Bennish Brick Wall

Question

My paternal line comes screeching to a halt after my ancestor who immigrated. Louis J. Bennish (abt 1858 - 1938) His last name I have seen spelled many different ways in census records. Benesh/Bennich/Bennisch/Benes are among a few I have seen. I have no idea which is correct. His country is listed alternately as Czechoslovakia, Austria, and Bohemia. He lived the rest of his life in Chicago, Illinois. His wife's name was Alma Charlotta Stone. If anyone could help me at all, it would be greatly appreciated. I've been stuck on him for years. I want to know which country and city he originated from, and who his parents, siblings and grandparents were.

Comments

This is a big coincidence as I was working today on the family tree of a DNA match of mine. Guess what, her brick wall is John E. Bannish (https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/G4FT-F9Y) and she told me that the name was sometimes written Banas as well.

1930 Census also shows he spoke Slovak and is from Czechoslovakia. His wife's name is Cooper but sometimes called Krupa which I think is also a Czech name.

No location in the "old" world given, he was born in 1906 in Massachusetts.

Sounds like that this a similar problem.

Answer 1

The Czech name you would be looking for is Beneš. Unfortunately a pretty common family name. If you can come up with a location your chances of tracing your family back to the early 17th century, in some areas to the late 16th, would be pretty good. The Czech Republic has excellent regional archives that have pretty much all available relevant records online for free. Try finding his immigration records and then ship passenger lists, in some cases the departure lists give the place of origin. Bohemia was a region in Czechoslovakia for as long as that state existed, and before that a part of the Austria-Hungarian empire, so all your locations are correct and for the same place.

Answer 2

Is this the father of

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Bennish-5 ?

Comments

Yes. He is the father of Edward Joseph Bennish.

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In this record Eddy Joseph and two siblings were baptised the same day

https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/21919264?h=37caa5&utm_campaign=bandido-webparts&utm_source=post-share-modal&utm_medium=copy-url