Going Sideways to Learn More...

     For quite a while, I thought that Vaclav Bláha (also known as Wenzl and James) came to the United States without relatives. According to the 1900 Federal  Census records, he arrived here about 1881.
    The 1905 Minnesota Census led me down another path.  Living with James Bláha and his family were 2 girls--Mary and Elizabeth Havel.  Their occupations were given as cook and housework. I figured they weren't servants in James household, so I investigated further.
     I found their family of origin in Rice County, Minnesota.  Now that is hitting close to home!  It was a huge surprise. Their parents were Marie Voneš Havel and Martin Havel. Voneš is the probable connection.  On James' marriage record to Mary Henych, it gives his parents as Matej Bláha and Marie Voneš.
     I did further research on Marie Voneš Havel's parents.  They were found living in Wheatland Township, Rice County.  There names were Mathias Voneš and Anna Bláha Voneš.  Yikes!  So which side is the connection?
     In the obituary for Marie Voneš Havel, it said that she was from Drahotěšice, Bohemia.  Also mentioned in her obituary was that James  Bláha  came from St. Paul for the funeral. Since there was no info in the family (or records thus far) about where James Bláha  was from in Bohemia, this was a great help as to where to start looking.  
     The Trebon section of the Czech Republic has a wonderful website with Digital Archives. Not many of them are indexed, so it means scrolling page by page through the church records. Drahotěšice is in the parish of Ševětín.
     So far I have had good luck finding records for the Voneš family of Wheatland. The records added another generation to both sides of the family. Anna's parents are Tomas  Bláha and Ludmilla Vanasek.  Mathias' parents are Josef Voneš and Katerina Ziska.
     Unfortunately, I have not found James or his parents records yet.  I'll just have to keep on diggin'.  Trouble is--some of the handwriting is atrocious and of course mostly in Czech.  
     If you have a Voneš in your tree from this area, contact me!! I have quite a few records indexed!


     

Rest in Peace, John A. Blaha

John Blaha, Arnie's brother died on December 22, 2011. 

Age 84, of Shoreview, MN 30 Years with Int'l Harvester Passed away on December 22, 2011. US Navy Veteran; member of VFW Post 7555, Roseville. Survived by his wife of 59 years, Virginia; daughters, Barbara (Brad) Cornforth of North Branch and Patricia Heiman (Ken) of Coon Rapids; 6 grandchildren: Daniel (Elisa Coppini), Andrew, and Sara Cornforth, Jennifer (Todd) Paulsen, Kelsey & James Heiman; great-granddaughter, Scarlett Cornforth; brother, Arnold (Dorothy) Blaha; sister, Bernadine Benson; many nieces, nephews, extended family and friends. Mass of Christian Burial: 11 AM Thurs, Dec 29 at the Church of St. John the Baptist, 835 2nd Ave NW, New Brighton. Visitation 1 hr prior. Interment at Ft. Snelling Nat'l Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, memorials preferred. Services by Wulff Funeral Home of St. Paul.

Retrieved from: Legacy.com

Christmas Tradition--Hoska

Every year on Christmas Eve, the Blaha family gathers in Arnie and Dot's basement to celebrate.  This always involved good food, thousands of Christmas cookies and Czech Christmas bread--hoska.

Here's the recipe from Rose Svec Hansen:

Hoska
1/2 c milk

1/4 c sugar

1/3 c soft margarine

1 T salt

add to milk

3 T yeast

1/2 c warm water

dissolve yeast, add to above mixture

To above mixt:

Add 3 eggs slightly beaten

4 c flour

1/2- 1 c ground cherries and/or pineapple

a bit of lemon rind

blend/beat until smooth.

Sometimes Grandma Dot puts golden raisins in it

Add 3-31/2 c flour to make dough easy to handle.

Turn out & knead 5-8 min or until smooth.

Put in a greased bowl--let rise for 1 - 1 1/2 hrs.

Punch down--let rise 1/2 hr. 

Turn out & divide into 2-3 parts. Divide each part into 3.  Roll into long strips for braids.

Braid.

Let rise until doubled. 

Bake 350 for 30-35 minutes.

Brush with melted margarine and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. 

Look at those smiles...

Dot & Arnie, Christmas Eve 2010

Aren't they cute?  Love this picture. 

Chrsitmas Eve at the Blahas is a longstanding tradition.  May there be many more!

Bulera Update

     One of the researchers at the Poznan Project recently sent information about Frank and his brother Joseph. Both men were married in Poland before they came to the United States.
     Information translated from the marriage record of Frank is:

 Farm worker: Franz Bulera;  Roman Catholic; b. 14 Aug 1857 in Kaczkowo, resident in Kaczkowo, son of the farmer Valentin Bulera and his wife Catharina Wyt, resident in Kaczkowo.
Unmarried girl Franziska Bauza, Roman Catholic;  b. 16 Nov 1862 in Kaczkowo, resident in Gasawa, daughter of the farmer Michael Bauza (deceased in Kaczkowo) and his wife Catharina Traczewska(?) now married Dominiak, resident in Kaczkowo.

      Information from Joseph's first marriage is as follows:

Farmer's son Joseph Bulera; Roman Catholic;  b. 2 Mar 1863 in Kaczkowo, son of the farmer Valentin Bulera (deceased in Kaczkowo) and his wife Catharina Domagala (sic) (resident in Kaczkowo).
Farmer's daughter Apollonia Jurek; Roman Catholic; b. 13 Jan 1866 in Bozejewiczki, son of the farmer Andreas Jurek and Anna Chrusniak from Bozejewiczki.

