November - CSA Fraternal Life

Dr. Hubka Talks About Genealogy andBohemian HistoryDr. William Hubka spoke ongenealogy.Lodge GoldenGate No. 252,S u n n y v a l e ,California – Ourguest speaker lastmonth was Dr.William Hubka, aPhD in engineeringwho spoke to usabout genealogyand Bohemian history.Bill’s grandparentscame to theUSA from theCounty of Tabor,Bohemia in themid 1860’s. Theycame through Ellis Island and ended up in Chicago, Illinois,where they stayed for two generations before migrating fartherwest. In the early days, Chicago had the largest populationof Czech immigrants in the country. Bill said at onetime there were more Czechs in Chicago than in Prague.He told us of a couple reasons why people wanted tocome to America from the Czech lands. They came in searchof a better way of life. In those days, there were only a fewrich people who owned all the land. Most of the people werepoor and worked as servants. The other reason was theKingdom of Bohemian had been taken over by theAustrian/Hungarian Empire. Czechs did not want to serve inthe Austrian Army.Much of his information was obtained from ancestry.comand from eBooks obtained through the Google BooksProject. Bill noted many of these books on Bohemia hadbeen out of print prior to the Google Books Project.During the business part of our meeting, we discussedways to help those in need for Christmas. Stephanie Kenton,a high school senior in San Jose, suggested we help needychildren through a special program at her school and hasWalt Strach collected nearly 300 pair of eyeglasses.volunteered to look into it for us.Pat Mastalir, our vice president, has agreed to buy somethings for our lodge to help out a senior citizen at Christmas.This is part of a program administered by the SamaritanHouse in San Mateo.My husband, Walt, announced the eyeglass collectionprogram has been a big success. It started out three years agowhen he asked our lodge members and some neighbors tosave old eyeglasses for him. Last year, he enlisted hisoptometrist to help and now has collected several hundredpair. Walt gives the glasses to Lions International who catalogthem and send them to needy people all over the world.The local Lions organization does not want the eyeglasscases because of added shipping cost, so he separates out thecases and gives them to the Salvation Army. If you wouldlike to help out, please contact us or donate to your localLions Club.There were a lot of happy faces when our lodge offeredto treat everyone to lunch at the Olive Garden. Service wasgreat. We were given a free tasting of wine, had an excellentmeal, and served generous portions. For desert, our birthdaycelebrants: Bill Medal, Joe Martinek, and Walt Strach wereserved a special treat. Our only regret was that Bill Hubka,our guest speaker, was unable to join us.Our Christmas meeting will be on December 6 in FosterCity. We will be serving a traditional Czech meal with awhite elephant gift exchange afterwards. It is a lot of fun.For more information, call me at (408) 716-4942 or email usat csalodge252@yahoo.com.l o d g e h a p p e n i n g sLodge members enjoyed lunch at the Olive Garden.Read the Journal online at: www.csafraternallife.orgFraternally,Carol StrachNOVEMBER 2013 — CSA JOURNAL — 25