Inheritance

The sun was well below the horizon when the 35 year old man woke, dressed and went out to complete his morning farm chores in the cold brisk January air. He would soon depart his house in southwest Bohemia to go to the village in which he was born. At 35 years old, he moved to his current village of Dolni Chrastany, Bohemia, when he married his wife eight years earlier and took over her family's farm. He was going back to his home village of Ratiborova Lhota to sign as a witness on the purchase of his ancestral farm and homestead in Ratiborova Lhota by his youngest brother, Johann. Overtime, Frantisek, my third great grandfather, would benefit financially from the sale of the family farm to his younger brother, Johann, as payments were equally distributed among the family members. Johann would be taking over the farm which had been in the family since at least 1585, which is as far back as records that mention names go. The family was following long-held and established traditions regarding inheritance, or farm purchases.

Indication Sketch for Imperial Mapping, first part 19th century
Just one of Ratiborova Lhotka area  (In German known as Melhutka)
Notice disparate farm fields and arrangement of parcels, often long and narrow
https://ags.cuzk.gov.cz/archiv

Traditions held strong in this very rural area of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Nothing was very easy living and farming in the foothills of the Bohemian Mountains. Travel was difficult, one's livelihood was weather dependent, soils were poor, they lived on the edge of poverty, there was the strong hand of the manorial authorities (for Ratiborova Lhota, they were in the Krumlov domain), but community and family ties were strong.  They persevered. The story of the Havel family in Bohemia follows the course of history in Southwest Bohemia. History is comprised of many individual stories, of this is just one of the Havel family. 

Franz and Johann's father, Matheus, died on August 30, 1802, just eleven days shy of his 62nd birthday. Johann Havel was 27 years old at the time, and working on the family farm. Matheus was near an age when a farmer would have retired. When Matheus acquired the farm from his father in 1766 he was the youngest surviving male, he started making payments to his mom and three aunts and uncles in 1767. He made his final payment twenty years later on 29 March 1787. His debt in taking on the farm was the 154 Schock Meissen, but increased to or 161 when he decided to buy a cow and an old chest of "inferior condition." The thing is, value of the farm holding was generally consistent throughout time. Mathias was aided in payments, several years later, by a his wife's brother having married his sister. This allowed his wife's share of the inheritance to the sister being written off. 

Detail of Ratiborova Lhotka Village
Havel House is center of three farmsteads at bottom
At time of mapping, Johann Mika owned the farm, nephew of Johann Havel
https://ags.cuzk.gov.cz/archiv

This situation our ancestors experienced was more like a land contract of today. The buyer had an agreed to price, set by the village headman, often with stipulated payments. The payments were spread out many years. Payments were missed due to the circumstances of living, but no interest was paid. It is not unusual to see the holder, or payor, sibling and the sibling's spouse die with payments going to nieces and nephews. If the payor died before completing payment, the payments were taken over by the new holder of the farm. So he had that debt, plus the debt for his purchase. The payments were recorded  in the land registers. The land registers which are available, go back to about 1600 and provide a great deal of information for us who research in present time. (The records, in some cases, are so archaic and writing so difficult there are few persons who have the ability to understand and translate such documents.)

Inheritance was influenced by a number of factors, time of death, farm holding sale, and number of children who may have predeceased the farm owner. Death was a constant companion for our ancestors, and it would alter the timing of farm takeovers, and who received payments. While the farm often went to the youngest male, if there were males, payments was always made to other heirs. We can see this all the way back to the earliest land registers. Having the youngest male or child made sense since that child would be near or at the age of taking over the farm at the time of the father or stepfather's retirement. A single parent did not long last in this era as it was common that a farm required two to run, the man doing the field work and the required robot labor, while the spouse took care of the children, garden, and the smaller animals in the barnyard. This is why there are many second marriages within a few months when a spouse has died. The matchmakers were kept busy.

Signature page of 1804 agreement
Notice XXX's as signatures, due to them being illiterate
Trebon Archives, Land Register Ord 197 img 305

However, death of the farmer at an early age, could have affected heirs. This happened in the Havel family, and I will relate one example. While we lack vital records for much of the 17th century, Land Registers and Seigniorial Registers, although not primary source material, can help fill in some gaps. Havel, my 9th great grandfather died in 1618 to 1623, probably closer to 1618. Jakub, the oldest son took over the farm; Jakub's youngest brother (or step-brother) was, per the Land Register, only three years of age at the time of the handover. Anezka, Havel's spouse, may or may not be Jakub's mother, likely aided with the farm, but without vital records it is difficult to know if Jacob was married at the time of his takeover in 1623 or not. Things are complicated in this era by the 30 Years War (1618-1648), in which destruction and deprivation in many villages occurred. Alice Velkova reports that farmers frequently moved until the end of the 17th century which was caused by an unstable post-war situation (p. 330). In fact, when Jakub took over the farm its value was reduced due to the farm which had "stood vacant for some years." (This makes me think Havel died or was incapacitated closer to1618 and Jakub needed to come of age to take over the farm.) This was possibly due to Havel's death, but also the effects of war. The farm may have been occupied by soldiers as part of the value Jakub paid included "belongings and furnishings left by the soldiers."

Part of Land Reg Ord 50, img 20
Shows children of Havel. Jakub is listed first, identified as son and farm owner

Translation of the above portion of image 20, Ord 50

But, that is far in the past. I have not located any record that Mathias had a will stipulating who took over the farm. The sequence of events seem to suggest he did not. When Frantisek made his way to Ratiborova Lhota to meet his brother and a few others to appear before Adalbert Hauser the District court clerk in January 1804, to sign their XXX's, and to witness Johann sign with XXX's, as receiver of the farm, the property distribution and value had already been agreed upon on 21 Sept 1803, and is recorded in the land registers. Because all heirs agreed to the distribution, it seems that there was no will, as a will would have made such agreement unnecessary. The four month time lag may have been normal, or it may have been related to Johann needing to come up with the 70 florian Rhenish for down payment, and 19 florian Rhenish land tax for the current year. Our ancestors were not wealthy and would have spent time accumulating savings by being rather parsimonious in nature. A florian saved is a florian earned. The terms of the 1803 agreement required 7 Rhenish until fully paid off. Johann made his first payment in 1806. That agreement also stipulated taxes, in-kind contributions, and robot labor required of Johann.

