Yeseta - Jescheta - Jeseta - Gescheta

The above title lists 4 different spellings of my husband's paternal grandmother's maiden name, or the name of one of his paternal great grandfathers.

His grandmother Madelena's father was born in what is now the Czech Republic. (Back then, it was called "Bohemia.")  His name was Tomas Jeseta and his birthdate is 10 Nov 1851.  He met his wife, Antonia Mladinic, who was working in Bohemia as a cook, and they were married in Budva, Montenegro on 24 Nov 1874. They then moved to Brac, Croatia where Antonia and all her siblings were born. Until now, no one in the family has had any written information regarding the ancestors of Tomas Jeseta.

Two months ago, I hired a researcher in the Czech Republic who has just sent me his report.  Most of the records come from Roman Catholic parishes, and included in dates of births, baptisms and marriages are the occupations or social status of some of those listed. The record is difficult to read as some of the words are in German and some in Czech, but my researcher provided a guide to interpretation.

And so, for the first time in over 100 years, my husband's family will now know that Tomas Jesta's parents (my husband's great great grandparents) were named Matej Jeseta and Alzbeta Pechkova (Elisabeth Bechek or Pechek in German)  and his great great grandparents Martin Jeseta, Anna Hanusova, Kaspar Pechek and Barbora Berankova. The will also know that Matej was a charcoal burner by occupation and that Kaspar Pechek was a weaver. We already knew that Tomas was a shoemaker.

It seems that most of Tomas's ancestors were either farmers or middle class townspeople, living in one of several small villages or burghs, and whose addresses consisted of a number signifying a house, followed by the name of the town. (My researcher warned me that the numbers may have changed since the 1700's and 1800's when these records were written in the parish registers.)

There is much to pore over in these records, and I am anxious to put the names up on the family tree and share them with everyone.

It was definitely worth the expense.
 

Tomasso Jeseta

My husband's paternal great grandparents are all from the small island of Brac in Croatia, all except one - Tomasso (Tomas) Jeseta (Jescheta, Yeseta) who was from Bohemia (the modern day Czech Republic).  Although the researcher I hired in Croatia to find more generations of ancestors has been successful in adding several names to the family tree, she does not do research in the Czech Republic and so was unable to help us find Tomas.

Recently, I was given the name of a researcher in the Czech Republic and I have asked him to pursue my husband's elusive ancestor.  I gave him the scant information I had, including place and date of birth, place and date of marriage, and date of death, none of which I had confirmed with any orignial sources.  These were mostly dates given to me by relatives of my husband, and since I wasn't even sure any of them were correct, I was somewhat concerned that I might hand over money for a wild goose chase.  But yesterday I received an email from the researcher, and before taking any payment, he confirmed Tomas's birth date and birth place.  So he is going forward with the research, though he says it may take a while. 

I'm hoping that soon I can report the names of several generations of relatives to my husband and his family, and hopefully some other information about these relatives, so they can finally close the big gap that has existed in the family tree for a century.