Lukasz recently found information giving the death date of Valentin Bulera as 5 Sep 1884.  The info was given by Joseph.  It also indicates that Valentin was born about 1821 in Kaczkowo.  This needs to be verified by church records.  This info won't be available until Archives open in spring.

There are also records that indicate that Valentin Bulera and Catherina Wyt were married in 1853.  It appears that Valentin was also married previously in 1850.  His parents were Martin Bulera and Margaret (maiden name unknown).

Lusty Men...

     Well, that is an assumption, but I was looking over the Bulera brothers today and between them they had 33 children!  That is beyond good Catholic!
     Our ancestor is Frank M. Bulera.  He was married twice.  His first wife was Franciska Bauza.  They were married in 1884 in Poland and emigrated on 12 Mar 1884, leaving Hamburg and arriving in New York on 27 Mar 1884.

Hamburg Ship List, The Moravia, departed 12 Mar 1884

Buleras in the 1885 Census, St. Paul

They were in the Minnesota State Census in 1885 in St. Paul, Ward 4.
         Frank and Franciska had 4 known children: Joseph, George F. (Adalbert), John Walter (Wadge), and John.  Joseph must have died as an infant.  He was born on 5 Feb 1885 but does not appear with the parents in the 1885 census which was enumerated in May. George and John W. (sometime recorded as Walter) both grew to adulthood.  No record beyond the baptismal record in  July, 1889 is found for the 2nd John. It is likely that Franciska died after childbirth.
     Frank and Stanislava (Stella) married on 29 April 1890.  They had 15 children! I have written previously about how much fun it was figuring out Stella's maiden name.  Almost every kid had a different rendition of Lazewski or a hybrid of Lazewski and Strzyrzewski. Here goes:  Sophia, Rose, Martha, Bernice, Mary Ann, John, Franz (Frankie), Andrew, Teresa, Marion (Mike), Margaret, Julia, Valentina (Viola), Leonard and Florian. Whew!
     Frank's brother Joseph and his wife Salomea had 14 children according to the 1910 census.  I have only found 13 records.  It seems that at least 9 of these children died as infants.  Some were unnamed in the records. Joseph and Salomea Nadohy were married on 12 Aug 1891 at St. Adalbert's in St. Paul. There is some confusion about her last name as well, but I am using the name that appeared in the marriage record.
According to the Poznan Marriage Project, he was previously married as well.  His first wife was Appolina Jurek.  She must have died before Joseph emigrated.
     On the 2nd marriage records for both Frank and Joseph, their parents names are given as Valentin and Catherine.  There is a marriage record on the Posen site for them as well.  They were married in 1853 and Catherine's maiden name is Wyt. I'm going to have this researched further.  We'll see what happens.
     I'm including the married names of the women in the labels.  Not going into all those kids today!
     Out of this bunch, our ancestor was Mary Ann Bulera.  She was born 23 Jan 1897 and baptized 7 February 1897 at St. Adalbert's. Her godparents were John (Orzewski) Lazewski and Rose Wilisek. John was Stella's brother.  I don't know if Rose is related.
     Mary Ann married Emil Blaha, son of Vaclav and Mary Henych Blaha.

Henych

     For kicks, I emailed a guy on Facebook named Michal Henych.  What the heck!  He could be related.  There are not many Henychs in the Czech Republic.  He responded, but we don't know if there is a connection. In getting ready to tell him about our Henychs, I was revisiting info I had on Ancestry.com, and lo and behold! Look what popped up! (And I had put this family in MANY times recently.  It was like magic!)

Henych Family on the Ship List of the Hansa, departing Hull on 9 June 1882.

When I tried to find the date of immigration, a search resulted in a list of the whole family plus one person I haven't seen in records in St. Paul. The new person on this list is John/Jan.  He does not appear in any censuses with the family. The ship list gives their last place of residence as Jiřice.
     The censuses for this family are confusing. In one census, though living at the same address, the parents were listed separately from the children on a different page.  I was so happy to find this list as it helps clarify the family configuration.  In census records, there was often James and Joseph.  Then there was Vincent and James.  There is a death record for Vincent. There are still a few details to be sorted out.

Emilie Henych Plaster, Barbara Forst Henych, Joe Henych, Augusta Henych Masek, Josef Henych

     According to the list, the family consists of the parents:  Joseph Henych and Barbara Forst.  The children are Mary (our ancestor), Jan, Vincent, Emilie, Joseph and Augusta.
     Barbara and Joseph had a home at 750 Logan St. in St. Paul.  Joseph died on the 21st of February 1908.  Barbara Forst Henych died on the 2nd of January 1918. They are buried at Calvary.
     As far as I can tell, Vincent and Joseph never married. I don't know about Jan.

     In 1932, Vincent committed suicide.  He jumped off the high bridge in St. Paul. 

     Searching for them in the records is a lot of fun.  The name has been rendered as:  Henyck, Henek, Hanek, Henick, Henicke, and Henig.    

Jim Blaha, Emil Blaha, Vaclav Blaha, Emily Blaha, Mary Henych Blaha, Joseph Blaha, Louie Blaha

     Mary married Vaclav or James Blaha on the 16th of February 1885 at St. Stanislaus in St. Paul. They had 2 other children besides those pictured above:  John Venceslaus (1886-1886) and Emanuel (1889-?).  For a time records confused me since Emanuel and Emil are so close--especially as records go.  There is however a  baptismal record for each.
     Augusta married John Masek.

Emilie Henych & Herman Plaster Wedding

Emilie married Herman Plaster.  They were married on 21 Aug 1906 at St. Stan's, St. Paul.