Day 4 - Sunday June 12 - Travel Prague to Western Bohemia to see the ancestral home of the Lodes family

We found a church (St. Gall) within 3 blocks of the hotel and attended an 8:00 AM Mass. Built about the 13th century it is a local parish church that is not normally open to the public as a national shrine. Again, very ornate Baroque decor. Only one mass on Sunday and the attendance amounted to no more than 70 or 80 people. The pews had wooden kneelers which were only part of the sacrafice --- the other part was that the wooden benches had no cushions (that was okay) but the back of each pew had a wooden ledge at the top of the pew that protruded about 4 inches into your back --- not exactly made for comfort. Carol loved it --- not!

Met up with Marie Zahn who would be our guide, translator and driver for the next two days. She and her husband operate a genealogy service which includes trips to the locales where family members originated.

Trip to western Bohemia was about 105 miles travelling through hop growing country until we reached the village of Ovesne Kladruby (formeraly known as Habakladrau) which is where Wenzel Weber Lodes and his wife Anna Steiner lived. Wenzel Lodes was my great grandfather on my dad´s mother´s side (i.e. Elizabeth Lodes / Elizabeth Ruppert). Wenzel and Anna came to the U.S. in the late 1800´s, so there were no longer any Lodes family members in the area (which we knew long before going to the Czech Republic). Thanks to Jack Donahue we had a copy of the baptismal certificate for Anton Lodes who was their son and eventual brother to Elizabeth. No only is the the name the village on the baptismal certificate, it also has the house number of the family. Anna Steiner, wife of Wenzel, came from an even smaller village (Vysocany --- formerly known as Wischezahan) which is about 2 km. from from Ovesne Kladruby. Fortunately, the Czech government between 1820 and 1860 did land surveys of every village for the puspose of taxation, etc. With the village name and the house number Marie Zahn secured a copy of the survey so we could identify the exact location of the Wenzel Lodes house.

Today Ovesne Kladruby has less than 200 residents, of which 25% are retired farmers, a few still farm in the area, and the remainder work in a nearby town. Before the trip Marie Zahn had talked with the mayor´s wife who functions as a bit of an historian for the area. Hence, when we arrived we met first with the mayor´s wife who told us that they do not have very many visitors looking for former families of the area. Even though it is small dying village she was proud to tell us that they had historical records for the town going back to 1242. She also told us that only a few of the current inhabitants were from families dating back into the 1800´s. This is because at the end of WWII German families were forcibly moved back to Germany except those who claimed Czech ancestry. The forced removal of the German families by the Communists resulted in re-settlement of other families into the homes and land of the Germans that had been forced to move.

The house where Wenzel Lodes no longer still stands, though house of another family member, Artur, is still standing, but it has been renovated from what it was in the 1860´s. It is occupied today, but according to the mayor´s wife the person living there was not a very sociable person and hence she suggest that we not approach him. Anna Steiner´s parents lived in Wischezahn, however, today there are no inhabitants of the village (or what´s left of it). We drove to the village to find one very large brick house that was in shambles and overgrown with weeds. All the other houses no longer existed or only had partial walls remaining. Aside from the one house left standing, the only other recognizable landmark was the pond that was at the center of the village.

The church that Lodes family attended still stands but is in very much need of repair. It does have a new roof which is part of a renovation effort, but the rest of the exterior looks like it has had no maintenace for a hundred years. In reality, the church fell into disrepair once the Communists took over the land. We did not get inside the church this day and had to come back on Monday for it to be opened for us.

Likewise, the school that would have been attended by Anton Lodes is still standing, but just barely. The town wants to eventually renovate it just as it does the church, but this is a relatively poor community and the prospects are not good.

We ended the day by going about 10 km to Marianske Lazne which is a major spa town just north of Ovesne Kladruby. Here we stayed overnight at the Richard Hotel. There are many old hotels in the town of 15,000 or so, and most have been or are in a state of renovation. The Richard Hotel is a former house that was alledgedly visited by the composer Richard Wagner. In 2000 it was totally renovated and is very nice hotel. It sits immediately across the street from a Russian Orthodox Church which I had to visit to see the icons.

So far the food had been great, with Marie Zahn suggesting a variety of ¨traditional¨ Czech food, none of which my cardiologist would approve of . . .