Land Register, 1803 Inheritance Distribution agreement
Image of document and translation
Document image is from Ordinal 233 image 91, Trebon Archives
Translation by Richard D' Amelio 

There were changes occurring in inheritance distributions in the late 18th century. In 1787 a patent was issued stating that the eldest son of a farmer who died without a will was to inherit the farm. Although, it was not until after 1820, per Velkova, that the eldest sons were given clear preference (p. 330), with such requirement likely written by the first born son, or they simply followed lines of succession for a king. In southwest Bohemia traditions died hard, but as stated the tradition of the younger child inheriting the farm makes practical sense. Woman were granted the right to full ownership of farms in 1791. When Frantisek married Teresa Jiral in 1796 he paid a bride price and they became joint owners. 

The tradition of two persons, generally husband and wife, operating a farm was required, since a poorly managed farm could be taken away by the manorial authorities and given to someone else. They did not own the property outright, rather their tenancy functioned more as a long term lease. The estates were overbearing, and undertook functions of landlords and local governments. Having a holding taken away could quickly lead to a downward spiral for the family unit. Practical considerations outweighed legal rights in this inheritance practice.

The land register has an insert page which records the payments Johann made to family members. From that spreadsheet, names at the top and years along the X axis, we can see that Johann made payments of 7 RG in 1813 and 1815 to Frantisek, my third great grandfather, and a final payment to pay off his share of over 36 RG in 1818. Franz was made whole.

Payment log, Trebon Archives Land Register 
Ord 139 img 73

The Havel farm in Ratiborova Lhota was one below the average farm size and was noted as a 1/4 farm. While their holding totaled about 35 acres, when one deducts the woodlands, meadows and unclassified property, there remains about 20 acres of arable land. However, the arable land was farmed in a system of three, as a conservation method, where one-third of tillable land was fallow every year. Hence, every year about six or seven acres of production land was lost, meaning the farmer and family subsistence was based on about 13-14 acres. 

Many such small farmers often had secondary occupations, and for the Havel family that was the weaver craft. Records indicate that in 1656 Georg Havel, Johann's great grandfather, was "learning the weaver craft".  Records show that his son Simon and Simon's son Mathias, and Mathias' son Mathias (father of Johann) all learned the weaver craft. It is possible that Georg learned the craft from an extended family member. 

Melhutka Dwellings. Melhutka is German name 
for Ratiborova Lhota. Base map is final map produced from above Indication Sketch
Center Bottom is the Havel House, #15
Map compiled by Richard D'Amelio for author

The passing of the farm to the youngest son continued beyond 1804. My 2nd great grandfather, Josef Havel (born 1808) took over the Dolni Chrastany farm of his father Franz in 1846. Joseph and family immigrated to the US in 1868. While the Jefferson County farm Joseph bought did not go to a son, it did go to a daughter and her husband, although not the youngest as the one who purchased the farm was the only one to remain in Wisconsin, as all other family members moved to Iowa. When Martin Havel, my great grandfather, retired from farming in Manly, IA, the home farm was purchased by my grandfather, Rudy in Dec 1912. Rudy was the youngest of three sons, born to Martin and Amelia. He would later acquire future land purchased by is father, Martin. 

Martin Havel Family, Manly, IA c 1894
Youngest son Rudy is to left
Source: David Dixon

The idea of the youngest being able to take on a farm makes practical sense, the older son/daughter will need to generally be out on his own, while the youngest is generally ready when the father and mother look to retire from farming. Thus, we see that while farm locations varied, there were still ties to tradition. One could say traditions die hard, but I think it is more practical implications, in this instance Frantisek, Johann's older brother, already had a farm in Dolni Chrastany. If nothing else, the long line of farming ancestors were practical, which played into the inheritance of the farm.

Imitation

Real life can pose much in terms of material for comic strips, television shows, and movies. My wife was a nurse and she likes to have medical shows on while sewing or doing whatever else she does. I suspect some of the most successful shows or comics have imitated real life in some sense or another, albeit with some unique twists of drama.

In the newspaper of 3/25/25, the Family Circus comics had Billy with his classmates in line to get their eyes checked. Billy says to a child behind him, "I didn't study for an eye test, did you?" It reminded me of when I was in fourth grade waiting in line for my eye check and never having had one before. I was wondering how it would turn out and if I would pass, particularly since I never studied for it. It turned out I did not pass, and had my first trip to an eye doctor, and shortly thereafter my first set of spectacles. Trips to the eye doctor have now become more common. Who knew that Billy and I had something in common.

Family Circus Cartoon
March 25, 2025, WI State Journal

The "Everybody Loves Raymond" television series had a successful run on CBS. The producers and writers contributed its success to the show having embodied different aspects of everyday life, that most families have gone through. I think many of us can related to Ray and Debra and now Frank and Marie. There is an episode where Marie gets mad at Frank having dumped out a her pancetta fat saved in the fridge in order to reuse the jar. (Starts about 3:10 in the link.) Just a couple weeks ago I dumped excess fat from cooking, in a former metal food can in the fridge not knowing I contaminated whatever good fat my wife was saving. My wife has similarities to Marie Barone, with cooking being just one.

While my wife has a large variety of medical shows to watch on which she can get her medicine fix. Me, I was a lowly public servant, and as a planning and zoning guy, there are slim pickings. In the US there was Parks and Recreation, which often imitated real life. Not that I watched that show much, but the few episodes I did see, I would tell people that real life is even more bizarre than the Parks and Rec television show. While the show mainly focused on parks and recreation, the city planner was often called on, in the first season or two before they cut him off, to assist. Not unlike real life. Particularly later in my career when the city hired more of a rec guy than a parks guy to run the park and rec system, we had to backfill a number of park issues for him. Running a park system is more than organizing little league games.

