___: Travel Log: October 5th, Part 1, Fischern, Putschirn, Imligau, Chodau, & Wintersgrun

“. . . Today we went on the tour with Dr. Stanislav Boracovic, and it went well. It was really good that I had previously printed out the list of house numbers for our Czech ancestors (at least the ones I have typed into our genealogy file so far), because we looked for lots of houses and we did find some.

The first stop was Fischern, now Rybáře, which used to be a separate town but now it has merged with Karlsbad because they are so close.

The main street of Fischern (now Rybáře)

I mentioned that we have letters from Josef Strunz in Fischern No. 30, but looking at our list two sisters of my great, great grandmother Anna Strunz Ott who came to America were born while the family was living in two different houses in Fischern. We were lucky and found all three of those house locations in Fischern: house no. 9 was a cool old house just off the main street where Theresia Strunz was born. It looks like it had apartments in it now, and we were able to step inside the front door and see the little architectural details on the walls.

Fischern No. 9

Then on the Main Street we found houses 28 & 30 right next to each other, which are now large apartment buildings that were rebuilt to replace the original buildings there that had been bombed in the war. (Fischern No. 28 was were Anna Rosina Strunz was born, and No. 30 was the address that Joseph Strunz sent family letters from).

Fischern No. 28 & No. 30

Then we went down the street to the next nearby town of Putschirn, now Počerny, and looked for houses 5, 7, 15, 17, or 25, but didn't find them.

Here’s what we know so far about the ancestors who lived in these homes:

Putschirn No. 5 was the home of Anton Strunz. Anton Strunz & his wife, Katharina Möckl lived in No. 5 when their daughter, Barbara Strunz, was born (it was also the place of Barbara’s death, as she only lived for 22 days). Another child, Franz Wirkner, was also born in Putschirn No. 5 – Franz Wirkner was the son of Theresia Möckl & Josef Wirkner, Theresia Möckl was the daughter of Maria Anna Möckl, who was the sister of Katharina Möckl (wife of Anton Strunz).

Putschirn No. 15 was also the home of Anton Strunz & his wife Katharina Möckl at another time in their lives. We know that Anna Rosina Strunz was residing in No. 15 at the time of her marriage to Franz Karl Böhm, and that her sister Maria Anna Strunz was also living at that house at the time of her marriage to Joseph Ott. Putschirn No. 15 was also the birthplace of some of the grandchildren of Anton & Katharina Strunz including Anton Böhm (son of Anna Rosina Strunz & Franz Karl Böhm) and Anna Rosina Ott, Franz Josef Ott, & Josef Ott (children of Josef Ott & Maria Anna Strunz). [Josef Ott, who only lived 8 days, was born and died in No. 15.]

Putschirn No. 17 was the birthplace of Joseph Strunz, son of Anton Strunz & Katharina Möckl (it was also his death location, as he survived only 8 days).

About 2 ½ years after the death of Anton & Katharina’s son, Joseph Strunz, they had another son that they also named Joseph. Putschirn No. 7 was the birthplace of this second Joseph Strunz.

And Putschirn No. 25 was the house where Maria Anna Strunz and Joseph Ott were married (we do not know who this home belonged to).

[One thing that we've noticed is that all these families seemed to move around so often. You hear that many people back in those times lived in the same town, or even in the same house for generations. But it seems that on almost every family line that we research of our Bohemian ancestors we find that a family might have moved to a few different towns, and that they also seemed to move to different homes within the same town several times. I wonder if that was common in these parts of Bohemia at that time, or if maybe it was more common that we might realize all throughout Europe in those days?]

Anyway, back to October 5^th:

There was a common theme that Stanislav told us with these towns: many of the houses were bombed during the war, or they survived the war but when the Germans were expelled from the Czech Republic after the war their churches and houses fell into disrepair and were later demolished. There weren't many houses in Putschirn. He told us about a small chapel that used to be there and was later demolished, but also said that the people there traveled to a town called Zettlitz for church.

Putschirn (now Počerny)

The next town down the street was Imligau, now Jimlikov, and he told us that many people there had been coal miners or miners for the material used to make porcelain. And we looked for houses 5, 7, 8, 14 & 17 there. . . .

Here’s what we know so far about the ancestors who lived in these Imligau homes:

Imligau No. 5 was the death location of 3-month-old Maria Möckl, the illegitimate daughter of Theresia Möckl Wirkner, whose mother was Maria Anna Möckl, whose sister was Katharina Möckl wife of Anton Strunz. This home was also the death location of 64-year-old Maria Anna Möckl.

Joseph Möckl & Margaretha Fischer [or Dutz] Winterling were married in Imligau No. 7 (we do not know who lived in this house).

