The Jacket

December 22 was a sad day for me. Not because it was the first full day of my twin brother being a seasoned citizen, but because my nice and aged Carhartt jacket failed to zip up as I was going outside to shovel snow. I had shoveled snow in the morning using the coat so at some point, either unzipping or zipping it up the fabric on the zipper between two teeth split slightly apart, just enough so the teeth will no longer catch. Viewers of my Facebook page saw the incident first. 

Given use and age it is in decent shape

After getting another jacket to clear the snow, I came back in to examine the Carhartt jacket and to try and figure out why it would not zip up, that is when I found the small tear. My wife, who is quite a good seamstress insists the coat should not be repaired, a sister said she her friend, who also is a seamstress, might do the job. 

The tear in the zipper fabric

I received that jacket as either a birthday or Christmas present when I was fourteen or fifteen years of age. Odd that I recall almost specifically when I got the coat, with matching overalls. The overalls wore out sometime ago, and my wife got me a new pair--this pair being insulated.  The jacket kept chugging along, however, until the day after the winter solstice. I have worn it clearing snow, doing yardwork, working on small power equipment, which explains oil and grease stains, cutting wood, hauling brush, and a variety of other chores. I also wore it while playing in the snow, or certain other outside activities. I made many a snowman wearing that coat, not to mention sled runs for when the boys were young, and more recently for the neighbor boys. Yes, the fabric is frayed in some areas, and it has a few rips. through all that, the jacket has been durable and reliable. I am not sure I could even begin to count the hours I wore it.  I know some complain of the cost of Carhartt, but I think I got more than the value of the coat.  Funny thing, one of my sons told me that Carhartt used to advertise most for people ages 15-65.  I mean, wow, how coincidental that that my coat zipper broke the day after my twin brother turned 65? I have to say I was more sad about my Carhartt coat no longer being wearable then my brother being 65 years of age plus a day.

My twin brother noted on Christmas to me that Carhartt is becoming more and more trendy. In the 1990's the New York times declared it the clothing choice for hip hop and I guess that would include hipsters. They even created a Carhartt WIP (Work in Progress) for the hipsters. Carhartt is becoming the new North Face. The hipsters, and others gravitate to Carhartt and may well do to that brand what happened to North Face. North Face became worn by hipster urbanites, among others, whose idea of an outing was finding a trendy craft brewery. To show the popularity Carhartt continues to gain, the NY Times recently had their idea of influencers and popular people and made the following comment about John Fetterman: "The senator-elect from Pennsylvania is going to bring Carhartt to the Capitol." The NY Times anointed influencers and hipsters idea of manual labor would likely be lifting their glass of craft beer to their mouth. One thing I know is that a hipster worn Carhartt jacket  would not look like mine. I doubt it would show the wear and the stains from working outside. A hipster would quickly replace the jacket for whatever new outerwear becomes trendy. I received and wore the jacket for functional reasons, which included more than few trips to the hardware store, or to Hanley Implement, but I would not have worn it to a restaurant, or around town at night. For me the jacket did what it was supposed to do and for that it shows its wear. If Carhartt will be the brand of choice for those soft-handed workers in the US Capitol, I may need to rethink the brand. I really don't want to be considered trendy or hip. That is just not me.

Cuffs are worn

I did receive a number of comments on my Facebook post about the jacket, most saying it is time for a new one. A few thought I should have the zipper replaced since even a new Carhartt will not likely last fifty years. Then again, I really would not need the coat to last fifty years. I am now beyond the age of what Carhartt used to advertise as their main demographic, but they probably would not mind a seasoned citizen purchasing a coat.   

2019 with Snowman, wearing Carhartt Jacket

I think the first time I wore the jacket for some extended manual hard labor. It was on my grandfather's farm in the winter, probably just after Christmas. My dad and two older brothers were using Rudy's old McCollough chainsaw and perhaps a Stihl owned by my brother to cut down what we called piss elms, Chinese elms, along a fence row. They did the cutting, and of course, and I had the chore of hauling the brush, and helping clear the logs. Grandpa was enjoying the warm climate in Florida. I have a number of fond memories wearing that jacket, and I am sure the jacket heard its fair share of cuss words, when working on some small engines and related equipment. 

Jacket 

What I can say, since I got my Carhartt over fifty years ago, that I was once again a trend setter--wearing Carhartt before it became hip. It is like my jeans, they get holes in the knees from wear, but I have seen people buy jeans made that way. My gosh, just wear your jeans and do some work and they will begin to wear out in the knees. Or, when I got glasses, I was wearing horn-rimmed glasses as a teen and now look how stylish they are. Like my Carhartt jacket I was years, actually decades, ahead of the times in styles and trends. I have to say, I am a man before my time in trends.  I missed out on monetizing my distressed jeans by offering them for sale. Maybe there is a market for a distressed Carhartt jacket.

What to do at this point about a jacket, I am not sure. Before the zipper broke, I thought I would have it displayed at my funeral. I am, now, in no rush to decide what to do. Funny how one small tear in the zipper fabric leads to a coat no longer being properly functional. I suppose that small tear is telling me that the jacket has seen better days, such that the fabric by the zipper is wearing out. 

Seasoned Citizen

On 21 December of this year my twin brother will turn 65 years of age and become what I call a seasoned citizen. As he is now 65 years of age he is eligible for more senior citizen discounts, and a few other perks of which the elderly may take advantage. He can now, of course, join the ranks of Medicare recipients. The benefits he will now be able to receive due simply to age, places him in a growing demographic.

This growing demographic is of course due to aging baby boomers who are joining the senior citizen ranks. The year my twin brother was born also happened to be the year with the largest number of births for the baby boom generation. The 1957 number of births in the United States was not surpassed for any one year until 2007 when 4.317 million children were born or .17 million more than those born in 1957. Part of the worker shortage, I am sure, is related to baby boomer retirements which increased during the pandemic. Pew research has noted (source #1) that the effect of the baby boomers on the work force is particularly critical because "until the pandemic arrived, adults ages 55 and older were the only working age population since 2000 to increase their labor force participation." (Pew Study, see source #1, below.) Researchers at Pew also wondered if the pandemic driven retirements will be permanent or not. I suspect for many the only reason to go back to work is if they are forced by particular circumstances or the economy. For some, who were living on the edge to begin with, the perfect storm of inflation, reduced investment, results and housing costs can drive them into a job.