"Clarkson Farm" Jeremy Clarkson at Planning board
It did not go well for him.  At my work, sometimes it was
me doing his reaction at decisions made by the appointed or elected bodies

I have found that planners often pop up more in British shows. I think it is likely due to the larger degree of land use controls in Europe. Clarkson's Farm being one example, where Jeremy Clarkson was always fighting the planning department to get his way to make his farm more profitable. One episode he shows up to plead his case for a change before the planning board. Clarkson was, like many I dealt with, always pushing the boundaries to see what he could get away with, and was big on doing and asking for forgiveness (or just approve it) later. This type of attitude makes a mockery of the whole field. 

During Covid we watched a British show called "Grand Design", about house construction in varied parts of England. Due to construction they often showed the planning issues that arose and how they were dealt with. "This Old House", which has never been the same since Bob Vila left, but because they often do historic renovations, they have to deal with the historic preservation or landmarks committee. People get to see the red tape people have to deal with, but in the public interest of retaining the values and architecture people hold true. At least in "This Old House", planners are treated with some respect.

We planners often get a bad rap, particularly when something goes wrong, but what we do right seldom gets a comment. The Fitchburg Days festival was not much of a success, but it would have been much more successful if they had asked me to be in a dunk tank. Planners can get thick skin and a bit jaded with all the criticism and onslaught they receive, not unlike the one on Parks and Recreation. (You can read a bit about it in the link in the prior sentence.) All those rural land owners that wished to develop and met with the indisputable wall in the planning department, could have been around the block to get a chance to knock me in cold water. The explanation for all the weird things that happen in Fitchburg is due to its geography--it sits at the juncture of varied landscape types and the conflicts that arise at the intersections of such varied landscapes. These varied landscape types (urban-suburban-rural development-pastoral), also meant it struggled with its identity. Geography can explain a great deal, as can human interaction with the natural environment--human geography.

Planner in "Park and Rec"
I wish I had used a drafting board,
it would have saved my neck doing plan reviews

On the other hand, my wife as a nurse gets to see shows were humans are cured or patched together. They evidence the good that nurses and doctors do. Obviously the powers that be have this idea that medical shows are more interesting for the general public, but I think I could have challenged that. I wish I had kept a journal of all the weird happenings and occurrences I saw in over 32 years at Fitchburg alone. It would make for an interesting television series, and perhaps it could have burgeoned into a successful second career. Yes, planning and zoning work can be boring, but we all live in a built environment and planning is what makes such environments function, or well, not function. While television and cartoons may imitate life, at least in my former planning world, real life was more bizarre than what I have seen in cartoons or on television. 

Stakeknife

He was born to a family of Italian immigrants and went on to become an enforcer for one of the most deadly groups in recent history. He left a trail of death wherever he went. Alfredo (Freddie) Scappaticci was a burly, barrel chested man, his day job, as a brick layer, well fit his build and demeanor. He did not work for the mob in the Chicago, as many may expect. He was the lead of the Internal Security Unit (ISU) for the Provisional Irish Republican Army's northern command. He was known to the Provos as Scap, or Wop. But, he had a another side gig, in which he was known as Stakeknife.

Freddie Scappaticci, BBC

The IRA came about to have Northern Ireland cease being a part of Britain, and become part of Ireland. The British animosity and racism against Catholics still ran (runs) deep, and perhaps even deeper in Northern Ireland. The British military became involved to try and quell the violence, but it turns out the IRA was right in stating that the military was not an objective peace keeper (as the government claimed), rather they favored and teamed with the Royal Ulster Constable (RUC) and loyalist para-military forces to cause havoc on the IRA, all the while keeping the loyalists generally safe and protected from the horrors they undertook. This era is referred to as the Troubles, and if anything, the Troubles show the intractability of history and the twists and turns that men and women can undertake. Of course, the IRA had splintered and would also fight each other. While the activities of the IRA groups were often pursued, little was investigated in regard to the murders and mayhem of the loyalist para-military forces, or the British military itself.

I suppose, if one wants a date of the beginning of the Troubles, it was Bloody Sunday in 1972, when a peaceful, but illegal protest of 10,000 saw the loyalists throw stones and rocks and the military shoot and kill 13 protesters, and injure 14 others. But, the IRA had long been fighting.

Bloody Sunday, 1972
BBC

Scap joined the Provos early in its existence. The Provos quickly determined, in order to protect their members, they had to organize into cells, a common tactic of terrorist groups. The one part of the organization, other than high leadership, that knew the full puzzle of the organization in Northern Ireland was the Internal Security Unit. The Provos thought of themselves as a military organization waging a war (hence Army in its title) and when imprisoned, wanted to be treated as prisoners of war. The war became famous for several IRA members who died in prison due to hunger strikes.

The ISU was known as the nutting squad. To the IRA, snitches, touts in the language of the Provos, were the worst type of person and a snitch would be tortured and many executed. At times the bodies would often be left as a deterrent to others. Scap is thought to have tortured and killed over 40 persons. His work extended for a long time. He was kept busy as the Brits say that up to 1 in 4 IRA members were touts. The IRA dismissed this claim. With the touts, some of them just plain disappeared (murdered), and little was said lest you draw attention to the matter and have yourself put at risk. 

Scap seemed not to care about being found out as he was rather brazen. It is reported in the book Say Nothing (p 249) that after "the bodies resurfaced, Scap liked to visit the families of the dead to play the recorded confession aloud and explain precisely why their loved one had been executed. Occasionally he would tell them in detail about the killing." What a horrible thing to have to sit through.

Freddie is to left. BBC

The British and the RUC knew about Scap. Yet they did not stop him. Perhaps because the loss of one Irish informant or 40 meant little to the information they received, or because perhaps they were told to leave Scap alone. You see, Scap was a double agent. It came out, by news reports in the early 2000's that Scap was also the notorious Stakeknife (code name by the British forces). The Provos never figured it out. The Brits let him continue to kill, I guess as a way to keep his cover, placing the Brits in the position of accomplices to murder of at least 40 persons. 

At one time there was a break-in into the Belfast Police offices, often assumed to be by the IRA. This break-in stole many records about the double agents the Brits were using. Scap was not one of them, and that is because knowledge of his existence, which showed his importance to the British military, was limited to a few persons purely on a need to know basis and his records were kept at the highest levels of the military. He had his own specific handlers. Scap approached the Brits, not the Brits Scap. It was a common method of the British to capture and try to turn IRA members into double agents. Even though the military and local police worked to retain safety for the loyalists, when it came to the Provos, they sometimes were in their own silos and much of the work by the military, such as Stakeknife's work was unknown to the local police.

