hi Tom; Wow! Can't believe it. I always heard of Cyrill in Canada. My grandma Agnes Hranka Van Duesen Rice always talked about her brother in Canada. Her sister Josephine Hranka Zimic was my moms Aunt, my Great Aunt.. Aunt Josephines daughter Rose Zimic died in the last few years in N.Y.C., N.Y. She never married. Her brother John Hranka, my great Uncle, died some time ago. He never married either.He used to work in the shipyards in Brooklyn.My Grandpa William Van Duesen changed his name to RICE as he got mad at the family. I came out to Californis in 1948 and while here , I met my great aunt Hennrietta Van Duesen Schine. in 1949, I came back to live with her, met my husband and got married at 16 years of age. Still with Charlie, 60 + years.When here in 1948 ,I also met my 2 Great Uncles Henry and Charlie Van Duesen.There is so much more. Ne xt time. nancy

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Moravia, that's right ! on the ellis island passenger list /immigration list, i found great- Uncle John Hranka. I think 1912 he came over and went to "his sister, Agnes (my Grandma) home in N.Y.C." which is what it asks where he was going on the "Docket" He was listed as Johan Hranka, i think. So I figured from that my grandma came here before him. I remember when i was about 7 yrs.old, and we lived in the brownstone tenements at 315 E 69th st. in N.Y.C. ,grandma needed money and she sold her share of the farm ( she had 200 acres ) for 200.00 to Uncle John.Ohboy! was there some trouble that time.! everybody was mad at everybody else.ever hear about that?nancy

my mom went to see uncle cyrill once, i think. when she was young. she had to have gone with her mom, agnes and her dad william and maybe her brother william. Grandpa had a car. my folks didn't have a car, but for 2 weeks in 1942. couldn't get gas, so dad sold it. Aunt Josephine, hranka zimic my grandmas sis had 2 kids, johnny and rose. both gone. johnny lived in phoenix and had a hearing aid business. he used to arrange songs for tex ritter, i remember.Do u have any pics of uncle cyrill ? i have s few of grandma, one of aunt josephine,one of uncle john, i'll have to find them , and will e-mail them to you, or get them made, and send them to you.re; the property, i think the germans took the property over and let whoever was there stay on it and work the land. did u hear that ? take care, talk to you again, nancy

Oh my gosh ! you went to the old homestead !!! how wonderful !! tell me more about it or send me a pic of it. i remember seeing a pic of the house when i was a little girl. When my grandma and grandpa came to live with us in 1946, she died Jan 4 , 1947 in Flushing Hospital in Flushing,Queens, N.Y. She was my world. anyhow my uncle Bills wife (?) Aunt Lou , my godmother (!!) took just about everything of value my grandma had before my mom could get anything but them. Uncle Bill had a car, my Dad didn't. Aunt Lou was a witch. She left Uncle Bill shortly after that.-- a long time ago funny that same thing happened when my brothers and sis wanted to put my mom and dad in a home. By the time I got to N>Y> they had cleaned them out. But i made out .. I got my mom and dad, and took care of them till they died. take care, nancy

hi Tom; Lorenz ? my maiden name is Nancy Ann Lorenz !!! now what did the lorenz family do.?? Whatever it was, like I told you, the fit hit the shan, when Grandma sold whatever part of the farm she had interest in to Uncle John.I don't know what part she had of it, but she sold it all to Uncle John for 200.00- that i remember so very well.at one time my grandparents were well-off. They had a cleaning and dyeing business in NYC. They dyed silks for wealthy people,famous people, and i heard tell the president.. At one time he got in an arguement with a neighbor, ripped all the plumbing out of a 3 story home and moved out !!let me know about lorenz...take care, nancy

