The Kressa's: Teodor II and Cecilia

  Teodor II Kressa

    Theodor II Kressa was born in August 31, 1834 in Hradec #33 in what is now called Nova Hradecna (Markersdorf).  (The word hradec means house or castle).  His first wife was Cecilia Girikovsky, born October 22, 1836 in the nearby community of Nova Dedina (Schroffelsdf).  They were married and lived in House #33 in Nova Hradecna.  They had 10 children, but the first three died within a week or two.

    The first three children were named Theodor, Anna, and Amalia; when the other children were born, the names were ‘recyled’ and later children carried these family names.  Theodor and Cecilia's children who lived into adulthood, were:

4. Cecilia Kressa born July 7, 1860

5. Theodore (Kressa) Kresha, Jr. born June 22, 1862.  Died 1938, New York

6. Amalia (Kressa) Kresha, born July 7, 1866

7. Aloisia (Kressa) Kresha, born July 7, 1868

8. Anna (Kressa) Kresha, born March 14, 1871

9. Adolf Franz (Kressa) Kresha, born April 4, 1873.  Died 1950, Nebraska

10. Joseph F. (Kressa) Kresha, born February 13, 1876. Died 1945 California

    Theodor II., a man with a fiery temper, farmed a small 25-30 acre parcel of land owned by Emperor Franz Joseph. The Emperor received one third of the proceeds, local government got another third, and got to keep the remaining one third. Crops included wheat, hops, sunflowers, hay, sugar beets, barley, rye, and grapes. It is not known which of these common crops Kressa grew.

    Cecilia was a mother, housewife, and went to work each day by train in a factory, according to family writings.

Cecila Kressa, Theodor II's first wife.

     Theodor and Cecilia visited their children one hot summer in August of 1891.  They were accompanying their youngest son, Joseph, to the USA and were considering staying with the five children who were already in the United States.  However, they were not used to the temporary humidity and heat and spent most of their visit in the potato cellar where it was cool.  They sat there all day, according to family stories.  The children could not convince them the heat would pass and they headed back to the "The Old Country".

A family portrait taken shortly before four of the children began their journey to America in 1888.


    Cecilia died several years after their visit, about 1894. 

    Several years later, Theodor married a "widow lady with small children", as related by Eva Kresha, Theodor's son's second wife.  Theodor himself died November 11, 1915 in Nova Hradecna.