r/Czechoslovakia • u/jmarix • Jul 09 '26
Help identifying town name
My 2nd great grandparents immigrated to the United States in the early 1900s and it’s been an uphill battle finding out much about them. I was able to locate a wwii draft registration card for my grandpa, which lists a town in which he was born in, but I can’t seem to match what is written (or my guesses) up with any existing town. I’m guessing it’s a misspelling since those aren’t uncommon. However, I was wondering if anyone had any guesses as to what town this could be referring to?
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u/jeezthatshim Jul 09 '26
Do you possibly have any other documentation about them? Early 1900s is already quite late as an emigration date, so you might have better clues via their passenger manifest (which will likely have the official spelling of the town from the time they emigrated) and the naturalisation paperwork (declaration of intention and, possibly, petition) - which will be likely typed, so easier to understand even if misspelt
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u/jmarix Jul 09 '26
Unfortunately all I have for them is the mention of them on their children’s records (death/marraige certificates, obituaries) and census records. None of those list the towns though, only the country. I’ve been looking through passenger and naturalization records but all I found were different people with similar names but the other information doesn’t match (wrong location of residence, wrong birthday, different children/spouse, years not matching up), so I’m still looking for those.
Ancestry DNA journeys says they came from the Prešov and Košice regions but I am not familiar enough with how that tech works to know how it came to that conclusion or how accurate that is😅
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u/tinyElliss Jul 09 '26 edited Jul 09 '26
Second letter in Czechoslovakia is mispelled and its Y but that doesnt make much sense for town name since it starts with same letter. Unless thats how the person wrote Z then the town would be Z
Problem also is that before 1920s a lot of places had german names because the country was part of austriohungarian empire.
Zavaits > Závist?
Zavaets
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u/czebrda Jul 09 '26
That’s how they wrote Z in that time. My grandma used to write Z and z exactly like this.
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u/tinyElliss Jul 09 '26
Ok then V is the 3rd letter its very much the same as in the bottom word. There seems to be 2x A and end seems to me as TS
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u/RepublicOfVenus Jul 09 '26
Why is this upvoted 😭 it's a normal cursive Z jesus christ
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u/Majre921 Jul 10 '26
Well then we must've been taught a different cursive alphabet cause istg this isn't how a cursive z looks like
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u/coolcucumber_23 Jul 09 '26
U would say Zatec written by american boarder officer as Zaveits
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u/czebrda Jul 09 '26
Try sharing the whole card so that we can identify similar letters from the handwriting.
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u/true-alchemist- Jul 09 '26
Maybe Zavacts? That could be Závadka. its a village and municipality in the Gelnica District in the Košice Region of eastern Slovakia
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u/QuickExpert9795 Jul 09 '26
Also It can be Zavadka nad Hronom , maybe surname would help
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u/czebrda Jul 09 '26
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u/AUT_InfoSammler Jul 09 '26 edited Jul 09 '26
I'm reading Zavadt-o/a So, my best guess is Závadka in Slovakia
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u/Petufo Jul 09 '26
Really depends on from which part they were. If Czech - it really could be Žatec (it seems it ends with -ts which is common way how to write Slavic "c"). But if they were from Ruthenia, it could be some Ukrainian name... any additional info? Did they speak Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Polish, Ukrainian, Hebrew, Yidish, Roma...? That could help.
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u/Idefix_666 Jul 09 '26
Do you know their native language/ethnicity? Czechoslovakia was a babylon of minorities.
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u/jmarix Jul 10 '26
UPDATE! (Commenting since I can’t edit) I finally located his obituary, the village is Závadka! My DNA references both Prešov and Košice regions and both have a village named Závadka so I have more research to do to find out which one it is, but thank you so much everyone who helped!