Infants
Family archives

According to a recent article in the AP (See source #2), senior citizens taking on jobs has increased due to inflation. The news article, dated 15 Dec 2022, noted that inflation particularly affects retirees who have no chance for a bonus or to work overtime. The story talks about the number of senior citizens who have had to rejoin the workforce during this period of high inflation. The AP story goes on to say: "The problem will become more widespread in the coming years as more baby boomers, who began turning 65 in 2011, join the ranks of the retired. In 2050, the U.S. population ages 65 and over will be 83.9 million, nearly double what it was (43.1 million) in 2012, the Census Bureau projects." The end of the baby boomer cohort will turn 65 in 2028, so the AP is padding their stats with the retirement of the X generation, which had births from 1965 to about 1980 (per encyclopedia Britannica), and even part of the millennial generation. The declining birth rate in the US, and even much of the world, will affect benefits. A flat, or even an inverted population pyramid is not a good thing for social security benefits which were based on continued population growth, particularly with a growth that would exceed generations before it. If US birth rates stay the same, or go lower, the population pyramid will invert. The nation's 2022 population pyramid is already showing signs of an inversion. 

2022 Population Pyramid. Source: see #3

An interesting book I read earlier this year, Nomadland, talked about itinerant Americans who live in recreational vehicles. Some are there by choice, others not. Some lost their earnings in the stock market decline of the great recession, or were affected by health issues, divorce or some other life changing event. What is interesting, is that Amazon employs a number of older nomad workers where ibuprofen is handed out like candy on Halloween. Even with their aches and pains, apparently Amazon has found a willing workforce which posses a strong work ethic. It is quite telling of the state of our national labor force if baby boomers were the only group, according to Pew, to increase their workforce participation from 2000 until the pandemic. Pew also found that the more education you have the more likely you were to retire early. Education is often related to income, but not always, so this makes some sense.

In the meantime there is a worker shortage which now has the Federal Reserve concerned since this has led to employers increasing the wages they pay. This then affects inflation. The Fed, according to Bloomberg news, expects unemployment to increase to 4.6% by the last quarter of 2023. That means over 1.5 million people will be out of a job by Oct 1 of next year. Now, if other jobs stay available they may have options, but the received pay may be decreased.

For many years the nation has been driven by the baby boomers, and that is now again the case as the largest birth year of baby boomers has reached 65. Baby boomers drove growth in some decades, from when they were young (parents spending on them), to when they had children (their spending on their children). So much is driven by demographics, in particular spending. The stock market likes when companies see sales growth. Zoom and some other tech companies saw significant growth during the pandemic, but that growth has now waned, (like  duhh) and they are no longer the darlings of Wall Street. There is a cycle, and my belief is that many of our national cycles can be explained by demographics. There was a drop off in births after 1964, but births increased a generation later as baby boomers and Xer's started having children which led to the large Millennial grouping. The effect was not as great because the baby boomers had fewer children overall, and they spread out their marriages too, meaning first births were often delayed. 

My twin brother and I as children
Family archives

When in our mother's womb, my brother was so intent on delaying his birth that he pushed me out. I cannot say that I blame him, I mean the amniotic sac was probably becoming a little tight with two babies, even though we were on the smaller scale, particularly me. He was larger than me at time of birth, I was the runt of the two baby litter so to speak. My twin is bigger than me and he got the nickname Harold when I was playing football in eighth grade and the high school football coach went up to my older brother who was watching the game and suggested that he "talk to Harold or whatever his name is into playing football."  We of course were born about a month early.  I am not sure who had the faint heartbeat, but the doctor kept telling my mom there was only one child, when she kept insisting there were two. What does the mother know after all?  Medical professionals, we are told, know best. Of course, that does not mean the doctor did not get upset with the nurses when they were not prepared for a second child to come out. After all the doctor told them to prepare for one child. That doctor felt so sorry for me that he and his wife became my Godparents. As much as my twin brother probably wished his entry to this earth delayed, by pushing me out, he unwittingly had set forth a series of  events that could not be stopped.  After all, he made his entry into the world 21 minutes after me. 

2016 Sun Prairie Sweet Corn Festival
On Sunday, you can stack your own corn in the tote
Photo by Chris Hovel

I am sure many of you have been wondering why I am referring to my twin brother and not myself in the benefits of a seasoned citizen. While I am now on Medicare, but some other benefits I have had for a year or more, thanks to my wife who is over a year older than me. Thanks to her seasoned age she was able to get discounts camping at National Forests a few years ago. Last week we bought a 2023 state park vehicle pass on which she was able to get a $15 discount because of her age. We tend not to take much advantage of senior citizen discounts at other places which apparently offer them, some from age 60 on or others at 65. Most are eating places and since the pandemic we have not been eating out as much as we used to. 

Being 21 minutes older I have the title of being a (slightly) more seasoned citizen than my twin brother. 

Happy Birthday to my twin brother, Greg!

Sources:

1. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/11/04/amid-the-pandemic-a-rising-share-of-older-u-s-adults-are-now-retired/

2. https://apnews.com/article/inflation-older-americans-72c8a3ed29eb8b8183400bc161c0c9ee

3. https://www.populationpyramid.net/united-states-of-america/2022/

Script

As many of you know, one of my hobbies is genealogical research. For the Hovel branch of the family the last arriving immigrant was my grandmother Ida Pitzenberger's mother, Theresia Kamen. She was from Ujezd, Bohemia and arrived in the United States in 1872. Ida's father arrived in the US in the 1850's with his parents and two brothers. Grandpa Rudy's father, Martin Havel, arrived in July 1868 with his parents and siblings. His mother, Amelia Duscheck, was born in Jefferson County, WI, but her parents arrived in the Americas via the port of Quebec in August 1854. Doing research of the varied Bohemian records is not easy, and that is why I had to chuckle when a Facebook post showed that a New England Historic Genealogical Society was sponsoring a workshop on deciphering old handwriting--in English. 

Class on English Script

I have done some research on the Yankee side of my wife, and quite frankly, compared to Bohemia it is a cakewalk. In its post on deciphering old handwriting, that New England society describes old handwritten records, with archaic English terms, unknown abbreviations and sometimes just illegible writing which render them difficult to rad. This is nothing compared to Bohemia. Depending on the era, you may see parish records written in German, Czech, or Latin. Occasionally you find a combination of two, or even all three. I think it was Josef and Anna Havel's marriage record which contains all three. In southern Bohemia it is not uncommon, as I have realized this year, to have what are referred to as after-the-roof surnames, you change your last name to follow the persons house you now live in. If that is not bad enough you have to add in the legibility of handwriting, with a fountain pen.  Abbreviations also occur.  In some unusual cases the script is rather elegant, but most of the time it is confusing. The letter B looks like L and T looks like S or a Y. 

