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Research Successes!
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Research Successes!
15-May-07 - I have located the family of Andrew and Polly (Manchak) Workun on the 1906 Canada Census.
26-Apr-07 - Pam Connolly has provided me with detailed information on her family. They all descend from Peter Workun and Emelia Faraschuk. This adds a whole lot more Manchak relatives that I previously knew very little about. This information has also pushed the family database past the 1500 person mark.
09-Jan-06 - I have obtained a copy of the marriage license of Joseph F. Weseley and Mary Santin from the Canadian County Genealogy Society.
18-Aug-05 - Carol Nemec has come through again (sound familiar?). She has provided photographs of Joseph and Mary Nemec circa 1883.
20-Oct-03 - Carol Nemec has come through again. She has provided photographs of the headstones of Joseph and Josephine Ruzicka and Joseph and Mary Nemec.
22-Sep-03 - I have obtained the social security number application of Mary Glowczynski Saracki from the Social Security Administration. Her name is listed in the Social Security Death Index.
14-Aug-03 - I have obtained the social security number application of Daniel Mathew Saracki, Sr. from the Social Security Administration. His name is listed in the Social Security Death Index.
23-Jul-03 - Today I hit 1300 individuals in the tree with more to be added yet.
16-Jun-03 - Today I had the pleasure of meeting Dave Kripal. He is the first descendant of Joseph and Josephine Ruzicka that I have ever met. He is actively documenting Joseph and Josephine's descendants and we've got a lot of great information to share.
03-Jun-03 - Dave Kripal has emailed me two great items. The first is a picture of Joseph and Josephine Ruzicka circa 1930. Go to the Family Photographs page to check it out. The other is a complete list of the descendants of John Louis Kripal and Sophia Bertha Ruzicka. At the request of the Kripal family this information will not be posted online. But Dave will happily provide it to anyone that is interested.
01-Mar-03 - The Nebraksa State Vital Records Office has provided me with a copy of the death certificate of Joseph Nemec.
13-Feb-03 - The Nebraksa State Vital Records Office has provided me with a copy of the death certificate of Joseph Ruzicka. This document isn't a new find but is just a better copy than the one I already have.
13-Feb-03 - The National Archives of Canada has provided me with a copy of the passenger manifest of the S.S. Aurania that landed in Quebec City, Quebec on 23-Jun-1928. It lists the landing details of Jindrich Henry Staroba. They also provided the manifest of the S.S. Montclare that landed on 06-Jun-1934. It lists the landing details of Emily Staroba (Starobova) and her 3 daughters. You can find the details yourself at the Archive's ArchiviaNet service.
01-Feb-03 - Another great day at the Denver Public Library. I found the 1910 and 1920 census records for the family of Joseph and Josephine Ruzicka. In 1910 they were living in the South Creek township of Lincoln County, Oklahoma. In 1920 they were living in Omaha, Douglas County, Nebraska. Check out the Family Documents page.
18-Jan-03 - Don Rose has found John W. Ruzicka's family on the 1900 federal census! Switch to the Family Documents page to see it!
18-Sep-02 - Today I received an incredible package of information from the National Archives of Canada. I now have in my posession all of the military records of Louis Anthony Dobry to share with everyone. If you want to order the papers for yourself, go to the Archive's searchable database and use Regiment Number 279217 to find Louis' information. Once your search is successful you'll be presented with information on how to order the hard copies of the information. Or you can click here to download a copy now.
09-Sep-02 - Mary Conner has provided a bunch of updates on her family.
23-Aug-02 - I had a great conversation with Don Rose this evening. He and his wife Carmen hope to travel to the Czech Republic in the next few years to find more documentation of our family overseas. I know I will be envious when he leaves. He has also provided a picuture of John William's family that I have never seen before. It will be up on the family photo page shortly.
04-Dec-01 - Carol Nemec has come through again and provided another great piece of information. She has sent me a copy of a marriage license for John Svoboda and Anna Ruzicka. Based on the dates on this certificate and the names of the parents listed I believe this could be John Ruzicka's daughter Anne.
07-Feb-00 - I have finally begun to pour through the information that June Manchak provided quite a few months ago. That information, combined with many Ruzicka updates that I have received recently, has pushed the number of individuals in the tree past 1100.
16-Nov-99 - Thanks to a tip from Don Ruzicka, I have located a picture of the Neckar. It can be seen on the main page.
29-Oct-99 - A business trip to Republic, WA, put me 30 miles south of Grand Forks, BC. I took advantage of this to drive to the town and research the Ruzicka's that live(d) there. To my delight I was able to meet and speak with Toni and Derek Ruzicka. I did not have much time to spend there and our conversation was brief, but Toni definitely provided a lot of information.
I was also able to visit the Evergreen cemetery. The following individuals are resting there:
One interesting item to note is that vandals smashed the headstone of John and Josephine quite a few years ago. The cemetery caretakers were able to recover all of the pieces and reassemble the headstone. In my opinion, they did a wonderful job.
19-Aug-99 - June Manchak has provided me with a pile of documents 1" thick that outlines much of the Manchak history. I can not wait to begin examining it and adding the information to the online tree.
22-May-99 - I have located the Neckar passenger list and will be preparing to send it to all family members who are interested as soon as possible.
30-Mar-99 - Teri Thorpe has contacted me and informed me of the exact date that the Ruzicka family arrived in the United States!!! They departed from Bohemia on the ship Neckar and arrived in New York on 05-Sep-1874. As soon as I get a copy of this record from the LDS library, I will be telling the rest of the family and sending copies of the document.
Another exciting item is that this document supports the existence of Wenzel and Anna Ruzicka, although I have not yet located any of their descendants.
01-Mar-99 - I have obtained the social security number application of Bessie A. Brezny. The 1900 census listed her birthdate as July of 1884. This application states that her birthday is 14-Jun-1885. The good thing is that Family Tree Maker allows me to store both birth dates and assign a "preference" to one or the other. I'll also be interested to see how this is displayed on the next online tree update.
04-Feb-99 - Dave Kripal has sent me a great picture of Sophia Ruzicka and John Kripal. <--- Click on the picture link to take a look.
21-Nov-98 - It has been a while since my last success, and I figured that a trip to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City would yield a lot of new information. No such luck. In 4 hours of research, my only limited success is that I think I may have found Joseph Ruzicka's name on a ship passenger list. The name is listed as J. Ruzicka, a 23 year old male labourer. The ship was the Ethiopia and it sailed from Glasgow & Moville to New York and landed on 31-Mar-1882. The age matches Joseph's exactly, and that is about all I have to go on. The record was found in the Germans to America books on page 28 of volume 42.
24-Sep-98 - Carol Nemec has provided more great Ruzicka information. This time she has given me a copy of Josephine Ruzicka's funeral record. The interesting thing that I will have to research is that it lists her wedding date as 02-Nov-1872 -- approximately 10 years earlier than I had originally documented. My initial thought is that the funeral record is incorrect.
She has also provided a funeral record for Maria A. Ruzicka. However, this name does not match any on the tree and I'm going to follow up with Carol to see if she might know who this person is.
11-Aug-98 - Uncle Jim has sent me two wonderful pictures of the family of Vaclav and Antonia Slavik. One of them can be viewed here. <--- Click on this link to take a look.
Along with the pictures, he included both of their obituaries. They contain a wealth of information that I can not wait to add to the tree. The ironic thing is that Antonia's obit includes the name of her first husband, Karlos Weseley. Apparently it was only a mystery to me what his name was.
30-Jul-98 - I have my first occurrence of a famous individual in the family. This information comes from a conversation with my grandmother today. Vidal Sasson's first wife was Beverly Adams. Beverly is the daughter of the step-daughter (Tilly) of my great-grandmother, Catherine Bara Manchak. Ok, it is a stretch, but I still think it is pretty cool.
29-Jul-98 - Today I hit 1000 individuals in the tree with more to be added yet.
23-Jun-98 - The Milwaukee County Genealogical Society has found a bunch of information on Charles Weseley's family. The funny thing is that most of the information is under the surname "Vesely." The exception is Charles' naturalization certificate. However!!! I now know the name of Charles' father!!! Based on this information, Antonia Slavik's first husband was Karel Weseley.
19-Jun-98 - Carol Nemec has sent a wonderful picture of Mary (Ruzicka) Nemec. <--- Click on this link to take a look.
17-Jun-98 - The Nebraska State Historical Society has found the marriage certificate and license of Joseph and Mary Nemec.
16-Jun-98 - Sophia Brezny has mailed me family tree information that fits into the original tree handed out at the 1987 Ruzicka reunion. This data outlines the descendants of Ernest and Bessie Brezny.
12-Jun-98 - The Nebraska State Historical Society has found the actual marriage license of John and Josephine Ruzicka.
