Here are some links that provide information about our ancestors’ Heimat

 

Historic Postcards Courtesy of Jiri Kuhn

This is a remarkable site filled full of scanned images of not only Steinschönau, but many other communities located in the Lusatian Mountains of Bohemia.

 

Czech Census Searchers

This company for a rather small fee can provide you with the house census for your ancestor.  They can also check to see if there are report cards for your ancestor as well.  They suggest you contact them first to ensure the year you are looking for is available.  Remember to share with us what you learn!

 

Böhmerwald & Lusatian Mountains

The trip to America was a long one, and upon arriving, many if not all of those coming had a case, or two, of homesickness.  This great set of postcards, with the a translation of the accompanying song, is courtesy of Mary Ann Allen.  She has a second website – www.photographsfromthepast.com - that is worth visiting!

 

Equally enjoyable is the Lusatian Mountains website with detailed information and the remarkable pictures of Jiří Kühn.  The site has information in Czech, German, French and English.  The pictures are remarkable and what is equally remarkable are the historical photos he has made available from postcards.  The Steinschönau collection is remarkable and you want to spend a lot of time here.

 

For some modern pictures of the community, take a look at the Czech Mountains Kamenický Šenov site.

 

Bohemian Glass

One of the center pieces of the community remains the Glassmaking School.  In 2006, Radio Praha did a feature story and posted the story in English to its website.  This is a great summary of the Glassmaking School and its history with remarkable pictures highlighting the examples of the work the students and teachers have done.

            The School also has a wonderful website with information on the School’s history, its faculty and the work done by both students and teachers.  The site is well worth spending time exploring and marveling at the wonders of the Glassmaking School. 

            Also, keep in mind that Chad Holliday is studying here at the school and has a blog about his Fulbright experience at the school.  It’s a great site and Chad shares the joys and frustrations of being an American family in a foreign country – but you can tell he loves the opportunity and that which he is learning.

While I have not acquired this volume, it came as a recommendation in response to a posting I did on the web.  Here is a summary of the book:

 

The Legend of Bohemian Glass was written by the former director of the Museum of Glass and Artificial Jewellery in Jablonec and Nisou, Mr. Antonín Langhamer, a commissioner of many glass exhibitions, author of many studies on Czech glass and its manufacturers as well as a co-author of several publications. In the text, he uses evidence he has been collecting for years together with his own knowledge acquired in studying the past and present of Czech glassmaking, which is one of the manifestations of culture, technical skills and inventiveness of our nation recognised around the world. The photographs of glass objects from the collections of Museum of Applied Art in Prague, glassmakers' museums in Nový Bor and Kamenický Šenov and the Museum of Glass and Artificial Jewellery in Jablonec nad Nisou as well as from glassworks' showrooms and from glass designers' studios were taken by the well-known Czech photographers Jindřich Brok, Lubomír Hána, Lumír Rott, Gabriel Urbánek a Miroslav Vojtěchovský.

 

There are distributors of this book, available in an English translation , as well.  One can contact Weatherhill Inc. (www.weatherhill.com, www.bhbinternational.com), in Great Britain by Gazelle Book Services (www.gazellebooks.co.uk).