The Ourecky Search

INITIATED BY: Irma Ourecky, Wilber. Nebraska

INFORMATION SUPPLIED:

1) Anton F. Ourecky * 6 Oct. 1875 in Vysoke Myto, Okres Ch----.

2) Anton's parents were: Frantisek & Vilhemina Vilimek.

3) Anton married 1903 in Wilber. Nebraska

4) Anton had two sisters: Marie & Anna.

5) Anton left relatives behind in Vysoke Myto who moved to the next village.


OBJECTIVES OF SEARCH:

a) One day archive work: find Anton's birth and all his siblings; finish day's research on his ancestors.

b) One day field trip: find living cousins and tell them Irma's coming to visit them between December 15 and December 23.

CODE: * = birth; 00 = marriage; + = death.

The books arrived about 10:15 am. I immediately took book number 2734 (births 1875-1880) and turned to the section for October 1875. I quickly discovered that no Ourecky was born in that month in Vysoke Myto or in the surrounding villages that made up the parish of Vysoke Myto. I then started at the beginning of the book and did every page (238 pages). It took me an hour. The writing was very good and easy to read. After reading 952 birth entries I could not find one Ourecky being born in Vysoke Myto or in the parish from 1875 to 1880.

I then returned to the list of villages we had made the night before from our telephone research. The nearest village to Vysoke Myto that supposedly had Oureckys was Plchuvky, about six miles as the crow flies, considerably longer by road. I checked the inventories in Zamrsk archive and found that Plchuvky was in the parish of Chocen, not Vysoke Myto. I examined the inventories and found that the birth records for Plchuvky from 1847 to the present were still in the townhall of Chocen. However, the marriage records from 1851-1893 were now in the Zamrsk archive, so I ordered this marriage book: 3174 Ujezd U Chocen marriages from 1851-1893.

While waiting for the Plchuvky marriage records I studied the entries for the years 1874 and 1875 in the Vysoke Myto birth book 2733 (1861-1875). The result was negative. There were no Oureckys in Vysoke Myto town or parish.

The parish marriage records for Plchuvky arrived before I finished the Vysoke Myto records so I was able to go straight on to them when I finished the birth records. I had high hopes of finding at least one Ourecky in these marriage records; if not Anton's parent's marriage perhaps one of his father's sisters, It was the norm in those days to always get married in the village of the bride.

I read the entire parish book of 241 pages without finding one Ourecky. Again the writing was easy to read and I checked both the groom's entry and the bride's entry without one positive result. Ourecky was indeed a rare name, at least in this part of the world.

The next nearest town to Vysoke Myto where we had found Oureckys in our telephone research was Borohradek. Although there was a sign up in the reading room that you couldn't order books after 11 am and it was already 12:30 pm, I wrote out the slip for Borohradek births from 1867 to 1884. The book was Borohradek 9-3836. A lady in a blue cotton gown took the slip.

Over the phone the night before Miroslav spoke with an Ourecky from Pradubice who said his family originated in Borohradek (county Rychnov n. Kneznou), and that he had heard of a family with his surname from Plchuvky. So far I had struck out twice (Vysoke Myto and Plchuvky). I hoped the saying was going to be true- "third time lucky", but I was not optimistic. Borohradek was only 12 miles from Vysoke Myto but it was not in the county of Vysoke Myto. Still I had no choice in the matter. There were no Oureckys in the Vysoke Myto telephone book for the town or county, nor were they in the town or parish birth records. I had to go further a field and see what I could pick up.

The book birth book for Borohradek arrived at 12:53 pm. It had an index so I immediately turned to the "0" section. I was shocked to find the page blank. Out of approx. 1,044 birth entries there was supposedly not one surname beginning with the letter "O"!

From my experience the indexes in church books have only about 80% of the actual entries indexed, so I stubbornly read the whole book looking for a mistake, looking for any surname that began with an "0", and looking hopefully for Ourecky. It took me another hour to read the entire book but the index was correct, no Ourecky, no surname beginning with the letter "0". I was also very careful to check for Vourecky. In the past many Czech names that today begin with the letter "0" were spelled with a "V" before the "0", But again I drew a blank.

