I'm Not Making This Stuff Up

I have a love-hate relationship with footnotes...

Whenever I read well-researched historical material, I internally shudder as I see a superscript number coming up. I know I cannot resist the impulse to look down to the bottom of the page and read the footnote. I have found that about one in thirty footnotes have something interesting and definitely worth reading in them (the “love” part). The other twenty-nine footnotes just serve to interrupt my train of thought and slow down my reading fluency (the “hate” part). In deciding upon the format for this blog, I decided to write it how I would want to read it myself – without footnotes to distract me from the information my brain is trying to absorb. I have always appreciated the writer who puts all the footnotes in the back of the book so I won't be tempted to look down. This being a blog, however, and one of undetermined and open-ended length, there is no “back of the book” to put footnotes in. In places where I have quoted material from a specific source, I will attribute the source within the paragraph where it is quoted. But for general information, much of which I've gotten from reading multiple sources, I will not attribute it specifically to each source. I do, however, want to spend some time now sharing my sources with you. You may want to do some of your own Haban exploration, or you may just want to be assured I am not making this stuff up...

Here are my major sources:

GAMEO – No, not an online gaming site. GAMEO stands for Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Looking a little like Wikipedia in format, GAMEO is a well documented online encyclopedia with a wealth of information on all things Anabaptist. It has entries for Habáner, Sobotiste, Sankt Johann (Svätý Ján), many Hutterite family names and all the historical information you could possible want to read relating to anything Anabaptist. You can check it out here (the Habáner page): http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Hab%C3%A1ner

Hutterite Society by John A. Hostetler (1997)

This is the book containing the photo of Grandpa's sister. Hostetler writes a readable, thorough history of all things Hutterite, including the Haban transition to Catholicism as well as an interesting study of present day Hutterite culture. Available through interlibrary loan in most library systems. (I bought my own copy on Amazon...)

The books: We know as much about the Hutterites as we do because they were such meticulous chroniclers of the events of their lives. Their two major "chronicles" have survived through the ages. Originally written by hand, in German, then published, in German, and fortunately for me,

both finally translated into English in the past several decades. The first, the Great Chronicle a.k.a. Geschichts-Buch a.k.a. The Chronicle of the Hutterian Brethren, Volume I was written by Kaspar Braitmichel until his death in 1573. It was then continued by seven more chroniclers, eventually covering the history of the Hutterites from 1517 to 1665. (Translated and edited by the Hutterian Brethren, Plough Pulishing House, Rifton, New York, 1987) The Small Chronicle a.k.a Kleine-Geschichtsbuch a.k.a The Chronicle of the Hutterian Brethren, Volume II was written by Johannes Waldner, who included a recap of the Great Chronicle, continuing the story into the 1800s. (Translated and edited by the Hutterian Brethren Crystal Spring Colony, Ste. Agathe, Manitoba, Canada, 1998) “Great” and “Small”, by the way, don't refer to size as much as “honor”. The Great Chronicle is given, in humility, the higher honor by the writer of the Small Chronicle because it came first and contains the stories of the Golden Era of the Hutterites. The second chronicle, however, is the one that contains the details of the forced conversion to Catholicism in both Grandpa and Grandpa's towns. Both books are available through interlibrary loan, usually from some university library. I've gone through both books, and own my own copy of Volume II. How I obtained that copy is a story in itself, one that I might share in a later post.

Hutterite Studies by Robert Freidmann (1961)

A series of essays by a noted Hutterite researcher. Hard to buy now, but available through interlibrary loan.

The Hutterian Brethren, 1528-1931: A Story Of Martyrdom And Loyalty by John Horsh (1931)

Another Hutterite researcher, Horsh provided English excerpts from the Great and Small Chronicles in the years before there was a complete English translation of these books. Available on Amazon and interlibrary loan.

Remembering Mama and Papa – The memoir my mother, Lillian Cederle Zima, wrote about her mother and father (Grandma and Grandpa). I think most of the cousins have access to a copy of this book. I believe my mom gave at least one copy to each family of cousins.

Mom's letters from Europe – For years, my mother, fluent in Slovak, had a written correspondence with several of her cousins in Slovakia. When I sent my mother the picture of what would later be identified as Grandpa's sister, she started sending me English translations of the letters she received back from her cousins. These letters, covering a ten plus year span from the early 1990s through the early 2000s, were fascinating glimpses into the spiritual mindset of the Haban remnant in Grandpa and Grandma's families. I will be sharing some of these in a later post.

Various online encyclopedias and websites: Encyclopaedia Britannica (britannica.com), Foundation for East European Family History Studies (feefhs.org), Hutterites.org, Family Search (familysearch.org). This last one, a Morman-based website, contains copies of church documents. I was able to view the baptismal records of Grandpa and all his sisters. Since the baptism issue was such a big deal for the Habans, I'll eventually do a blog post and include snips of the actual baptismal records.

Since this blog is ongoing, there may be other resources that come up that I haven't stumbled onto yet. I'll include them when I do. The Mennonite Quarterly Review looks like a promising resource, and I have a librarian at our local public library who has worked her magic and provided me with articles from that periodical's distant past. I'm also stalking some possible Slovakian relatives on facebook who I hope may provide some information about what the Haban sections of Grandma and Grandpa's town are like now. Even Google street view has given me glimpses of what Sobotište and Svätý Ján look like now. Writing this blog is proving to be a fun historical, genealogical, geographical on-going adventure...