April 2001
The overview:
Friday April 13
Arrival in Prague at 9am. We rented a car and drove to our Hotel U Krize (Krize means "cross" or "crucifix" as the hotel is found at the crossing of two major roads. How appropriate- it was Good Friday). It was easier to drive and get downtown than I expected. We arrived at the hotel after noon, and I immediately called Julius Muller. I literally ran to the archive because there was not much time -- the archive closes at 2pm on Friday.
Julius showed me many of the documents that I had seen microfilms of. Very impressive. Julius found some maps of Malenice and Lvovice to show me and we located the LEDERERs residence in Malenice We looked over associated tax records. It was very clear that except for the Jews, the other people in Ckyne were Czechs. Almost everyone had Czech family names and personal names.
Julius found some interesting documents and made copies. Included is the census record for 1793 that includes Adam LEDERER. For a close view of this document click on the image!
When the archive closed we went back to my hotel and then
to the Slavia Café across from the opera
house. A great experience A highly recommended cafe.
Saturday April 14.
Cold and rainy! Snow. We went on subway and tram ridex to get the measure of the city and to entertain my 5 year old son. At about 11am we went up to the Castle complex and spend many hours there exploring.
Here is a view from the cathedral tower during a sunny
spell......(Yes, I took this picture...)
Sunday April 15.
Snow on the ground. Rain! We went to Josefov (the Jewish town ) today. We went to services for the last day of Passover (it was also Easter Sunday) at the Alt-Neu Synagogue. A wonderful experience. A small very nice congregation. Not very orthodox. We felt very comfortable (I did at least. Sue had to stay in the womanís section on the other side of a wall. She did not enjoy it as much). I highly recommend a visit during services to all of you whether you are Jewish or not.
Here are some other photos of Prague and our visit
In the afternoon we took a subway to the Vysehrad Park.
Cold and rain!! This is a part that national legend tells is an ancient
place of Czech history (it actually is not, or at least nothing remains
of same.) We stopped in a small building for refreshments and a roaring
fire. Very cozy. This complex has the cemetery of Czech heroes:
for example, Dvorak and Smetna. Worth a visit.
Monday April 16.
Drove to Volyne with Julius. It took about 1hour 30 minutes to get there. We met Achab Haider at the train station. He got up at 5 am to meet us! We walked up to the Volyne cemetery which he has visited twice before and he has made much progress cataloging. The cemetery is behind a high wall. It adjoins the burial house which is now a residence. A couple mind the cemetery in exchange for the right to live in the house. The house is quite nice, one would not know that its original purpose was. It was Easter Monday. Boys and girls were in the streets chasing each other with sticks with ribbons on them.
Click
here for some views of the Cemetery at Volyne
The cemetery is well taken care of. There were many graves of LEDERERs, BECKs. I found the grave of Selig ben Solomon (who we think was Adam ben Solomon LEDERERís brother). He died in 1805. Also there was a family called Amsterdamer (I wonder where they were from?). Alternating rain and sun shine
At about noon we left for Ckyne. The ride between Volyne and Ckyne is very short.
Click
here for Photos of the Road from Volyne to Ckyne
Volyne is on a hill overlooking the valley where Ckyne is located. I made the trip many times and the official distance is 9 km. I doubt it took 7 minutes by car. Within the first kilometer or two and one descends a road with switchbacks to get to the valley where Ckyne lies. Here is a map of the road from Volyne to Ckyne. Note the switchbacks. Also note the town of Zalezly where Adam LEDERER lived during the 1792 census.
From the hill is a beautiful view from which several towns are seen including Malenice and Ziesicky. The first town you get to is Ziesicky which straddles the road . The road that leads to Malenice appears quickly. We went to Malenice and found the house where many Lederers lived (Jacob my g grandfather was born there in 1840, Josef Lederer and his family lived there into the 1850s. Apparently, Philipp BECK and his wife Karoline LEDERER BECK lived there with her grandfathers Josef and Leopold. It must have been very crowded!). It is one of the first buildings on this approach to town. The house itself is attached to two other houses. The largest of the houses has been modernized (#76).
Here is a map of a section of Malenice. The road from Highway 4 is the road indicated near the bottom by the horizontal line. The LEDERER house is #67 behind #66. It is in the extreme lower right hand corner of this map:
Here is a detail so you can locate the house (I indicate the house with an arrow, and the road with a dashed set of crosses.....).