Vysoke Myto, Plchuvky and now Borohradek. Three blanks. I got up and walked over to the map on the archive wall that showed the boundaries of the counties. Plchuvky was the only place we had been told there were Oureckys in the county of Vysoke Myto. For me it seemed the only place we had a hope of finding a clue. Obviously the family wasn't there in the 1870's (at least not married there) but they were there today (without a telephone) according to the Ourecky Miroslav had spoken to from Borohradek. I checked the map to see how to get there. Oh my God, it was near Ujezd u Chocne! I had been in that area before. The whole area is heavily forested with no road signs. I had got lost there for three hours trying to find the village of Chloumek, which I now saw was next to Plchuvky. I had vowed never to go back to that area. I examined the map to find a better way to enter the area without having to go through the woods. The map showed only one road, the road we had got lost on. I shuddered thinking of the challenge. My tires weren't good, there was ice on the road, it was only 2 pm but already it was getting gray outside; in another two hours it would be dark. What the hell, a search isn't a search unless you go all the way. I taped Miroslav on the shoulder. He had just received a pile of new books. He had found the family he was working on and was writing down information like mad.

"Come on," I said. "It's time for a trip."

"But I've just ordered four new books and I'm finding information. Where do you want to go."

I just motioned for him to follow me. I knew if I told him where I wanted to go he wouldn't come.

Our route took us first to Chocen. In Chocen we stopped for half an hour to order some records for Sister Michalec in Iowa City. While waiting I asked the secretary in charge of the church books if she had ever heard of an Ourecky family in this area. Much to my surprise she said yes. She said there was an evangelical family in the nearby village of Nasavrky. That's how she described them. Normally a person or family in Czechoslovakia is described by their occupation. I would have expected her to say, oh yes, there's a farming family in Nasavrky by that name. But she definitely described them by their religion.

I still hadn't told Miroslav where I intended to go, but now that we had another lead, and it was much closer, I suggested we try Nasavrky first. So we drove over there. It only took us about ten minutes from Chocen, but again it wasn't easy to find. The roads were very narrow, there were few road signs, but at least we didn't have to drive through any woods.

Entering the village we stopped a middle aged woman riding a bicycle and asked her for directions to the Ourecky home. She knew the family and directed us to the other side of the village, the last house before leaving the village on the east side.

We found the Ourecky home/farm without problems but nobody was at home. Miroslav went to see a neighbor who told him that Mr. Ourecky was on another farm he rented; we would find him driving a blue tractor. The farm was back in the direction we had come from. We turned around and found the farm a kilometer way; there was a man on a blue tractor so we asked him if he was Mr. Ourecky. He was.

Mr. Ourecky took off his gloves and shook hands with us. He had deeply scared hands; they were also badly calloused. Here was a hard working Czech. He appeared to be about 45 years old. He was of medium height and very pleasant to talk with. He immediately told us he was not from this area, but from a village called Miretin. It was south of Vysoke Myto, he said. Miroslav asked if he knew of any Anton Ourecky that had emigrated to America. He replied that his grandfather had two brothers that emigrated to America around 1920. He couldn't remember their names but his wife would know more since she spent a lot of time with his uncle who used to correspond with the relations in America. He told us to follow him home; we could talk better there. He went off to get his wife. We waited five minutes and he reappeared, this time with a red tractor. His wife was in the cab with him. We followed them back to their home.

Mrs. Ourecky ushered us in, through the kitchen into the living room/dining room. It was a comfortable home. From the outside it looked large; inside the rooms were small, but clean and neat. Mrs. Ourecky seated us at the dining table while her husband changed. He came back in a smart gray shirt with blue sweater and gray slacks. His wife put on the tea kettle and then brought in a plate of cookies and chocolate cake.

Mr. Ourecky's first name was Josef. His wife's name was Zdena. They had two teen-age sons, Martin and Peter. Josef told us that his father was also named Josef and that his grandfather was Frantisek. Frantisek had two brothers that went to America. One could have been Antonin; the other he couldn't remember. Antonin was a butcher; the other brother made pipes. Josef thought he remembered his uncle talking about relatives in Nebraska.

It all sounded good except for three things.

1) I thought the Oureckys in Nebraska were catholic; Josef assured us that his Ourecky ancestors had always been evangelical.

2) After the family Bible was produced along with other family papers we saw that the parents of Antonin's brother Frantisek were Frantisek and Katerina Struzinska. According to the record we had on Antonin his parents were Frantisek and Vilhemina Vilimek.

