People, who don’t look back on their ancestors won’t pay attention to posterity as well.
Edmund Burke
Prologue
Actually electronic composed informations are diametrically opposed to genealogy. Within genealogy you are backward turned. You are glad about every single little information out of dusty archives from all around the world. But without this modern form of communication a lot of things carried together here wouldn’t be possible at all. I hope that something more will be made possible with this homepage. The search for one's own ancestors, for the history of one's own family, for one's own origin, for relatives and decendents, for one's own roots can become an addiction. At least I am fascinated.
My homepage contains in addition to this prologue a short etymologic survey on the name Hrazsky/Hrasky, a listing of the descendants of Jiri Hrazsky (farmer, born in the first part of the 17. th century in Kamenne Zbozi, Czech Republic).
It continues with an English translation of this page.
My investigations are dedicated to my dead father Raimund Hrasky, who taught me to be proud of my family history, and to my uncle Bruno, who presides over the Bavarian part of our family. I wish you an informative travel through history and I’ll be grateful for suggestions, comments and further information about my “world wide family”.
Wolfgang Hrasky
marriage of Josef and Elfriede Hrasky, Sarajevo
Etymology of the surname Hrasky/Hrazsky
The surname Hrasky is based on the Czech item hrás which means dam. It thus refers to a “dam-watchman or dam-guardian. Thus the name can be considered as a professional name. In the Slavic as well as the German language professional names are given to those, who bear the name because of their job, e.g. “Miller, Hunter; in German: Müller, Jäger. Consequently the first one who bore the name worked as a dam-guardian. In former times the meaning of dam was either a “heightened hard-surface roadway” or “an "artificially built protecting wall" against flooding. The construction of a roadway was very important for the economic circumstances in the Middle Age. The dams provided beside the revalorization of the attractiveness as a market or trade place an important source of revenue for the building owner (sovereign) The building owners were allowed to demand a fee for the passing of their dam. They needed the so called dam-tax because their construction was very expensive. The taxes were charged by the dam-guardians. The dams which were built as a protecting wall against flooding had to be controlled by dam-guardians as well. They had to check the constructional state and protect it from damage caused by cattle. The first bearer of the name Hrazsky/Hrasky possessed house and home or he cultivated a field close to the dam. Therefore he was called “the one living at the dam” by his neighbours .
Don’t lose time and money for genealogical studies. You just have to become a politician and your opponents will find out for you – for free.
Mark Twain