Hello Tom; I know for sure my dad would never have done anything to harm the name Lorenz. He was proud of it, even tho it wasn't his real name. He was adopted by the Lorenz family when he was months old. You see, his father and mother were on a pilgramige..my grandfather, Anton F. Hanslian was the first man to walk around the world. --and he pushed his wife Leopoldine and young daughter, also named Leopoldine in a sort of carriage with him.dad was born on the trip in new jersey feb 6, 1907, and they left him and never came back. I have all the original documentation, that Dad had.His mom died in July 1907 in Sunderland,England, and his ..dad never came back for my Dad .more later, take care, Nancy

hi again Tom; So my Dad kept the name Lorenz for the rest of his life. They were not young when they took my Dad, either. Did Uncle John work for my Grandparents? Don't know. Tho I do know he took care of my mom when she was a baby. Fed her coffee in a bottle, and she wound up getting ricketts.....He did work in the Brooklyn naval shipyards for many years. when he was young, he went into the seminary to become a priest. but didn't stay. tho he never married, either. Aunt Josephine's husband John Zimic moved down to Florida when he retired, she wouldn't go with him.He was killed while riding his bicycle . About all for now, Take care, nancy

hi tom; there are a lot of 1/2 written messages somewhere out there in cyberspace. someday someone is gonna find some of them and put them in bookform,and they will be 1/2 interesting !!oh well, I do remember something about the Commodore,That was so many years ago...So, did you ever take any pictures of the farmhouse in Kuzlov ? (?) Tell me something about Uncle Cyrill and his wife. I don't ever remember hearing your Grandma's name,,,How many children did they have ?.do u have an e-mail? mine is nanacole@verizon.net if you ever want to use it. Take care, this doesn't give me any room to chat.... take care... cousin nancy

Hi Tom; Yes!! on the Ellis Island site, I found Uncle John and he said he was going to his sister Agnes' home. I think you had to have someone to go to and "sponsor " you, and give you work back then. (not like now,haha) So being that grandpa and grandma owned a dry cleaning business , that would have been the perfect reason to be able to come to America.I know that in the 1930 Census, my father Robert Lorenz was living with my grandparents (G/G Rice.) because he came down from Poughkipsee to marry mymom in Dec. 1930. Uncle John might have been living with them too. Dad had worked for Vassar College, When he got to NYC he got a job in a bank .Did you know Gr.Aunt Josephine had diabetes? Not my Grandma,( her sis,) or my mom .more next page, nancy

continued;--Sure it's okay for you to post in on Facebook. Did you find me on Facebook ? My daughter Karen Munger is on Facebook. Also my Sis in Law Arlyne Lorenz is too. You'll see my brother Kenneth with Arlyne. They live in Dix Hills, Long Island, N.Y.Also my grandsons Herb Munger and Wesley Felix, Karen's sons.Karen and her husband Dennis and Herb and his wife Brandi live in Corona, Calif. Hey,I just got 35 pages of info on my husbands Great Grandma and her family that lived in Tennessee, and Alabama way way back. Isn't that neat ?? take care, cousin Nancy

hi Tom;; A furrier !!!! I didn't know that !!!!! Wow, this is great that we can learn so much info from each other on our families...... Goodnite.....Nancy

Hi Tom ; No, I never even knew Grandma's parents names. This is awful.!!! Being that they came over from the Moravia, (I thought Prague, Cz. ) I'm SO happy you found me. I am learning so much of my heritage from you. I have spent my last 60 years finding out about my husbands family on both sides, being he was adopted at 4 yrs.old and knew zilch about his biological family. His adopted Mom died when he was 9, and his adopted dad married a very young girl,(19-20) and she helped him spend all his money. Then he sold the ranch, was coming to Ca. with wife and b-i-law, and b-i-law murdered Mr.Cole AND his own sister. more.....

Again, it's me....Anyhow, his adopted dad , Wm.Bryant Cole and wife Aileen are buried in Kingman ,Az. They got Ted Patterson in Little Rock,Arkansas a yr. later, broke,in jail for fighting, and put him in prison for 20 years.Don't know what happened to him. Charlie never cared. So,when we married in 1949, I WENT ON A PILGRMAGE to find his real folks. I found his 1/2 sis and 2 of his 1/2 brothers, and his full brother and we knew them. One of his brothers walked away from his wife, and daughter. she couldn't find him. I found her, tho, then she remarried and I lost her, I found him when he died, and found his ex and told her and am in touch with their daughter now. . Also found his baby sis, who died in 1929 at 1 1/2 yrs. old of pneumonia in Okla. More next time. Nancy

This is more----- I knew that someone stayed back home to take care of the farm,I didn't know if it was a brother or sister of my Grandma, tho. Marina.What a pretty name. Did you meet her when you went to the farm ? Grandma never talked of her family. What was her mom's name ? Do you know ? I loved my Grandma very much. She was my world. I'd go to her apt. when II got off from school. She'd give me a yeastcake.She made a small sack and put herbs in it and I wore it around my neck. She said it would ward off sickness,. Enough of that, I'm getting tearyeyed .. Will say goodnight. Nancy

