Flags of our Ancestors

Lisa and Jasia posted a neat article at their blogs. They posted about a website entitled We Are Multicolored which allows you to choose three countries that have affected your life somehow and then to manipulate the shapes of those countries' flags to make one of your own. Here is my flag:This is in part speculation, really. The obvious needs no explanation. The Green/White/Orange flag is that of Ireland, from where my McHUGH, GRIFFIN, DOYLE, O'ROURKE, KEARNS, and DONAHUE came. The Red/White/Blue on top is the flag of the Czech Republic.

The Czech flag is the one which causes the confusion. My father's maternal HODICK line, as I'd always thought, was from Bavaria, Germany. However, when I started this research, every single U.S. Census record I found has Justina (NAHODIL sp?) HODICK born in Czechoslavakia and Edward HODICK born in Bohemia. A cousin of mine stated there was a town of Fuenfkirchen in Austria that was listed in a Bible as Justina's birthplace.

So I don't yet know what flag belongs on top, but for now I'll follow the Census records.

It is definitely time to start ordering vital records. Though the only one I'm likely to find anytime soon is a death record for Justina and Edward, who died in the 1950's in Western New York.