Vlčnov, Moravia (the Ulčík / Pavelčík paternal core)
Vlčnov is a small Moravian village near Uherské Hradiště, in the Slovácko region of what is today the Czech Republic (then part of Austria-Hungary). At the turn of the 20th century it was a town of about 3,000, known for its fertile vineyards, colourful folk customs, and close-knit Catholic community (source: Ulcek final PPT-notes.pdf). It is the home village of Jerry's paternal Ulčík (Ulcek) / Pavelčík line. See Jerry's Family History (Ulcek / Fiedler).
The documented family
The Vlčnov Catholic parish registers (online via the Moravian Provincial Archive, mza.cz/actapublica) preserve the core records, organised by house number (source: Ulcek final PPT-notes.pdf):
Karel (Charles) John Ulčík — Jerry's paternal grandfather.
- Born 21 September 1879, baptised 22 September 1879, house #149, Catholic, legitimate (source: Ulcek final PPT-notes.pdf).
- Father: Jan Ulčík, a smallholder farmer (domkář) in Vlčnov — son of Josef Ulčík (a smallholder, recorded at Hovězí) and Magdalena, née Tománková of Vlčnov.
- Mother: Anna, daughter of Matěj Javorek (smallholder in Vlčnov) and Mariana, née Holubová.
- Midwife: Barbara Ulčík of Vlčnov; baptising priest Fr. Loveček.
Kateřina Pavelčík — Jerry's paternal grandmother.
- Born 8 November 1882, house #205, Catholic, legitimate (source: Ulcek final PPT-notes.pdf).
- Father: František Pavelčík, a cottager/smallholder (chalupník) — son of Josef Pavelčík and Marianna, née Matoušková, both of Vlčnov.
- Mother: Marianna, daughter of Jindřich Stáv (Stávek), farmer in Vlčnov, and Anna, née Dufek.
- The same midwife, Barbara Ulčík, appears on both birth records — a sign the Ulčík and Pavelčík families were already socially connected in the village (source: Ulcek final PPT-notes.pdf).
Marriage — Karel Ulčík (age 23, "farmer's son" / rolnický syn, house #149) married Kateřina Pavelčíková (age 20, house #205) on 16 June 1903 in the Vlčnov parish church; officiating priest Antonín Vávra; witnesses Antonín Večeřa (farmer) and Štěpán Metoděj (teacher) (source: Ulcek final PPT-notes.pdf).
Joseph C. Ulčík — Jerry's grandfather — was born in Vlčnov 10 January 1910 (source: Ulcek final PPT-notes.pdf).
The surname change (Ulčík → Ulcik → Ulcek)
In every record of Karel/Charles and Kateřina in Wisconsin — the 1920 census, the Racine city directories of 1925/1927/1929 — the name is spelled Ulcik; there were no "UlcEks" listed. The spelling shifted to Ulcek with Jerry's grandfather Joseph (Joe); by the 1930 census Joe and his wife Edna even appear truncated to "Ek." The change tracks the family, not a single clerk's error (source: Ulcek final PPT-notes.pdf). On the Moravian side the name reflects Czech orthography that itself changed over the 19th century — Catholic registers in Vlčnov moved from Latin (early 1800s) through Latin/German to standardized Czech (1870s–1918), so the same spoken surname was written several ways across the generations (source: Ulcek final PPT-notes.pdf).
Coming to America
- Karel emigrated first, alone, in 1910 — third class on the SS George Washington (a North German Lloyd liner, Bremen → New York, arriving ~21 May 1910), heading for Racine, Wisconsin (source: Ulcek final PPT-notes.pdf).
- Kateřina followed in 1912 with the two children, Marie (4) and Josef (2), sailing from Bremen on the SS Kaiser Wilhelm II (arrived New York 22 May 1912), to join Karel at 1825 Marquette St., Racine, Wisconsin (source: Ulcek final PPT-notes.pdf).
- The timing was not incidental: the 1910 census had inflamed Czech–German national tension, 1911 brought strikes over food prices across Moravia, and the 1912 First Balkan War mobilization raised the threat of conscription — "leaving now avoids conscription" (source: Ulcek final PPT-notes.pdf).
The SS Kaiser Wilhelm II (Norddeutscher Lloyd, launched 1902, a Blue Riband holder) carried large numbers of Czech and Slovak immigrants from Bremen before WWI; it is also the ship on which Alfred Stieglitz made his famous 1907 photograph The Steerage (source: Ulcek final PPT-notes.pdf).
A separate curiosity from the Czech-American press: the Kansaský Pokrok ("Kansas Progress"), a Czech-language immigrant newspaper, reported that a countryman K. Uľčík, working on a Racine County farm, unearthed an officer's saber dated 1758 while digging — "a remarkable discovery in Racine County" (source: Ulcek final PPT-notes.pdf).
Village life and traditions
Families lived in whitewashed farmhouses with red-tiled roofs, built around a courtyard with animals, wine cellars and gardens; life followed the rhythms of planting, harvest and grape-pressing and the church calendar of feast days, baptisms and processions. The diet was simple but hearty — rye bread, potatoes, cabbage, beans, pork and dumplings, with local wine at meals and, on special occasions, slivovice (plum brandy), koláče (fruit-filled pastries), roast goose and festive soups (source: Ulcek final PPT-notes.pdf).
The Vlčnov village chronicle records that, per the census of 31 December 1910, the town had 546 houses, 537 families and 2,447 inhabitants, with tradespeople including 16 shoemakers, 14 bricklayers, 13 carpenters, 7 merchants, 5 tailors and 2 bakers; livestock numbered 280 horses, 937 cattle and 904 pigs, plus 3 public inns, 5 bottled breweries, 3 dairies, a brickyard, a distillery and a portable still for plum brandy (source: Ulcek final PPT-notes.pdf).
Ride of the Kings (Jízda králů)
Vlčnov is famous for the "Jízda králů" (Ride of the Kings), a centuries-old spring festival held at Pentecost. Young men (15–25 of them) in traditional embroidered costumes parade through the village on decorated horses; the "King" — a boy of 10–15, his face partly covered, holding a rose in his mouth — is dressed in women's ceremonial costume and guarded by pageboys with unsheathed sabres, while chanters call out humorous rhymes about onlookers and collect donations. The ritual, celebrated in its current form since 1808 (origins unclear), was inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2011; it survives in Vlčnov and a handful of neighbouring Slovácko towns (Hluk, Kunovice, Skoronice) (source: Ulcek final PPT-notes.pdf).
Nearby (if the trip ever reached Moravia)
- Uherský Brod — ~10 minutes away; one of the oldest royal towns of the Zlín Region (source: Ulcek final PPT-notes.pdf).
- Luhačovice — a nearby spa town with luxury spa-hotel options (source: Ulcek final PPT-notes.pdf).
- Brno — just over an hour away; the Czech Republic's second city, known for imperial-era and Art Nouveau architecture and playful public sculpture (source: Ulcek final PPT-notes.pdf).
- Lednice–Valtice Cultural Landscape — a ~2-hour drive; a UNESCO World Heritage cultural landscape in South Moravia (Lednice Chateau and gardens, Valtice Castle with historic wine cellars), pairable with the wine town of Mikulov (source: Ulcek final PPT-notes.pdf).
Regional Czech/Moravian cuisine highlighted in the research: garlic soup (česnečka), beef tenderloin in cream sauce (svíčková), "Moravian sparrow" (Moravský vrabec — actually stewed pork in gravy with bread dumplings), goulash, wine sausage (vinná klobása), roast pork knuckle (vepřové koleno), fried cheese (smažený sýr) and Trdelník (source: Ulcek final PPT-notes.pdf).
Trip fit
Planning note (not from the sources): Vlčnov is in south-eastern Moravia, far off the Champagne + Alsace corridor — the most off-route of all the family origins. It is recorded here because it is the best-documented ancestral place in the entire project (full parish records, ship manifests, a village chronicle) and the namesake of the Ulcek line. Christy's research positions it as a "bonus" eastern connection that would chain only if the trip extended through Saxony and the Saxon & Bohemian Switzerland borderlands into Czechia.