Imligau No. 8 was a multi-generational house for our ancestral families. It was the residence of my 5^th great grandmother, Margaretha Fischer [or Dutz] Winterling Möckl. House No. 8 was the home of Andreas Winterling, the youngest son of Joseph Winterling and Margaretha Fischer [or Dutz], throughout his life until the time of his death at age 43 years. No. 8 was the birthplace of all 5 of Andreas Winterling & Franziska Nachbar’s children: Theresia, Joseph, antoher daughter also named Theresia, Ottilia, & Anton Winterling. After the death of Margaretha’s first husband, Joseph Winterling, House No. 8 was her residence at the time of her second marriage to Joseph Möckl. Margaretha and Joseph made their home in No. 8. Margaretha was still living in No. 8 when she died at age 65. Some of the children of Margaretha & Joseph Möckl were later born in Imligau No. 8, including Anton Möckl, Anton Möckl (there were two sons with the name Anton), & Anna Rosina Möckl. A generation later No. 8 was the birthplace of two of Anna Rosina Möckl’s illegitimate children, Anton and Theresia Möckl (and it was also the death location of Anton Möckl at the age of 1 month). Katharina Möckl [my 4^th great grandmother] (daughter of Margaretha & Joseph Möckl, and wife of Anton Strunz) was born and lived in No. 8. And Imligau No. 8 was also the birthplace of Andreas Möckl, the son of Katharina Möckl and an unknown father before Katharina’s marriage to Anton Strunz. Later Katharina and Anton Strunz’s daughter, Maria Anna Strunz [my 3^rd great grandmother], was also born in house No. 8.

Anton Strunz and Katharina Möckl were married in Imligau No. 14 (don’t know who lived in that house at the time of the marriage). Later Anton and Katharina’s son, Anton Strunz, was born in No. 14.

And Imligau No. 17 was the marriage location of my 5^th great grandmother, Margaretha Fischer [or Dutz] to her first husband, Joseph Winterling (don’t know who owned the home). No. 17 was later the birth place of Andreas Winterling, Margaretha & Joseph’s youngest son [some records say that Andreas was born in Imligau No. 8, but his birth record lists No. 17 as the location.]

. . . We found two of those. House 14 was a nice little yellow house on the main street, and my ancestor Josef Möckl was married there.

Imligau No. 14

And house 7 was further down the main street, where Maria Katharina Moeckl lived. I liked house 7, even though it was very run down with the plaster falling off and a broken window, but the front door was original.

Imligau No. 7

Then we went on to Chodau, now Chodov (pronounced something like 'Hodov').

The old square in Chodau (now Chodov) with the church in the background.

We just looked for two houses there, house 34 & 32. Unterchodau [Lower Chodau] No. 34 was the birthplace of my 5^th great grandmother, Maria Anna Pecher. Maria Anna Pecher continued to live in No. 34 later after she was married to Joseph Strunz, and Chodau No. 34 was also the birth place of Maria Anna & Joseph’s son, Anton Strunz (my 4^th great grandfather, [although we have also found a record listing Chodau No. 32 as Anton’s birth place]. Anton also lived in No. 32. There were some houses with numbers close to those two, but we didn't find those. He said half that town was destroyed in the war. We went up the hill and took pictures of the church, a large pink building.

The Catholic Church in Chodov

The knobs on the church doors

And we walked the cemetery and found some people with family names, but none we know how to link to our family at this time. We found Dutz and Fischer and some others there, and many of the old headstones gone.

The Chodov Cemetery

We are going to go tomorrow morning to Mass in that church, since there are no LDS churches at all in this half of the Czech Republic, and then we will get to see inside the church where our Strunz ancestors went, since the church is always locked except for mass on Sundays.

Then we continued down the road to another small town called Wintersgrun, now Vintířov, and looked for house 6, 10, 13, or 15, all houses where my direct ancestor, Margaretha Fischer (or Dutz) Winterling Strunz, lived.

The town of Wintersgrun (now Vintířov), with a small yellow chapel on the right.

Stanislav asked a few people where the houses might be, and someone said to go ask the firemen, so we went to the fire department and asked and they said that out of those only 15 was possibly still standing, and pointed us in the right direction. We drove and drove back and forth through those little streets looking for it, and only found a small garage off a little ways from any houses that had a number 15 on it. There was a very small, run down, abandoned house not far from the garage that seemed to be the same grey color as the garage, but had no number, so I thought that must be it.

Wintersgrun No. 15: (Garage with House Number sign)

But Mom thought it was a nice looking big old orange house behind a gate down beyond the garage. And after a lot if searching and talking to people, he finally rang the bell at the gate of the orange house, a lady answered, and she confirmed it had originally been house 15. (I had hoped maybe she'd invite us in to see the house, but she didn't). Oh well, at least we found it for sure even though there was no number on the house - couldn't have done that without a Czech-speaking guide. . . .”