Bica beckons

Uncle Richard, who were your parents? Joseph? Bica? Who were they? And was your father possibly Barbora Dlouhy’s brother Josef? Family connections are a fascinating and never-ending puzzle. One mystery that hung like fruit just out of reach was the identity of Richard Macek’s parents.

I have fond memories of holiday meals at my wife Dee’s mother’s house. I miss the main course of vepřové, knedlíky, and zelí (pork, dumplings, and sauerkraut with caraway seeds). And the kolačky pastries were good anytime. I vaguely remember Dee’s mother’s Uncle Richard and Aunt Mary at a holiday gathering long ago. Dee’s grandfather Joseph Dlouhy was Mary’s youngest brother. I had no idea then that Richard and Mary were cousins or that Richard had been born in Vienna. How I wish I could sit at the table with them now and plumb their insights and experiences.

Stumped on Czech research

I wrote an article some time ago about exploring one piece of Dee’s Czech ancestry, the family of Jan and Anna Macek. I noted in that article that Barbora Macek Dlouhy’s brother Josef might have been Richard Macek’s father, known to be named Joseph. Barbora’s brother Josef disappeared from local records in the area where they grew up, and I didn’t know where to look for him.

Richard Macek’s passenger list entry in 1906 reported his last place of residence as Vídeň, Austria. While I thought that this might have been a Bohemian community of that name, Vídeň translates to English as Vienna. Bohemia was part of Austria-Hungary until the end of World War I. Could Josef Macek’s work have taken him there?

Richard Macek and Mary Dlouhy, both living in Chicago, were married in Berrien County, Michigan in 1910. Their marriage registration identifies his father as Joseph and his mother as Reca. Their marriage license gives his mother’s maiden name as Beca or Bica. These appeared to reference her surname, not her given name. Still, with no birthplace or family information, I didn’t have much to work with.

New information comes to light

When I read recently that Ancestry had added Catholic Church Registers for Vienna, I searched for Macek births in the 1880s and 90s. I found records for Richard and four siblings. Here is an excerpt from the registration of Richard’s birth and baptism in Alterchenfeld, Stadt Wien:

I could see that Richard‘s father Josef was born in Kladrub, Böhmen (Bohemia), which matches the birth registration for Jan and Anna’s son. It further states that Josef was the son of Johann Macek and Anna, born Rothbauer. This Josef is clearly our man. Richard’s birthdate, 11 January 1888, matches the information I had for Uncle Richard, establishing the link I had postulated in my previous article.

Richard’s mother was identified as Elisabeth, born in Lischau, Bohemia, daughter of Franz Bica and Maria, born Kukacky. Bear in mind that these are German renderings of Czech names. This record states that Richard’s parents were married 29 August 1880 in Alservorstadt.

I informed Dee’s second cousin Ray of his grandfather Richard’s birth and baptism record on Ancestry. Ray engaged a business contact to translate the record, including terms I was not familiar with. Josef Macek was a master tailor and his father Johann a senior royal thresher. Franz Bica was a master leatherworker.

I investigated the FamilySearch Research Wiki to look further for church records in Vienna. There I found guidance for using the Matricula Online Church Record Portal with a link to their website. Navigating to the Archdiocese of Vienna (Erzdiözese Wien) in Austria (Österreich), I found links to parish pages. Two parishes proved to be of particular interest:

• Alservorstadt, listed as ‘08., Alservorstadtpfarre’
• Altlerchenfeld, listed as ’07., Altlerchenfeld’

Parish pages show the location of the parish and provide links to scanned parish registers. On the parish maps, note the proximity of the Vienna City Hall (Rathaus der Stadt Wien) and the Parliament of Austria. Here is a view of the area in Google Maps.

I found the marriage record for Josef Maček and Alisabet Bica on page 118 of the Alservorstadt parish wedding book for 1879-1883. Among other things, this record identifies their birthplaces, parents, birthdates, and ages. I haven’t studied their addresses enough to locate them. The notes in the last column would also be of interest if I understood more than scattered words.

I found Richard Macek and siblings in the Vienna church registers:

• Ferdinand Josef, born 30 June 1881. His godparent (and Josef Leopold’s) might have been his aunt Josefa. Ferdinand died 3 April 1901.
• Josef Leopold, born 25 October 1882. He died 24 July 1884.
• Franz, born 17 December 1883. He died 30 May 1885.
• Maria, born 28 February 1885. She married Leopold Bergauer 1 May 1926. Her baptism record noted her death 25 November 1975. Leopold’s mother was born Antonie Bica, Elisabeth Macek’s sister.
• Anna, born 4 July 1886. She died 25 June 1892.
• Richard, born 11 January 1888. He died 27 December 1973 in either Chicago or Cicero, Illinois.
• Elisabeth, born 7 June 1889. She married Robert Klimesch 3 September 1922. Her baptism record noted her death 31 March 1972.
• Josef Ferdinand, born 9 January 1892. He died 8 February 1899.