At times I can pick out a name or two, but I generally have to know what name I am looking for. I have come to rely on a translator, because I realized I may have gotten names right, but not places. The translator provides another level of clarity, not to mention I may have had the surname spelled wrong. I am to the point in which I may have to engage the translator to find records. I tend to rely on an index, where they are available, and the older the record, generally, the less available is an index. Of course, some indexes, like the records, use the German Kurrent script which are rendered meaningless to me.  The problem is the indexes often miss persons. I also have found persons on a page different than what was noted in the index.  Indices for the Duscheck and Appl lines are extremely difficult because sometimes they are arranged by village, meaning you have to know the village. Knowing the village is always helpful, but sometimes you lack that particularly if the marriage was in the village of the bride. As Bohemian records progressed they provide much more information even grandparents.  Knowing village and  era will help, but finding records can still be difficult.

Death Record (2nd entry from top) of a 3rd Great grandmother, 1819
3rd Column from right contains her first and then last name
can you figure our her name?  An example of German Kurrent

For example, one ancestor Marianna Rokusek married Thomas Vavruska. I have not been able to find her birth, even knowing her home village, or their marriage record. I have their marriage nailed down to a few years by finding them in what are known as the Seigniorial Registers. These registers were essentially an an annual census of some persons in a village that are subject to a domain. I emphasize some, because they were often the "landholding" class, and tenants may not have been listed. What was recorded would vary not just by domain, but even perhaps by year. You can read about them here. Finding the Seignorial Register for some villages is difficult because they lack an index, those with an index, once you know the village and how they wrote the village name is rather simple to find the page but finding the family, given the script, can be more difficult.  I found Thomas Vavruska and his wife Marianna married about 1719 and living in his home village. But, were they in his home village? There is a note by their name, and in the table I keep I had placed the record, which I share with my translator on Google Docs, but not yet designated for translation, because I was trying to figure out which of the varied records would be more helpful. The translator, who occasionally checks the Google doc, saw the record and emailed with the following information:

Further, the last seigneurial register entered in your table (not indicated for translation) relating to Thomas Vavruška in 1731… the changes remove (cross out) the family from the lodger section of Nestanice… but the note beside him states “zu Strpp in seiner aigenen Chaluppen“ and then “zu Strpp Verschrieben“…. That is “at Strpí in his own cottage/smallhoding” and “registered/assigned to Strpí”… only I couldn’t see anything to that effect in the 1731 seigneurial landowner section for Strpí or the land register, and of course a few of the seigneurial registers for subsequent years appear missing (by which time he’s taken on the Chelčice property)…but he does also appear in the Strpí section of the same 1731 seigneurial in the lodger section (ordinal 60 image 49) with the same message “In seiner Eigenen Chaluppen in Dorff”. The only explanation I can offer is that he took on a Dominikal cottage briefly. As a Dominikal cottager he would still be classed as a lodger, and so consequently won’t appear in the Rustikal land registers… there are a few Dominikal land registers for Libějovice dominion, not for the time or place in question.

 

Thomas Vavruska lined out in 1719 Seigniorial Reg.
V. of Krtely. Note beside name.

Yet, even knowing Thomas and Marianna were likely married between 1717 and 1721 (I always give a few years either side) I still could not find the marriage looking in the records for both his and her home village. It may be I just could not read either name. By 1735 Thomas is married to another woman, Catherina from Chelcice. I also know that he had a third wife, Elizabeth, as that is recorded in the 1750 Seignorial Register and I have found that marriage record. I am sure the difficulty is with an inability to easily discern the script.

Birth record of Joannes Dusek
Landsberg, 1680

If you can find a family in a Seigniorial record you get an idea of location, and age, if not the parents, at least the children. Age in the record can vary from the actual birth/baptismal record by several years. Sometimes it is almost spot on. I have to give a great deal of credit to Richard D' Amelio, who does my translations. He knows his stuff and the abbreviations for the German and Latin and now Czech. He is a member of many of the same Czech genealogy Facebook groups of which I am a member and if there is ever a translation problem he can usually figure it out. For example, I had a record I partially translated and then had another professional (before I found out about Richard) and posted it on Facebook asking for assistance. People gave opinions, but Richard weighed in and noted that some of the script was not fully formed in terms of its loops, or angles or whatever. Sure enough, I found that person in the village he recommended. Richard is the go to person in transcribing and translating the varied scripts. I am not sure how he does, it is a real gift.

1719 Seignorial Register, Thomas Vavruska and
wife Marianna also show on this page in the same village, with note

I could write a whole blog post on the difficulties of the German Kurrent script, but it is too intricate and difficult to read, so why would I try to make sense of it for a blog post?  Of course, my handwriting is nothing to brag about. When I worked, persons who worked under me became experts at deciphering my script. 

I recently completed reading the Ross King book, The Bookseller of Florence, which involves manuscripts, codices, and books in the 14 and 15th centuries from handwriting to the advent of the printing press. Which script to use was often an issue, and he would make note of certain books made with ungainly script. This is at the advent of the printing press when each letter was handmade and handset, in reverse, sometimes only a few lines at a time to print. This is at the height of the Renaissance and scholars and monks were turning out translations of Greek texts. There was a thirst for these texts from bishops and cardinals to dukes and the merchant class. 

From Ross King book The Bookseller of Florence
42 line Gutenberg Bible

Perhaps the most difficult texts to discern in Bohemia are the Land Registers which record payments made for a property purchased, contracts between a buyer and a seller and even marriage contracts. Richard found a marriage contract between Frantisek Havel and Theresia Jiral. However, they go further. One may be given an idea when a family member who was receiving payments for the property passes away and the payments go to the domain, or one of their descendants.  It would have information on when an owner died, and when heirs of the family are paid, and how much. Richard has translated several registers for me and those for the Havel family has been very helpful. The oldest parish record for my direct Havel lineage is Simon's marriage in 1703, which is because records before 1694 are not available, either missing or lost. Using the Seigniorial, Land Registers, and the Urbarium records Richard was  able to get the family back to Jan Wolf, Simon's 2nd great grandfather to the year of  1585. He accomplished this by comparing tax or rent payments in the Urbaria records with the Seigniorial and available land register information. One cannot just rely on parish records. 

Detail of 1603 to 1606 Land Register Entry
Havel family, Ratiborova Lhota

In the US, particularly legal records, pose an issue with use of English and Latin abbreviations. These may be found in some legal notices on estates and heirs. If abbreviations in typed records pose an issue, the issue is even more glaring in abbreviations in handwritten records when the script is hard to discern. 

Marriage record of Simon Havel, 1703

This gets me to an interesting point, at least I know script and while I have difficulty reading the German, Czech or Latin in the old records, I might be able to make headway on some records, at least finding the relevant ones. The question arises, however, whether students taught today be able to do this research? Most schools no longer teach cursive, and while the German Kurrent is a far cry from our cursive, older records contain script I can at times discern, because it is more like our lettering. But, in fifty years will one of the neighbor kids be able to read even English cursive?

