Help me locate a small town called 'Zborova'.  The only information I
have is 1) that it is/was in the immediate vicinity of Bratislava
(Slovakia),  and 2) apparently a large number of people in Whiting,
Indiana are descendants of immigrants from this town.  It was last
visited by a deceased relative of my fiance in the 1970s, long before
the breakup of Czechoslovakia, so we have no recent information to
help us find it.

What I've found so far is not helpful:
- Anything about 'Zborov' without an 'A' at the end 
- http://www.iarelative.com/search/search11.htm 
- A restaurant with this name near Bratislava 
- http://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitva_u_Zborova   (maybe this is
helpful but I can't translate it)

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Request for Question Clarification by scriptor-ga on 23 Aug 2006 15:14 PDT

Are you certain that Zborov is not the place you are looking for? In
the Slovakian language, the ending "-a" would be added to a noun in
numerous cases. "Zborova" would be used for Zborov whenever "to
Zborov", "near Zborov", "in Zborov", "from Zborov" or countless other
things are expressed.

Scriptor

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 23 Aug 2006 15:20 PDT

To add to scriptor-ga's insightful comment, I checked a number of very
deep geographic resources for current as well as historical town
names, and Zborova just doesn't show up anywhere in the world.

A 'sounds like' search turned up 79 possibilities in Slovakia,
including these six as the most likely:


Zborov (populated place)   Slovakia,  49°22'0'' N, 21°18'0'' E   
     
Zborov (ruin(s))   Slovakia,  49°21'0'' N, 21°18'0'' E   
     
Zborov (populated place)   Slovakia,  49°23'0'' N, 18°53'0'' E    

Borová (populated place)   Slovakia,  48°23'0'' N, 17°27'0'' E    

Borcová (populated place)   Slovakia,  48°56'0'' N, 18°51'0'' E    

Borzová (populated place)   Slovakia,  48°32'0'' N, 20°29'0'' E   


Waddya think...?


pafalafa-ga

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Request for Question Clarification by czh-ga on 23 Aug 2006 17:15 PDT

Hello killermartian-ga,

I thought I?d give your search a try since the area of Slovakia you?re
asking about was once part of Austria-Hungary and I speak Hungarian.
Unfortunately, I haven?t found anything to confirm that there is/was a
town named Zborova. As Scriptor and Pafalafa have indicated, there is
a great likelihood that the town was named something else that sounded
similar but was spelled differently.

My preliminary search has provided some leads that might help. I
wonder what is the source of your information that the town you?re
looking for is named Zborova? Here are some lists of Slovakian place
names. It seems that some of them may have been so similar in
pronunciation that the name may have been written down incorrectly.
This happened fairly frequently with immigrant names and histories.
Take a look at these lists and see if any of them might be what you?re
looking for.

http://www.fallingrain.com/world/LO/a/Z/b/
Places in Slovakia that start with Zb

---

http://www.iarelative.com/z.htm
This index lists geographic features, populated places, and
administrative place names in Slovakia. It does not list all variant
place names of the past nor does it feature all variant spellings of a
location.

---

http://slovakia.eunet.sk/index.asp?kam=/go/clanky/98.asp&lang=en&sv=1
A list of Slovak cities and villages



I hope that someone who speaks Slovakian will take a look at your
question and assist with the meaning and usage of ?zborova,? but
following Scriptor?s comment and the results of my search, I believe
that you?re looking for the town of Zborov and surmise that Zborova
means ?of/from Zborov.?

http://www.zborovske.szm.sk/Page10110/Mapa2/mapa2.html
Poloha Zborova

This is a map of Zborova. Here are some additional links for
information about the town.

http://www.fallingrain.com/world/LO/0/Zborov.html
Zborov, Slovakia 

---

http://www.spectacularslovakia.sk/ss2002/zborov_ascii.html
Zborov
Enticing day-trip
An unassuming little village with fewer than 2,400 residents, Zborov
would seem to be nothing more than a pit-stop on the road from
Bardejov to Svidnik. Surprisingly enough, though, there are two sites
in Zborov that make it an enticing day-trip.

---

http://www.slovakcottages.com/1frames/walks/zborov1.htm
http://www.slovakheritage.org/Castles/zborov.htm
ZBOROV CASTLE



I?m also wondering if it would make sense to pursue your search by
looking at resources for Whiting, Indiana. I was able to find some
genealogic resources and discussion forums that indicate immigrants
from Zborov settled in Whiting. What were the names of your fiance?s
relatives that came from ?Zborova?? It might be possible to track down
information through immigration or genealogical records.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SLOVAK-ROOTS/messages/4001?viscount=100
4007 Zajacs in Whiting document.writeln("Zajacs in Whiting"); 
If you are looking for some Zajacs, I grew up with some of them in
Whiting, Indiana. In fact, one of my relatives came over from Zborov
in Slovakia with an...