3) We were told Antonin was born in Vysoke Myto , but the family home for these Oureckys was in Miretin. However, upon a careful check of their papers I saw that Miretin (although some distance from the town of Vysoke Myto) was in the county of Vysoke Myto.

Josef explained that although they no longer lived in the family home in Miretin 24 they did have lots of things there including the correspondence their uncle had had with relatives in America. On Sunday they would go there and get the correspondence and check the addresses in America for us.

I asked the Oureckys if they knew any other families by their name in the area. They said in the area of Vysoke Myto and Nasavrky there were no other families with their surname. In fact the only people they knew with their surname were two bachelor brothers in Bor (by Prosec) who they thought were somehow related to them. Josef had no brothers or sisters; except for his sons he was the last of his Oureckys in Czechoslovakia.

Miroslav later told me that Josef spoke very good Czech; that he was a very well educated man. Most Czech farmers who drive tractors. according to Miroslav. were very rough; they spent all night in the pub, and were barely literate. This man was something special. His wife was also well spoken and contributed a lot to the conversation. For Irma's family's sake we hoped they were related to these Oureckys.

After copying dates out of the family Bible we prepared to leave. From my weekend hunting I still had two pheasants hanging in the caravan. I asked the Oureckys if they liked pheasant and when he said he was a hunter and often brought home game I offered the two pheasant to them which were gratefully received.
(In Europe it is the custom to hang pheasants for three to four days before cleaning them; this makes the meat more tender and improves the game flavor)

I went out with Josef to get the birds; in the meantime his wife sent along a present for me, a bottle of expensive Becher's herbal liquor. I tried to turn it down but really couldn't. They were gracious people.

As with everyone else in their village they do not have a phone. However, a friend three kilometers away does have one so Josef gave me a number to call. I had earlier told him that by tomorrow night I would know if they were related to the Nebraska Oureckys. If related they were anxious to meet the Americans when they came to Czechoslovakia. This is their address:

Josef and Zdena Ouretsky (with a hajek over the r)
Nasavrky. No. 5
56501 Chocen
Okres Usti n. Orl.
CSFR
Tel: Jan Dobes (with hajek over the s)
0465 92439 (village Sec- with hajek over the c)

They have never heard of another family by their name in the area. Josef (* 1913) married the daughter whose father owned the place where they now live. They moved there about 1945.

November 18th: the next morning we were up at 6:30 am because I had to take my caravan in to be serviced. It needed an oil change, plus the headlights had come loose over the bumpy roads; the front tires were also so worn I had trouble getting up wet hills so I wanted to change them with the tires on the back which still had good treads. After delivering the vehicle to the garage we discovered there were no taxis in Vysoke Myto. Miroslav went to the townhall to see if they had one on their list of private companies but he was told there were no taxis in the area. only in Chocen about 10 miles away. We needed transport to get to the archive at Zamrsk about 5 miles way. I told Miroslav to stop a car in the street and offer the driver 200 crowns (about $7) to take us to the archive. He said that was too much. He told me to go have a coffee and he would find us a car. Miroslav came back fifteen minutes later and told me we had to go now, the car was waiting, He had seen a poorly dressed man stop his car and buy flowers. To Miroslav this meant the man wasn't going to work and looked like he needed the money, He offered him 100 crowns and the man willingly accepted to drive us to the archive, Later I gave the driver 120 because he was so nice; we also made an arrangement for him to come back for us at 3 pm when the archive closed,

We got to the archive half an hour before opening time, Miroslav told me that the driver had told him that the archive used to be a woman's prison. As a private manor house it had been confiscated by the Communist government in 1950 and then turned into the prison; it had only been converted into an archive in the last few years.

Despite getting to the archive before anyone else and despite ordering our records before opening time, the books still did not arrive until 9:30 am. I had ordered two books:

Krouna R 13-6 3722 1863-1880 (evang)
Krouna R 13-7 3722 1881-1896 (evang)

Krouna was the parish for Miretin, I wanted to find the ancestors of the Ouretskys we had met the night before and see if they did indeed have an Antonin their genealogy, The church books arrived and I opened them with great anticipation, Imagine my shock when I couldn't find Anton born in October 1875, He just wasn't there.

I then looked for Frantisek who had been born in July 1880. He was there.

31 July 1880 * Frantisek. Father: Frantisek Ouretsky; Mother: Katerina Struzinska.

So even then the name was spelled Ouretsky. Although pronounced the same as Ourecky, I now had my doubts about these two families being related, or did the Protestant part of the clan spell their surname one way and the Catholic part of the clan the other way? There was no doubt it was the same name.

