Subject
Korous surname
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Description
Researching my grandmother’s line, Korous. I’ve also seen it as Koroush or Karrousch. The family immigrated from Bohemia in the 1850’s. Habenicht’s Hitory of Czechs in America does not list this surname nor can I find it in any of Leo Baca’s immigration books. So I’m thinking it translates to another name in Czech but what? Help me if you can. Thank you!
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Comments
The query has two levels, as far as I understand it.
First, the origin of the family name. By the substantial book on Czech family names – Nase prijmeni (Our Family Names) by Dobrava Moldanova, Prague 2004, p. 91 – the name Korous (spelled either this way or with a little hook over the -s) is derived from the given name Kornel. And that given name was derived from the Latin adjective cornelius which means firm, unyielding, persistent.
The other level of the query, let me guess, refers to the place the grandmother of Dawn’s came from. I suspect so because of her references that she did not find the name either in Habenicht or in Baca. Well, the “translation” of the name will not help her in this, I am afraid. I have checked the current telephone directories (www.zlatestranky.cz, http://telefonniseznam.o2active.cz) to see where the name occurs today – but unfortunately, they contain entries from all around the country (8 in Prague, 6 in Central Bohemia, 7 in Southern Bohemia, 8 in South-West Bohemia, 7 in North-West Bohemia, 1 in South Moravia, 1 in Silesia). So it looks Dawn will have to do more research on that side of the Big Pond, I am afraid. The fact she lives in Iowa matches with the directory findings – it looks more likely the ancestors came from Bohemia (and namely its south, south-west sections) rather than Moravia. But it is still rather much too vague.
Regards,
Miroslav (Mirek) Koudelka
familyhistory@seznam.cz