A Short History of the Chada Clan


A Time Line of Some Early Chada Families


Researched and written by Miloslav Trnka in 1997.
Published in the "Lhenicky zpravodaj."
Translations by Georg Chada and Georgia Marcinkevicius, June, 2001
For many years the descendants of the Czech immigrants to America were very interested in the history of their families and of the nation they came from. Today, their surname is the only thing that connects them to the Czech tongue and from the Czech mentality. Maybe just the obstinacy, in any case, to complete their pedigree
If they ask the local official archives to do the research for them, they will get exact information for their money that they can trust. This way they'll get a foundation they can really build on. Most of them get suck in the net of private genealogical agencies.
Some countrymen are lucky and get the accurate information quickly and unselfishly directly from the source. From the local authorities or the local libraries at the community where their ancestors came from. The Czecho-American, Mr. Václav Chada, whose great grandparents left the Lhenice area for the USA in 1873 will certainly not be angry with us if we dust off a few little things and share them with the "Jihoceske listy" readers.
The ancient roots of the Chada family grew from the 17th century at the Lhenice parish region. It is proven by very old records in the tax books of the Prachen District. The village of Vadkov used to belong to the estate of Prince Eggenberg of Netolice at that time.
Let us add that the Eggenbergs, the gentry house from Steyer (Austria) came during the Thirty Years War. The Emperor Ferdinand II donated the whole Lhenice area to them for Christmas in 1654. They soon created an extensive, stabilized domain in southern Bohemia, which was later inherited by the Schwarzenbergs.
But let us turn back to the old records in the tax office books. What do we find here? A lot of names of ancient farmers with the last names of ancient farmers with a list of their properties and other possessions, all this from the year 1654. In that year, the tax authority counted altogether 18 families at Vadkov.
There are two Chadas among them in a slightly different economical position. The first one was a farmer Jan Chada. He had nearly 5 hectares of land. It is recorded that he owned two vehicles without horses. He also had 4 oxen, three cows, four heifers, 6 sheep, and four pigs.
The name of the second Chada was Vavrinec. He was also recorded as Laurentius or Lorenz by his given name. This one only had two hectares of land and no vehicles for his social position. He only kept two oxen, one cow, with a calf and two sheep and one pig. Until now, no one has researched what kind of relationship there was between them, if they were father and son, or brothers. The tax office clerk had never asked for statements from them. An interested person would have to study still older land registers at the archives at Prachatice in order to find the answer.
The inheritors of the farmer Jan Chada at the richer farmstead changed their surname. In the oldest birth register of Lhenice, the records of these Chadas were gradually changed to the surname, Hojsler, although the same persons were demonstrably meant. Hojsler (from German: der Haeusler) actually was the very small farmer with a small estate.
On the contrary, the descendants and inheritors of Vavrinec Chada from the smaller estate at Vadkov kept their surname and homestead up. Vavrinec's grandson, Pavel Chada had gotten married on October 5, 1704. He married Liduska from Sander's homestead. They had a very large family with many children. They all moved then to Chrastany, Vodice, Lhenice, Ceske Budejovice and elsewhere in this part of the country.
In order not to slight the other significant clans of Vadkov we have to also remember the names of the farmers from the year 1654 . They were: Vit Sterba, Pavel Teml, Ondrej Klecka, Vavrinec Novak, Matous Urban, Matej Simota, Tomas Houdek, Pavel Hojdar, Jakub na Krcme, Matous Urban, Horilka, Matej Novotny, Jiri Janu, (Registered Kumchar, after the former farmstead holder), Matej Kovar, Martin Sandera (actually Houdek, who married the Havel Sandera's widow), Further Adam Hart (formerly Pehm, before he adopted the surname of the farmstead of the family Hart), and a certain Jan who had gotten his new surname after marrying the widow of a certain Matej and begun writing his name as Jan Matejkovic. This is all we have on the ancient history at this time.
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