But where was I in the search? Back to square one. I then decided I had to call Irma. I needed to know several things:

1) What religion were her Oureckys?

2) What was Anton's profession?

3) What town did they come from- it was not Vysoke Myto.

4) Who did Anton leave behind?

The archive would not let us use their telephone: they suggested we use the one at the post office, which is about a three minute walk across the park. I started to write out in long hand the questions I wanted to ask Irma when Miroslav called my attention to Irma's fax that had Anton's information on it. The line for BIRTH DATE & PLACE had written in hand: October 6, 1875 Vysoke Myto. That was what we had been working on. But the line below for DEATH DATE & PLACE had written in hand (but apparently half erased out): October 6, 187 (and then not erased out) Chlumi Okres.

Today Vysoke Myto is in the Okres of Chrudim. I had been reading that second line as Chrudim Okres when in fact (as Miroslav pointed out) it could be that Irma meant Chlum, Vysoke Myto Okres and just got the information reversed on the lines or in the wrong order. The fax was not that legible to begin with but Miroslav had a possible clue. Was there a village by the name Chlum in the old county (Okres) of Vysoke Myto? We quickly checked the auto atlas and found two Chlums listed in the county of Chrudim. We looked them up: both were inside the boundaries of the old county of Vysoke Myto. There was a small village called Chlum in the parish of Predhradi. Predhradi was two miles from Miretin. The other Chlum was in Hlinsko, further south, but only 4 miles from Krouna or 7 miles from Miretin. Both Chlums were actually in what I would call Ourecky country! We had another lead.

I then ordered the Catholic church books for Predhradi from 1848-1891 book number 3713; it was a special book that listed only the births for Chlum. The book arrived within five minutes, a record for Zamrsk archive. Was that a good omen?

It wasn't. There was not one Ourecky in the book of births for Chlum.

That was it for Predhradi. I next ordered the church book for Chlum by Hlinsko. There were two volumes. I ordered both. It was 12 o'clock noon. I checked the map. The Chlum I had just ordered the book for was outside the old Okres of Vysoke Myto by a few miles. Did it matter? The book this time arrived within 2 minutes.

They only brought one of the books. It was births 1879-1895. I was certainly not going to find Anton's birth in this book if he was from this Chlum, but the book would indicate if Oureckys were to be found in the area. The church book had an index, and in it I found a clan of Oureckys but they were from Hamry, not Chlum. I checked the map: Hamry was one mile from Chlum, and almost within the boundaries of Vysoke Myto okres.

In the church book I found the Ourecky couple having children during those years: they were not Frantisek and Vilhemina. The father was Frantisek Ourecky, catholic, son of Josef from Hamry and Anna Wekvindova. Their information was listed for the birth of a son Josef * 1888.

The second book then arrived (Hlinsko 3710) but there was not one Ourecky in this book; in fact I couldn't find one listing for Chlum.

I went back to the drawing board. I had to start all over, but where?

I found a third Chlum about 10 miles to the northwest of Hlinsko, but it was not in the old Okres of Vysoke Myto. I went back to the Chlum for Predhrad. I checked the non-catholic inventories to see if I had already done Chlum in the Krouna evangelical books. I had done one of the books for the parish of Krouna. That's where I found Josef's clan. There was, however, another parish, Prosec, for Chlum. I took a chance and ordered that book, R 16-6. It really was a last attempt, If this failed we would have to go to the post office and call Irma. I checked the clock. It was 5:30 am in Wilber.

I ordered the book R 16-6. I did find two Oureckys (Jan and Vaclav) but no Anton or Frantisek.

Miroslav decided to walk to the post office; if there were problems in calling he could handle it better in Czech than I could. I stayed and looked up Chlum in the archive gazetteer; there were 29 Chlums for Czechoslovakia but only one in the okres of Vysoke Myto. There was no doubt about it, this was the one we had to concentrate on if the information Irma had given us was correct. But where to look next? I had done all the church books for Chlum, both Evangelical and Roman Catholic.

This is what the gazetteer had written about the Chlum in Vysoke Myto okres:

village, 20 houses, 105 inhabitants; Catholic, county Myto Vysoke, district Skutec, parish Rychmburk, post Luze.