IRA missions kept getting foiled, and the IRA had no clue why. They had the dead bodies that Scap had produced as evidence that the touts numbers should be dwindling. As reported in Say Nothing, the man entrusted to weed out moles was himself a mole. Apparently to the Brits, the means justifies the ends. As the writer of Say Nothing notes (p 273), about the allowing the murders to "save lives"  he reported: "This kind of logic is seductive, but perilous. You start running out numbers in your head , and pretty soon you are sanctioning mass murder." So much for the British system of law and order. British PM's were notified of what was being done, but simply chose not to know the details and allowed the murders to continue. One could suggest that the activities by the military during the Troubles was simply an offshoot of the mass starvation and genocide the British commenced against their Irish subjects in the 1800's. And the British like to tell themselves they are a civilized society. Perhaps Britain was allowed to be ruthless and morally suspect because they wrote much of the history we read today. So much for (at the time) Her Majesty's government being a pantheon or order and moral clarity.

At varied times, Scap provided accounts of his work and that of the Provos. Sometime after being outed as Stakeknife, he was arrested for 25 murders, but not surprisingly the charges were dropped due to  'insufficient" evidence. Clearly, Her Majesty's government did not wish the secrets and tactics of the military and its double agents to become known. In fact, it later became clear that M15 did not produce all materials about Stakeknife during an investigation as it said it had. A leader of the political group for the Provos, Sein Fein, said it was "'disgraceful and unsurprising' that British security services had withheld information from the inquiry." (Irish Times)

Stakeknife, or Scap, died in April 2023. Although he always denied that he was Stakeknife, he was still living under witness protection at the time so little is known of what occurred on the manner of his death. If nothing else, this shows how far a government is willing to go to tackle troubling times. It makes me think of the situation in Gaza and the Israeli response that has now again started to the terrorist actions that one day in October almost a year and a half ago. What I am sure of, is that today, there are many Stakeknifes working as double agents in varied parts of the world, with little moral compass to guide them. 

Heritage

When I was growing up, I, and perhaps most if not all of my siblings, thought of our ancestry in relation to our grandparents and their parents. From this we discerned our nationalities. All of my grandparents were born in the United States, two in rural parts of Iowa, and two in Chicago. Of my 8 great grandparents, only one was born in the United States (Amelia Duscheck in Jefferson Co, WI), two born in Ireland, and two known to be born in Germany (mother's maternal line) and the other four (Hovel side) we always thought were born in Germany. Hence, we always concluded that we were 75% German and 25% Irish. However, nationality, or perhaps heritage, or ancestry, is not what we always think it is.

223 and Me Relational spread

Later, when a sister and a brother started to take a deep dive into Hovel family origins it was realized that our paternal grandfather's family, (Hovel line) was from Bohemia, what is now the Czech Republic. There were guesses as to where my paternal grandmother's father (Mathias Pitzenberger) was from, generally thought to be Germany, which was emphasized by a letter my Dad wrote while in WWII in which he stated he was across from Dusseldorf, where "mother had some relations." My brother and sister would discover that our paternal grandmother's mother (Teresia Kamen) was from Bohemia, and as it turns out not too distant from where the Hovel family lived prior to emigration to the US. My Dad always thought, until that discovery, that the Hovel family was from Germany. Culturally, that may have been, but jurisdictionally that was not the case, as can be shown by DNA. Ethnically, the situation may be murky unless I can find and test DNA of my grandfather. 

My Ancestry--23 and Me 

It was in June several years ago that I took a swab of my DNA as part of 23 and Me. I had been given the DNA test as a Father's Day gift. The results were somewhat surprising given what I had known of my heritage at the time, Mostly German, part Czech, and 25% Irish. DNA is being used to help solve crimes, but to also free some that had been convicted. It also leads to connections of people with surnames I have never heard of, which shows the breadth of how interconnected the world really is. There is caution in use of DNA, however. First, the database becomes more accurate the more persons are in the database. Second, there was the case in the early use of DNA where triplets each took a DNA test and results came back with marked differences in ancestry. DNA is complicated and of the strands only 1% is generally unique to the person. This video can help explain. Enjoy the Irish accent.

My DNA, going on the assumption that it is rather accurate, shows that I am 83.8% French--German (German), 10.3% Britain and Irish, so much for that 25%. That leaves about 5.45 for Eastern European (Czech). With a bit undefined. Genetically, the German heritage is strongest, leaving the others to pull up the back end. This leaves the thought, how can this be?  

First, let me tackle my mother's father. He and his wife were both born in Ireland, but Irish records are scant and difficult to trace, and hence I only know who my 2nd great grandparents were, but only based on family lore, and in one case the birth record of my great grandmother. It is odd that only 10% is Ireland (County Clare, which is correct), which makes me wonder what happened to the other 15%? Could it be related to the database, a quirk in the DNA (recombinant) or perhaps, the Sweeney, O'Connor's, Cleary's and others had varied German influence from centuries back? I may never know. I do know that one sister is a big celebrant of St Patrick's Day, showing that culturally her Irish surpasses her German genetics in that case. Although, she clearly has Germanic traits that show up in her personality. St Patrick himself was not Irish but from Wales born in the fifth century as Maewyn Succat, proving that you do not need to have Irish ancestry.

I think it is pretty much a given, that my mom's maternal side is German, and while I have her Reiner side only back to the second great grandfather in Bavaria, I do have the Leidenheimer side back several generations, due to work of a common ancestor. 

My Grandma Hovel's father, I found out a few years ago, came from Austria, and here again I lose records before about 1800, and have yet to find a nearby church that may have their records. Austria was part of the Anschluss of WWII, with Hitler of Austrian ancestry, claiming it as part of Germany. 

