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Archiver > GERMAN-BOHEMIAN > 2008-09 > 1220586828


From: KarenHob <>
Subject: Re: [GERMAN-BOHEMIAN] Travel to Jablonec nad Nisou and L'vov
Date: Thu, 4 Sep 2008 21:53:48 -0600
References: <85fb5e78.e6e8.4779.947f.fe541d9aa66f@aol.com>,<8CADCAB7E97EABF-1658-2B8@MBLK-M36.sysops.aol.com>
In-Reply-To: <8CADCAB7E97EABF-1658-2B8@MBLK-M36.sysops.aol.com>


You want to visit the city the Germans called Gablonz.
The Germans who were expelled from there settled Neu Gablonz in
eastern Bavaria. You may find cousins there.

You may find them more easily if you publish the names you are researching
from that area, perhaps their birth years, too, and when they emigrated if
you know (have you looked at the ship's lists indexes or at Leo Baca's books
of Czechs to America which also include Bohemian-German families?)

My daughter was just in CR and had Jakub Smid, a professional researcher
from Brno, show her around our ancestral village and the other places
important to our ancestors. Before she went she visited with a family in
Germany who had lived in that same village -- we were able to contact them
because one of them was a member of this list and saw my interest in
Mariafels.

Jakub charged $160 per day but he was able to cut his own expense by
staying with family in Beroun. I don't know that he could do that if he
were with you in Gablonz.

Driving to Dresden from Gablonz should not be difficult but if it is a Czech
car rental you have to have papers to cross the border with it and drop
it off outside of CR.
I think I would dive or take the train to Terezin first if you have time to visit there.
Then drop it off at a designated place on the Elbe
and take the riverboat or scenic train to Dresden, then a taxi to a central
hotel or pension in the old town where it is possible to walk to all the sights. I stayed
at the Hilton sharing a $200 double room with my sister. It was worth the cost
because we were in the middle of everything and did not need transportation.
They also had parking for our car (not all hotels do). It was about a block
from the Eger river where the riverboats from CR docked, and very close to the
old royal palace, cathedral, nuseums, Marienkirche and the entry to the
tunnels under the old fortifications (under the steps going up to the top of the wall).

Do not try to drive to a hotel in Dresden. If you are in a car, stop at a taxi
stand as near as you think you can get to downtown without getting lost and ask the
taxi to lead you where you want to go. It is well worth a taxi fare to get
past all the one ways that are not on your maps. This is true for Prague,
Leipzig, Munich, etc., and probably true for Lvov if you are not going to be
met at the train by an English speaking researcher / guide. I have used taxis
to lead the way in Nurnburg, Munich, Prague, Dresden and other places.

Lvov was an important military town in Eastern Galicia -- an area with German
settlements that included settlements established by Bohemian Germans.
You can find names of Germans from Bohemia that went there during the
19th century in the LDS films titled: Ansiedlerakten

I would not attempt to drive to Lvov without knowing Ukraninan or Russian
language and without having a LOT of gifts of clothing, chocolate, nylons,
and even cosmetics for the people along the way. The people in the countryside
are very poor and even some bars of perfumed soap and a nice fleecy towel
would be a luxury for them if you stayed in a village pension.
Finding accommodations for overnight with secure parking might be a problem.
I have no idea what condition the roads might be in or how convenient the gas stations
are.

Join the Austro-Hungarian-L list on Rootsweb and post a request for help
on a visit to Lvov and see who replies. There have been several Lvov
researchers who know English on that list. See if there is someone who can
meet you at the train and share a cab or drive you to your hotel and then
discuss what you will see. If all you want is to visit the archive you may have
to order materials you want to view up to 48 hours in advance. Some will
be in Russian and others in German or Polish depending on the time period.

A trip that includes Gablonz, Dresden, Leipzig and Lvov would require
about 3-4 weeks if you wanted to do each city justice. Taking overnight trains to avoid a
night in a hotel could also reduce the days required. Get a rail pass in the US if you plan to travel by train very
much.

Karen









In a message dated 09/04/08 07:45:24 Mountain Daylight Time, jteague444 writes:
traveling in the areas of Jablonec nad Nisou in the Czech Replubic
If you can take a train there and then rent a car to go wherever you want to go, do so.
Find a hotel with guarded parking.
Do not leve anything visible inside your car when you leave it parked and locked.

You can drive to Dresden and Leipzig from CR but you may not want to go through
the mountains in the north of CR. Plan your route carefully.
If you plan to include Prague and you are traveling alone, do not drive, take the train.

Contact Jakub Smid as a possible guide. He has relatives in Beroun and stays with
them when in western CR so it saves both you and him some cash. He charged about
$160 per day to show my daughter around Mariafels, my ancestral village.




?or L'vov, Ukraine?? Would it be considered as safe as driving, say, in Germany or Austria??

Is the old former East Germany area also now as safe and tourist friendly as the old West Germany (for example, Dresden, Leipzig, Potsdam)??

And, is L'vov tourist friendly at all??

The person traveling is a middle-aged female and would drive or take trains into these areas.? Also, can anyone recommend geneologists for hire?in?Jablonec nad Nisou and L'vov?areas??

Did Germanic people migrate to L'vov, or were they innately Germanic as part of the Austria empire??

My other question involves how to locate how and when a person arrived in the US, esp. when the surname may have changed spellings.? I find similar spellings, but have never been able to find the exact link between Old and New World ancestors.? What are the best sources for bridging this gap? I can date direct ancestors to the 1860s in the US and find many with similar surnames in all the areas listed above.? But, I cannot link them into one family line.?

Any advice would be?very much?appreciated.? Thank you.
German-Bohemian Heritage Society web site http://www.rootsweb.com/~gbhs/

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