I then checked an orts lexikon for 1886 that was printed in both Czech and German. Contrary to the Zamrsk archive inventories the orts lexikon listed Skutec as the parish for Chlum. Could our Oureckys be in those church books? I checked the inventory for Skutec. Chlum was not listed among the villages.

I found Chlum listed under Doly, parish Rychmburk. Again I checked the Zamrsk inventories; it said: Rychnburk see Predhradi, pages 194, 195. I had done those books. I had made a complete circle.

I then rechecked the index for the orts lexicon (gazetteer) and found a listing for Chlumnek. Not quite the same but it was in the same area. The parish was Luze. It was worth a try.

I then made a list to find every village in the okres of Vysoke Myto. I immediately came across another possibility: Chlomek in the parish of UJezd, the same parish as Plchovky, where we had been told there were Oureckys living today. Wow! That triggered my imagination. I checked the map. It was Chloumek where I had got lost in the forest chasing down the living relatives of Sister Mary Michalec from Iowa City. Could the Oureckys and the Michalecs be from the same village? It fit with Irma's oral history. "The Oureckys moved to the next village." The next village from Chloumek was Plchovky! I felt so lost in the archive looking for the Oureckys, what would be the difference in getting lost again in the forest? I was now glad I had asked Miroslav to check the townhall in Chocen for the birth records of Plchuvky.

I finished my list of villages for the okres of Vysoke Myto. That was it, there were no more Chlums, Chlumeks, or Chlomeks in the gazetteer for Vysoke Myto.

To eliminate a possibility I ordered one last book. It was 2:30 pm. The parish was Luze, the book 3772 (births 1873-1894). Included in the parish was the village of Chlumek. If we could eliminate this one then that left only the Chlumek by Plchuvky.

The book arrived, I checked the records: there were no Oureckys.

Miroslav then returned. He had called Irma but she could only tell us that Anton was catholic and a carpenter. She referred us to the letter she had received from Jaroslav Ourecky in Prague. Miroslav had forgotten to ask her the name of Anton's village.

While at the post office Miroslav had also called the townhall in Chocen. The secretary at the townhall had told him that two Oureckys had been born in Plchuvky (Otto in 1933 and Maria in 1922), but no Anton in 1875, according to the church books they still had in the Chocen townhall.

It was now closing time (3 pm on Wednesdays). We packed up the computers and went downstairs to find our moonlighting taxi driver waiting for us. He drove us over to pick up my caravan. Everything had been fixed but they hadn't the result yet on the anti-freeze in my radiator. They had put a sample in their refrigerator and it had to be there overnight to see if it froze. Not the most modern way to test, but very practical, I guess.

We went to the post office and called Jaroslav Ourecky in Prague. No one was at home. I then checked the telephone book for the family Vilimek. Anton's mother was a Vilimek. There was only one Vilimek in the Vysoke Myto telephone book for the village Koldin, in the Plchuvky area. Miroslav called her. She couldn't tell us much except that the Vilimeks had always come from Koldin. She had never heard of any Oureckys in the family.

We then drove to Plchuvky to look for Oureckys. This time we made the trip without incident. We recognized some of the roads from our last adventure in the area and found our way to Plchuvky without passing through the woods.

By the time we got to Plchuvky it was dark. There were not many homes with lights on. We stopped at the first one and Miroslav got out. He was so long speaking with the man who came to the door that I thought he had found an Ourecky right away. However, the man turned out to be just a well-meaning source of misinformation. He was about 30 years old and said he knew every family in the area and there were no Oureckys except the farmer in Navarsky that we had spoken to the day before. He assured us there had never been a family by the name of Ourecky in Plchuvky.

Miroslav wanted to call it a day, but I insisted on visiting more homes in the village; we knew that Oureckys had been born in Plchuvky in 1922 and 1933 so we had to find out what happened to them. I suggested we visit more homes in the village until we found an old-timer who remembered the Oureckys.

The next house with a light on had an old grandmother who did remember the Oureckys. She said the father was a gamekeeper but had died. The family moved to Borohradek over fifty years ago.

Our first night in Vysoke Myto we had called an Ourecky in Pardubice who told us his family had come from Borohradek; he had also remembered a family by the same name in Plchuvky. Borohradek would fit the description that "they moved to the next village", plus Vilimeks were in the area of Plchuvky. Perhaps this was our trail to follow, but if so where did Chlum fit in?

