vaczechslovak@gmail.com

“Strong Women” and the Experience of Emigration and   Immigration
Lydia Zitová, Bohemian Immigrant Girl
Victor L. Zitta, Mississippi State U, Emeritus Douglas Steele, Celanese Chemical Corp., Ret. 

Lydia Zitová of Bohemia was 16 years old when she immigrated to America. Details of Lydia’s journey were “hid” from subsequent generations until letters written by her parents Josef and Růžena Zita were found in Lydia’s achieves after her death. Translations of these letters revealed the contrast of circumstances in Bohemia with opportunities waiting in America, for those willing to leave family and native country to take risks settling in America.

Lydia’s parents were from different sociological backgrounds. Her father Josef was from “peasant stock,” while her mother Růžena was the ambitious daughter of farmer Jan and Františka Hrubý from Rožnov, Bohemia. Josef and Růžena were introduced to evangelic Christianity, met, married and on July 31, 1896 their first child Lydia was born in Rožnov.  Before Lydia was a teenager, the family had moved multiple times, until grandfather Jan Zita died and the family moved to the Zita family home at #6 Blatov. By 1913, eight children were in Lydia’s family.

In the spring of 1913 the Zita family received a letter from Lydia’s cousin in America, urging them to send Lydia to America because of the opportunities awaiting her. In May 1913 Lydia departed Blatov bound for Bremen and the steam ship Neckar that would take her to America on June 7. Her companions were František Prachář, a 26 year old married man from the Žižkov district of Prague, and his 21-year-old girlfriend Slavka from Lydia’s village of Blatov. This paper describes Lydia’s journey to Baltimore, her unlikely admittance into the United States, her determination to stay in America and within 11 months of her arrival lure her entire family to America. Although this is Lydia’s personal story, it represents the story of many immigrants who dared to pursue the opportunities before them.

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Written In Stone: The Value of Community-Based  Cemetery Preservation Amanda Vtipilson U.S. Army Women’s Museum and Prince George County Regional Heritage Center 

They say nothing lasts unless it is written in stone, but the rapidly deteriorating markers standing in cemeteries across the United States seem to say differently. Every day letters carved in stone are weathered away, monuments are broken or buried and sometimes entire cemeteries are lost to time. Each letter or stone that is lost is a piece of history that may now be irretrievable.  Cemeteries, aside from being solemn places of reflection and remembrance, can be incredible historic resources—documenting birth and death dates, marriages, family relations, cultural trends and more. Their preservation can be paramount in creating a more complete history of a community. Recognizing the importance of these places, in 2011 the Prince George County

Regional Heritage Center initiated a volunteer-based campaign to document cemeteries large and small across the county. Prince George County is a rural community located some 30 miles south of Virginia’s capital and has been home to many groups of people, including a large influx of Czech and Slovak families around the turn of the 20th century. Since 2008 the Prince George County Regional Heritage Center has served as a cultural and historic hub for the regional community. Its many enthusiastic members were ready to step up when the call for Cemetery Inventory Project volunteers was made. Volunteers braved weather, thorns, overgrown forests and bugs to document 45 cemeteries including 325 internments within them. Not only has their service created a lasting record of these graves, but it has also developed a solid group of cemetery and history preservation advocates.   Using the small church and family cemeteries of Czech and Slovak immigrants in Prince George County as case studies (specifically the cemeteries of the First Czechoslovak Presbyterian Church and the Saint Paul Lutheran Church), this presentation will outline the importance of cemetery preservation and the value of calling on the local community to collect this vital information.

How a Small Settlement, New Bohemia (1915) Inspired a Heritage Center
Marie Blaha Pearson and John Moser Virginia Czech and Slovak Heritage Society

  In 1916, Raymond G. Carroll, in an article titled New Bohemia, Virginia, a Colony of Alien Farmers Who Have Come to Stay, wrote “no chronicler of a decade hence will write, ‘there was a Bohemian and Slovak settlement down in Virginia,’ because this migration has been properly developed and is there to stay.” Mr. Carroll was right because New Bohemia still exists and a new State Historical Road Marker now stands along the area on Route 460 in Virginia where this historical community remains. Granted in the decades since it has changed and now where a settlement of homes, a school, a hotel, a church and other community buildings once stood the changes, though apparent in character, remain mostly in spirit. Void of most of the homes, schools and other buildings today, if you were to tour the same back country roads through southern Virginia that led you to New Bohemia you will see the same names on the mailboxes as were there in the old days five, going and six, generations later.  Through the efforts of the co-founders if the Virginia Czech Slovak Heritage Society, Marie Pearson and Joyce Pritchard, New Bohemia is today a historical site that many honor and respect.  Families of the immigrants have banded together to pay tribute to  the efforts of  these founders by helping to support the creation of  a large Czech Slovak Gallery and Resource Center in the Prince George County Regional Heritage Center’s Museum due to open in the fall of 2015. Ms. Pearson will tell the story of New Bohemia, Virginia and John Moser, Creative Designer of Moser Productions, Inc. who is instrumental in planning the exhibits and artifacts at the gallery will present a slide presentation of what the museum can expect as it captures the life and history of the Czechs and Slovaks who immigrated into Virginia following the American Civil War.

