Category Archives: Spies William Roland

Joseph Bosek and Maria Votava (1833-1924)

Chart | Passenger | First_Baptism_In_America | Death | Children | Census

Immigrants from Bohemia. Earliest persons of this line.

These narrative reports include the source information for Joseph Bosek and Maria Votava

What's so great about these records?
There is a passenger record, showing all the family! They arrived at Baltimore on the 30th of March, 1872. This is a family history treasure.

We know nothing about their ancestors. But this circle chart shows the family they raised.


Chart:


1872 Passenger Record

Ship Berlin

The ship Berlin arrived at Baltimore in 1872. It had sailed from Bremen.

Bosek family

Passenger list for the Berlin, 1872
numbers 237-245 are Boseks.
Joseph Boschek and his wife, Mary, brought six children. And there is a 24-year-old woman who might be Joseph’s sister.


1873 Baptism of Daughter Therese

The record of the baptism of their daughter Therese, their first child born in America, is quite informative. Notice the diacritical marks on the Czech names. Czech was spoken at St. John Nepomuk.

St. John Nepomuk, St. Louis, Missouri
5th entry names both her parents
(film 008198618, image 223)


1924 Death of Maria in Illinois

East St. Louis, St. Clair County, Illinois
The death record names her father and her husband.

This is a transcription of the Illinois death certificate. For a small fee we can send for a copy of the document. The real death certificate is a valuable primary record. The transcription is only valuable because it tells us that a primary record is available. As you can see, it is likely that the transcriber had trouble reading the handwriting on the original.
(Transcription of the Illinois Death Certificate)
1924 Death-Mary Votava Bosek

Primary records of their children

These primary records have information about Joseph Bosek and Mary Votava Bosek.

1934 Death of Daughter Anna in Illinois

Death record of their daughter, Anna Bartos, says that Anna Bartos’ mother was Anna Votava. (Most records say her first name was Mary or Maria.) The informant on the death certificate is Frank Bartos, husband of the deceased.

(Transcription of the Illinois Death Certificate)
1934 Death-Daughter Anna

1941 Death of Daughter Mary in Tennessee

Tennessee death certificate
names both Mary’s parents

Census Records

The 1890 census was lost in a fire.
I cannot find Maria in the 1920 census.

1880 Census

St. Louis, Missouri
lines 10-17
(Notice the diacritical marks on names. It appears the census taker could understand Czech. And there are lots of neighbors who were also born in Bohemia. Present in the family are all five children who were born in Bohemia. But where is the little girl who was baptized in 1873 in St. Louis?)

1900 Census

St. Louis, Missouri
lines 52-53
(Mary says she has had 10 children, 7 of whom are living. She’s been married 51 years.)
(The neighboring family is that of their eldest daughter, Anna Sobotka.)

1910 Census

Memphis, Tennessee
line 19
(Mary is shown in the household of her son-in-law, Albert Hora. She is a widow who says that she had 10 children, 7 of whom are living.)