Genealogy
of the
Jan "John" & Anna
(Novotony) Smejkal Family
of Crete Nebraska
|
Genealogy of the Jan "John" & Anna
(Novotony) Smejkal Family
|
|
CONTENTS
LINKS |
Anna (Novotny) Smejkal
Anna Novotny was born June 15, 1856 in Drazicich (later spelling "Drazice" Bohemia. The name also appears as "Novotonoy" at some times and appears "Novotného", which is the female version, meaning roughly "daughter of Novotny",
Her father was Matéj Novotny, and it appears that on the Birth/Immigration Certificate that he may have been form Tábor, but was he was from the village of Drazice which is in the Tábor district. Her grandparents on her father's side were Tomaŝe Novotného of Drazic and Kate Moravec of Drazice.
Her mother was Marie Pazourek, but the village has not been translated. Her grandparents on her mother's side appear to be Matéje Pazourek of Drazic and Magdaleny Serŷ, who lived at House#9 in Drazic.
All of these names and locations are best guesses from the Birth/Immigration Certificate of 1884. The handwritten script is difficult to decipher and the search for a better translation is ongoing.
Please refer to the copy of the original Birth/Immigration Certificate of 1884. Better suggested translations are welcomed. Anna Novotny married Jan
"John" Smejkal on July 17, 1878 in the village church at Drazice. She died
on either March 23, or March 24,1924.in Crete, Nebraska. Her obituary can
be seen at Anna Smejkal
Obituary. Both dates appear in notes from my mother and even the year
is difficult to determine, as it only appears in one handwritten note and is
either 1924 or 1934. (The information on the family photo below is incorrect. The picture is of the Frantisek Smejkal family, brother of Jan Smejkal, and dates to 1906. The Smejkal family at Makov 8 have a matching photograph. Corrections will be made to the website in the near future.) An unidentified photograph from my mother's files appears to be a studio portrait of the Novotny family. It was made at the Josef Šechtl & Jan Vosecek studio in Tabor. The family dress is much different from the portrait of Jan Smejkal's parents and appears to be a more urban, rather than rural, family. The portrait appears below and if anyone can add additional information or confirm that the photo is of the Novotny family, it would be much appreciated. The facial features, particularly of the men, seem to bear a strong resemblance to my mother's brothers, John, Frank & Joseph.
Information accumulated in 2010 suggests that this photograph may be of a sibling family of Anna Novotny or Jan Smejkal that was sent to the family in the US after they immigrated. the studio of Josef Šecht & Jan Vosecek is still in business in Tabor. From their website at: http://sechtl-vosecek.ucw.cz/en/cml/dir/klokoty.html and also: http://sechtl-vosecek.ucw.cz/en/muzeum.html it appears that the photo was made after 1906. An image of the Church of St. John the Baptist in Drazice appears below. All information available to date seems to verify that this is the church where Jan Smejkal & Anna Novotny were married. The photo is from the web and rights to copy were given on the site. Click on the hyperlink for the Original Marriage Certificate and the translated version Marriage Certificate. This is the best translation we have to date. Differences in spelling may be due to old Czech spelling and modern, but male and female last names may have different endings to modern times. Czech brothers and sisters enrolled at Texas Tech University in recent times maintain slightly different spellings for their last names.
The entrance to St. John the Baptist appears
here::
|
|
Web Page created by Gene Bals |