5.  Mary Vinsh Blazek, Jenny Blaha Jones and Joseph  Vinsh, Jr., Sacred Heart Church, New Bohemia, Virginia
Vinsh Family  History. A Study in Discovering the Czech Romanian Origins of a Virginia  Family 
Adobe Document  Format

Click below to read the Petersburg, VA Progress-Index newspaper article about the festival:
http://progress-index.com/news/czech-and-slovak-folklife-festival-celebrates-heritage-in-prince-george-community-1.1571483

Pre-festival Media
Fox News Morning Marketplace
Richmond.com
WTVR 6 Richmond This Morning

See more images below:

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Our Members are

Descendants of (or  interested in) the Czech/Slovaks who settled in
the  State of  Virginia,  including the counties of Dinwiddie,
Chesterfield, Greensville,  Henrico, Hanover, New Kent,
Prince George and Surry between  1885 and 1920.

Co-founded in 2003 by Joyce Pritchard
and Marie Pearson (www.mariepearson.com)

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Our Mission is to
Discover,
Document and Promote
Our  Czech/Slovak
Heritage

Welcome – vítejte …vitajte!

email: virginiaczechslovak@gmail.com
http://www.vaczechslovak.org

Our 3rd Annual Festival included the Opening of  the Cultural Heritage Building and Gallery featuring the Czechs & Slovaks who immigrated into Southside Virginia beginning in the late 1880s

FUN – FOOD- MUSIC- DISPLAYS

Scald milk. Remove from heat, add sugar and butter; stir allowing to melt while cooling. Set aside. Dissolve yeast in 1/4 cup warm water. Set aside. Add salt to 4 cups flour. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, add the egg and other wet ingredients to the flour adding more flour as needed to form a soft dough. Knead until soft and pliable about 10 minutes by hand or until dough pulls away from the bowl in one piece if using a mixer.
Place dough into a greased bowl and allow to rise until doubled in size. Once the dough has doubled in size, remove to a lightly floured surface and gently deflate. Divide dough in half. Cut each half into 1/4 and continue to cut each section in equal parts until each piece is slightly larger than a golf ball. Form into rounds and place in greased pans or baking sheets. Cover and let rise until doubled. Once doubled in size for the second time, make deep indentations in each roll ( a small glass whose bottom is dipped in flour may work well or you may use the fingers of both hands.)  Next, brush the  outer surface of the roll with a beaten egg then spoon in the filling. It will take about 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoon of filling for each. Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes until golden brown. Cool. This dough recipe can also be used to make poppy seed rolls.

Poppy Seed Filling
Grind 2 cups poppy seeds (set aside)

1 cup milk
3 cups sugar
2 T cornstarch
cook until thick (as custard)
Add poppy seeds, remove from heat.
Cool. Store in refrigerator for several weeks.
Makes 6 cups filling.

The Czech Singers performing at Sacred Heart’s Annual Festival
                    Sunday, October 27, 2015

Several descendants of the Virginia Czech and Slovak immigrants have learned to sing many of the old folk songs that their ancestors brought with them and sang at least 100 years ago at their social gatherings. You may be familiar with KOLÍNE, KOLÍNE, TÁ NAŠE PÍSNIČKA ČESKÁ, and
 ŠLA NANYNKA DO ZELÍ, three of several that the Czech Singers have sung at various times and places. The group sings the National anthems of the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic and our National Anthem, The Star Spangled Banner. 

The Virginia Czech & Slovak Heritage Society’s delegation included the following presenters:

• Marie Blaha Pearson & John Moser – HOW A SMALL SETTLEMENT, NEW BOHEMIA (1915) INSPIRED A HERITAGE CENTER
• Amanda Vtgipilson, U.S. Army’s Women’s Museum & Prince George County Regional Heritage Center – WRITTEN IN STONE: THE VALUE OF COMMUNITY-BASED CEMETERY PRESERVATION
• Victor Zitta – Mississippi State U, Emeritus – “STRONG WOMEN” AND THE EXPERIENCE OF EMIGRATION AND IMMIGRATION – LYDIA ZITOVA, BOHEMIAN IMMIGRANT GIRL.

The festival, including the exhibits and mini drama, is free. Food and beverages will be available for purchase. All proceeds will go toward the Czech and Slovak Galleries to be located at the Prince George County Regional Heritage Center.  Bring your family for a fun, different and interesting day. For more information visitwww.virginiaczechslovak.org or call 303-863-0212

This coming Saturday, April 26, Norfolk will host the annual NATO Festival. The Czech and Slovak Republic representatives of NATO have cordially invited you to attend the 61st Annual Parade of Nations, which begins at 10:00 a.m.

The Czech delegation will display their Karlstein float and welcome visitors to their tent. More information can be found at the links below:
http://azaleafestival.org/  http://azaleafestival.org/events/event/61st-annual-parade-of-nations/