Radieg Family

Written by Ellen M. (Chaloupka) Rohr
July 20, 2019

Note: One of the Jindra granddaughters married a Radey(Americanized spelling of Radieg)

Twenty or thirty years ago, I began researching the RADEJ/RADEY surname. At the time, I knew very little about my immigrant ancestor. I often joked that he must have arrived to the United States via an alien UFO ship rather than a conventional ocean-going ship. Everywhere I looked there seemed to be no record of him or where he came from. I still have not been able to locate his departure or arrival records. His name, Peter RADEJ, his wife Anna HERLICK.

My research connected me to a few people who were able to help. Michele (GURICH) REMBERT, daughter of Lorraine (RADEY) GURICH, was instrumental in helping me put the early pieces together. Michele passed away in 2009. She would have been delighted with all the records we are now able to access online.

When I started my research, I did not realize how many spelling variations there are of the name. I knew RADEY and RADEJ, they seemed to be interchangable. There are also: RADDA, RADE, and the original spelling RADIEG. One branch of the family even changed the name to READY.

In 2018, after a lifetime of searching, I finally had a breakthrough and was able to find the ancestral home.

The earliest record for the family thus far is of Jakub RADEJ in the chronicle of the village or Pozemkov#&00E9 knihy (Land Book) of Hrichovice near Domazlice dated 17 December 1654. On the map below, Hrichovice is the red dot near the bottom center of map. Domazlice is in the left bottom corner. The other red dots shown on the map are areas that the family lived in and will be referenced on other pages of this website.

Jakub was one of the sedlacs (farmer of a large farm) on the Hrichovice tax register with 30 units of property.

Jakub Radej Sedlac, 1654 Hrichovice

During this time in Bohemia's history, farmers were differentiated into categories, sedlaks, who did not own their own land; chalupnik, gardeners who owned their own domicile and a small amount of land; and zharadnik, cottagers who owned a larger track of land. After the Thirty Years War (1618-1648), people were able to obtain more land and serf classes decreased.

By 1713, Petr RADEJ, was the sedlac of the same property. This information can be found in the Chronicle of the Village. I hope to get the book translated and obtain more information about the family and connect these names to my known relatives.