Hesch Family Villages in Bohmen , 1828

I'm not sure why maps tickle me so much.  I suppose it's because a map helps us understand what it was like to live there--how close were the neighbors?  How long WAS that long thin field?  Was there water nearby, where was the chapel...or graveyard?  In 1828, our ancestors had to be pretty self-sufficient: if you couldn't make it or grow it, you traded for it or did without it.  I imagine their lives as similar to to people in the movie "Fiddler on the Roof", without so much singing.

There were no stores in those small villages.  If you needed needles, say, or something to fix a water bucket, you went to the nearest market town on Market Day, provided you had something to trade.  For Niedermuhl and Oberschlagles, Schamers (Cimer) was close if you didn't want to venture to  Neuhaus (Jindrichuv Hradec). By the way, since the population was mostly hired farmers, no one really had a 'home' village.  You moved as the landowner needed you to move.  There was a district graveyard, in Oberbaumgarten, east of Niedermuhl and Oberschlag.  We know Heschs are buried there.

 Click to enlarge these beautiful maps...we know Johann and Marya (Schlinz) Hesch lived at #2 in Oberschlagles just before they left for America.

(Heschs also lived at #1, #11, #18,  #23 and #24, at different times between 1750 and 1850).


Incredible, huh?