1930 Czech Regions of German Speakers
Commonly known as the Sudetenland

Now, for the long explanation of Germans and Czechs. The explanation for the German genetics with so many Bohemian relations can best be explained by history. This issue is related to the infamous Sudetenland. The Sudetenland results from settlement of parts of border regions of the Kingdom of Bohemia with Germany being settled by Ethnic Germans as far back as the 12th century. These settlements were on virgin land and new communities were created. Dolni Chrastany, where my 2nd great grandparents lived prior to emigration was part of the Sudetenland. Hlavatce, where my 2nd great grandmother, Anna Jodl, was from was even further east, in Hlavatce, but her family originated from an area west of Dolni Chrastany known as Laistka which was part of the Sudetendland. They moved to Hlavatce in 1720.  Genealogy is complicated as each generation doubles as you go back in time (2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 great grandparents, and on and on).  Hence, a few generations back you are talking a good number of people, who in this borderland may or may not have been ethnic German. Interestingly, the Hovel (Havel) family is traced back to about 1585 or so, with the known ancestral village as Ratiborova Lhota, which although closer to the German border, but was not part of the Sudetenland. Josef Havel,  my second great grandfather was the first known in this ancestral line able to read and write. It appears that he knew German. Things are complicated in terms of language not only by where a person was from, but that Bohemia was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire where German was the official language. Dolni Chrastany is only about 25 miles from the border with Germany, but although the Hovel ancestral village (back to 1585) is a few miles closer to Germany it was not a significant settlement for Germans, according to detailed studies, and not part of the Sudetenland.

Dolni Chrastany and Ratiborova Lhota 
in relation to Sudetenland border
Courtesy of Richard D' Amelio

Then there is Teresia Kamen Pitzenberger, my paternal grandmothers mother. She was born in Ujezd, Bohemia, and spoke Czech, but also likely knew a bit of German. Ujzed appears out of the Sudetenland, but as with the Hovel and Jodl families, her ancestors came from varied locales in the region. In fact her paternal line hails from Prestice, Bohemia, moving to Ujezd in the mid 1700's. Prestice is about 45 miles north of Ujezd.

Kamen, US immigration arrival form

My Dad's maternal grandmother, Amelia Duscheck was part of the German-Bohemian migration, with the known relations being from northeastern Bohemia. Much work has been done on the this area referred to as Landskron and their immigration to the US, with significant settlement pockets in Jefferson County to Dane County, WI. When I look back at many of the surnames you find in Sun Prairie, they are related to the Landskroners--Motl, Skalicky, Blaska, Schuster, Langer, Benisch, Suchomel, and many others.

Jacob Fitzl arrival immigration form

The Hovel family emigrated from Bohemia in 1868 and first settled between Jefferson and Fort Atkinson. Jacob Fitzl, who hailed from Dolni Chrastany arrived in 1866 with his immigration record clearly listing "Bohem" as country of origin (no nationality listed) and Milwaukee as destination. He would marry the oldest daughter of my second great grandparents, Josef and Anna (nee Jodl) Havel at St John's Church in Jefferson. Josef Havel's 1868 arrival form also identifies Bohemia as place of origin and has nationality as Bohemia. Given Jacob's arrival in the US, this likely represents what is known a chain migration. Teresia Kamen, who proudly had Ujezd Bohemia on her death prayer card had, noted on her arrival form as being from Germany with Germany listed as her nationality. 

Josef Hawel, US arrival immigration form

What I can conclude is that the area of the Hovel and Kamen ancestors had an intermixing, a melting pot, if you will between Germans and Czechs. Some parts of Czechia would have seen similar melting pots, such as between Poles Czechs, Hungarians and Czechs or Austrians and Czechs, not to mention Slovaks and Czechs. There are even Ukrainians and Czechs. There was not only intermarriage between the ethnicities, but also internal migration occurred over time, sometimes much greater distances than I would have thought. The Jodl family moved a current road distance of over 26 miles from Lazistka to Hlavatce. People did what they had to do to find livelihood on a farm, and that involves movement for those not lucky to inherit the family farm. Most all were farmers and farm land was difficult to come by, as the youngest son generally purchased the farm, leaving other sons to find a farm. Some found it through marriage, like Frantisek Havel, and others by taking on abandoned claims, like the Jodl's.

Google Maps, Shows German-Czech broder
Dolni Chrastany is teardrop and about 25 mi from border
Ratiborova Lhota is southwest of Dolni Chrastany and is shown as a heart. 
Hlavatce is northeast of Dolni Chrastany.

With different ethnicities come different cultural traits. Many cultural traits were likely shared, such as religious values. Some other traits likely endured from each culture, others perhaps modified, with some dropped in favor of one over another. Places where they lived, would also have informed cultural, with those living in more German communities as being more German, and vice versa for those Czech. Frantisek Havel (my third great grandfather) moved from Ratiborova Lhota to Dolni Chrastany in 1796 to marry Teresia Jiral from Dolni Chrastany and took over her family's farm in that community. Dolni Chrastany was within the Sudetenland, and hence more German in culture than Ratiborova Lhota. A more German community, in the Sudetenland, may have represented some change for him in cultural identify. Yet, as a peasant farmer, he likely simply struggled to make ends meet, and ethic differences were less important than earning a living. Recall, from prior blogs, that to be a farmer, one had to have a spouse, otherwise the holding could be taken away from them. This is why, when a spouse died and there were children, remarriage occurred within a few months if not weeks. 

The melting pot, or assimilation of cultures, however, has taken a few times in history a back seat to ethnicity. We saw it when Hitler was handed by British Prime Minister Chamberlain the Sudetenland, without any input from the Czechs. He later took all of Czechoslovakia. But, it also happened at the end of WWII, when the Czech government undertook a forced migration, an almost ethnic cleansing, of Sudetenland areas by requiring German ethnic groups to move out. Dolni Chrastany was part of this. Jodl family members were living at 18 Dolni Chrastany in the early 1900's, but they may not have been subject to the forced migration. In the early 1990's my sister and dad visited the old country, stopping in Dolni Chrastany, and a distant relation still lived at #18. For varied reasons I see parallels between this and the Ukraine situation, where ethnic Russians dominate in east Ukraine, as Germans dominated in the Sudetenland starting in the 11th and 12th centuries. There is also the other major conflict, with forced migration is being discussed to create the Riviera of the Mideast in Gaza.

