Czech, Not Slovak

From the day I cared to know, until recently, whenever asked about my heritage or nationality, I would recite: English, German, Hungarian and Slovak.

One evening about six years ago, my grandmother was visiting for a few days. I had invited a friend, who had moved here from Slovakia over. Having a conversation about our common nationalities my grandmother mentioned that her mother came to America from Praha. My friend said, "Praha is Prague and Prague is in the Czech Republic. You must be Czech." My grandmother said, "oh no, we are Slovak. The Czech have such an elegant language. We don't speak that way." My friend laughed. I didn't think too much about it, figuring my great grandmother must have started her journey to America from Prague/Praha.

My grandmother corresponded with many relatives, including a cousin who lived in Prague. He is related to my great grandmother. Hmm. The above image is postage on one of his many letters.

Going through papers retrieved from my grandmother's home a few years back, I found this newspaper clipping about the passing of my great grandmother.

I thought it was cool that before it was called Czechoslovakia (interesting spelling in the newspaper, isn't it?) it was Bohemia. For some reason I had thought Bohemia was in Hungary. Anyway, again I didn't think much more about it.

Coming across that newspaper clipping again today, I decided to do some investigating. I have an old atlas I bought at a library book sale that dates back to World War II. Looking up Czechoslovakia I found this:

This confirms that my great grandmother was indeed born in the Czech Republic (Bohemia, Czechoslovakia). That means my grandmother and all her descendants are at least partly Czech. Her father was also supposedly from Slovakia, but I have yet to find documentation on that. My great grandparents moved to America separately and met here.

Does it really matter? Probably not, but I think it is an interesting story.

A side note about the Atlas:

  The original owner of this atlas did send away for the supplement and it is contained within the book. It shows new boundaries and new names for many countries, including the addition of Israel. A great find and a very valuable historical document!