The Washichek Family Lineage

THE FAMILY NAME
Vašíček to Washichek

Before immigrating to the United States, the Washichek family name was, Vašíček.
The family name change was brought about sometime after the 1860s arrival to the United State, by the first paternal family members. The Americanized version of the name was created by my great grandfather John Washichek (1849-1911). The tale goes, whenever John Vasicek was outside the local Bohemian community, here in the United States, the family name, Vasicek, was being mispronounced. He grew tired of not hearing the name pronounced as it was in the old country or as within the Bohemian immigrant community, so he decided to change it phonetically for English speaking Americans.

In old world Bohemia (Europe), unlike American English, letters have different pronunciation:
● The “V” was pronounced more like a “W”.
● The “S” was pronounced as “SH”.
● The “C” would be pronounced as “CH”.

Hence, John proceeded to Americanize the name. In the United States, the original family name “Vasicek”, would be pronounced by the Americans incorrectly as,
● VA-SEE-SEC.
When John change and added some characters, he accomplished the American pronounced form as,
● WASH—E—CHECK (with a long “ e ” sound) or
● WASH—Í—CHECK (with a short “ i ” sound, “eh”)
and decided to have the name officially spelled for American English as,
● W A S H I C H E K

The spelling of the name can be very confusing. Such as the case with John’s father, Wenzel. His name is seen in various census reports, passenger list, etc., spelled as Wasichek, missing the additional “h” as John used. Then again in another case, the name is spelled correctly as Washichek,and even yet again another spelling with the name as Washecheck. Surprising, even to this day you can find these spelling along with others, still in use.

At first it was somewhat puzzling finding the many spelling versions of the name. Some of the American transcribed variations include alternate spellings such as:
● Washicheck, ● Washecheck, ● Wasicek, ● Wassicek, etc., etc.
The questions beg, was it actually spelling differences made by other family members, or some other outside source? One explanation for the countless spelling versions as seen on hand-written forms could be simple transcription errors. Caused by individuals making an error while recording the name information to paper. Other situations could include, not understanding the pronunciation because of foreign language and/or heavy accents of the family member being interviewed. Maybe it could have been a simple spelling error by the transcriber. Whatever the circumstances, the difference could be as simple as other Bohemian families simply deciding to spell the name to their own liking. Of course, there is always the question, to what extent did a language barrier influence the spelling issues.

As a side note: Related family members to my great-great-gradfather Wenzel, whom immigrated to America in 1864, all spelled thier last name as I do, Washichek. Later joining his son John, Wenzel followed along with three other of his eleven children, including my great-grandfather John (first to immigrate), followed by Wenzel and children; great-uncle Joseph, great-uncle Wesley, and I belived great-aunt Anna.

Early on I did not realize how many related or non-related Vasiceks immigrated to the United States. It appears the name was more common than I realized. Vasicek immigrants not only came from Bohemia but from multiple countries, including Austria and Germany. Many of these Vasicek immigrants also coped with translation and pronunciation issues of their own. While some would try and achieve an English phonetic spelling to the name pronunciation, others were simply satisfied leaving the name unchanged.

With John and his father Wenzel, all of their direct descendants emigrating to this country spell the name as we know it today. Possibly his brothers, and other relatives may have changed the name differently, or in many cases never changed the spelling and simply left it as Vasicek.

In current day America and having lived with the name Washichek for over 70-years, the name is often mispronounced or better said “butchered” unintentionally by good meaning people. Most are possibly startled when first reading it from a written or typed source and do not know where to separate the syllables. However, some individuals clearly pronounce the name correctly. Many times to save an individual from embarrassment, or realizing they are about to struggle with the name, I simply pronounce the name ahead of their attempt. Of course in the youthful school years, any unusual name gets a lot of teasing with many variations of the name, such as with my experience; Wash-my-neck, Wash-your-check, Wash-a-checkers, even Alphabet, then finally in high school, a coach simply shortened it to “Washi or Washy” and that lived on for many years as a nickname.

