Recent Commentary

Friday January 25, 2013
This week I made contact with an individual on ancestry.com who became interested in our family tree. It turns out a gentlemen named William Winters found he had some relatives in our family. William Winters is the son of Charles Winters. Charles Winters is the son of Paul Jack Winters and Ann Karas Winters. As we shared information with each other, William told me that Bobby (Bob) Riddle is still living and lives near William in Milton-Freewater, Oregon. William also shared the following information with me...

Bob moved out there to Milton Freewater district at about age 13. He stayed in the Hermiston, Hepner area for his whole life (he is still alive). He is a farmer/rancher, with a good reputation in the family and area as a solid man. He is a very pleasant man to speak to and I have gone to his farm to visit a couple times over the years. He has out survived two of his younger brothers (Mike & Paul) the youngest brother (Stormy) lives in Washinton. Ann had Stormy in her 40's. Her husband Paul Jack died of Parkinson's in 1980. Ann lived out her life on Oak street until the early 90's.
Sunday July 1, 2012
Over the past four days I had the opportunity to visit Plattsmouth, Omaha and Lincoln Nebraska. I was fortunate enough to connect with Barbara Stobbe Fuller, Shirley Warga Dasher and Ruth Warga Johnson and their families. We had a great time sharing Karas stories and photos. I came back with over 300 images I will be sharing on the website. I have posted several today, but many more are coming. I also had a chance to visit the Plattsmouth and Omaha courthouses to gather marriage and deed records along with details of Mike Karas' case against the Cudahy Packing Plant. I look forward to sharing all this great new information with you over the coming days.

Friday June 15, 2012
About a week ago, Barbara Fuller Stobbe provided some details about Shirley Warga Dasher (daughter of Bessie Karas and Albert Warga). I googled Shirley and found she is a local produce farmer in Plattsmouth. I was able to locate her email address and made contact with her. Shirley has provided some great details about the actual address where Matej (Mike) and Marie (Mary) Karas lived in Plattsmouth.

Additionally, I obtained new details about Anna Michalova's mother, Anna Cibulkova, from Sarka. I have included a vital records link for Anna Cibulkova's birth.

Wednesday February 29, 2012
This week I had a great surprise. I received an email from Barbara Stobbe Fuller. Barbara is the daughter of Agnes Karas Stobbe. Agnes was the daughter of Marie and Matej Karas. Agnes is my grandfather's sister.

Barbara told me she googled "Mike Karas Omaha" and came across this website. I was thrilled that the internet search brought Barbara and I into contact.

Barbara has several photos that she found in her mother's things when Agnes died. Barbara has been kind enough to allow me to share those photos and stories on this website.

I look forward to learning more about the Karas family from Barbara.

Tuesday January 24, 2012
Several weeks ago, I wrote a letter to Frank Karas Jr (Frantisek Karas' son). Today I received a phone call from Frank.
Frank is the second of five sons of Frantisek Karas. Frank was born in 1930. His older brother Richard was born in 1928 and is deceased. Frank has three younger brothers... Walter (born 1932), Bob (born 1934) and Stanley (born 1937).
Stanley is the same age as Farley Karas and they both graduated from the same high school in Omaha.
Frank has two daughters, Shannon and Debbie, who live close to him in Missouri. Frank's wife's name is Donna.
Frank confirmed that his grandparents, Matej and Marie, did not actually live in an underground house. Their house was a normal above ground house with an underground basement.
Frank told me his fondest memories of his dad is when the entire family would BBQ in the back yard. Frank also remembers visiting his grandparents on the farm and recalls slaughtering a pig and eating it.
Also, Frank's dad Frantisek met his wife Pauline Vana when she and her family moved to Nebraska from the Waco, Texas area. Frank had a son named Michael that died of leukemia in 1985. Frank worked 45 years and retired from Sutherlands.

Saturday January 14, 2012
Today I learned from Petra that Karel Blažek's son and grandson are currently living near Olešná. Karel was a good childhood friend of Petra's grandfather Vaclav. Karel was able to make it to the United States in May 1914 even when Vaclav and Matej Karas Jr's son were returned home to Olešná. Karel was later drafted by the United States for World War I in 1917. Karel took on the name Charles Blazek when he lived in the United States. He settled in Santa Rosa, California and was listed as a farmer in the US census records throughout the 1930s and 1940s, however, one census record has him listed as a carpenter. Charles Blazek was married to Mary. Charles died on August 1, 1971 in Santa Rosa, California at the age of 71. His wife Mary was born on November 21, 1896 and died on September 25, 1988 in Santa Rosa, California. At this time, I do not know the circumstances around when nor how Karel's son and grandson returned to the Czech Republic.

