daughter and me in order that he could include our visit in the town's history. We also met with the village mayor. The town's chronicles are supposed to exist back to the 1500's. Unfortunately, the mayor was unable to locate anything prior to the 1920's. He interviewed us in order that he could write an article for the local paper. They are going to see if anyone knows where the really old records are. It should be possible to find them because, under the Communists, they were to have been published so, they have been seen relatively recently. They would undoubtedly carry much information about the family!
|
||||
|
||||