Cartoon from WI State Journal

As one can see from some of the images in this blog post, some of the 17th century records are easier to discern than records from the 19th century. It all depends on the script that is used. Handwriting makes a difference too, but one does not need to tell my wife that. The hard copy calendar we keep, she will often rewrite an appointment I had written in to make it more legible. Of course, now that I have a fancy cellphone, we also keep a joint calendar to access electronically. Maybe I need to start using abbreviations in both the written and electronic record to really get the wife upset, use of Latin would be even better. Maybe it is not all in the script, but being able to read the script certainly helps.

Ginger Snap Debate

For the past several days my spouse and had been talking about what Christmas Cookies to bake this season. My wife found a recipe for a ginger snap that was more like a chocolate crinkle. Like the chocolate crinkle the dough is made into a ball and then coated in powdered sugar, and when baked the dough falls slightly into a standard cookie, but with the coating no longer uniform but showing valleys, and somewhat soft. She made the recipe and of course they were good. The ginger snap version is like that chocolate crinkle, but a different color and taste due to the ginger. This brought on the great ginger snap debate of 2022. She knows that the chocolate crinkle was my favorite cookie growing up, so the ginger snap was a play on my childhood favorite cookie, ginger in lieu of chocolate.

The standard ginger snap, of course, is a harder cookie, and for Christmas it is dipped partway in white chocolate. Discussing what cookies to make on Monday, I mentioned that we should make ginger snaps and the wife intones, you mean the better cookie. I asked what she meant by using the word better, and she was loading the phrase and being judgmental on our standard recipe. She gave one of her slight, maven smiles, which acknowledge that yes that is what she was doing and she was not going to back off. I now realize why she made this softer cookie recipe a few weeks ago, to get my buy in. The ginger snap debate went on. I offered that we rotate the recipe each season, but she would have none of that. I indicated that we could make her recipe but do some with white chocolate rather than the powdered sugar, but she responded both recipes are rather different. I do not think she liked the idea of dipping her softer dough cookie into white chocolate.

2022 Ginger Snaps
Notice the difference as to baking

In the end, we were thinking about making both (I think she has now decided not to make her better cookie recipe this year), so I started on the standard recipe, although I agreed to half the recipe. The full recipe makes a great many cookies, and I could understand her ambivalence, after all they are one of the last cookies to be fully gone. This is because the full recipe makes so many, not because they are not well liked to eat. 

She was kind enough to get the ingredients out, and placed out two eggs, along with the containers of the varied other ingredients, like flour, sugar, vegetable oil, molasses, ginger and whatever else may have gone in. I made sure to follow the half measures, written on the right side of the ingredient, not the full measure, which was written to the left side of the ingredient. When I got to the eggs, I cracked both, and as I was looking at the next ingredient I realized it should have only been one egg. Of course I now had one egg too many, although she removed the yolk. If I was a conspiracy theorist I would have thought I had been sabotaged. Less tasty ginger snaps for the Christmas holidays. But, no, I figured it was just a rare oversight on her part. Come to think of it, her oversights are so rare, was it really was sabotage?  We had recently watched the movie "Where the Crawdad's Sing" and the Swamp Girl pulled off a fast one killing a man. Was Land Girl pulling a fast one on me? When it came time to form the cookies, the dough was quite sticky, so we added more flour. I thought it was the egg, she thinks it is because I have a lackadaisical approach to the flour, where I use my finger to level it off, which, she said, causes it to be concave. She is very exacting. I also did not tap to make sure air pockets were out. I suppose, it could have been a combination of the two. After baking the cookies were not as well formed as in prior years so I think something happened.

Stock photo of ginger snaps from Google

I am not sure how they will taste, but I am hoping as good as usual. The cookies were on two different sheets, and were switched halfway through baking, but while the cookies on each rack looked the same, the appearance varied by rack.  The lower rack (see top row in first photo) came out looking different than the top rack, and were flatter than usual.

How is it that a woman who eats herring, sauerkraut, and drinks kombucha, can not like ginger snap cookies, or what I now have to call standard (maybe the best) ginger snap cookies? The white chocolate coating provides a complimentary taste for the discerning palette to the ginger snap itself. Perhaps, as a compromise we can do her recipe and mix some white chocolate chips or chunks in part of the dough to see how they turn out. After we completed a few cookie recipes today, she commented that she may not make her ginger snap recipe. That is too bad, since it would be good to compare the two side by side. The great ginger snap debate of 2022 has been settled, so far, but for some reason I am concerned that I may have won the battle, but lost the war. After all, how often does a woman lose a discussion point, or more to the point how often do I win a discussion with the wife?  So far, sabotage or no sabotage, the best ginger snap recipe made it to the oven.

 

Animal House

It began mid-morning on Thanksgiving day. My wife and I arrived in Sun Prairie somewhat early for a holiday, about 7:30 am, to get the turkey in the oven so it would be completed in time for the Thanksgiving feast. After getting the turkey in the oven, the dressing made, and the squash warming up, we sat down in the living room to do some reading. My wife, in a chair by the sunshine, and I sitting opposite, by the fireplace icing my feet, while reading.  During this time, I heard a noise in the fireplace. I somewhat ignored it, but then my wife heard the noise. I mentioned that I heard it earlier, but I got up and looked, nothing in the fireplace, but figured something was just above the damper. I did not say anything when I first heard the noise, since my wife hears noises in our well capped chimney and I just think she is hearing things. That is until one day I heard the noise. Back to the present time, I decided to not try and open the damper not knowing what might fall through. I can say, that it was at that time an animal house.

The house, what would best be described as a mid-century (20th) ranch, (knowledgeable millennials use the term mid-century modern) so one story, was built starting in 1957 and occupied in the spring of 1958.It is the house where I grew up. I suppose many years ago, with seven boys, two girls and our parents neighbors may well have considered this an animal house, given all the activity that took place. But, my mom had control of the house and kept it clean and in order. It has four chimneys, three for fireplaces, and one for the furnace. The furnace was replaced for the first time a few years ago, and the furnace flu is no longer used with the high combustion gas furnace which replaced the over sixty year old oil burner. The old furnace still worked, too good, the problem was the controls stopped working correctly and it would not turn the dampers on /off correctly. The motors and damper controls at over sixty years of age were no longer available--hence the need for a new furnace. 

Evidence of critters on the roof has been present for many years. Animal droppings on the roof, which for some reason is always in one of the valleys. And, evidence of the redwood roof side vents being gnawed or clawed at. Those side vents were covered up with hardware cloth about four years ago. I think there was even evidence that some animals had gotten in through the side vents into the attic, as there was disruption to attic insulation. 

From Google Images, but not unlike what I 
saw, minus three raccoons.

