What is being described here is quite common; ie, not knowing exactly which mailing list to subscibe to. At the CZECH Mail List web site, all the various forums and how to subscribe are listed. When a person finds out that they have ancestors that lived in Central and Eastern Europe, they experience some confusion about exactly who their ancestors were. Sometimes after several years of research, they still do not know. They find that they spoke German, but came from Bohemia or Moravia. Sometimes they say they are Austrian, but spoke Czech. Who are these people? The GERMAN-BOHEMIAN list are for persons of German ancestry (that means their families came from Germany and moved to Czech lands over 300 years ago!). These families maintained their German traditions, language and culture. It is this group that was targeted at the end of WW II and were expulsed just because they were of German descent. The key element here is that when a GERMAN-BOHEMIAN dreamed, their dreams were in German. As I recall, Bohemia was about 50% ethnic German after WW II and most were located in what is now referred to as the "border regions" of Bohemia. The other major ethnic group is the Czechs. They are Slavic in origin and have traditions and a language distinctly different from German. Where the confusion arises is that ethnic Czechs also spoke German because it was the official language of the Austrian Hapsburgs. An educated person (whether German or Czech) used both languages fluently which is difficult for some Americans to grasp. An ethnic Czech, contrasted to ethnic German, would dream in Czech. If your family fits the latter category, then you definitely belong on the CZECH Mail List. If they were ethnic German, then the GERMAN-BOHEMIAN List is for you. Basically it deals with the families of ethnic Germans who once lived (and who stil live)in Czech lands, primarily Bohemia. With all the marriages between ethnic Germans and ethnic Czechs, the lines become quite blurred and it might be necessary to be on both lists. Lastly, there are other lists such as one for Moravia and Bohemia and even further subdivision of the Czech Crown Lands. As for myself, those lists tend to be too specific because to be Czech meant one could come from Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia and even Slovakia. My Czech lines came from all 4 places! These are just my personal opinions; please check out the other lists to get an idea of the subject areas and content. Ron Mlejnek > > From: barb bodoh <babette_55@yahoo.com> > Date: 2004/05/21 Fri AM 08:42:41 CDT > To: CZECH-L@rootsweb.com > Subject: Re: [CZ] CZECH Genealogy Forms > > Susan--I'm fairly new to genealogy search. I signed up for this mailing list several months ago. I see there is a german-bohemian mailing list. My mother told me that my grandparents spoke German. They came from Western Bohemia which is close to the German border. My mother knew her mother came from Czechoslovakia, but thought her father came from Austria, which is what he always said. We found a paper written by my late Aunt that gave us names of great-grandparents on both sides. At least I know what area my grandmother came from, but on the paper it just said my grandfather was from Bohemia. I'm thinking that that I should sign up on this mailing list. I was always wondering if there were others whose ancestors spoke German but lived in Bohemia. I find other's queries interesting. Thanks!