Agnes's mystery birthplace cracked!
- ournewblog
- Aug 14, 2017
- 2 min read
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After decades of frustration with Agnes's impossible birthplace, last week we revisited the mystery. From Vera Jean Nowotny's invaluable text, The Descendants of Wenceslaus and Agnes Solek Nowotny, here's all we knew.
Not only does "Redwedio" not show up on any map, but even a Google search has been fruitless. We knew that this was a transcription of a translation--we just didn't know how to trace the garbled word back to a real place name.
With a little knowledge of both Slavic and Germanic languages, we realized that the "io" ending isn't Czech or German. However, "ic" is a Slavic word ending, and a "c" could easily be mistaken for an "o." We tried changing it to an "ic" and doing an internet search. This time, something happened.
The results for "Redwedic" included only two hits, both German land gazettes for Bohemia (one from 1867 and one from 1820). However, "Redwedic" still wouldn't show up on any map search.
In the blurbs for those two hits, we managed to identify a couple of place names: Debernik and Sobeslau. While "Debernik" proved a dead end, a map search for "Sobeslav" led us to city only 13 miles from Bechyne, where we know Agnes and Wenceslaus's sons were born.
And when we zoomed in on Sobeslav, we discovered a small town by the name of Nedvêdice outside Sobeslav, about three miles to the west, toward Bechyne.
"Nedvêdice" looks sufficiently similar to "Redwedio," and an "N" in the old German script could be so easily mistaken for an "R" that Google mistranslated it!
Bingo. We pursued that lead.
In Nedvêdice is a Catholic church, St. Nicholas. We know Agnes to have been Catholic, as she's buried in the churchyard of St. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in New Braunfels.
By Lenka Tylšarová - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29584071
Miraculously, the parish records of St. Nicholas are online in the Czech DigiArchivy. Among the records is a baptism entry for the 6 of March 1817.
We feel confident (and crazy excited) that "Agneta Saulek" is our Agnes. The record also includes the names of her parents though we've had to hire an archivist to help us decipher the script. We are currently awaiting more information about her parents (probably a Vojtech and Eva Saulek!!) and grandparents. And you better believe we'll post here as soon as we hear!
You can also watch Agnes on FamilySearch to be updated as we add more information.
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