10-Jun-98 - In an effort to find descendants of Joseph and Josephine Ruzicka, I wrote letters to individuals in Oklahoma and Nebraska in the hope that they were related. Today, Helen Gregory responded with a lengthy letter that outlines a lot of their family history.
05-Jun-98 - Carol Nemec has sent me numerous documents that detail significant events in Mary and Joseph Ruzicka's lives. This includes marriage licenses, obituaries and funeral records.
30-May-98 - For the first time, a descendant that we had no information on has contacted me. Carol Nemec is married to a descendant of Mary Ruzicka. We are currently working out how all of our information ties together and I will have the tree updated shortly. The most interesting thing is that our family tree had Mary as a child of John Ruzicka's second marriage. Based on documents that Carol has, Mary was actually a child of John and Anna - his first marriage. It looks even more likely that Anna passed away giving birth to Mary.
22-May-98 - Another family member, Bonnie Thomas, has come across the tree and has updated her family's information.
13-May-98 - I finally have some Manchak information to add to the tree. The information comes from Eugene Manchak and was emailed to me by Sean Rose. I'm still hoping that I can get a chance to examine the information that was compiled by Peter Manchak.
22-Apr-98 - Ernie Rose wrote me a letter and told me about a page on the internet that documents his biography.
18-Apr-98 - Over the course of the past week, Maxine Gray and Rob Gray have updated a lot of information on their branch of the tree. Also, Vincent Ruzicka has provided me with updated information on his family and has indicated that more will follow.
10-Apr-98 - Today a friend and I spent 4 hours at the Denver Federal Center. I managed to find a lot of family information on various census records. First of all, I found Joseph and Annie Dobry living in Kremlin, Garfield County, Oklahoma Territory on 11-Jun-1900. Next, I found Joseph and Josephine Ruzicka living in Omaha, Douglas County, Nebraska on 13-Jan-1920. However, I still have not tracked down where they were in 1910. But I am fairly certain that they were not in Omaha since I know their home address from 1920 and someone else shows up at that household in the 1910 census.
There are other records that I found as well, but I have not verified that they tie to the family tree. The most exciting one is a John and Josephine Ruzicka living in Wilson, Ellsworth County, Kansas on 16-Jun-1900. Based on listed birth dates and number of children, I believe that this could be John Ruzicka from our tree.
07-Apr-98 - Ernie Rose called me this evening and filled me in with a lot of birth, marriage and death dates for his branch of the tree. It was a great pleasure to talk to him and hear some of the family history first hand.
24-Mar-98 - James Ruzicka has updated a large portion of his branch of the tree. Many thanks to him for that information.
12-Mar-98 - Louis Ruzicka has responded to the letter that I wrote to him and included a few pieces of family information. The most exciting one is a copy of a picture I have been trying to locate for some time of John Ruzicka's family. The copy I have has been photocopied so many times you can not make out any faces. The one I just received is an excellent copy of the original.
04-Mar-98 - A reply to an email I sent yesterday to a gentleman in British Columbia pointed me to the online pages of the Books of Remembrance. It only took me a few minutes to find Louis Dobry's name on the list. His name appears on page 228 of the WWI book.
27-Feb-98 - A researcher at the Fort Kearny Genealogical Society has found a lot of Ruzicka information. First of all, she has provided me with a letter written by Louis Ruzicka to the society in January of 1993. I am writing to Louis to tell him about this site and the information I have gathered so far. Second, she has found Joseph and Josephine Ruzicka and family on the 1920 federal census of Douglas County, Nebraska. I will be going to the library as soon as possible to obtain a copy of the record. Third, she has provided a family history of Martin and Anna (nee Ruzicka) Pesek. I will have to research whether or not Anna is related. Fourth, she included a cemetery listing indicating the burial locations of various Ruzicka individuals.
24-Feb-98 - More success at the Denver Public Library. I have found Johan (John) Ruzicka's name on the 1880 census for Omaha. There are numerous clues that say I have found the correct information. First, his son Joseph is listed as a family member and the age listed matches Joseph's known birthdate. Second, John is listed as a widower, which is confirmed by the family history that shows his wife Anna passed away in 1860. Third, John's age is listed as 50 on the census, only 4 years off of his estimated birthdate in the family history. Fourth, John William is not listed as a family member, which would be expected since he was married two years earlier. Fifth, both Mary and Anne from John's second marriage are listed.