As the day progressed and more persons arrived, we pointed out the noise in the flu of the fireplace. In the mid-afternoon, a couple of people went up on the roof to look down the chimney and could see at least three racoons. At that point we really did not know if they fell in while exploring, were hiding, nesting, or what the deal was. We figured they were trapped in the flu. I mean, could raccoons really pull themselves out of a chimney flu? We doubted they would be able to make their way out. A couple of calls were made Friday and a company was found that would come out Monday to assess the situation.  

On Monday, about noon, I got on the roof and looked down a few of the chimneys, and sure enough in the flu for the living room fireplace I saw a raccoon looing up at me. The flashlight I had was not very strong so I did not try to count, one is enough. We had not heard the raccoons from our arrival Monday morning before 9:45 am, so we wondered if they had perished while in the chimney. Monday afternoon a couple of young men from the removal company arrived and got up on the roof and looked down, but did not see any raccoons. The thing is that the area above the damper is larger than the flu so they could sneak to the side and below the flu. The raccoon must have departed sometime after I shined a light in its face, and the arrival of critter control. No raccoon(s) followed me down the ladder. The two men did note they could see paw prints on the side of flus giving evidence that they could climb in and out.  

I tried picturing a raccoon climbing out and wondered how they did it? Do they stretch out and put front paws on one side of the clay flu and back ones on the other and gradually move up, or can they get a sufficient grip to climb up on one side only? Looking at photos on-line it appears they can simply crawl straight up, which makes me wonder if they have suction cups on their paws. Critter control, not having seen any critters in the flu from the roof then came in the house and opened up the flu of each of the two fireplaces on the main floor and took photos with their I-phones, which showed, they said, droppings and racoon hair, but no raccoons. We went to the basement, the fireplace which was converted by a piece of sheet metal to hold the stove pipe for a wood stove that was used to help heat the house for many years, likely lengthening the life span of the oil furnace. We could see evidence in that one too, as we pulled the sheet metal to the side a bit and which they used their phones to take photos. The basement flu was open due to the connected wood stove.

Red shows possible entry points from trees to house
accommodating raccoons access to roof.
The four flu openings are seen in center of house

At this point of the day they only had one chimney cap, so the plan was for them to come back Tuesday to install chimney caps over three openings, and place hardware cloth, screwed and caulked to the concrete cap over the large family room fireplace flu, since it was too large to handle a cap. I was concerned that the raccoons may return and take up residence once again in the flu, so they duct taped cardboard to the top of each opening. I stopped by Tuesday afternoon to see if they had completed their work, but they had not yet done so. They arrived sometime after I departed. I went up to check the cardboard and duct tape and was relieved to find everything in tact with no discernable destruction by raccoon paws. 

The men arrived back late Tuesday afternoon as evening set in on that late November day. Hopefully, the critters in the chimney will be no more. The moral of the story, cap your chimneys, and keep trees away from your roof. I learned that raccoons are more agile and mobile than I had thought. I mean, I never expected them to be able to climb down and up a clay flu. How long the ranch functioned as an animal house I do not know. It may well be TMI.

Thankful Decisions

 All of us are affected by the decisions we did or did not make. With Thanksgiving 2022 being this week Thursday, many persons tend to look back and in their mind at least give thanks to the blessings and gifts they have received either for that year, or even prior years. However, we are also affected by the decisions made by people we never knew, whether they be currently living, or have passed away. This includes decisions made by our ancestors.  As I was doing genealogy this past year, and having accomplished more reading, I have come to be thankful for the decisions made by our ancestors to emigrate. This post will focus on the decisions of our Bohemian ancestors, which actually includes a few lines in the family tree. 

Rudy Hovel Farmstead in Sun Prairie, WI; abt 1957

Josef and Anna Havel with their eight surviving children emigrated in 1868 arriving in Baltimore, MD on 18 July. It was a four month journey, with Joseph at 60 years old, and his youngest child less than a year old. Josef and Anna were from southwest Bohemian village of Dolni Chrastany. Then there was Josef Duscheck, whose daughter, Amelia, would marry Martin Havel, the third oldest child of Josef and Anna, Josef D and his family came over 14 years earlier arriving in August 1954, according to citizenship papers.  Those same papers indicate that he and his family arrived at the port of Quebec. Josef Duscheck was a busy man having fathered, with two different wives, sixteen children (of which I know of), six of whom, including Amelia, were born in the United States by his second wife Rosalie. Rosalie is a second great grandmother, and mother to Amelia. Joseph and Rosalie were from the Landskron area in northeast Bohemia, probably not far from the border with Moravia. This region consisted primarily of long time Germans and was, like Dolni Chrastany, part of the Sudetenland. 

Dolni Chrastany, Stable Cadastre ~1836

The Havel and Duscheck families were not unique for their time, both are evidence of chain migration, whole families moving to the US and usually meeting persons they already knew. The Havel family joined Jakub Fitzl, who was from Dolni Chrastany and arrived earlier. The Duscheck family was also part of chain migration. Around the Waterloo, WI west to Sun Prairie, east to Watertown and south in to Jefferson County, many common surnames for the area can be found come from the Landskron region--Maly, Langer, Blaska, Betlach, Motl, Skalitzky just to name a some. As I was searching through records on the Duscheck family last winter, I was surprised at how many surnames I recognized from growing up in Sun Prairie, WI--and those are the ones I could read in the odd German Kurrent script. Chain migration involved whole families as we see with the Havel and Duscheck families. Chain migrants tended to take less risk, seek less accumulation of wealth and would tend to marry in their own ethnic group. There is one more ancestor who came from Bohemia, and she did not fit the chain migration mold.

Martin Hovel and Amelia Duscheck Hovel

Teresia Kamen, my Dad's grandma, arrived in the US at the port of Baltimore in June 1872. She was what is referred to as a lone wolf migrant, she was by herself. What is unusual is that most migrants from Bohemia were part of chain migration yet she was not. Further, however, most lone wolf migrants were male, she, of course, was not male. A remarkable bit of daring for the young woman from Ujezd, breaking social constructs common at the time. As it turns out, Ujezd is not far from Dolni Chrastany where the Havel family had lived until leaving for the US. 

Kamen House in Ujezd
Stable Cadastre ~1836

Emigration involves a series of factors, and it is not my intent to go through the varied factors, but to indicate why we were fortunate for the migration of these families and individuals. There were a number of significant events that occurred, and I believe these family groups were able to better sustain here in the U.S. than if they were back in Bohemia. I will cover just a few of the major events. First, there was the panic of 1873, starting in October, which led to the long depression which lasted until March of 1879.This actually began with bank defaults in Europe. During this time frame Martin Havel and most of his siblings and would move from Wisconsin to start farming the fresh prairie soils of Iowa. Theresia Kamen would marry Mathias Pitzenberger in 1873. Sometime before 1870 the Duscheck family had moved to just north of Sun Prairie, WI. 