Some people do a deep dive in ancestors, such as finding relatives to a person in their tree that they are not even related to. I tend to stick to direct lines and rather than finding just a persons birth, death and marriage, I try to look at what was happening at the time, what conditions were like and other such things. This has caused me to download a number of papers. Of course, none of this is specific to my ancestors, but it does give an idea of what the general situation of their life may have been like as mainly peasant farmers. This knowledge helps inform me of not just the lifestyle of my ancestors, but major decisions they made, such as moving to the US. 

The US is truly a melting pot of nationalities, and every successive generation seems to be more so. The melting pot is on a much greater scale than that known to my ancestors in Bohemia (who were German or Czech). We are a product of our past, and the intermixing can make for a new set of values and traits. I am more an American than German. Germans don't change their underwear everyday like I do. However, my punctuality may be informed by my German heritage. 

The funny thing is as the world is more globalized than ever, and communication and travel have shortened time to travel markedly, the world has become more focused on ethnicities. You see it in Europe where countries have broken up (Former Soviet Union, former Yugoslavia, and the velvet break up of Slovakia and Czechia) all based on ethnicity. Globalization, it seems, has many populations desirous to know their roots, and in some cases act on that. My DNA tells me I am more German, but jurisdictionally from place of origin, I am as much Czech as German, and perhaps more so depending upon how Austria is counted. The infamous Sudeten Germans are clearly at play in my DNA. Good luck with me trying to find my heritage back to the 11 or 12th centuries when I have trouble finding 18th century records. 

Watch Out

It was last week, when my wife and visited her mother, during the visit, my wife and her mom were discussing the closing of some, then all Joann Fabric stores. "Watch out!" That was part of a phrase my wife used to describe all the upset females there will be around the nation due to the closing of a popular fabric/craft store. Her actual statement was "Husbands had better watch out".  Hell hath no fury as a woman scorned by the closing of her fabric shop.

Pickles Cartoon

My wife likes to sew and quilt and her go-to-store has been Joann Fabrics in Madison, usually the east side of the two Madison locations. Joann's first reported, about two weeks ago, that they would be closing a number of stores, including the Madison east location. My wife was dismayed at that, but resigned to having to go to the west side location. Early last week, the last week of February, it was announced they were closing all retail stores. My wife commented that "husbands had better watch out" as there will be a large number of upset women.

If I would go into Joann store with her, I, as a male, would be the outlier. It does not take a genius to know that most sewing and quilting is done by woman. Men watch football and baseball, and the women quilt, cross-stitch or something else to keep their hands busy. If another male or two happened to be in a craft store with his female partner, it was always fun looking at the interactions. I have been like a duck out of water, but my wife would occasionally ask for my opinion on color, fabric type or what have you in regard to her selections for quilts or clothes. I always appreciated that she valued my opinion so as to know what not to choose. 

The thing is with one grandchild and another on the way she was looking forward to making some clothes for the grandkids. But, now her store of choice will soon be no more. She also makes t-shirt quilts for clients and would send them to Joann for the edging and backing fabric that would be required. Her informed belief is other stores, such as Hobby Lobby, do not have the fabric choices and options that is/was available at Joann Fabrics. 

We made a trip to Joann Fabrics last week so the wife could use a gift card on material to recover a couple throw pillows. As my wife went to look for floss, not dental but cross stich, I held down the fort at the cut counter, so I asked her how much material she required, she looked at the width and mumbles some numbers to herself and finally said a yard and a half. Even though my wife got back in time, I still got to say the amount of fabric. I got a dirty look from my wife when I asked the clerk to verify the width. I then proudly proclaimed "a yard and a half." Prior to saying that I got another look from the wife, such as tell her the amount of fabric required.  As my wife waited for the brown fabric to be cut, my job became getting in line at the check out. There were two registers open and about 14 people ahead of me.

Joann's has a lot of stuff, more than fabric and we were both surprised that Christmas candy was only 20% off. They had other Christmas stuff in the loopy line for the registers. As a keen observer of the human condition, this is where things got interesting. A small box of 3-M wall hangers, the type that you can put on and peel off, was almost $13, I am not sure what they would be at a hardware store, but I thought that price high. It is, however,  in the aisle of impulse buying. With all the Christmas stuff at only 20% off, there were those headbands some with Christmas trees, one at each end, bopping about on small springs. More available were headbands that had the feet and calves of Santa as if going down a chimney, with the chimney being your head. I wondered, to myself, who would ever buy such junk. Right then the woman behind me, with about five pieces of scrap book paper (I did not know that was still a thing), started rummaging through them and picked the one with Christmas trees. Okay, so Joann's knows something about their clientele. Apparently, not enough to have saved the company.

Earl's ashes will not be at Joann Fabrics

The most curious object, however, was a pair of water based breast and cleavage enhancers. in see through hard sided plastic case. I first thought it was an odd object, but then realized it probably was not for two reasons. First, this store is populated mainly persons that can be inseminated; I only saw two other men in the store, so the ratio of persons who can be inseminated to those that could do the inseminating was about 15 to 1. Second, the store is a fabric store, with patterns for many things including dresses, and perhaps and perhaps a person with breasts would desire some breast and cleavage enhancers for some clothing they were making. I suspect this was not their normal location, but someone picked them up, and decided not to buy them, so dropped them off on a shelf while waiting in line at check out. It would be an odd item to located with all the 20% off Christmas candy.

The check out line, that midafternoon, consistently had about 12 to 15 persons during our visit. Check out would have gone much faster but for two women who had a cart full of plastic flowers. After several minutes, they completed their check out, the lady behind them noted they still had some in the bottom back of the shopping cart. Their total bill for plastic flowers, I do not know the how much they were discounted, was $83. 

I am not sure what my wife will do without Joann Fabrics. Perhaps some other store will come in to fill the gap. This is all part of  what may be downward trends following a high increase in demand from Covid. There are other examples of industries affected by increased demand due to Covid and now have downsized. I has happened in the bike sector, RV sector, high end appliance sector, and now the fabric--craft sector. But, fabric, unlike bikes and RV's, is a nondurable good as clothes wear and new ones can always be made. Perhaps, younger generations are just not into that. The historic low birth rate may play apart too. My wife sewed many of the clothes are kids wore at a young age, after all they grow out of them rather quickly.

