Research Highlights
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[CLIENT] Dittrich1611 NT1510146 3 March 2017 Research Highlights GOALS Search for the death record of Barbara Dittrich’s alleged twin, Anežka. Find the birth records of Barbara’s other siblings in the Kladno parish records. Continue to extend the ancestry of Barbara Dittrich in available Czech records. PROGRESS Determined that Barbora Anežka was not a twin. Though unusual for Bohemia, many children in Kladno at that time had middle names. Reexamined the client’s information about Barbora’s siblings, and noted the town Libušín was listed for two of their births. Libušín was part of the Smečno parish, and that it was right outside of Kladno. It now appears that the family moved from Kladno to Libušín between 1892 and 1894. Discovered Barbora’s younger sister Agnes/Anežka’s marriage record in Canada to Antony Kraus. Also discovered her death record, which listed a second husband and her birth in Libušin. According to the client’s information, she had married Antony Kraus and had sons named Tony and Joe. We found her gravestone, and that of two of her children, Joseph and Agnes. Attempted to search the Libušín birth records for Barbora’s siblings but discovered that the relevant parish registers for Smečno are not yet digitized. The relevant book, Smečno 42, was also not available onsite. Sent an email requesting a search of the Libušín birth records after 1900 at the Libušín vital records office. Searched the available Kladno birth records from 1865-1870 for the births of Barbora’s parents. Their births were not found, but several more Dittrich and Veselý siblings for both parents were discovered in the process. Discovered the marriage of Antonín Dittrich and Anna Veselá, Barbora’s parents, on 20 January 1891 in Kladno, in the onsite records. Discovered the marriage of Antonín’s parents, Josef Tydrich and Barbora Šlosarova. Discovered marriages for several more of Antonín’s siblings. Discovered the birth of Anna Veselá on 9 November 1871 in Kladno. Discovered the birth of Antonín Dittrich on 12 June 1862 in Kladno. Found the births and some deaths of several more Dittrich and Vesely siblings in the onsite records. Discovered the death of Antonie Veselá, Anna’s grandmother, on 1 September 1907. Discovered the gravestone of Antonín Dittrich in Canada. He died there in 1940. Discovered the deaths of Josef Dittrich and Barbora Šlosarová. Searched the index of Kladno marriages from 1667-1861 for the marriages of Antonín’s parents and Dittrich grandparents, since the other couples were all probably married elsewhere. Created a chart and a map showing the different towns of origin for the various ancestral lines. The remaining marriages of the grandparents on both sides will likely be found in these places. Discovered the marriage of Antonín’s Dittrich’s grandparents: Václav Dittrich and Františka Váchová in Buštěhrad. It took place on 18 February 1828 and gave us their ages at marriage (21 and 18) and both the bride and groom’s parents’ names, extending that line back another generation. RECOMMENDATIONS 1. Send an onsite researcher to search the following records: a. Search for Barbora’s siblings’ births in Libušín in the parish register Smečno 42: Births 1892-1900 once that book becomes available at the Prague archives again. b. If a reply is not received through email, go to the records office in Libušin and request searches for the later births after 1900. c. Search for the birth of Marie Dittrich on 15 June 1865 in Kladno 13: Births 1862- 1865 to determine if she is a sister of Antonín. d. Go to the State District Archive in Kladno to search the 1910 census sheets for Libušín. If the census sheet for the house where the Dittrichs resided can be found it would be a rich source of additional information – all members of the family would be listed, with their occupation, religion, language, and a list of livestock owned by the family. 2. Search for the marriages and death records of Anna, Frank, Albert and Vincent in Canada for more exact birthdates, as well as passenger lists for the whole family. 3. Continue to extend Barbora’s ancestry by locating the relevant marriage records for her grandparents (Václav Veselý and Antonie Bryndáčova) and great-grandparents. Because there are so many individuals at this point, and most are from different towns, we recommend choosing which two lines to focus on in the next project, i.e. the Dittrich line: Dittrich/Vácha or Šlosar/Tábor, or the Veselý line: Veselý/Lukáš or Bryndač/Sklenár. 2 Research Report The goals of this research session were to search for the death record of the possible twin of Barbora, named Anežka, to locate the christening records of her other siblings, and to continue to extend her ancestry as far as possible in the given time. While the Czech name Anežka is used throughout the report for consistency (as with all other names unless referring to a specific record), the English equivalent is Agnes. This project was divided in half between online research in digitized records published by Czech archives and onsite research in records not yet digitized. We began with the online records in an effort to prepare for more efficient onsite research later on. Kladno Parish Registers As suggested in the last report, this research session began by searching for the possible death of Anežka Dittrich. Barbora’s christening record included the name Anežka written under Barbora. Since it was not common to have a middle name in Bohemia and ‘Barbora Anežka’ did not appear to be a saint’s name, it was suggested that she could be a twin. In an effort to confirm this and to find out when she died, as she did not appear to immigrate with the rest of the family, a search was to be conducted in the Kladno death registers. Finding deaths is always harder than other events because it is difficult to narrow down the possible time range. If this possible twin was born in 1892, as the christening record suggests, she likely did not die as an infant, because such deaths were noted on neighboring christening records, and there was no note of a death on hers. However, this did not rule out her dying as a child, because priests were not as likely to note a death that occurred more than a year after birth. 3 According to a previous research report, Barbora immigrated around 1907 or 1908 and was later joined by her mother Anna, and brothers, Frank, Albert, and Vincent around 1913. Therefore, it could be assumed that Anežka died between her birth in April 1892 and 1913, when the rest of her family left for Canada. However, after re-analyzing the client’s information, there is also the possibility that she could have married in Bohemia and stayed there, or even immigrated with a husband. According to the client’s information, Barbora had a sister named Agnes who married an Antony Kraus and had two children named Tony and Joe. It was unknown at this point if this was the same person as Anežka, the possible twin, but that was considered as a possibility. There were no dates listed in the ancestor’s pedigree file, but the names suggested that they at least lived in Canada at some point, since they were Anglicized. Her sister Barbora married in Canada, so it is possible that she did too. A preliminary search of the 1921 Canada Census did not show any possible matches for the family, but there were too many unknowns at this point. More searches could also be conducted for her immigration or marriage in Canada. If such a record was found, it would confirm that she did not die as a child. The possibility that she married in Bohemia needed to also be explored because it could explain if she did not immigrate with the rest of her family. The most likely range of this marriage would be from 1908, when she was 16, to 1913 when her family left. There was an index for marriages in Kladno from 1861-1911, and a marriage book from 1908-1913. If a marriage was not found, the death records from 1892 to 1913 also could be searched. The relevant parish registers were found listed in the State Regional Archives in Prague, but they have not yet been digitized. Access to non-digitized records is free, but they must be searched in person at the reading room at the archives. Because the marriage and death registers were unavailable to search at this time, the research shifted to searching the Kladno birth registers for Barbora’s siblings. After beginning a search in the parish register Kladno 34: Births 1896-1900, the client’s information about the siblings was reexamined, and it was noted that Frank and Albert 4 were born in Libušín around 1900, not Kladno. Libušín was discovered to be a town 7.4 km (4.5 mi) outside of Kladno and belonged to the Smečno parish. Though a small town now, Libušín at the time was a sprawling mining town with a population of 4000. In light of this information, we considered stopping the search for the Kladno births from 1896-1900 because it was so time-consuming. As noted in the previous research session, Kladno parish was very large, and there was no index available to shorten the search. Therefore, it was conducted page by page, which took up a significant amount of research time. Map showing the proximity of Libušín and Kladno. The red outline shows the town boundary of Libušín.