Skip to main content

2024 Week 33: Favourite discovery

The surname Stepek is not a common one. The name itself is from the Greek Stephanos of Ukrainian and Rys origin and is most commonly found in Poland.  According to the website forebears.io, there were just over 900 people with that surname in 2014 and funnily enough, the country with the fourth highest number of Stepeks was .... Scotland! And of course, all of them were my husband Martin's family! 

Incidence of the surname Stepek in 2014 from Forebears.io

Incidentally, even within Martin's family, the surname has now arrived in England, Canada, the Netherlands, Portugal and Denmark! That said, none of Martin's nephews are called Martin. Therefore, it was a lovely discovery, when, Martin 'googling' an article that he himself had written, came across an image of a postcard online - of a cafe in early 20th century Vienna owned by another Martin Stepek !

Over the past few years Martin has started a collection of postcards featuring "his" cafe. He now has seven! There are two different versions of the postcard, one depicting winter scenes around the cafe of which we have five and the other two showing the cafe's interior and illustrated with grape vines, as wine was sold there.



These cards were all sent between 1914 -1917, during the First World War. Three of the cards appear to have been sent to the captain of a Germany cavalry unit and are signed by a number of people. Another one is signed by a group of people but seems to be a personal one. Of the remaining three, one dated 17 May 1917 is signed by a Josef Stepek (a relative??)  - maybe he only sent it because of the surname too!

There are obviously some mysteries to be solved here. The big discovery is of course that there was another Martin Stepek! Who was he? Where did he come from? What happened to him and his cafe??

We are trying to find out. Martin has written to the local mayor's office in the area where the cafe was situated, just outside of Vienna, but unfortunately, the officials were unable to give out any information about the current owners of the property under data protection. Instead they suggested he write directly to the "present occupier" at that address. He has done so, but we are yet to hear back.

Hopefully we will get some answers and another story!

( It would be nice to own a cafe in Vienna!)

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2025 Week 26 : Favourite name #52Ancestorsin52Weeks

 As well as researching my own family, one of the other trees I have spent a lot of time on is that of my daughter-in-law, Lucy. Whereas my heritage is Scots and Irish, Lucy's is English and therefore some of the names I came across were quite different to those found in my own tree. One of my first favourites was a Francis Badger who appeared in the 1851 census for England! He wasn't actually a relative, but an apprentice to Lucy's 3 x great grandfather and who also lodged with the family.  I did wonder how that  surname came about - did the original Badger have  a funnily shaped face? or perhaps a white streak through his hair?? Or was he just an annoying person?? I'll never know, but it was fun to find him! Francis Badger's entry at the bottom in the 1851 census for England. Source: Ancestry.co.uk However, my all time favourite name - and character - from Lucy's tree is a man named Golden Bridge ! He is Lucy's 5x great grandfather and he was born in Essex...
Post a Comment
Read more

2024 Week 19: Preserve #52Ancestorsin52Weeks

 A few years ago, I came into the possession of a family bible. It was the family bible of my paternal grandparents, John McAra and Christina Walker. Until her death in 2018, the bible had been in the hands of my Aunt Inez, widow of my Uncle Will McAra. When I started enquiring as to its whereabouts, I found that it was her grandson, John, who now had it. John himself had no real interest in it at all, so he was quite happy to hand it over to me. However, it was, to say the least, in a bit of a state. The front cover was completely detached and there were many loose pages as the spine of the book was also damaged and detached. I had no choice but to take it to a book repairer in Glasgow, where it was repaired as best it could be. The bible itself had been originally published in Glasgow in the late 19th century. In Victorian times it was common for Christian families to have such a large bible in which they could record events such as births, marriages and deaths. The one I have al...
1 comment
Read more

2026 Week 2: A record which adds colour #52Ancestorsin52Weeks

My husband's paternal grandmother, Janina Ciupka, was born in 1902 in a small town, Nieszawa, north of Warsaw, Poland, on the banks of the River Vistula. She was the youngest of 12 children, only 8 of whom survived to adulthood. At this time Poland had been occupied by their three neighbours, Germany, Russia and Austria and Warsaw was under Russian control.  Her family were very wealthy, owning granaries, bakeries, brick factories and carriage factories and they also bred white horses for the Russian Tzars. As with her elder siblings, Janina was taught by a private governess and the family had many servants, including cooks and cleaners. She obviously was leading a very privileged life. There was little known about the  period of her life from about 1909-1919, The family had moved south eastwards to Haczow around 1909. The reasons for the move seems to have been a combination of business and politics, as Haczow was under Austrian rule, considered more liberal than that of the ...
Post a Comment
Read more