For the several people who contacted me about my last President's message concerning the topic of getting the "younger generations" involved with ethnic activities, I thank you for your heart felt gratitude. If anyone has any ideas what the Czech & Slovak American Genealogy Society of Illinois (CSAGSI) can do to increase our ethnic identity or to increase the "younger generation's" involvement into ethnic activities please let me know.
We are still in the midst of our membership renewal time. If you have not already renewed please do so. Your continual support is important to us.
In the big news department, we are planning another conference to be held on Saturday, March 24, 2001, so please mark your calendars. The conference will be held at the William Tell Holiday Inn in Countryside, IL. Further details and registration materials will be available in future Newsletters.
The Society recently received a letter from member Charles Hoffman from Sun City West, Arizona. In April 2000 Mr. Hoffman and his wife visited our
CSAGSI library
located at the T.G. Masaryk Czech School, 5701 West 22nd Place, Cicero, IL. In Mr. Hoffman's letter he states that he felt that before he went to the library that his research has hit a brick wall. While at the library Mr. Hoffman met several helpful people willing to help with advice and research. One of the people that helped was our Corresponding Sec. Dolores Benes Duy. Dolores suggested that Mr. Hoffman use the Fill in the blank Czech letter to the Mayor of his ancestral town that I wrote about in (and copies are in) the Fall 1997 Koreny. (A side note: Copies of the letter Mr. Hoffman used (in Czech and Slovak) can be found in the Fall 1997 issue of Koreny and as well as the New member packet that every new member receives when they first join CSAGSI). Mr. Hoffman goes on to report that a little over two months after he mailed the Fill in the blank letter he received a letter from a lady that married a Hofman and has traced their family back to the 1700's when his (Mr. Hoffman's) forefather and her husband's forefather were brothers. Only one draw back she only writes in Czech. All is saved however he did find someone to translate the letter into English. All this because of a simple fill in the blanks letter. I want to once again thank Mr. Robert Baumruk (CSAGSI board member) and Mrs. Vlasta Matela who originally wrote this Czech letter and Stefan Urban who translated the Czech version into Slovak. I still encourage all to try this inexpensive way to further your research.
If you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact me personally at: 708-485-6189, PO Box 33, Brookfield, IL 60513, or by email at
jzel@aol.com.
Nazdar,
Joe Hartzel