Submitted By: Amanda Oden
Village Website (if known): https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blehov
My third great-grandparents, Rosa Beranova and Leopold Kalous, started our American story in the Czech village of Blehov. Married in Milevsko, they eventually brought their children—Frantiska, Antonia, and Frank—across the Atlantic, traveling from Bremen to Baltimore and finally to Nebraska. My grandmother, Ethel Sims Spaulding, and mother, Frantiska Spaulding Oden, are the links that connect me to that past.
In 2018, I finally visited the village of Blehov to see where it all began. Driving through the snow from Warsaw, I skipped the sightseeing in Prague, eager only to reach our family’s starting point. I arrived without a guide or a plan, but I was welcomed by two local cats. Being a veterinarian, it felt like a wonderful, destined connection to my ancestors—a sign that this village was exactly where I was meant to be.
Archive Link: Blehov in the Trebon Archives
