Just remember that the names on the death certificates are only as reliable as the informant and you'll find that the informants were not always sure and were not particularly interested in accuracy...men and maiden names are at particular risk! If a person is asked what was your mother's maiden name? and his mother died many years before--what does he give? Techa instead of Tichy. Actually that isn't too bad--correct amount of letters and starts with a "T" Then there is Vnuk which was incorrectly given as Utte--hardly even close. And of course the worse misconstruing- - Odstupil instead of Wostoupal. Makes research interesting in USA but I cannot imagine what it would be like in Czech Rep or elsewhere; I know I could never read any of my own names as I have seen some names which do not even look similar. Joan Smart Peterson ---- Original Message ----- From: "Stefanie" <CercaPenna@comcast.net> To: <CZECH-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, May 20, 2004 1:01 PM Subject: Re: [CZ] Re: Vaclav > I just found out from my GGM marriage license that her father's name was > Vaclav. However on her death certificate it's listed as Joseph. > > Stefanie > > >

Joan, I know what you mean. It is difficult when the language isn't understood. When the names start changing it makes things even more challenging. When I started my fathers side I had to take a year of Italian just to get the gist of what the records were saying. I can't imagine doing the same with this. The language is totally intimidating looking. Even when my GM speaks it I don't understand any of the words. On both sides of my family they kept the "mother tongue" as the secret language. I wish I had a time machine to go back and change that. Stefanie