The Vanicek Republic

Now, for some more on Pop-pop's side of the family...

Pop-pop's mother was Mary Vanicek, daughter of Johann (or Jan or John, the spelling changes depending on the document) Vanicek from Bohemia and Marie Schiffer (or Schiffert, again with spelling changes), who was herself the child of two Bohemian immigrants, John Charles and Anna Schiffer. Vanicek is a very Czech surname, especially with the original accented letters (Vániček), though I don't know whether Czech or German was his native language. This would help narrow down which areas of Bohemia I'd be looking for, but no such luck. My only lead has been his passenger list, which cites him and a group of people directly below his name as being from Písek. The itty, bitty, ever-so-slightly frustrating problem is that Písek is a district as well as a city, and the passenger list makes no distinction. I knew then that this was going to get more complicated than I had foreseen.

Yet again, the fact that I was searching in a Germanic-influenced territory means that the bureaucracy and organisation were exceptionally good, in spite of the constant changing of hands. One source I was pointed toward is the Grundbuchblätter, which is the records of the Austrian-Hungarian Army. Men were obligated to serve for three years, starting when they were twenty, so one would think that Johann would be there. As usual with this project, it wasn't going to be that easy. I also had another clue: a census that listed his birth as January 1867. As the other birth dates for the family from that census have proven correct, I'm assuming this one is as well (always dangerous, I know), but that makes for a complication: Johann emigrated in January/February of 1888, which is right around his twenty-first birthday. I have a sneaky suspicion that he emigrated to avoid being drafted, and that would explain not finding him in the Grundbuchblätter. Frustrating, yes, but I had another option.

Písek falls under the Trebon Archives, and the amount they have online is amazing. Having the January 1867 date makes things a little easier, though to be safe, I'm searching the whole ten-year period from 1860-1870. I still have to search every parish in the district, however, and this is where my OCD tendencies come into play once more.

There are thirty-nine parishes within the Písek district. I'm still not sure whether to be overwhelmed by that, or relieved. I think I'm probably a bit of both. Given that I'd only like to search each one once, I quickly decided I was going to have to make sure I could keep it as organised as possible, and created another database, which I could search through by parish name, distance from the main city of Písek, or whether I'd already searched it or not. Sure, I got a few chuckles and rolled eyes for it, mostly from the future hubby, but if it saves time and helps me keep track of everything, I can put up with the teasing, especially as it's good-natured. I started with the city Písek, trying to rule out the most obvious answer before I started on the smaller parishes, and didn't find Johann, but I've only searched four parishes, have eliminated two that were different names for the same parish, and I have thirty-three to go. I'm still hopeful there.