Theresia Kamen with her Grandson Roy Hovel

Almost each decade following would see a recession until perhaps the 2010's. Our ancestors experienced similar events to the the Dot Com crash of 2000. Of course their was the Great Depression. Many farmers were able to better adjust to the Great Depression than non-farmers. Rudy Hovel, my grandfather took on his Sun Prairie, WI farm on 4 March 1929, just months before the stock market crash, although the depression is said to actually have started in August, two months earlier.

Ida Pitzenberger, daughter of  Mathias & Theresia Kamen Pitzenberger
and Rudy Hovel, son of Martin and Amelia
Ida's parents were both immigrants to the United States

Two of the largest events were the two World Wars in which then Czechoslovakia was in the middle. While the US was involved in both conflicts, it is safe to say that living and enduring territory under siege is quite different from being safe on the home front. The continental US was never really threatened during those engagements. Perhaps the worst situation was WWII, and the turn over of Sudetenland to the Germans. The Lanskron area and Dolni Chrastany were in the Sudetenland. Further, those persons of German descent were required to join the Germany army. Not asked, required. Now, the Havel family was originally from Ratiborova Lhota, which was not part of the Sudetenland, and was said to not have been settled by those of German origin. Although, given my DNA ancestry I have to think they perhaps have some German blood. However, Josef Havel's wife may well have been German, as her surname Jodl, and her being from Hlvatace would indicate. Theresia Kamen, from Ujezd may not have been part of the Sudetenland, but I  have not been able to figure that out as of this moment.

Rudy Hovel Farm and Martin Hovel farm
1913 Plat map

Of course, my Dad was in the European Theater of the WWII, and had his trials and tribulations, as did his parents on the home front. Although I have to think that those kin living in Bohemia at the time were in a frightful situation. Czech conscripts may well have been sent to the dreaded Eastern front. If Colonel Klink is to be regarded as a reliable source, he kept threatening to send Sgt Schultz to the Eastern front, i.e. the Russian front. Joking aside, we often hear of the difficulties of our soldiers but that made me think about the German soldiers and the army conscripts, and the villages they occupied. War is terrible. All are human, although war may bring out the worst in our race. Little known is that starting in about 1948 Germans were expelled from Czechoslovakia, perhaps as many as 250,000, with over 14,000 killed. We had some Jodl ancestors living in Dolni Chrastany, at house #18 when my sister, dad and aunt visited the ancestral homeland in the early 1990's. The Jodl family has been long in Bohemia, since before 1737, so maybe they were Bohemian, or if originally ethnic Germans they were considered sufficient Czech by that time. Or, that Dolni Chrastany, as a small rural outpost, was not worth worrying any ethnic German settlers.  

Josef Havel farm near Fort Atkinson, WI
(identified as Haffell) 1872 Plat Map

As bad as the wars were the most striking evidence of the conditions of Bohemia can be seen in the visit of Eastern Europe, including Bohemia, by the renowned African-American educator Booker T Washington. In Tara Zahara's 2016 book, The Great Departure, Mass Migration from Eastern Europe and the making of the Free World  she comments on the situation Booker T Washington found during his 1910 visit to the then Austro-Hungarian Empire. First, Washington, she says, saw many parallels of the racial politics in the US and the social terrain of the Austrian Empire. Washington would conclude that the condition of the

Slavs of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was 'more like the Negroes in the Southern States than is true of any other race or class in Europe.' Not only were they agricultural people like the slaves, but they were discriminated by the ‘dominant classes’ of Austro-Hungry. It was not by skin color as in US, but the language they spoke. He concluded that peasants, workers, and Jews of Eastern Europe lived in more debased conditions than African Americans in the south, he made this observation after touring a desolate Bohemia farm. (p. 66)

Our Bohemian Havel and Duscheck lines were primarily farmers in the old country, with the Havel's farming more than forty acres, and the Duschecks perhaps half amount or less, although I lack the source documents for the Duschecks that I have for the Havel side. Part of Booker T Washington's trip, per Zahara, was to look to obtain workers from Eastern Europe to replace African Americans working in the cotton fields and sugar plantations. Washington would discard this idea in part due to the poverty he found in the villages, including Bohemia. Zahara writes: "He was so distraught by the poverty he encountered in Austria-Hungary that he began to sympathize with the movements to limit immigration. He believed the arrival of destitute Eastern Europeans would be a new kind of 'racial problem'." (p. 67)

Martin and Amelia 

To me, this was an eye opener as to the conditions in Eastern Europe, including Bohemia in the early part of the 20th century. It is instructive that Washington found that the poverty among our Eastern European kin was worse than the plight of the African-Americans in the United States at that time. Our ancestors moved from serfdom to subjects, to free peasants, but that did not mean discrimination as a peasant was still not present, or that they could well make their way in the world. But, yet according to Booker T Washington's account it would appear our kin, in the old country, had little means or opportunity to increase their standard of living. Maybe there was even a digression in the standard of living. While Booker T Washington was visiting Europe in 1910, Amelia and Martin were farming, with 22 year old Rudy at home who was also farming. By 1913, Rudy would own his own 80 acres, purchased from his parents, and he was married in February of that year to Ida, whose mother was Theresia Kamen. Theresia and her husband, Mathias Pitzenberger, had apparently retired from farming in 1910 and were devoting their time to their general store in Festina, IA. Josef and Anna Havel died in the 1880's, Josef Duscheck in the 1870's, but Rosalie is still alive, but has moved off the farm in the town of Bristol and is living in the village of Sun Prairie with her son Edward. 

Rosalie Duscheck (L) with daughter Marian Lohneis 
and granddaughter Anna Lohneis (center)

Given the abject poverty encountered in rural Bohemia during Booker T Washington's visit, I have to say that the lives my kin had in the US was probably much better, at least from a socio-economic standpoint, than those of any kin they had in the old country. Dolni Chrastany, Horni Houzovec and Ujezd were definitely small rural outposts of Bohemia. I doubt Martin had any regrets in purchasing land with the deep prairie soil in Iowa, compared to the slopes and tired soils of Bohemia. Nor, would Josef Duscheck who first bought a farm in the town of Milford in Jefferson County, WI before moving to the town of Bristol. Tara Zahara seems to think the migration from Eastern Europe was important to the making of the west. She does point out, however, that immigrants were in a worse situation here in the US or other western than what they had been in the old country. Exploitation did occur and there were instances of human trafficking. My ancestors  did not fall into that situation, but they helped the nation by providing food for a growing population. I am, however, thankful this Thanksgiving for the decisions of my Bohemian ancestors to emigrate to the United States. I think they made the right choice. 