---

http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/reference/cshm/ohrc102.html
Whiting, Indiana: Generational Memory 
1991-1993
88 interviews



In my search I also came across a page that indicates that ?zborova?
means ?fellowship? in English.

http://www.ecav.sk/intl/english/worship-kosice.htm
Go up the stairs, and there you will find the Fellowship Hall (Zborova
sien) to the left, where the English services are held. (In case the
gate is close, you can ring the buzzer right next to it with the sign
ZBOROVA SIEN.)



Your question provides some intriguing leads for finding the Slovakian
town you?re looking for. I hope that the information I?ve provided
will help you to give me additional leads to help you with your
search.

I look forward to your clarification.

~ czh ~

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Clarification of Question by killermartian-ga on 24 Aug 2006 14:37 PDT

Oops, didn't see the button till now - check the comments for my clarification.

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Clarification of Question by killermartian-ga on 25 Aug 2006 14:43 PDT

markvmd-ga: Interesting idea about Bardejov (that both names I was
given were inaccurate).  If true it's unfortunate though, because it
looks like I won't be able to travel that far.

czh-ga:
I got some family names that might help on the geneology front.  Not
sure if they are all from that area or even from Slovakia, but the
first one probably is:
  JANCOSEK
  PORACKY
  SKURKA

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Request for Question Clarification by czh-ga on 25 Aug 2006 17:21 PDT

Hello again killermartian-ga,

Can you tell us anything about the family background? I?ve found some
sources that are denominational ? Jewish, Lutheran and Catholic so
far.

This link for interviews with people from Whiting, Indiana shows three
people named Jancosek. Do you recognize any of them? If yes, you might
want to research the full record kept at the library.

http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/reference/cshm/ohrc102.html
Whiting, Indiana: Generational Memory

Jancosek, George
Jancosek, JoAnn
Jancosek, John

I also found that the Immigration History Research Center at the
University of Minnesota has a large collection of materials relating
to Slovak immigrants. You might find these resources helpful for
finding additional leads to help you identify the town you?re looking
for.

http://ihrc.umn.edu/index.php
Immigration History Research Center
http://ihrc.umn.edu/research/
Research Collections

You?ve posed a tough question that remains unanswerable without
further background information to help us.

Good luck with your explorations.

~ czh ~

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Clarification of Question by killermartian-ga on 30 Aug 2006 15:34 PDT

czh-ga: FYI, I haven't given up on this but I'm waiting on more info
from my contact.  To update your last RFC though, the family
background is mostly catholic.  Most exciting though were the three
Jancoseks you found from the Generation Memory project - all three are
family members of my fiance!
    This has inspired my contact to dig a little deeper and talk to
related family members to try and find some more details.  So I'll
update again if that turns up anything.

hedgie-ga:  Thanks for jumping in!  The 'bitva' and the restaurant
references in my original post were two seperate things.  (I found
what looked like a restaurant named Sborova in/near Bratislava by
searching around on http://www.seznam.cz/).
    Anyway, yes I've accepted now that Zborova isn't the name of any
town there.  The hope now is to figure out which Zborov (or other
similar name) is the right town.  As for the reference to Radomír
Jan?o?ek - if nothing comes of my other inquiries, emailing him is a
good idea.  Thanks!

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Request for Question Clarification by czh-ga on 30 Aug 2006 15:38 PDT

Thanks for the update, killermartian-ga. I'm very happy to hear that
one of the links I provided led to personal information. Let me know
what else I can help you with.

~ czh ~

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Clarification of Question by killermartian-ga on 13 Sep 2006 10:28 PDT

Final update, the place has been found: it *is* the very first
'Zborov' mentioned by all of you - the small town north of Bardejov. 
The information that you guys gave me, when relayed back to my
contact, inspired her to get reaquainted with some forgotten family
connections and ultimately verify the actual location of this town.

Sorry this wasn't a straightforward slam dunk question, but thanks a
lot for all your input - it really helped.

---

Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 13 Sep 2006 11:04 PDT

You're welcome.

Seems to me that scriptor-ga, as the first to hit at the truth of the
matter, should post his remarks as a formal answer to your question,
so that he can collect the fee offered.

Just my suggestion...

paf

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Request for Question Clarification by czh-ga on 13 Sep 2006 12:59 PDT

Hello killermartian-ga,

I'm so glad that the information we were able to provide you helped
you with your family search. As  pafalafa-ga suggested, you can
specify which researcher you want to post an official answer to this
question and collect payment. If you think more than one researcher
contributed valuable information you can post a new question to the
attention of any researcher you think should be rewarded.

It's great to hear that you're making progress on your family quest.

~ czh ~

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Clarification of Question by killermartian-ga on 13 Sep 2006 17:44 PDT

I'm happy to have at least one of you (scriptor-ga, pafalafa-ga or
czh-ga) collect the fee, but choosing is a bit more difficult.  Is it
best to go by who responds first, or to reward the one who seemingly
spends the most time?  In any case, some of the information posted by
czh-ga was what I think inspired my contact to reconnect with people
and discover the facts, so I'd like czh-ga to collect this fee.

