I'm posting this for a friend who will probably turn out to be a relative of mine. Anyone with information about any Zizka living in Bohemia, especially southern Bohemia, during the period of 1800-1885 or so, please send me whatever data you have. Dan is making a trip to the Czech Republic in September & plans to visit the archives while there. He needs to narrow down the area of his family's origins before then if possible and/or come up with more solid info about the family itself. (And yes, he knows about the infamous Zizka of early Bohemian history.) Here is a summary of what he does know: His family settled in an area of Minnesota that was populated primarily by people who had lived in southern Bohemia. His great grandparents married in the old country -- the bride was probably related to my Kokes family in the area around Pelhrimov. Here is the data... Jan Zizka b. abt 1848 m. unknown date to Maria Kokes b. abt 1848 (ages according to U.S. census records) A son, Jan F. Zizka b. April 1869 in Bohemia A daughter, Maria Zizka b. April 28, 1872 aboard the ship on which the family immigrated -- so they immigrated in April 1872. The family settled in Veseli, MN and show up on the 1880 census there, with an elderly Frank/Frantisek Kokes also living in their home. Jan Zizka was one of the founders of the Veseli, MN Catholic parish in those early years. There's both a Veseli and a Vesela parish in the southern part of Bohemia. That is about all the information he as about their pasts, in spite of having done some very good detective work that has led to knowledge about most everything after their immigration. Naturalization papers give their origins simply as "Bohemia." I have a Maria Kokes b 1848 in my family tree, the sister of my direct ancestor who immigrated in 1879, from the same region in Bohemia where he thinks his family lived. I've done fairly extensive research through the Trebon archives on my Kokes line, and have yet to learn of a Kokes family in southern Bohemia that is not related, so we are leaning toward assuming that his Maria is related in some way to my line, and he will probably concentrate his research in the parish records of nearby towns if nothing more solid comes through before he leaves for the Czech Republic. He will try to find their marriage record or the son's birth record in a parish near the villages of my ancestry. If anyone has ANY ZIZKAs or KOKES's in their ancestry, particularly from southeastern Bohemia, please share what you know. And if any of you might have other ideas about the best ways to "go fishing" in the parish records with the information he does possess, please pass those along to me as well. Thanks for indulging me in this long post. Cheri -- http://www.nidlink.com/~cdohnal =============================== Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most...