We drove back to Vysoke Myto and tried Jaroslav in Prague again. This time we found his wife at home; he was still out. She said that they had received a letter from Irma who didn't know where her Oureckys had their origins. A friend of Irma's had found their name in the Prague telephone book. Jaroslav had answered saying that his Oureckys came from the area of Rychnov (parish Krouna), and that there were many families by the same surname in that area, but he didn't know if they were all related. His ancestors had never spoke about relatives going to America. According to his wife, Jaroslav was sure he was not related to Irma's Oureckys.

November 19th' Miroslav called Jaroslav's home again and this time got him in person. We just wanted to check that Jaroslav didn't know more than what his wife had already told us. Jaroslav confirmed that Irma already had the name of the village/area her ancestor came from- Vysoke Myto. He had not told her that. We thanked him for the information.

We were now back to tracking down any Ourecky suspect in the area of Vysoke Myto. I decided to try and chase down the origins of Otto born 1935 in Plchuvky and Marie born 1922. The townhall in Chocen had given us these details the day before. They had also told us that no Anton was born in 1875. I had a hunch that it could have been possible that the Oureckys were in the Plchuvky area in the 1870's; their weekly market would have been Chocen. We know that Vilimeks were in Koldin; their market would have been Chocen. Frantisek Ourecky and Vilhemina Vilimek would have met in Chocen on market day. They would have been married in her village. The parish was Chocen. I thus ordered the marriage books for the 1840's-1850's for Chocen, books 2782 (00 1845-1885) and 2110 (00 1833-1845).

I found several Vilimeks being married, but not one Ourecky,

After that I had another long think. I then got out the orts lexikon and wrote down all the parishes for Vysoke Myto. There were exactly 30 total: 20 in the north and 10 in the south. that I had found to date all came from the concentrate on those parishes in the south; in Since the Oureckys south I decided to they were:

Hrady Nove 3800 Births index 1856-1890 (no Oureckys)

Luze- did only city 3772 1873-1894 (no Oureckys)

Prosec- R 16-6 Evang 3793 1867-1885 (no Oureckys)

Rychmburk- did Chlum book 3713 1848-1891 R.K. (no (Oureckys)

Pusta/Kamenice 5578 births 1809-1879 R.K. (no Oureckys)

Krouna- did evang books (no Anton); ordered rk book (no Oureckys)

Skuc- Index * 3827 1867-1887 (no Oureckys)

Hlinsko 3710 births 1874-1894 (no Oureckys)
3712 id 1879-1896 parish (Oureckys in Hamry)

Bojanov (including Chlum) * 1861-1898 book 3780 (no Oureckys)

Having struck out on all fronts we decided to leave the archive for lunch and rest for an hour. We drove to Chocen which was only five miles from the archive. Before lunch we tried to call once again the two Oureckys that were never at home, Karel and Olga but they still didn't answer. We then called the townhall and asked the secretary if she could check the birth records once again for Otto and Maria Ourecky born in Plchuvky and see where their father came from. We told her we would walk over to the townhall within half an hour to get the result.

We had a quick bowl of potato soup in a hotel and then we went to the townhall in Chocen to see if the secretary had found the origins of the father of Otto and Maria born 1933 and 1922 respectively in Plchuvky. She had not done the work so our appearance helped push her along. She attended to another person before us and then went and retrieved the birth book for Otto and Maria. The father of both was Josef Ourecky from Vcelakov, district Chrudim; his father was also Josef from the same place.

Back in the archive I ordered the birth book for Vcelakov (book 3725) 1860-1890.

Immediately I started to find Ourecky births, spelled the Catholic way like Irma's name. There were three brothers in Vcelakov fathering children at the same time: Jan, Vaclav and Josef. I was excited because from many of the records in the book the first name Anton was used a lot in the area. But when I could find no record for an Anton Ourecky being born in 1875, I did the other villages of the parish. There were 2,496 birth entries but I did not find another Ourecky.

With half an hour to go before the archive closed until next week, I decided to recheck all possible sources for Chlum.

The archive inventories listed Chlum separately from the parish records and I had already checked the Chlum births, both Protestant and Catholic. Was it possible that somehow the Oureckys had been registered in the parish records instead of the Chlum records? Not likely, but mistakes were made by the priests, so I ordered the parish records for the area of Chlum.
With only twenty minutes to go I was not sure the director of the reading room would allow another book to be brought up from the stacks but with fifteen minutes to go until closing time the book arrived on my desk. The book had an index. I checked it for Oureckys.

