Mike,
Thank you for the information about your family. I have a few thoughts: there are several researchers from around the Pilsen area who can do research for you. I have Jakub Smid (his email: cubasmith@email.cz)doing research for me at the archives in Pilsen. He is very good and sends photos of the records he researches so you can see the actual record he's reading from He translates to English, too. If you want, you can contact him. He seems reasonable in price, a little slow because he "groups" research for the same area together so he's not running all over the Czech Republic doing research. He lives in Brno. I learned about him from the German-Bohemian Message Board on Rootsweb. (That's a good site to put a query in, also.)

I also had Tony (email: a.kondrys@volny.cz) send me some photos of records from the Pilsen archives when he saw a problem I was having in translating the Czech name correctly. I don't know if he is a researcher, but he seemed very knowledgable. It would be worth a try. Don't know how much he charges, as he volunteered the information to me.

I have been to Pilsen (1999) and have seen a Jewish graveyard and Synogogue. I don't know if there is more than one in the town or not. The Synogogue was closed, so I was unable to go inside. The graveyard is above street level and very full of headstones. I wish now I had taken a picture, but I didn't.

My daughter was with me, and we walked all over Pilsen, so I don't even remember what part of town it was in. If I can find a map and/or picture of this cemetery/Synogogue, I will try to email it to you, unless you already have these things.

I wish I had some family information I could share with you, but since Vincent was married into my Utschig family, I didn't ask Jakub to pursue his line any further than his birth and marriage record.

Keep in touch--I am interested in what you can find out about the Czech family from Pilsen.

Mary