Saturday January 7, 2012
A couple weeks ago I wrote a letter to Roman Říha. Petra provided me with his name as a possible Soucek descendant. Today, I received a wonderful email from his sister Lenka Říhová. Lenka's grandmother is Milada Součková [Brzoňová]. I believe Milada's father was Vaclav Soucek of Babice House #24. Vaclav was my Marie Souckova's half-sister. Marie Souckova is my grandmother and her father was Josef Soucek who is also Vaclav Soucek's father. However, Vaclav Soucek's birth mother was Frantiska Krajickova (Josef's second wife after his first wife Anna Michalova died).

Wednesday January 4, 2012
Today we learned that Jan Michal is listed as Bohumil Soucek's godfather on his birth record. Jan Michal was a relative of Anna Michalova (Marie Souckova's mother). To summarize the people involved with the birth of Bohumil...

* Marie Souckova (Bohumil's birth mother)
* Vaclav Capek (Bohumil's registered guardian at time of birth)
* Jan Michal (Bohumil's godfather)
* Matej Karas Jr (Bohumil's father who raised him. Not Bohumil's biological father.)

Tuesday January 3, 2012
I've recently become curious about how Matej Karas, Marie Souckova and their four sons Bohumil Soucek, Frantisek Karas, Jan Karas and Vaclav Karas were able to find the money to come to the United States. According to the article Their Journey To America, the fare for an individual was $25 in 1909. This represents about 2-3 weeks worth of wages for a coal miner. Also, consider that a coal miner in the United States probably made much more money than a laborer in Bohemia in 1909. This would mean $25 for a Bohemian emigrate was probably a very sizeable amount of money.
Most immigrants booked into the less expensive ‘steerage" class, which cost at least $25. This was about two or three weeks wages for a coal miner. Second class cabins cost about $20 more.
This means it would have cost the family $150 US dollars for passenger fare only. This does not include travel from Olesna to Bremen and Hamburg which is 400 miles apart. Additionally, three of the boys had a total of $300 on their person when they reached the United States. This is a total of $450. If $25 represents 2-3 weeks of a coal miner's salary, then $450 could constitute 36-54 weeks of salary. This would mean the family may have had an entire year's worth of salary saved for the trip. I find this remarkable considering the family was very poor. How did they come by this much money? Is it possible that the biological father of Bohumil did indeed pay Marie Souckova a considerable amount of money to remain silent about the father of her child? Did the Matej Karas Jr family use the money for passage to the United States?

Thursday December 29, 2011
Today, I learned definitively that I indeed have no Karas blood in my veins. Guardianship records indicate that my grandfather, Bohumil Soucek, was not the biological son of Matej Karas Jr.

Bohumil's mother was Marie Souckova of Babice #24, but Bohumil's father was listed as "unknown" on his birth certificate. Bohumil's guardianship record indicates that he was illegitimate and that Matej Karas Jr did not take steps to record Bohumil as his legitimate son. However, it is admirable that Matej Karas Jr married Marie Souckova and raised Bohumil as his own.

According to the guardianship record, a gentlemen named Vaclav Capek (a peasant living in Babice) took a vow of guardianship for Bohumil on November 29, 1905. However, it is not clear whether or not he is the father. It's possible that Vaclav Capek is Bohumil's godfather. Below are the comments of Martin Kocarik (our Czech Genealogist) about the significance of Vaclav Capek on the guardianship record...

The relation of Vaclav Capek with Bohumil Soucek is not specified in the document. Most probably he is not father. Being father he would be mentioned in the column 3. On purpose I translated the previous record of Petr Josef to show you the note about legitimacy if the father confessed paternity. Sarka talked about the issue with the archive specialist and was told that it is quite clear that father is unknown. There must be some reason why Marie did not declare Bohumil’s father and lost her title to aliments. May be the father was a landlord she worked for and she got compensation out of court to avoid shame on a small village. That was not easy to have out of wedlock child that time. But please note this is only our presumption. Normally the marriages used to take place in the place of bride’s residence. This is not the case. Marie may be did not want to draw attention to herself in Babice-Okrouhlice or simply her parents did not have enough money. I think that Vaclav Capek was godfather or employer.