INTRODUCTION
The Washichek Family
My Paternal and Maternal Family Lineage of
Simon Vašíček (1656) / Burghart Litzinger (1763)

This family history is being created to provide a written history of the Washichek (Vasicek) family lineage as it applies to my direct family. Hopefully, this information will provide future family members with a starting point for recording their history as they add their own life experiences.

This project started with the aid of my estranged father back in the late 1970s. However, this first endeavor was short-lived, as my father was unable to enlist his siblings in providing their family data and historical information. Sadly, there were great suspicions about my collecting the information. They somehow feared it was a financial scam, even though there was never any money involved. As time went on, my father’s best attempts to put these suspicions to rest failed to persuade his siblings and cousins. He, like myself, gave up when the family’s cooperation failed to yield any substantial data.

However, more recently, I ran across a fabulous website with extensive ancestry data on Bohemian/Czechia family information. It just happens that Susan Chapman had developed and web mastered an Internet website as she researched her immigrant ancestors. Which include, Joseph Vopalensky of Dusejov. She, along with several other researchers, have created a very detailed website with researched surnames including Vopalensky, Duba, Vasicek, Washichek, as well as many other family names. Their extensive research, along with many on-line published documents, and with my memory and notes, aided in the publication of this ancestry lineage of my America/ Bohemian/German family. This is not a detailed historical record or stories of individuals, but a textual form of a family tree. Many thanks to the Vopalensky website for their untiring dedication to research, analysis, translation, and recording of the historical lineage of Bohemian families.

Countries of Origin
(Bohemia & Germany)

The Washichek Family Tree as it pertains to the Richard J. Washichek branch begins with a combination of two ancestor families from Europe. My paternal side of the family is Bohemian from central Europe, while my maternal side begins in Germany and emigrated to the Odessa area in Southern Russia. The assumed Russian side of the family is better known as Black Sea Germans, they were not native nor ethnic Russians, but Germans who emigrated to southern Russia for farming land. As of today those two countries no longer exist under the same country names as they did when early family members immigrated to the United States. Hopefully, the following chapters will attempt to explain the difference between the current day geopolitical names versus the historical names.
(CLICK MAP TO ENLARGE)

Bohemia
(Paternal Family Side)

Throughout the development of this family history, the country name of Bohemia is predominantly used rather than the current country name of the “Czech Republic” or “Czechia,” (not to be confused with Chechnya, a Russian Federation state). This is simply because Bohemia was the officially recognized country name listed in all documents at the time when the Washichek family members immigrated to America. The country names of Czechoslovakia, The Czech Republic or Czechia were simply not around or occupying the same boundaries of Bohemia in the 1860s.
(CLICK MAP OF BOHEMIA TO ENLARGE)

The country of Bohemia has changed dramatically in size as well as in name through the centuries. During its early history, the country continually battled with others until the late 19th century, as did most of its European neighbors. This resulted in countries or better said, Kingdoms, confiscating land, power, and control. Through these early centuries, the country battled fiercely under various monikers such as Bohemia, Duchy of Bohemia, Kingdom of Bohemia, Holy Roman Empire, The Crown of Saint Wenceslas, and later, in more modern days, to Czechoslovakia and on to the current country of the Czech Republic (Czechia). The central European region known as Bohemia evolved 2,500 years ago in the 4th century BC with the arrival and inhabitance of a Celtic tribe to the region. With the settlement of this Celtic tribe, the Boii, the region became known as “Boi-haima” from the Germanic languages meaning “home of the Boii”. The name stayed for some centuries while other groups including the Slavs (1st and 2nd centuries AD) migrated into the general region. During the 9th century, the country was officially known as the Duchy of Bohemia, changing again in the 11th century to the Kingdom of Bohemia.