I express Thanksgiving wishes to the readers of this blogpost. May you be grateful for the decisions you and your ancestors have made. Even decisions thought to be wrong can turn out to be a learning experience or a silver lining. 

A Sorry Farm

In a few previous posts I have pointed out that when doing genealogical research some interesting pieces of information may be found. This information may be funny, curious, odd, valuable, or just confusing. In southern Bohemia it is often perplexing. It is well known that the hills and valleys of southern Bohemia provided marginal farmland. Yet, many of my ancestors farmed that land. The Havel farm in Ratiborova Lhota was in my direct pedigree line for almost 200 years. I am sure some of our ancestors met with limited farming success. Looking at a translation of a land register for Chvalovice (what we now know as house #1) provided perspective on what I have concluded was a sorry farm. 

Chvalovice #1 Farm house
(1 in red, by house,1 in black nonbuilding areas) 
1830's Stable Cadastre

In a period of thirty-three years this Chvalovice farm saw four different owners, and three of those four owners had to give up the property due to an inability to make payments, or what was referred to in two cases of the three cases--poverty. For a period of 25 years, so the bulk of that time frame, the farm was managed by a 7th great grandfather, Jakub Span, from February 1662 to February 1687. Jakub obtained the farm from Fillip Liendl who "was not able to meet the payments on this farm, and as such willingly ceded it to Jacob Span of Chvavolvice." Liendl is the first to lose the farm. The Span surname would eventually be changed to Jiral. Jakob paid 120ſß at the time for the farm. By 1686, the year of his death he left a debt of 23ſß 44g 41/2₰. The currency in use is the Meisnish Schock Groschen and from here on out, instead of having to type the funny symobls, the currency will be referenced as in the following two examples: (1) the 23ſß 44g 41/2₰ where 23 is Schock Grossen (Schock is not a coin, but refers to a system of 60--that is 60 grossen makes a schock grossen, 44 is Grossen, and 41/2 is phennig, where I become sufficiently anal to use a full payment it will be, as an example, 23-44-41/2. If a whole number is used it will be schock grossen, such as 120. Understand?  23 Shock grossen times 60 will equal Grossen, So 23 Schock Grossen equals 1380 Grossen.  

Parcel owned by House #1 1830's Stable Cadastre

After Jacob died, his son Hans took over the farm in February 1687, at the same price of 120.  The commonality among the varied municipal and domain rules for inheritance was a single heir, due to no division of property. The other offspring would have to leave and establish new households. Hans, probably the youngest son of Jakob, got the short stick. Poor Hans, who became victim #2, things  did not go well for him from the start. Was he too young and inexperienced to take on the farm, climate affect the property, or just plain bad luck? We really don't know the answer. The register makes this statement: " In 1688, just after having taken over the property, no payment was offered "this year due to poverty." Hans did make a payment in 1689, and the register makes this recording: "1690 on the 7th March, again the owner showed the inability to make a payment." Half the required payment was made in 1691. The following year, 1692, on 26 February it was noted that "Hans Span, owing to reasons of poverty and inability to meet payments against his farm, ceded it for purchase to Georg Bauer in the previous valuation of 120ſß ...." Georg would also take over the remaining debt. Georg, however, did not do much better than Hans, and he was the third victim of this sorry farm. In 1695 he ceded the farm to Wenzl Kriz on the 21st of May 1695 due to poverty.

Land Register Entry of 1692, Hans cedes farm 
to Georg Bauer, (Ordinal 20, image 257)

Chvalovice #1 was not a large farm, nor a small holding. In fact, it compared well in tillable area to some other comparable ancestor farms for which I have information. A summary record from before 1662 indicates a field area of 15 strich. A strich was based on what was required to sow the varied parcels. I could do a calculation to acres, but I suspect it would not be accurate, because while I know what strich to acres was in the late 1700's it may well have been different in the mid 1600's. Instead let me compare some farms that were in the family in the same era. Jakob's son and Han's brother Nicolas Jiral bought Chvalovice #13 which was only 6 strich of arable land in 1673. Dolni Chrastany #3, which would be purchased by Jakob's grandson, Lorenz Jiral in 1716, was recorded in an earlier record of having been 14 strich of arable land. Lorenz owned Chvalovice #1 for a few years before moving to the larger holding, which he purchased from his father-in-law in Dolni Chrastany. The farm at #18 Dolni Chrastany, which would become owned by Franz Havel in 1796 through marriage to Teresia Jiral was 12 strich and 3 viertel, or one viertel (four viertel equals one strich) short of 13 strich of arable land. Of these ancestor farms, Chvalovice #1 contained the most arable land. Although it would be comparable in area to Dolni Chrastany #3, being just one strich more of arable land. 

Farm Comparison

Besides arable land, the farms also had meadow land which was measured in cartloads, likely as in harvest of hay. Chvalovice #1 and Dolni Chrastany #3 each had 3.5 cartloads, Chvalovice #13 had only one cartload of meadow area and Dolni Chrastany #18 had four cartloads. Ability to produce ample crops, for human an animal food, clothing (yes they would grow and spin flaxseed, and perhaps had some sheep), and perhaps to sell on the market was a key factor to the existence of our ancestors. We know from information in the Urbaria of 1773 for Ratiborova Lhota the fields were in a system of three, where every year one third of the arable land lied fallow. This also placed on emphasis on crop rotation. The concept of allowing land to lie fallow for a year, and a system of rotation was created in the middle ages, and so it came to be used at this point in Bohemia. As isolated as southern Bohemia was, they still would have been the recipient of  knowledge transfer affecting crop production. The domain may very well have dictated this production/conservation measure. While, the records indicate that no woodland existed for any of the farms we don't know if that meant they owned no woodlot or the woodlot did not produce anything for the year in which the calculations were accomplished in the 17th century. For example, the cadastral mapping of the 1830's shows the Havel farm at Dolni Chrastany having some woodlots, and no land purchase appears to show in the land register. Not to mention what a farm had a farm kept. These farms really did change in size for over 200 years. As to firewood, recent research shows that much of the cooking wood, if not even some heating wood, the fence wood likely came from coppicing of trees.  Many varieties of hardwood deciduous trees provide an ability of coppice, ash being one example.  I am not sure if the smallholding at Chvalovice #13 would be able to practice the system of three given its limited area. It was a meager existence for our ancestors--peasants as they were--with marginal land, and most usually another trade to supplement their farm income or help offset farm losses.

