Hi Anne,
there is a location in the northeastern corner of Moravia / Czech Republic
called Rychvald (in German Reichwaldau). Today it is in fact a northern
suburb of Ostrava (Mährisch Ostrau). The town of Opava (Troppau) is several
miles west of Ostrava and Rychvald. The formerly Austrian-Silesian territory
was part of the new Czechoslovakian Republic since 1919.
Oh, Guenther, this is amazing!! Thank you so much for this information and
the websites!
I was just about coming to the conclusion that I must have been searching
hundreds of miles too far west by looking in the Opava/Ostrala area when I
received your note. Yesterday on one website I searched, I found a Richwald
near the former county seat of Ofalu in the county of Margurai (now Spisska
Margura), almost directly south of Krakow, Poland. Last night when I told
my husband about the Ofalu location, he argued for not giving up on the
Opava/Ostrala area, because he remembered that area as the location his
grandfather showed him on a map many years ago. (Wish we still had that old
map!) Grandfather Stefaniak also said that the area had a ski resort. Do
you know anything about this?
As to the map you have, by all means send me a copy! Although I had
downloaded from the Internet some 1882 maps of Moravia, Hungary, etc., none
of them shows a Richauld, Richwald, nor a Rychvald. I would love to have a
copy of the map you have. I'm pretty confident that you have located the
right community, mostly because of my husband's memory (which is like an
elephant's, as they say!)
Again, thanks so much for your help. With my best wishes,