Soon to be released: The Bohemians of Southern Virginia, written and compiled by Marie Blaha Pearson (see News-Events - Links for updates)
W E L C O M E to my Bohemian Journey Webpages
You have just found a website that is all about Virginia Czechs and Slovaks and specifically about my family the Blaha's and Zaruba's. They are immigrants who came to Virginia at the turn of the 19th century and who brought to our American shores not only their rich heritage but their time-honored traditions and customs. As you go through these pages may you find pleasure in learning about these industrious men and women who believed a new life and a new beginning would bring them the happiness and freedom they desired.
To my Czech and Slovak travel friends who are members of the Southside Virginia Czech/Slovak Heritage Society and my co-founder, Joyce Pritchard, this story is your story too. Eighteen in number, with our ages ranging from 15 to 81 years old, we formed a bond during our once-in-a-lifetime adventure - that of searching for and finding our ancestral village, not where we thought it world be, in the former Czechoslovakia lands, but deep in the remote country of Romania. Our European journey remains rich in our hearts and minds and it's just to wonderful not to share with others, hence this website. My prayer is that I am able to capture the essence of our journey and in doing so represent our Heritage both here and abroad with interest and honor.
Our journey has taken a small group of Virginians, with Czech and Slovak heritage, into unbelievable places as our quest for knowledge about our forefathers became our passion. It is hoped that you will enjoy sharing our experiences and adventures as we journeyed back to a foreign Czech village that still functions as it did almost 100 years ago and is now known as one of the "Six Lost Czech Villages" where it all began for us.
The Czech Village Gernik, home of our ancestors, is presently located in the Banat region of Romania, formerly part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire.
Old Czechoslovakian and Banat History
Czech immigrants in Virginia
Immigrants who settled a New Bohemia on the outskirts of Petersburg, Virginia
History of the Six Lost Czech Villages in Romania
How we found our Czech Ancestral Village in Romania
Photos of our journey to the Homeland
Family recipes in A Cooking Book featuring Old Bohemian Recipes
Czech and Slovak Customs and Traditions
How we strive to keep the Czech and Slovak Heritage alive in Virginia
Links to Historical Information about the Banat Czechs and Slovaks
Photos of the Charles Bridge
Photos of Prague and Budapest
then you have discovered the place to be. Explore the links and enjoy our stories and photos. If you want more information or have any to share be sure to use our email to get in touch with us. Remember that the site is still under construction and continues to be edited, but for now: ENJOY
A few of the spires gracing St.Vitas Cathedral in Prague.
The Passion for Knowledge or How it all began........
Until a few years ago, a typical question friends of Czech or Slovak heritage often asked each other is, "where in Czechoslovakia did your family come from?" The most common reply was, "I'm not sure, somewhere near Prague, I think." If pressed, the next comment was "I really don't know, but I think their village no longer exists." Truthfully, that was usually the extent of what they knew about their family's village. We discovered that our grandparents who immigrated here at the turn of the 19th Century did not wish to talk about the old country very much especially to their children and grandchildren. Rather they wanted to assimilate into the American culture and way of life. They wanted to become Americans themselves and leave the hardships and pain they had endured in their homeland behind them.
It was three generations before our relatives realized that a great part of their parents and grandparents heritage was in danger of being lost because no one had kept historical data or gathered family stories. Not only had information not been passed down orally, what documents and written information that came over with the original immigrants were being thrown away when households were being dissolved through death and resale of the property. These Czech and Slovak immigrants in Virginia were ambitious and hard working individuals and they had made important and valuable imprints on local history that basically went unnoticed. They did capture the interest of a few historians who included information about them in their journals or periodicals and there was one great study by Kovacs who wrote his University of Virginia dissertation about the Southern Virginia Czechs and Slovaks but other than that we have only found essays, small booklets and church programs that told the story of their settlement in Virginia. As individuals few of us really knew the whole story: where they came from, why and how they came here, what hopes and dreams they left behind and what struggles they encountered and had to overcome in getting here. It would be interesting to know what they feared, what they were looking forward to and why they felt this was something they had to do. History tells us one story, but theirs would be personal. We had an idea of what their goals were in leaving their homeland but we wanted to know how they reached them once they arrived on American soil.
In view of this, Joyce Pritchard and I set out to capture and preserve this rich heritage for ourselves. In 2003 the two of us established the Southside Virginia Czech/Slovak Heritage Society http://www.virginiaczechslovak.orgwith the goal of seeing that the great achievements our immigrant forefathers had made in Southern Virginia would not be forgotten and that their contributions to society would be honored.
Joyce and I already knew that immigration always happens for the same reasons - ethnic groups leave their homelands because they seek a chance for a better life elsewhere: better opportunities for the families,a chance to earn decent wages, freedom to worship without fear and to live in a free democratic society. While we innately knew these facts it still was not enough for us to accept this information and lump it into a nutshell with all other ethnic groups who came to America. We were interested in OUR families and their personal reasons to immigrate. We wondered about their struggles and their ambitions. We wondered about the emotional pain they must have suffered and what was going on in their lives that would enable them to leave their roots that had been founded in a little Kingdom in the heart of Europe only to leave it for unknown lands. We discovered that this happened not once, but twice for many of them. First, they emigrated within Europe then later out of it. So, our questions were formed on this: Why did our families who lived in a little remote isolated village far from their original Bohemia form a chain migration that ended up in Petersburg, Virginia of all places? It is a known fact the most Czechs and Slovaks who left their country went north and west when arriving in the American ports. We wondered, what brought them here to southern Virginia? We were on a quest to find out and we did.
Although we've learned a lot through the years, there are still doors to walk through and more information to research and discover. There are wonderful people around that we've yet to meet with who have interesting stories to tell and old photos to show us. As we learn more, it will be added to these pages. Come back to vist these pages often.
Josef Blaha and his family remain living in the original village Gernik. Upon our arrival to his home, his elderly father was introduced to us, his American relatives. Traveling with us were two Czech scholars who helped by being our translators. When Josef's father Franz was introduced to us as his "American relatives" he said to them, "BLAHA, BLAHA? you know who the only Blaha who stayed in the village was?" After being asked this question in English, we all shook our heads and muttered, "no, no we're not sure" we all exclaimed. "It was the fool, it was the fool who stayed," he declared while ushering us into his home for some slivoitz. History may have proved him right because of the hardships that followed however, who is to say? Thinking about this, the dedication of my book reads:
"In memory of our remarkable Bohemian ancestors who immigrated leaving behind them in the old country, not only their villages and their loved ones, but their way of life, all for a chance of a better existence in America. They brought with them what they could carry in their own hands and hearts, and souls, and in honor of those, for reasons unknown, who did not immigrate, but remained behind only to experience decades of unspeakable hardships and isolation, and that only by the grace of God, somehow managed to live lives of quiet dignity and grace -- I dedicate this book."
The Czech Village Gernik, home of our ancestors, is presently located in the Banat region of Romania, formerly part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. 
Josef Blaha and his family remain living in the original village Gernik. Upon our arrival to his home, his elderly father was introduced to us, his American relatives. Traveling with us were two Czech scholars who helped by being our translators. When Josef's father Franz was introduced to us as his "American relatives" he said to them, "BLAHA, BLAHA? you know who the only Blaha who stayed in the village was?" After being asked this question in English, we all shook our heads and muttered, "no, no we're not sure" we all exclaimed. "It was the fool, it was the fool who stayed," he declared while ushering us into his home for some slivoitz. History may have proved him right because of the hardships that followed however, who is to say? Thinking about this, the dedication of my book reads: