For many of us with Czech/Bohemian ancestors, it seems that once they came over on the boat, we were to never hear of the old country again. It is difficult sometimes to find the exact city where they came from and therefore next to impossible to trace back further.

I just stumbled up a resource I did not know existed. I thought I would share it all with you.

I was at WI Historical Society working on a Bohemian project I am trying to track down what city they came from.

In her obit she said she was a member of the Western Bohemian Fraternal Association. I did some research on the association and they are a national group with lodges in communities around the nation.

Every month the association published a magazine relating to the Bohemians across the nation.

The publication was called Bratrsky Vestnik published from 1898 to Dec 1856. In July 1943 it was changed to Fraternal Herald. The publication is written in Czech most years but in later years they published both an English and Czech version.

The films are available through inter library loan.
Here is the URL from the Madison Library.
http://madcat.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?v1=2&ti=1,2&Search_Arg=western%20bohemian%20fraternal%20association&Search_Code=GKEY^*&CNT=100&PID=680vyeqAedLzOWgPEya2muyZFL&SEQ=20100806080218&SID=1

There are obituaries on some deceased members published in the magazine. The obits typically include where they came from in the old country In later years they also published a chart that listed payments of Mortuary Claims for the month.

Some good information in there if you are lucky enough to have a Czech/ Bohemian family member as a member.

Unfortunately my family still remains a mystery.