And there it was, the birth of Anton in the index! I couldn't believe it. One of my hardest searches ever, and here he was, registered in the parish rather than in the Chlum records.

The index read: Ourecky, Antonin- Frantisek & Vileminy-Chlum page 64.

I turned to page 64 and saw the name Anton in one column and the names Frantisek Ourecky and Vilimina Vilimek in the respective columns for father and mother. With the archive about to close I grabbed my camera to get a photo in case I didn't have time to copy down all the information. Through my lens I then saw that Anton had died in 1872! I had just found him and lost him in the same breath.

I scrambled through the index and found a second Anton being born to the same parents on page 66.

This time I had him. The date coincided with the one Irma had given me, 1875. The parents were the same. The director of the reading was on the telephone. Perhaps his wife was telling him to go shopping after work and what to bring home. The call lasted for fifteen minutes SO I had fifteen extra minutes in which to copy down Anton's birth record and find his siblings. These are all the births I found for Frantisek and Vilimina in the time I had left before the archives closed:

Anna * 12 Feb. 1867
Frantisek * 16 Aug. 1869 (note that mother was Teresia not Rozalia and parents were married in 1839 in Rychnburk)
Antonin * 7 Nov. 1870; died 1872
Frantisek * 1 Jan 1873 (same note as for Frantisek)
Antonin 6 Oct. 1875

This is the actual entry for Anton's birth:

6 Oct. 1875 House 15 Chlum * Antonin, Catholic, male, legitimate; father was Frantisek Ourecky, Catholic. small farmer, from Chlum 15, legitimate son of Josef Ourecky, small farmer from No. 15 from Chlum and Rozalia. Catholic. born Hromadka from Kutina 5; mother was Vilhemina. Catholic. leg, daughter of Dominik Vilimek, miller, from Lestiny 44, and Anna born Soricek, cotter from Haje no. 35, Witnesses: Frantisek Odwarka, cotter no. 78 from Richenburk.

Note below on birth record: Antonin is living in America in 1899.

All of this information came from from Book Predhradi 3828 parish births 1867-1877.

At 5:15 pm we were asked to leave.

Outside it was dark, almost pitch black. I told Miroslav we now had to visit Chlum and see if we could find Irma's relatives that had moved to the next village. In the caravan we checked the map and saw that Irma's Chlum was about 18 miles south of Vysoko Myto , but in a maze of small roads. With all the green patches colored on the map it also looked like it was in a forest, The drive there did not look easy, but we had no choice. This was our last day in the area.

We set out and within twenty minutes we were lost. We stopped several people in small villages but no one had ever heard of Chlum. We showed them our map but they still didn't know anything about a Chlum in their area. According to our calculations we should have been within six miles of the place.

We drove around in circles for another half an hour There were few road signs, none for Chlum. After an hour and a half we were starting to believe the map was wrong and the locals were right; there was no Chlum. Finally we found a bar. I told Miroslav that you could always find out things in a bar. So we went in and had a drink and asked the bartender if he had ever heard of a Chlum somewhere around here.

Not only did he know the village. his brother had lived there for several years. He admitted it was hard to find. but gave us good
directions. He even told us the house to visit for information. the first one on the left upon entering the village. There lived an old man who was sort of the local historian. Our bartender also said the only Oureckys still living in the area were the two bachelor brothers in Bor that the evangelical Oureckys had said were related to them.

We left the bar and within ten minutes were in Chlum in the home of Josef Sikl. in house no. 6. He was indeed the local historian. I placed my computer on his kitchen table and made these notes:

Josef said the Oureckys lived in house no. 12 (church records say house 15); they could have had 12, 15 and 3 since they are all together forming a group, he said; he found papers in house 15
when water was installed in the village saying the Oureckys went to America in 1899: he gave these papers to the townhall for the chronicle; he never heard that Oureckys stayed in the village after the family went to America: he knows of no Oureckys in the area today except the family from Miretin, which is about ten kilometers away: Ourecky is not a common name in this area.

Josef said in the direction to Prosec and Miretin there are a lot of Evangelical families, about one third of the population; they always had both churches in each village; from 1782 the people could come out of the closet and declare their religion; the Evangelical churches in this area date from that time; until then everyone was Catholic.

Josef continued: the Ourecky group of houses is called Podchlum (under Chlum); there are several isolated large farmhouses in the area where Protestants had lived since the battle of White Mountain (1620); Skutec village has the matrika (church books) for Chlum today; there it might be possible to find what happened to the Oureckys who left Chlum at the turn of the century; Chlum today has 15 houses; in the past they had 20 houses, but people only live in five of the houses; the other 10 are weekend houses for people from Pardubice and Praha.

According to Josef's records: from 1835-1850 house no. 15 was a mill; the family Vilimek owned it; the townhall of Hluboka has the chronicle of Chlum; it is in the German language; it is in a dialect and very difficult to read; there is a translation into the Czech language: 13th century is the date usually given for the founding of Chlum; there is a 13th century note saying the people of this area were free, they didn't have to pay the robota tax; they had guns and were guardians of the highway that passed through the area.

We had arrived in the dark. Josef told us we now were on the top of a small mountain; there are deep valleys on three sides of Chlum; there are more woods here than fields. Chlum means top of the hill. There are of many Chlums in the district; they all mean the top the hill.

They have already had snow but normally they don't have a hard winter here: some years the children can’t even ski the winter is so mild; other times they get snowed in. The altitude here is 450 meters.

From each village in the area somebody went to America. Josef has relatives in America; Zavzel family (his relations) went to America but he doesn't know where. They work with glass in America but doesn't know where. They all went the last century. His mother was suppose to go to America with cousins but her parents said no. 15/20 years ago some Americans were here in Chlum looking for house no. 8. Holomek family used to live there. From house no, 4 went a family to America but they returned with some money. Their name was Burec.

Josef never heard of people mentioning Nebraska. They only said America, America. They just talked about America. Ten years ago a family from the village emigrated to Canada.

Josef says the mill (no. 15) is very nice, in good condition. It is owned by some people in Praha. The people who emigrated to Canada sold it. People from Holland now come on holiday to use the house. The family who sold the mill was Zema.

These are the families Josef remembers that used to live in the village of Chlum'

no. 12 vondrasek
15 zaboral
3 klesal
17 tomanek
20 madera
19 drahos
17 id
18 romatko
9 karlik
8 holomek
7 sobotka
10 cerny
4 fulik
5 ulicny
6 sikl

The other houses not mentioned above (like 1 & 2 and 3) don't exist anymore; all of these families on the list above lived here about 1930.

Josef Sikl never knew the Ourecky family, he only heard about them. He was born in 1922 and the Oureckys weren't in Chlum then according to him.

Josef Sikl and his wife would be happy to receive the Ourecky family when they come in December; he would be willing to show them the Ourecky houses (3, 12 & 15). Josef keeps talking about the contract he found between Mr. Ourecky and the villagers that allowed water to be brought in through the property of Mr. Ourecky who went to America. This contract today is in the townhall of Hluboka and Josef would be happy to take the American Oureckys there to see the contract that was badly written with many misspelled words, including America.

People left here either to get a job or to escape the draft; if they stayed many had to serve 7 or 8 years in the army. When they got out of the army they were poor, looked bad, and were too old for marriage. These were the two main reasons, according to him, for emigration.

Many of the emigrates to this area came from Poland a long time ago (15th/16th century). It is possible that the Oureckys also came from Poland or from Lithuania as rumored.

Three times a week a store on wheels comes to the village so they can shop. They seldom leave. Sometimes they have problems in winter when the store can’t come.

We left the Sikls at 9 pm after having a coffee with them. It still took us an hour to return the 18 miles to Vysoke Myto; we only got lost twice on the return journey. In day light it should be easier to find Chlum.

NOTE TO IRMA: I am sorry I couldn't do more for you but it was a very difficult search.

When you are in Czechoslovakia I would suggest you allow plenty of time to find Chlum and only attempt to go there in the day time. I am sure that you are related to the Miretin Oureckys somewhere back in time so you might want to pay them a visit. I will not be back to the Vysoke Myto area until the end of February. If you want more work done in the archive on your family please let me know. Now that we know in which church books to find the records it should be a very easy and fast job to make your family tree. If you have the time I would suggest you try and look up some information in the Zamrsk archive while you are there. My best regards for the Christmas holidays and for a successful trip to Czechoslovakia with your family. You will not regret making the pilgrimage to Chlum. You might even try to rent no. 15 for your stay there. Ask Josef about it.

Best.

Paul J. Polansky