There are a couple of old posts regarding the Chicago Sykoras. I'm one of Anton's Great-Granddaughters.
Both Anton and Josephine were born and married in Bohemia.
They had the following children:
Kate
Anton
Rose
James
Emily
Joanne
Sophie
George
Anna
Blanch
Helen (my grandmother)
In 1908 they resided in Chicago and my great-grandfather, Anton, was the head groundskeeper for the Bohemian National Cemetery in Chicago . That year a house fire broke out and two daughters, Sophie and Anna, were killed. My grandmother should have been in the nursery with them but had a cold and her sister Joanna had taken her into another bedroom to look over her. As a result my grandmother Helen became the youngest of the Chicago Sykoras.
My great-grandmother Josephine had a nervous breakdown after the fire and death of the two girls so as soon as possible Anton moved the family to Batavia, IL and opened a greenhouse business, The Sykora Greenhouse. Josephine died when my grandmother was only 8 years old and my great-grandfather raised the children on his own. On the street next to the greenhouse was The Big House, a large blue Victorian that I remember from my childhood. That is where the family grew up.
Kate is deceased, she died when I was a year old (1974) and she was married I believed to a man with the surname of Kalina. I don't know her cause of death.
Anton is also deceased and again I have no idea if he even reached adulthood.
Rose is deceased, was unmarried, and passed away when I was 4 (1978).
James is now deceased, was married and had multiple children. My father, James Allen Frisch, is named after him.
Sophia & Anna perished in the house fire in Chicago.
George I assume is deceased although I know nothing about him other than his name.
Aunt Joanne was my grandmother's favorite sister who sadly died on my first birthday. She never married. Her and Gram were extremely close and I still have ceramics and a blanket that Aunt Joanne made me when I was a baby.
Aunt Blanche married and had children, her granddaughter Mary Ellen Pinkstaff is in her early 40s.
Auntie Em (Emily)was my favorite aunt. Her beau didn't make it back from WWII and she remained unmarried and resided in the Big House until she broke her hip two years before her death in the mid 1980s. At that point the Big House was sold outside of the family.
The Big House, my cousin Bob Kalina's house (I believe it he was one of Kate's children) and my grandparents were all in a row in front of the Sykora Greenhouse on South Harrison St. in Batavia, IL.
My grandfather and cousin Bob bought the Greenhouse from my great grandfather when he was ready to retire and ran it until the mid 70s when the manager of the greenhouse bought if from them and renamed it Shady Hill Gardens. It still exists and they export geraniums (including a variety that my grandfather and cousin helped hybrid) around the world.
My Grandmother left this world on October 23, 1999. It remains the single worst day of my life. Grandpa followed her two years later. They were married over 60 years and had two sons: Gerald (Jerry) who is alive and well but was born mentally handicapped and resides in an assisted living home near Chicago, and my father James.
My father married my mother Donna Elaine Wagner in 1972 and I was born Cynthia Anne Frisch (named for one of my father's favorite Kalina cousins) in 1973. I'm an only child. I married James Anthony Martin in 1995 and we have one daughter: Rachel Elaine Martin. Both of my parents are still alive and all of us currently reside in Rio Rico, AZ, 15 miles from the Mexican border.
Bob Kalina passed away two years ago and his house was sold outside of the family as well. He was married and I believe had four children, one of which is a Russian Language Professor at the University of Alaska.
After my grandfather's death, my husband and I lived in my grandparents house for 5 years. When my parents and maternal grandmother moved to Arizona they encouraged us to move south as well and two years later we did. Sadly, the house that had been home to four generations of the family also was sold outside of the family when we moved to Arizona.
We DO have a family genealogist, Fran Lies, but he is getting up there in years and soon I will be taking over any new entries/corrections to the family tree. His records go back to when the family still lived in Bohemia. I don't plan on paying Ancestry.com tons of money so will be closing this account on 8/3/2012, the day before my free trial ends. So if anyone is looking for more information on the Chicago Sykoras, please don't hesitate to contact me at
celanna@msn.com.
Blessings,
Cynthia (Sykora-Frisch) Martin