Texas Czech
Genealogical Society
Spring 2026
A LETTER FROM OUR PRESIDENT
Patrick J. Janis
Dear TCGS Members and Friends,
TCGS is officially 25 years old this year! We plan a year of celebration, remembrance,
research and progress. It's also the 250 Anniversary of the USA, which is exactly 10 times
older than TCGS. As we all celebrate both of these milestones, I believe we should be
thankful for our Czech immigrant ancestors who added to the melting pot, influenced the
culture of the USA and served in our nation's armed forces to protect and ensure the freedoms
that brought them here in the first place. We haven't yet broken ground on the TCGS complex
in Caldwell, but if you ever visited our museum and the Czech Veterans Wall of Honor that
was previously on display in Temple, you have some idea of how highly we consider the
value of the service of our "Czechs in Uniform."
Sara, Lydia and their team have once again compiled and prepared another excellent edition
of our award-winning quarterly, Ceske Stopy. Please continue to send them your news and
articles, as this quarterly has always been "OF the members, BY the members and FOR the
members." It helps us fulfill our society's purposes by cataloging and documenting the Texas
Czech community and our ancestors whom we honor.
On a side note, as a lover of music (every Czech is a musician), I recently learned that the
world's largest manufacturer of vinyl records is a company in the Czech Republic called GZ
Media. They started in 1951 in the Czech town of Lodenice to supply vinyl records to Eastern
bloc countries during the Cold War.
If you or your family has any connection to this record company, let us know. There’s surely a
great story there.
Thanks,
Patrick J. Janis
President, Texas Czech Genealogical Society
pjjanis@hotmail.com or by phone/text at (979) 574-9848