Of five sons and three daughters, only Maria, Richard and Elisabeth lived more than twenty years. Josef Leopold and Franz died under five years of age, Anna and Josef Ferdinand less than ten, and Ferdinand Josef at nineteen.

Ferdinand Josef was born at Burggasse 116. Richard and his other siblings were born at Pfeilgasse 4. All the children were baptized in the Altlerchenfeld parish. At the time of Anna’s death, the family was living at Josefstädterstrasse 57. At the deaths of Josef Ferdinand and Ferdinand Josef, they were living at Feldgasse 10 in the Alservorstadt parish.

Exploring Lischau

I knew from previous research that Josef Macek was born in Kladrub, Bohemia. The Vienna church records pointed to Elizabeth Bica’s birthplace in Lischau, Bohemia. My next challenge was to find her birth record and family. Between Google Maps and Wikipedia, Lišov, near České Budějovice, looked like a good candidate. I searched Lišov records in the Třeboň archives and found her birth in house 305 in Lishow. This record reveals her Czech name (Alžbeta), confirms her parents’ names, and identifies their parents.

Alžbeta was the first child of her mother Maria Kukačka’s second marriage. I searched without success in Lišov and surrounding communities for Maria’s birth and baptism record. The 1890 census pointed me to Kamenný Újezd, but I couldn’t find a birth record for her there either. A birth index for Kamenný Újezd stated that her birth record was on page 277 of Bienen births, but I had no idea where to look for that. At this point it was time to post an inquiry on the Czech Genealogy community group on Facebook. A kind person there knew that Bienen stood for Bienendorf, the German name for Včelná near Kamenný Újezd. Maria Kukačka was born 24 February 1825 in Včelná.

Maria first married Jan Bartos 8 July 1845 in Lishow. They had two children that I have been able to find:

• Kateřina Bartos, born 28 March 1846 in Lishow. She died 30 September 1851.
• František Bartos, born 21 November 1850 in Lishow. He died 27 August 1885.

Jan Bartos died 4 July 1852. Another Kateřina Bartos (Benešová), born in 1851 shortly after the death of the first Kateřina, proved not to be a daughter of Jan and Maria. This second Kateřina’s brother František was reported in 1900 as having been born in 1865, clearly not the son of Jan Bartos.

Alžbeta’s mother Maria married František Bica 11 January 1853 in Lishow. František had been born 16 August 1822 in Lishow. Five children born to them were:

• Alžbeta Bica, born 20 November 1853 in Lishow.
• Antonia Bica, born 2 June 1855 in Lišov.
• Ferdinand Bica, born 29 May 1857 in Lišov.
• Dominik Bica, born 17 August 1859 in Lišov. He died 10 July 1878.
• Ludvik Bica, born 21 August 1861 in Lišov.

František and Marie were living in Lišov in 1890. I have not found them in the 1900 census, nor have I found death records for them.

There is much more information in these records than I have outlined here, and there were other Bica and Kukačka families in Lišov and nearby communities.

Back in Vienna

Bica became Macek when she married Josef in Vienna, and Alžbeta was Germanized (not Anglicized) to Elisabeth. As we have seen, Josef and Elisabeth lost several children to death. What became of these parents?

An Elisabeth Macek died 4 February 1903 at 10 Feldgasse. She was reported to be 59 years old, having been born at Luschau, Bohemia 19 November 1843. She might have been born before midnight when she was baptized 20 November 1853, but the stated date of birth is clearly ten years off and this is Alžbeta. Who reported her birth year as 1843? Uncle Richard was fifteen when his mother died. His sister Maria was nearly eighteen and Elisabeth was thirteen.

Josef Macek died 23 April 1905 in Kaiserin Elisabet Spital (Empress Elisabeth Hospital) in the Rudolfsheim parish. Ancestry search was again helpful in finding his place and date of death.

Uncle Richard was eighteen years old when he left Vienna, leaving two sisters behind. He was fortunate to have left for Chicago before Austria-Hungary became embroiled in the Great War, known today as World War I. He reportedly arrived in New York with sixteen dollars in his pocket. His passage was paid by his uncle Alois Macek, then living at 548 25^th Street in Chicago. 

I found Richard’s parents, but they were already gone when he came to Chicago. He was truly coming to a new life in a new world.

If only I could talk with Richard and Mary.