To be fair though, I would have been willing to spend a little more to
get to the bottom of this and am willing to reward scriptor-ga and
pafalafa-ga with a half-fee each.  Other people who posted later (and
only in the comments) helped, but I gotta draw the line somewhere.  So
I'll post questions that only you two can answer to pick up your fees.
(I hope this isn't a faux pas, but this is my first time using Google
Answers so we'll live and learn.)

Anyway, once again thanks to all of you guys for your help!

Hello killermartian-ga,

Thank you very much for inviting me to post the formal answer to your
question. I'm happy that the information I posted in my clarifications
led to re-energizing your search for further information about your
European history and relatives.

Since you feel that scriptor-ga and pafalafa-ga also helped, you can
post separate questions to their attention for whatever price you feel
is appropriate -- like this.

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=726368

I would be very happy to do further research for you as you go forward
with your investigations.

All the best.

~ czh ~

czh-ga was excellent help, as well as the others that contributed to
this answer.  Thanks to all!

Are you dead set on it being in the Slovak Republic? There's a Zoborow
in Ukraine and a Zaborow in Poland. Between changing borders from WWI
and the way pronunciation goes (v for w, for example), could either of
these be where you are looking for?

Wow, lots of responses - where to begin...   Overall, all of you seem
to have confirmed my fear that there is no small town of Zborova on
the outskirts of Bratislava.  You see, I'll be near Bratislava this
fall but won't have enough time to travel deep into the countryside to
see the other possibile matches further east.

scriptor-ga:
I'm *not* sure that Zborova is the exact name (as opposed to Zborov or
some other spelling) because the name was conveyed by word of mouth. 
Even 'near Bratislava' may be inaccurate, but I hoped it wasn't.  The
info I was given was very sketchy.

pafalafa-ga:
I like your "Borová" find best - the name is fairly similar and is
closest to Bratislava of the ones you listed.  However, it's very
possible that one of the 'Zborov' towns is the correct one and 'near
Bratislava' was a red herring.

czh-ga: 
Thanks for all the leads!  I did come across some of these pages in my
earlier searches but you've found quite a bit more than I did.  As I
said above, the info has been 'handed down' from person-to-person in
my fiances family, and thus can't be very reliable.  The original
source was a great-uncle (now deceased) who stayed in Zborova (or
whatever it's called) for some time in the 1970s and actually filmed
interviews with residents there (these were all lost after he died).
    As for the Whiting, Indiana angle: I'll have to ask my source for
some family names first.  Let me see what I can come up with.

markvmd-ga:
You make a good point, but I'm going to cling to the western part of
Slovakia for now until all possibilities are exhausted.


Thanks to everyone for the help so far...

Zborov in Slovakia is about 7 kilometers outside of Bardejov, a couple
of hundred km west of Bratislava. I wonder if Bardejov, an unknown
town name, got mangled to a more-familiar Bratislava?

Zborov looks delightfully small and village-like.

Bitva u Zborova 

  means

 'Battle at Zborov' 

It is not a restaurant near Bratislava . It is a famous battle of 1917 

http://www.radio.cz/en/article/44086
http://eep.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/17/4/654

  The change Zborov -> Zborova (Zborovu, Zborovem ..)

 is due to declension. Slavic languages, like latine, have 7 cases:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_declension

 as Scriptor suggested.

There is a song about the battle

  The song about Zborov battle: 


Písen( ke ZBOROVU 1917 

1. Kdyz se soumrak sklání 
nad Zborovskou plání 
hasne zvolna slunka svit, 
krízu bílé rady 
ze tmy svítí v?ady, 
které strezí mrtvých klid...

given if full  here 
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.czecho-slovak/tree/browse_frm/month/2004-12/1008949130937036?rnum=131&_done=%2Fgroup%2Fsoc.culture.czecho-slovak%2Fbrowse_frm%2Fmonth%2F2004-12%3F


There is a Zborov in Czech Rebublic, Slovak Republic and Ukraine (of
which a part, Ruthenia,
used to be part ov Czechoslovakia)

Slovak village
 Zborov nad Bystricou
is in this area:

http://www.iarelative.com/nm3407.htm
http://www.castles.sk/index.php?map=18

There is no Zborova (and it not a proper gramatical form for
nominative (=first case) of a noun.


  It would have to be at least Zborová (with long a) and so,
  final conclusion is that Zborova is a second case (posessive) form
of noun Zborov.

    
The name Jancosek is probably messed up form of Jan?o?ek, fairly
common derivative of John

Here is an example 
Ing. Radomír Jan?o?ek , director of touristic info center in Bardejov.
What about sending him an email?

Hedgie

The author of this message
(referring to the Geffert family who came from Zborov and went to
Detroit and Whiting)
says that he visited Zborov in September 2002
http://boards.ancestry.netscape.com/mbexec?htx=message&r=4317&p=surnames.geffert&m=31.1

Perhaps you could send him an e-mail.

The entire thread (Geffert, Zborov):
http://boards.ancestry.netscape.com/mbexec?htx=message&r=4317&p=surnames.geffert&m=3