When I first started this project it was to mainly copy and make available to my family, the diary of my grandfather and the two volumes of letters between my grandparents. These two volumes were letters that Dr. Joe and Golda had written to each other between 1913 and 1920. These letters open a window for us - back in time into the past. I also had the hand-written diary of Dr. Joe that he had started in the late 1930s in which he had both related some of his stories about growing up, as well as observations about life, and the family, and its traits. I then decided it would be of benefit if I could incorporate his diary, to some degree at least, as introduction or comments on some of the sections of the various letters.

As I got underway and started gathering the information and started to try and combine some of it, I realised I also had other information about the family from other sources as well. The book Czech Pioneers of the Southwest had a history of Czech pioneering families that helped settle and develop Texas. Josephine Kopecky, Dr. Joe’s mother, had one chapter devoted to her and Dr. Joe. Various other written accounts of times gone by written by Dr. Joe and other relatives were also available for incorporation. Between this and various photos that I had, and others that were sent to me by relatives, it became clear to me I had a lot of family history to try and put in some sort of order for the next number of generations to come..

I have also tried to research and provide a summary on the history of the origin of Czechs from Moravia, our region of origin. From this I tried to show the flow of our past relatives from Czechoslovakia to the United States and on to Texas. They had to survive hardship and go through hard times. Without their efforts, we wouldn’t be here today. We should know what those in our past contributed.

I hope we can all enjoy and learn something from this project. If so, then I think it was a project well worth having been done.