The Vokouns of Chicagoland

There is a trail that connects Stupice and Kralovice which are villages to the east of Prague and lie about 2 miles apart. At the halfway point of that trail is a small rest and picnic area . It's called U Tří Kaštanů (Three Chestnuts). There is a fantastic signpost to keep you from losing your way between the villages. It is the perfect spot to start a tour of the Vokoun home region in the Czech countryside. I hope to get my picture there some day.  Three Chestnuts (U Tří Kaštanů) sign post I should mention at the outset that it was an incredible stroke of luck, from a genealogic standpoint, that Jan Vokoun's birthplace was listed in his obituary. Czech records are not nationalized and exist almost solely at the local level. Without a starting point, searching for people in the historical record is needle-in-haystack endeavor. I have run into a brick wall with other names, such as Otradovec, that while rarer, don't have a place of origin.  We start with the map of Prague...

I'm kicking this post off with photo showing traditional Bohemian dress to segue to this 1904 article from the Chicago Tribune that gives an interesting description of Bohemian life in the city. "Simple, colorful, comfortable," do you agree? I found this picture of a Bohemian head shawl circa 1890 but it doesn't match my idea of simple, colorful, comfortable so I'm unsure which of the photos is closer to that of the day.  I did some research on the circle dance and this was the best video I found. Looks like fun. Czech bread is called 'houska'. It's a braided sweet bread. Some of Charles and Mary Vokoun's great grandchildren fondly recall how good it was when their grandmother baked it. I found a recipe in case you are inclined to make some. Send me a loaf, please?! St. Procopius is still an active Catholic Parish for anyone who has become "lax in your religious duties." It now serves a mostly Hispanic congregation. St. Procopius altar ...

"Where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average." - Garrison Keillor I love Prairie Home Companion on NPR and the news from Lake Wobegon. Since the Louis Vokoun family has strong Minnesota roots, I think it appropriate to review Minnesotan stereotypes . The most important of which (in my mind, anyhow) are: 1) they are exceedingly nice, 2) they hate the movie Fargo which dismays me since it along with Lake Wobegon serves as my cultural reference to the state ,  and 3) their diet consists primarily of 'hot dish' which I fondly remember from my own Minnesotan grandmother and can best be described as an entire meal's ingredients thrown into a 9x12 pan and baked for exactly one hour. They also have quite an affinity for cute, burrowing rodents but then nobody is perfect. Louis John Vokoun was born on January 31st 1862. His mother Anne Bechyne would die 9 months later. He was the fourth child and third to live to ad...