I have also found other Ruzicka's on the census, all living very close to each other when they were enumerated. I have not yet determined if they are related or not. There is also a Frank and Mary Slavik that I am going to look at. I even came across an Urban family. However, the most interesting find is that John's neighbours in Omaha were the Jablechnik's. John's mother's maiden name was Jablecnik according to the family history.
21-Feb-98 - The Milwaukee County Genealogical Society has found Charles Weseley's name on the 1900 and 1920 population schedules for the city of Milwaukee. Although Charles is not directly related to anyone in our tree, my goal is to find the name of his father, who was the first husband of Antonia Slavik.
17-Feb-98 - The Nebraska State Historical Society has found the marriage certificate of John and Josephine Ruzicka. Although the exact date of the marriage is not listed, the marriage license was issued 5 days prior to when our family history had them being married.
05-Feb-98 - A researcher for the Lincoln County Historical Society in Chandler, OK, has found John W. Ruzicka's name on a 1903 South Creek Township map. She also provided me with a copy of an article titled "The Brezny Family" from the 1988 Lincoln County Families book which details the history of Frantisek and Johanna Brezny. It was their son Ernest that married Bessie Ruzicka.
22-Jan-98 - Over Christmas, Grandma Rose allowed me to pour over her photo albums and select certain pictures for scanning. Those, along with additional family history information arrived in the mail today. The best part is that the family history information confirms that Joseph and Josephine Ruzicka were living in Yukon, Oklahoma in 1900. These papers were prepared by Anna McDonald and Ernie Rose.
11-Jan-98 - Perry Ruzicka has provided me with the first batch of family information which has been added to the family pages.
11-Dec-97 - My 2nd cousin once removed Perry Ruzicka has come across my site and has indicated that he can provide information on his branch of the family.
19-Nov-97 - More great stuff from the Canadian County Oklahoma Genealogical Society. They sent me more pages from the book detailing the Canadian County history that show Vaclav's active participation in community and church activities. They also sent a county map showing the location of Vaclav's property and a copy of the 1890 county census.
18-Nov-97 - The Historical Society of Douglas County has found the birth record of John Slavik.
08-Nov-97 - The Canadian County Pioneer Council has accepted my application to have Vaclav's name included on the Canadian County pioneer honour roll. They also sent the pioneer certificates that go along with the application/acceptance.
07-Nov-97 - After failing with various sources, the Nebraska State Historical Society has found the marriage license of Vaclav and Antonia Slavik. The family history had them being married on Easter Monday of 1886. However, the license shows that they were married on Sunday, 14-Nov-1886.
31-Oct-97 - The Canadian County Oklahoma Genealogical Society has forwarded me pages from a book detailing the History of Canadian County Oklahoma. On page 180, under the information for the Lodge Jan Zizka No. 67 and the Yukon Czech Hall, Vaclav Slavik is credited with donating two acres of land for the lodge in 1901.
30-Oct-97 - Today I received the pioneer certificate application from the Canadian County Pioneer Council. Vaclav and his family easily meet all of the criteria listed on the form. I have applied for six certificates in Vaclav's name, and his name will be included in the Pioneer Honour Roll.
22-Oct-97 - Today was a great day at the Denver Public Library! I found Vaclav's family in the 1900 and 1910 Federal census records for Oklahoma. There are a few interesting points. In the 1900 census, he is listed as James as is his son. In the 1910 census, both are listed as Vaclav. I also know now that Vaclav left Bohemia in 1884 and Antonia left in 1883. Both naturalized in 1885.
While I was searching for Vaclav's family I noticed some Ruzicka surnames in the 1900 census. For the heck of it I printed a few of the pages. I was shocked when I found that I had stumbled across my 2nd great-granduncle, Joseph Ruzicka, his wife Josephine and their family. Although the two had nothing in common at the time, Vaclav's daughter Josephine married Joseph's nephew Charles in 1913.
16-Oct-97 - Today I received some great information from the Canadian County Oklahoma Genealogical Society. The first surprise to me is that my 2nd great-grandfather Vaclav Slavik also went by the names of Jim and James. I now have deed records for the property he bought and sold in the Yukon, Oklahoma area. I also received a patent record and a receipt for his homestead application.
09-Oct-97 - A volunteer researcher has found Vaclav Slavik's name in the 1889 Oklahoma Land Run records. I had initially dismissed this find since I was unaware of Vaclav's use of the name Jim.
04-Oct-97 - The Alberta Genealogical Society has provided me with an Alberta cemetery report. On the list are numerous Ruzicka and Slavik individuals, including Charles Ruzicka and Vaclav and Antonia Slavik.