Hi Tom; I still don.t know what you mean by posting it on Facebook---Where on Facebook ?? I saw your page on Facebook. Is that where you mean? I'm going to look up George, our Great Grandfather.(Wow! that sounds strange !) We had an earthquake here tonight, actually by the MEXICAN BORDER.tHAT'S ABOUT 135 miles from here in Whittier. My husbands fathers mom came from Penn.Lancaster. She was from the Herr family. They came from the Palitiinate in Germany and started the Mennonites in Pennsylvania. We went back to see the Hans Herr House in Lancaster, and all his relatives in the Willow Street Cemetery in Lancaster in 2003.Someplace along the line the Kendig and Hershey family came into the fold Talk to you later, nancy

Hi Tom-2nd cousin-sounds neat ! So, Uncle John came here in 1912,(I think) to look for his dad, and so George must have died before that. Tell me, do you know if George's wife came with him ? It doesn"t sound like it. He came alone ? What happened to his wife.? Did she die in Kuzelov ? What was her name ?Do you know ? oh, I.m full of questions tonight .Charlie's dad was born in Terre Haute,In. in 1858,went to Okla. and was in the "Oklahoma Land Rush" in 1889. I have a copy of the book on the land rush, and his Dad was in it continued-----

continued--and it has maps and shows the 160 acres he homesteaded. I pulled the Chain of Title at the Building Dept when we were in Chandler,Ok. in 2002, and found out that his Warrant Deed to the 160 acres was signed by President Mc Kinley. We went to the property (it was down the RED DIRT ROAD !!) and we asked the current owners if we could take pics of the property. She was so sweet, There was 2 artisian lakes on the property. So beautiful !!! They'd built a huge log house in 2002. we went to the cemetery and stood at his dads grave. did it the next year too, in 2003. continued

continued---The museum in Chandler had a pair of Mr. Whallon's shoes there. He was the tallest man in town, 6'6" and had size 14 shoes.Charlie is only 6'1", but our son is 6'7" and 2 of our 3 daughters are 6' tall. My oldest daughters 2 sons are 7' and 7'1" tall. So am happy to see my family takes after his real dad. Sure got off track tonight ! getting late, will say goodnight. ,, Cousin Nancy

hi tom ---hope all is okay with you and family. haven't heard from you in a couple of weeks. By the way, my grandma agnes hranka rice and grandpa william rice and uncle john hranka are all buried in St.Mary's cemetery in Queens County, i think it's in Flushing, N.Y. I'm not sure if my uncle Bill Rice is there too. i know my mother buried him, but it could be in Calverton National Cemetery out in Long Island, n.y. where my dad's brother by adoption is buried (otto Lorenz) and where we buried my husbands brother, James D.Whallon-Schmitt. Jim was adopted by someone other than the people who adopted my husband (the Coles) Jim died in nyc , Don't know if he had any ins. or $ , but it was winter Dec 3rd, and i had my Mom who was not well, so we couldn't go back, and we made arrangements and had him buried all by phone.take care, cousin nancy

hi Tom-----By the way, someone found me on Ancestry---this is amazing----do u remember me telling you about my dad's father who walked around the world 1900-1907  --and when he and his wife and daughter got to New Jersey, my dad was born and they left him with people who adopted him. His mom died and dad never came back for him. couldn't ever find his dad. well, they also left a girl baby in a barn in Michigan and never came back for her too. what a story this is. she looks just like my grandma, my dads mom!!!!! i still cant get over this. one of these days i'm gonna write a book.  merry Christmas. cousin nancy

Hi Tom,    Thanks for the note.  Yes, there are many people from Swartz Creek who are Czech or Slovak.  My mom's family came there from Ohio and PA coal mining areas in the late 20s.  My mom is now 97 and living with us.  I asked her if she knew of people from Moravia and she said yes, but she couldn't remember any names for me.  I do know that there was a Czech group which was formed many years ago called the Friendship Club, and they had many dances and events thru the 1920s - 60s.   I did not grow up in Swartz Creek myself, so I do not know alot about the "old timers".   Sorry, I couldn't be of more help.  Carol