As I watched the women in the check out line, I had to sympathize with their husbands, most probably at home at the time, not knowing what the future may hold in a wife undergoing material withdrawal. There will coming angst over the closing of Joann Fabrics, and the husbands will bear the brunt of scorned female. Husbands, if your wife is a sewer, watch out.

 

Magnetic North

It was in late May or early June 2003 and we were camping at South Dakota's Custer State Park. This immense park is known for some unique natural features. We had a camp site at Sylvan Lake Campground. It was a sunny late morning and I decided to hike behind our campsite and look for some kindling. I recall the area being covered with tall trees, and little underbrush. It was actually rather pleasant and so I kept walking. Without a map or compass, I took note of where the sun was in the sky and knew which way was west, so the sun would gradually head that direction. This was one time I wished I had a compass to help guide me, with the compass taking advantage of the magnetic located deep in the earth's outer core.

My I-Phone Compass App

What occurred, is that the clouds moved in quickly and with the landscape looking the same in all directions, I became slightly disoriented. I had to try and figure out which way our campsite was. As it happened, I somehow reoriented myself and found myself in the campground, although at a different loop. Being a trained geographer, I know that I never get lost, I am just searching new territory, as I did that one fine late spring day in 2003. As far as my wife knows, I was just on a walk in the woods. 

But, a compass has to be recalibrated based on where the magnetic north is, although in many situations, one may not need that degree of accuracy, although it appears you could be off, depending on relation to the magnetic north by as much as 20 or more degrees. The difference between true and magnetic north is called magnetic declination (or variation).  But, magnetic north moves, and its rate seems to have increased over the past few decades, moving from Canada to Siberia. Magnetic north is currently moving about 27 mph, and in 30 or 40 years will be situated in Siberia, as Siberia is 750 to 1000 miles from the magnetic pole depending on which point is chosen. Its highest known speed was 31 map but has now slowed to about 22 mph. 

Accurate records of the magnetic pole movement have been kept since the 1830's, but there is sufficient data in the historical record to have fairly accurate assessments of some earlier positions. The change, and the rate of change can be noticed in the below map. A CNN article from January quotes a member of the British Geological Survey as saying "The current behavior of magnetic north is something we have never observed before." That change in speed is the biggest change they have seen.

Movement of Magnetic North, 1600-2025, Source: CNN
Asterisk is north pole

The movement of magnetic north is due to a variety of factors, changes in the magnetic field of the earth, 1800 miles below surface, and with it growing stronger in Siberia and weakening in Canada. Mostly it is due to the changing nature of the fluid dynamics of the molten iron and nickel that starts at that 1800 miles below the earth's surface. The shift may not have seemed major to me and my compass, but it plays a large role in a variety of fields like aviation, shipping and military equipment all depend on magnetic north for guidance. The US and Great Britain collaboratively update the declination every five years, which caused more problems when the rate of change was greater. They have a website, the World Magnetic Model, that will provide the declination for use by those that require it.

Earth's Core
Source: Google images

It has occurred to me that perhaps President Trump may still believe magnetic north is by Canada and that is why he desires it to be a 51st state. Or, if he does know that it is magnetic north moving, perhaps he is not really after Greenland, but is using it as a ruse to go after Siberia? So, the big picture question is can the movement of magnetic north explain his  geopolitical views? What magnetic north may realize, now that its rate of movement toward Siberia has slowed is that Siberia may not be an attractive location, either climatically or politically. 

I-Phone Compass App also
provides latitude and longitude

Today, hikers may depend on GPS on their phones (provided sufficient battery), or event a watch, two of many options over an old fashioned compass.  I grew up learning and using a compass in Boy Scouts. I still have that compass, that I received as either a birthday or Christmas gift, and take it camping. It was, in recent times, more used to position the solar panel on our camper than for hiking as I tend to now stick to trails. Yet, since most places we camp are rather heavily wooded, that is kind of a fool's errand, but one never knows what ray of sun may peak through with the sun high overhead. However, now I have an i-phone, which if charged can make that that compass is obsolete as I have the compass app on the I-phone. The I-phone app even asks if I wish to use true north, as I suppose as opposed to magnetic north.

Servant

For over five hours as over a thousand people filed past the casket of an elderly lady at Loyola Chapel in Denver. It was June 9, 1918. They came to pay their respects to Julia Greeley, who was a servant. Born into slavery in Hannibal, Missouri, she was a servant, or domestic worker, first in Missouri and later in the Denver area where she moved in or about 1878. It was through her domestic role in the household of Governor William and Julia Gilpin that she first learned about the Catholic faith from Mrs. Gilpin. Julia Greeley was baptized in the Catholic faith in 1880. She would go through trying times in her life, to which she responded with charity. Taking her servant duties to a whole other level in helping the poor in Denver, she has become recognized in Denver as the "Angel of Charity" and she is also known by the Catholic Church as a Servant of God. This is a summary of her remarkable story of this little known former slave.

Only known photo of Julia Greeley
pictured with Marjorie Urquhart
source: Wikipedia

It is unknown what year Julia was born, but most sources place it somewhere between 1833 and 1848. There are few records of births of those born into slavery such as Julia Greeley was near Hannibal, Missouri. But, for her remarkable efforts she could well have been lost to history. She lost sight in one of her eyes, when, as a young girl of about three or four she got between a slave master and her mother when her mother. Her mother was about the be struck by the whip of the slave master, but the whip instead struck Julia's eye. For the remainder of her life tear fluid would constantly drip from damaged right eye. She was freed by the Missouri Emancipation Proclamation (Missouri was not part of the Confederacy and therefore not subject to President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation),  in 1865, and was employed by the Robinson family until her move to Denver in 1878. No one seems to know what caused William Gilpin to turn against Julia Greeley and later his wife, but a contentious filing for divorce from is wife brought Julia Greeley into the case as he referred to his wife as bringing in a "lewd and unprincipled woman" (ie Julia Greeley) into the house. Due to this she had trouble finding employment until she was exonerated at the divorce trial.