Then in the 14th century, the name became the Crown of Bohemia. Many more name changes came about over time, including the lands of the Crown of Saint Wenceslas, yes the familiar Christmas carol “Good King Wenceslas” (about the journey of Saint Wenceslaus I, the Duke of Bohemia). After World War I (1918), the central European region was divided into several countries which reorganized Bohemia into a combined country of Czechs and Slovaks, to be known as “Czechoslovakia”.
(CLICK KINGDOM OF BOHEMIA ARMS TO ENLARGE)

As time continued and after World War II, the country discarded democracy becoming a communist country. Shortly thereafter it was invaded and annexed into the Soviet Union (USSR) by Russia. The country continued for years with this name and form of government, but eventually, in the late 1980s the country reinstated democracy and forced out the Soviet Union during the Czech’s “Velvet Revolution.” In 1993 Czechoslovakia split into two separate countries divided along ethnic lines, the Czechs (the Czech Republic) in the west and Slovaks (Slovakia) in the east. Since then, the Czech Republic (Bohemia) created “Czechia” as a singular name for the country, while the official name remains the Czech Republic. This is similar to the Republic of France simply being called France. In American English “Czechia” is pronounced as Check - E - Ah. It should be understood the shorten version of the name is not to be confused with “Chechnya, a Russian Federation state.”

Germans from Russia
(Maternal Family Side)

Throughout the centuries many German communities and enclaves were established throughout Europe, mainly in the east and in Russia. With the development of the Black Sea and Volga enclaves, Germans from various regions were enticed to colonize into Russia. It was during the Czarist years (Tsar) with the promise of land and autonomy that brought about this emigration. It was in the 1700s when Tsarina Catherine II (Catherine the Great) who was the Empress of Russia and later her grandson Czar Alexander I, desire to populate the southern Russian territory. Potential settlers, by agreement, would move to specific areas, in doing so, families would receive approximately 160 acres of land to farm. In addition, settlers would be able to maintain their own German language, customs, traditions, schools, and local government. The agreement would also automatically grant Russian citizenship to those settlers. The proposed resettlement involved two major areas, The Black Sea settlements in the Odessa region and further to the east the Volga settlements along the Volga River region. These two regional areas would come to be known as “The Black Sea German Colonies” and “The Volga River German Colonies” and would see thousands of Germans immigrating to these areas to start new lives and become land owners. Such was the case with my mother’s side of the family which became the Black Sea Germans. These new settlers immigrated from southern Germany in 1808 to the wilderness area of Odessa Russia, then eventually forced to emigrate to the United States.
(CLICK MAP OF THE BLACK SEA/ODESSA TO ENLARGE)

It was these hardy relatives as well as other Germans that developed many colonies surrounding the uninhabited rural areas northwest of the city of Odessa Russia. In particular, one colonized area was known as the Kutschurgan Valley region, with many villages established along banks of the Kutschurgan River. Including one such village established as the village of Baden, founded in 1808 by German families which included my family relatives, the Litzinger, Volk and Walior families. Today, the once established Odessa Russia region is now the independent and democratic governed nation of Ukraine.

The former 1808 village of Baden is currently the southern end of Kuchurhan, a village in the Rozdilna District of Odessa, Ukraine. It is combined with a sister village from the early Germans communities of Baden and Strassburg. This combined village is located along the Kutschurgan River at the north end of the Kutschurgan Reservoir bordering Transnistria in Moldova. The residences of these two communities, as well as nearly all the German settlements in the Odessa and Volga areas, were all but exterminated during the Bolshevik Revolution through World War II. During this period both the Czarist and Communists confiscated all of the Russian-German’s belongings and their land, then started starving them to death. Those that survived the starvation were imprisoned in the Russian Gulags or forced out of the country.
(CLICK BADEN ARMS TO ENLARGE)

As a sad side note, the ethnic people of the region including the Russian public as a whole, never accepted nor tolerated the German colonists. Today there is very little, if any, sign of the people that originally settled and reclaimed the countryside from the wilderness.

The exodus of Black Sea Germans began in the late 1800s through the second world war. The families of my grandparents reportedly bribed their way to freedom with false papers and the aid of a family relative, a Czarist magistrate. As with a million other Germans from Russia who immigrated to America, they found themselves in the central northern states, especially North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska as well as Saskatchewan, Canada. Although these rolling prairie lands did not resemble the countryside they came from, they did offer free farming land to homestead and more importantly freedom. These states are still heavily attuned to the Black Sea and Volga German ancestry and history. The University of North Dakota even has a ethnics university course as well as a very large reference library on the subject.

THIS SITE IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION (As of February 19, 2020)