Parcels (531 and 533 owned by House #1)
1830's Stable Cadastre

Farm value did not much change over the years, and it is instructive that the value of our sorry farm at Chvalovice, while the largest in terms of arable land, was valued at 120, or six less than the 126 for the farm which had one less strich of arable land at Dolni Chrastany #3. Chvalovice #13 was valued at 106 even though it had less than half the arable land of Chvalovice #1 (6 strich compared to 15). Many factors likely influenced farm value, yet I find this striking. Jakob made a go of the Chvalovice farm, and had, through 1686 made payment owing just under 24 on the farm. A general rule of thumb is that a farmer makes a payment of about 4 a year, meaning that it would take thirty years to cover the payments on a farm valued at 120. Thirty years remains a standard term of mortgage today. 

Mueller's Map--early 18th Century
Unt Kraschum is Dolni Chrastany
Kolowitz is Chvalovice

I suppose anticipated yield would affect property value, and while our ancestor farmers were generally illiterate, which would discard the farmer keeping a log of their own harvests, they would have had a good idea of what their yield produced relative to sowing. In any event, the domain did keep records. In fact, according to Die Grundsteuer-Verfassung in Bohem (see note 4) the "...individual subjects were to make them (declarations of yield and properties) publicly in the presence of the community headman and community committee."  Declaring your yield publicly was to prevent understatement. Their own method of an audit. It seems the domain counted on a bunch of tattle talers to keep things above board. Our ancestors did not own the land outright, and had to pay taxes to the state and fees to the domain. At times, as we know from Mathias Havel's 1773 Urbaria record, the domain fee required a certain amount of grain, referred to as a tithe. Given the time and localized weather, at times a yield may well have been less than the seed to sow a field. I have been unable to locate a soil survey for the area, which I could compare against the 1836 cadastral survey of the property with a soil map. Better, yet, it would be fun to compare it to the Iowa prairie soils Martin farmed after his arrival in the United States. Martin would farm a whole different landscape (mostly very level) compared to his father's farm in Dolni Chrastany. Farming in southern Bohemia was not easy. 

Parcels above creek owned by House #1
Meadow and arable land
1830's Stable Cadastre

If life was not sufficiently difficult, add to the mix the forced labor for the domain a peasant farmer had to perform over labor on his own farm. The affect of this institutional factor cannot be discounted, particularly when already in a marginal situation. While Chvalovice and Dolni Chrastany did not have the onerous restrictions of the Krumlov estate, it appears they still had robota labor, the serf level of labor a peasant was required to provide to the domain. The era of this post--mid to late 1600's to the mid 1700's was during a time of increasingly restrictive manorial control. In other words, the domains increased what and what could not be done by their peasant subjects. This meant their crops may have been last in and last harvested. If a freeze came, the domain was just happy to have their crop harvested. Long hours were required. 

1952 Topographic Map of Dolni Chrastany
Provides indication of hills in this area

Yield was also affected by weather, and perhaps the poverty was induced in part by climate. It is well documented during the Little Ice Age (1300 to 1850) which affected Europe, that the coldest part was from 1645 to 1715, which fits well with poverty documentation described for Chavolvice #1 (1). That environmental history document also noted that the area was generally one degree Celsius cooler than present which led to climate induced failures:

Winters were bitterly cold and summers were often cool and wet. These conditions led to widespread crop failure, famine, and population decline. The tree line and snowline dropped and glaciers advanced, overrunning towns and farms in the process. There were increased levels of social unrest as large portions of the population were reduced to starvation and poverty.

However, none of the other three farms to which this farm is compared, nor the Havel farm in Ratiborova Lhota had any remarks in the relevant land registers for the periods examined that the farm was ceded due to poverty or an inability to make payments. While this makes me want to discard the harsh climate theory, one cannot fully do so, as perhaps the land holdings of Chvalovice were more susceptible to flooding or other climatic-induced damages. The land may have been of poorer quality, in a flood zone, steeper slopes with poorer (i.e. washed out) soils, than some of the other property. Our Bohemian ancestors were a crop away from starvation, or poverty, and hence a site with more grade, or susceptible to flooding, or poorer soils could make a big difference on yield. A reduced yield from just one field could make a difference in the ability of a farmer to provide for their family.

Arable and meadow parcels owned
by House #1, 1830's Stable Cadastre

The arable land in Bohemia was often in odd-sized parcels, no wonder they outlawed further division of property, in many cases long and narrow, which we would consider small by today's standards. The farmland was not like what was found in the United States, large square chunks of 160 acres being the standard sized farm in the US, following the Homestead Act of 1862. The generally contiguous (part divided by a rail line) 80 acres farmed by the Martin Hovel, and later Rudy, near Manly, IA was quite different from the fragmented farm Martin helped farm with his father at Dolni Chrastany #18. The early pre-1662 land register accounting for Chvalovice #1 mentions 18 arable parcels and another three meadow parcels. The #18 Dolni Chrastany farm had over sixty parcels according to the cadastral survey of the 1830's. Fragmentation affects ability to farm, and while tillage by beast and man, may have been less affected than with the large equipment of today, loss may have been greater due to so many property lines to be minded. The parcels were small and scattered, leading to inefficiencies in planting, tending and harvesting crops. When one lives on the razor edge of poverty any inefficiency in production can matter.

Parcel owned by House #1
1830's Stable Cadastre

In the end, we really lack any specific knowledge of why Fillip Liendl, Hans Span, and Georg Bauer all failed, and settled into poverty on the farm at Chvalovice #1. It was likely a combination of factors as so often happens in life today. My record for Chvalovice #1 is not complete, but runs from 1662 to 1706. There are other registers, but for my pedigree research it does not make sense to have this translated. This record was found and translated by Richard D'Amelio, at no cost, as he worked on the record for Chvalovice #13, which drew him to this record. I am grateful that he accomplished this as it certainly provides a more depth into life of our ancestors in 17th and 18th century Bohemia. It is unfortunate that the sorry farm could not have been more productive for at least those three farmers. 

Notes/Sources:

1. https://www.eh-resources.org/little-ice-age/

2. Trebon Archives Land Registers--Chvalovice and Dolni Chrastany. Translated by Richard D'Amelio of Bohemib Research Services. 2022

3.  https://ags.cuzk.cz/archiv/openmap.html?typ=skicic&idrastru=PRA280018370. Indication Sketch
and https://ags.cuzk.cz/archiv/
Sources of Map images in this document.

4. Falk, Vincent, 1847Die Grundsteuer-Verfassung in Bohem, Translation provided by Richard D'Amelio 2022.

5. Velkova, Alice. 2011. "Household Formation in Bohemia 1700-1850: Inheritance Practice and Family Strategy." The Czech Historical Review 109/2011 no. 2. 

6. Ogilvie, Sheilagh. 2005 May. "Communities and the 'Second Serfdom' in Early Modern Bohemia." Past and Present. Oxford University Press. No 187.