Czechs in Ohio

One of the Masin brothers,a well-known anti-communist fighter, passed away at 81/ Ctirad Masin zemrel vcera ve svem Clevelandovskem dome


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Both handsome brothers as well as their father were known for their resistance tendencies. Josef Masin (the father) was executed in Prague after being tortured several days by the Gestapo, which he was feverishly fighting against. His sons, Ctirad (who passed away yesterday in his Cleveland home) and Josef, inherited his courageous spirit and fought against the communist regime. What they are most known for, however, is their incredible escape to Western Germany. Why was their escape so controversial and why do some people call them heroes and others label them as murders?

 

Read a short version here (New York times)

Read a longer version here (Wikipedia.org)

CZ: Jablko se neodkutalelo daleko od stromu, protoze jak Ctirad (ktery zemrel vcera ve svem Clevelandovem dome), tak Josef se proslavili svymi svymi bojovymi postoji. Otec Josef byl za svou protinacistickou propagandu poslan do koncentracniho tabora, kde take zemrel. Jeho synove pak prebrali zezlo, a stali se odbojari proti komunismu. Nejvice se ale proslavili svym neuveritelne dobrodruznym utekem na Zapad. Proc je kvuli nemu nekteri lide tak obdivuji a jini je nazyvaji vrahy? Prectete si vyse uvedene clanky:

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Tagged as: communism, Czechs in Ohio, history

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How Scott found his Czech ancestors / Jak nasel Scott sve ceske predky

Little Scott with his Czech grandmother

And it is guest-post time again! This time the author’s name is Scott who grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. After several years of tedious searching Scott came to learn that his ancestors were some of the very early Bohemian immigrants to settle in Cleveland. While  in 1910 Cleveland had a Czech community  of about 75,000, when his ancestors came to this city they were among the first 19 Czech families there.

Now living in the Midwestern United States, Scott has written for the National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library in their journal Slovo and has been featured in the blog for the software company, myheritage.com.  He writes his own blog at http://onwardtoourpast.blogspot.com and has a Facebook page entitled Onward To Our Past.
CZ: Autorem dnesniho clanku je Scott, ktery vyrostl v Clevelandu, Ohio. Jeho dlouholetym konickem je patrani po svych predcich. Po nekolikaletem vyzkumu se dozvedel, ze jeho pra-pra-prarodice byli jednou z prvnich 19ti rodin, ktere se v Clevelandu usadily!
O sve zkusenosti se podelil psanim clanku do casopisu Slovo, do National Czech and Slovak Museum a dnes take do Czechmate Diary. To ovsem neni vsechno – ma take svuj vlastni blog, ktery se jmenuje “Onward to our past”.

How I Got to Milevsko

I began my genealogy ‘travels’ when my son and his wife informed us that they were pregnant with our second grandchild and if it was a boy they were going to name the baby after my father, William.

Soon I ‘needed’ to know more than the history of my dad’s name.  I accessed every site I could — Ancestry.com, Footnote.com, Myheritage.com, LDS, message boards at Delphi and Roots.com, etc. In my earliest readings I noted every ‘How To’ genealogy article started with the admonition to speak with elder family members for their firsthand information.  Thinking I knew better and that the Internet was a powerful tool, I ignored that advice.  It was not long before I became so muddled and confused by names, surnames, place names, and dates that I was on the phone to every senior member of our family. [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: ancestry, Czechs in Ohio, history

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History of Czechs in Ohio (part 2): they were hated at first / Historie Cechu v Ohiu: zprvu je vsichni nenavideli

Czechs in Ohio google imageThe second part of the history of Czechs in Ohio is here (you can read the first part here) and even though I do not live in Ohio myself, I was engrossed in reading (and translating!) it:

‘So Gustav Adam, the first Czech immigrant to Ohio, was dead and what happened then? The Czech immigrant torch overtook Jindrich Hladik from Prague and a few Czech Jewish men such as Leopold Levy from Smetanova Lhota u Pisku, Bernard Weidenthal from Vestice u Tabora and Zikmund Stein from Prague. Levy had a fabric store  and Stein opened up a little pub on  Seneca Street, while Hladik owned a food market. In 1849 inhabited Cleveland also a 22-year-old Abraham Weindenthal whose offspring became excellent journalists.

In 1852 arrived to Cleveland 16 new Czech families and their beginnings were not pretty. Since the women were accustomed going to the town bare-foot and with scarfs tied around their heads, the locals thought of them as Gypsies. [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: Czechs in Ohio, history

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The history of Czechs in Ohio (part one)/ Historie Cechu v Ohiu (cast prvni)

Czech immigrants in Ohio google imageEveryone has heard of Cleveland, the second most industrial city in the USA. But not everyone knows that all of its machinery was built  by the Eastern European immigrants, including the Czechs.

Ohio in the 18th century was inhabited only by Indians, while the land itself was fought over by the French and the English. While those two nationalities were fearlessly fighting for the land, the Moravian christian missionaries (Moravian Brethren) were fighting for the Indian souls. Besides Christianity the missionaries taught the Indians about hygiene, various useful crafts and farming. About 100 years later the main Indian colony located on the Tuscarawas river was visited by a famous Moravian missionary, David Zeisberger. David befriended the Indian chief of the Netawatweese clan who adviced him to ride down the local river to find a new home for himself. [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: christianity, Czechs in Ohio, history, religion

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Iva’s story: Living the American dream / Iva proziva pravy Americky sen

Iva from Ohio is yet another Czech incognito blogger that I discovered on-line. Her blog called “From Ohio With Love” won her couple of awards so be sure to check it out! I asked her to write us a short story about her life, her beginnings as a Czech soul living in a completely strange coutry. And it looks like she turned out pretty good!!

CZ: Zase jsem nedavno odhalila dalsi ceskou blogarku!! Iva zije v Ohiu a ma super bloz vany “From Ohio with Love”. Vyhrala za nej  hodne oceneni, tak se na nej urcite mkrnete.

IVA’S STORY

I came to US in 1997. The transformation was brutal, but nothing that a 21-year old could not handle. The biggest challenge was the language. I studied English since grade school and even graduated high school with flying colors. But it was British English and pretty much just the basics. Add to it my (back then horrible) Eastern-European accent and how much different American English sounds (especially the slang – oh my!) and the result is that you have to start to learn all over. [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: Czechs in Ohio

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