Ziska / schleswig

Hi Jim,

I bet that Julius Ziska was not born in Schleswig/Denmark in 1826.
Maybe I have a new track here.
At the Stetlseeker website
The JewishGen Gazetteer and JewishGen Communities Database (go to SEARCH THE TOWNS IN ...) they
offer variant
spellings for Shleswig. Among them is this one: ZELECHOVICE, 33.2 miles NNW
of Prague. This is right in the German-Bohemian settlement area:
http://Sudetengermans.freeyellow.com/historical.html.
ZELECHOVICE is today's Czech name. Maybe the way Germans spelt/spoke the
name was very close to Shleswig. And maybe Julius was not literate and the
name of his hometown was passed on orally until finally somebody wrote it
down as Shleswig.
Although Bohemia was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, when in the US, he
would have regarded himself as a German.
What more do you know about his military service?
What still puzzles me is the fact that he was a Lutheran. As a Bohemian he
would probably have been a Catholic. But again, aged 18 on his arrival he
would have been young enough to convert to Protestantism.
If you want to pursue this track, a Google search with SUDETENDEUTSCHE (=
German-Bohemian) FAMILIENFORSCHUNG gives you a lot of websites, also in the
US.
I do like that kind of speculation. Let us know when you find an answer to
this puzzle.
Regards
Lutz Szemkus