VOLESKÝ - Rodokmen

Bohumil (iii) VOLESKÝ PhD, Ing.,
University Professor
- and wife Zuzana:

Narozen / Born :
Praha, Czech Rep.
1939-10-29

Living :
Montreal, Canada

This man was not the first one to leave the country of his birth, upending the local saying "Leave me to perish".
Actually, the first one from the family circles that we know of was his great-grand-father Frantisek VOLESKY with his new family (1868) - not going overseas though, they aimed in the oposite direction, at St. Petersburg, Russia. And did very well for themselves, returning to Praha after 18 years away. The second one was Věra ZÁTKOVÁ-Doubek in 1948 (see below), a newlywed then, who left the country under more dramatic circumstances, ending up overseas in the USA.
And almost 2 decades later (1967), Bohumil (iii) followed in her westward direction, going to "study in Canada". That was the only way to fool the hard and suffocating communist regime of the time in Czechoslovakia. Still shaking my head over that Czech officialdom's permission that actually came through for those fully Canadian-sponsored studies - a sign of the tough regime starting to fall apart shortly before the "Prague spring of freedom" ? Some battle came later, however - as the Russian armies invaded Czechoslovakia and things got tough there was a big gamble: Wife Zuzana was left behind in Praha trying to finish her medical degree. Fortunately, bureaucracies have a way of defeating themselves and this is how she got an unusual and silly 14-day permission to "go to Canada and get her husband back". Both of them together they thumbed their noses at the cruel commie system - to never return from Canada.
And this is where they have happily been living ever after -
ČESKY :
Tak tento clovíček nebyl ten první, který opustil svou rodnou zemi, stavě tak na hlavu to okřídlené vyhrůžné rčení, že „opustíš-li mě – zahyneš“.  Ve skutečnosti, první z rodinných okruhů, pokud víme, byl jeho pra-pra-otec František VOLESKÝ, který sbalil jeho novou rodinu (1868) a odjeli do Petrohradu v Rusku. Asi tvrdě pracovali a dařilo se jim tam velmi dobře. Po 18 letech emigrace se vrátili jako zámožná rodina. Druhá pak byla Věra ZÁTKOVÁ-Doubek, kteří s novomanželem Karlem za dramatických okolností opustili Československo v r. 1948 a zamířili přes oceán do USA. 
Skoro o 20 let později (1967) následoval je směrem na západ Bohumil (iii) aby dostudovával v Kanadě. To byla jediná možnost jak se dostat z područí komunistického režimu, který tehdy dusil Československo. Ještě pořád potřásám hlavou jak se podařilo obejít ten tvrdý režim a dostat povolení ke studiu plně sponsorovanému Kanadou - že by ten režim tehdy už praskal pod vlivem rodícího se „Pražského jara“ ?  Bitva s ním však nastala o něco později když s invazí ruských armád do Československa se poměry zhoršily. S manželkou Zuzanou v Praze, kde dokončovala studia mediciny, to byla poněkud riskatní sázka jestli se také dostane „ven“.  Naštěstí, byrokratické systémy často selhávají a tak se stalo, že dostala povolení ke 14-denní cestě do Kanady aby „přivezla manžela zpátky“.  Pospolu v Kanadě, udělali pak jen dlouhý nos na opresivní a totalitní komunistický system - a zůstali v Kanadě kde spokojeně žijí až dodnes.

Narozená / Born :
Kamenný Újezd,
České Budějovice
1926-6-8

Living :
Dallas, TX, USA

Věra came from a well-to-do and patriotic Zátka family in České Budějovice. As such they were heavily persecuted by both German nazies during the WW2 (Věra lost her mother in a concentration camp) as well as the red commies who confiscated all their properties in 1948. No wonder that Věra wanted to get out of there as soon as she had a chance. They made the run for it with her new husband Karel DOUBEK, right after their wedding in 1948, around the time of the Communist government ruthless takeover.
Theirs was a dramatic and risky escape on foot through a heavily guarded and dangerous Czech-German border territory. The refugees were interned in German holding camps for long months awaiting the permission to eventually come to the USA. And to the USA they did come and settled down in Nebraska where they started a new family with a new life. A little later, the hard-working couple started a restaurant business of their own in Omaha, NE. With time, they sold out and moved to Dallas, TX - only to start another one.
Restaurant business makes for a busy life and it took many decades before Věra returned for a visit back to the native land -