Due to the divorce trial of her friend, Mrs. Gilpin Julia became focused on Jesus, and took special devotion to Jesus of the Sacred Heart. Her death on June 7, 1918 was on the Feast day of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. She attended mass daily, at Sacred Heart Church in Denver. She was present in the 1879 founding of the church. It was likely at Sacred Heart Church, where she was baptized, that she first came into contact with the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The coincidence here, is that the book club I am completed reading on Tuesday, Feb 18, 2025, Dilexit Nos, Pope Francis' encyclical (He loved us) on the human and divine love of the heart of Jesus Christ. The encyclical's conclusion notes the following (paragraph 217): "The present document can help us see that the teaching of the social Encyclicals Laudato Si’ and Fratelli Tutti is not unrelated to our encounter with the love of Jesus Christ. For it is by drinking of that same love that we become capable of forging bonds of fraternity, of recognizing the dignity of each human being, and of working together to care for our common home." (Bold by blog author) Julia Greeley understood this, and I have to think that being impoverished herself, she would well understand what Francis says in paragraph 218:  

In a world where everything is bought and sold, people’s sense of their worth appears increasingly to depend on what they can accumulate with the power of money. We are constantly being pushed to keep buying, consuming and distracting ourselves, held captive to a demeaning system that prevents us from looking beyond our immediate and petty needs. The love of Christ has no place in this perverse mechanism, yet only that love can set us free from a mad pursuit that no longer has room for a gratuitous love. Christ’s love can give a heart to our world and revive love wherever we think that the ability to love has been definitively lost.

It was her love of Christ that drove Julia to clean Sacred Heart church to earn money to pay the rent at the boarding house at which she lived. It is said she earned about $10 or $12 a month (about $380 a month in today's valuation). In addition to her work at the church she did other odd jobs. With this little money she found enough to live and to help others. She often found herself the victim of charity fraud schemes, but she felt it better to give than to be too careful and deny assistance to a person in need. She well took to heart and by deed the Gospel passage in Matthew: “Just as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me” (Mt 25:40).

Present day photo of what was boarding house
where Julia Greeley lived. Walnut St. Denver, CO
She lived in the boarding house from 1903-1916
Google maps

The Colorado Encyclopedia indicates that Julia loved and took care of varied children. In one exchange she predicted that a woman, said to not be able to bear another child, had a child the following year.  Julia is in the top image of this blog post with that child. The Colorado Encyclopedia, had this to say: 

One day in 1914, Mrs. Agnes Urquhart asked Julia to mop her floor. Noticing religious pictures on the walls, Greeley asked if the Urquharts were Catholic. When Mrs. Urquhart said yes, Julia asked where the children were. There had only been one child, Mrs. Urquhart told her, and he had died from an inability to digest food. Mrs. Urquhart was unable to have any more children. Julia told Mrs. Urquhart that there would be “a little white angel running around the house. I will pray and you will see.”

Julia experienced many trials in her life, from the psychological torture of Gov Gilpen, to being half blind, crippled due to severe arthritis in most of her limbs and extremities, and being a black woman she still found herself ministering to the poor in Denver, and at 98% white at the time, many of the poor she assisted were white. Because poor whites could lose any semblance of respectability if found to be helped by an African-American, she did so at night. She would venture out with food, and is known to have carried a mattress on her back for a family in need. She also delivered coal and other fuel. Even though she lacked much money herself, she gave to the poor, and even took up collections to benefit them. 

Perhaps the most sorrowful thing I have read about Julia Greeley is that she thought when she got to heaven she would be white. This clearly shows the discrimination she must have gone though as a black woman in the US and a former slave. This poor, illiterate, disabled woman lived a life of virtue. As per the Julia Greeley Home post "the designation 'Servant of God' means that the Catholic authorities in Rome have determined that a preliminary investigation into her life has revealed her to have lived a 'heroic' life until her death in Denver on June 7, 1918. It means the Church has determined that Julia followed the will of God to an amazing degree, even beyond what a 'good' and virtuous person would be expected to do." An issue with her being illiterate there is a lack of records detailing her life or writings. Lack of historical records added to the complexity of her situation.

Every first Friday of the month she made a 22 mile trip on foot to distribute Sacred Heart literature to the varied firehouses in Denver. Every firefighter in the city knew who Julia was. They gave her enough votes (ten cents a vote) to win a beauty contest and earn the $350 which she used to provide for the poor. She purchased the leaflet copies herself, but she could not read, write or count. 

For thirty years or more she undertook many of the corporal works of mercy, fed the hungry, provided clothes and fuel to those in need, visited the ill, and provided spiritual encouragement. She walked around with her little red wagon picking up discarded items such doll to repair to give to a poor child, to find scraps of wood for fuel. Fr Burkey is quoted in an article saying: “Her charity was so great that only God knows its extent. She was constantly visiting the poor and giving them assistance from her own slender means. When she found their needs so great that she could not help them with her own goods, she begged for them. Her charity was as delicate as it was great."

While I recalled hearing about Julia Greeley before, a recent article I read last Sunday made a comparison of this Catholic convert to more famous Catholic convert--Vice President JD Vance and his recent comments on immigration. Pope Francis took issue with Vance's take on the order of love, and the administration's general immigration actions. Julia Greeley showed an expansive love to those outside her inner circle of friends. Even though she herself was in poverty, and at times needed assistance, she helped the impoverished.

Julia Greeley shows one need not be a person of means to help others. In Julia's case ,perhaps in recognizing her own poverty, she felt she could best help others. Pope Francis' encyclical Dilext Nos quotes a number of Catholic saints and their devotion to the Sacred Heart. We can pray that perhaps one day Julia Greeley will be added to the saints who had a devotion to the Sacred Heart. Julia Greeley born as a slave in the lowest station of life, worked as a servant, and now has the title Servant of God. Hopefully, she will have intervened to have the necessary miracles to reach sainthood. Julia Greeley was an ordinary person who did ordinary acts of kindness and charity, but with great love and devotion, that is what set her apart, that is how she became a true and faithful servant.