Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, 2008; updated August of 2009; updated June of 2012
Veteran interments updated May of 2015 courtesy of Cathy Kilgore, Ringgold County Veteran Affairs

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Bernard F. Shimek wrote on January 16, 2009:
"After reading your Ringgold County IAGenweb site I have some information for your Cemeteries section You have my grandfather listed as John SHIMEK with birth and death dates unknown in the Bohemian Cemetery Interment directory. Last summer I completed the genealogy research on my grandfather. I have a copy of his Iowa Death Certificate and his birth record from the Czech Republic. The name on my grandfather's birth record was spelled Jan ŠIMEK. He was born November 30, 1853 in the village of Jenišovice, district of Chrudim, Eastern Bohemia. He died in Diagonal, Iowa on September 27, 1904. Like many immigrants the spelling of their names was changed to fit the English language. The hácek mark placed over the (Š) is pronounced in the Czech language with a "sh" sound. My grandfather was a peasant in Bohemia and I don't think he knew how to write Czech. Also, he stayed within the Czech community in this country and never learned to speak or write English. So, some of the American documents I reviewed during my genealogy research had his surname spelled (Šimek) and some had it spelled (Shimek). Most of those documents had his first name spelled (John) instead of the correct way (Jan). I believe Jan Šimek is the correct spelling for my grandfather's name. On my fathers Ringgold County birth record his name is spelled (Josef Šimek). According to my father when he started school his teacher insisted that he had to spell his name (Joseph Shimek) in order to conform to proper English spelling. The spelling of our family name was changed permanently to Shimek from that day forward. "In Czech Dolecek has a hácek mark over the (c) that is pronounced like CH in CHURCH. It is spelled (Dolecheck) like it sounds in English. Looking at this one example (Dolecek vs. Dolecheck) listed in the Bohemian Cemetery directory illustrates how some people retained their Czech name and some decided to Americanize it. This is both fascinating and frustrating when trying to do family research." Thank you so much for sharing this, Bernard! It is greatly appreciated!!

Other Ringgold County webpages that may be of interest are:

Bohemian Settlement in Washington Township
by Jerry J. Zaruba, 1935

History of Bohemian Settlers in Ringgold County
written by David JEZEK, 1977

To submit you Ringgold County gravestone photographs, go to

https://iowagravestones.org/submit.php

 

The Iowa GenWeb Gravestone Photo Project serves as a photographic archive to honor our ancestors and preserve records of gravestones that are deteriorating, some even disappearing, through the passage of time. New contributions are posted as they come in. The link for this searchable project can be found at:

https://iowagravestones.org/

 

 

In the 1930’s the WPA canvassed and recorded burials in most Iowa Counties. The link for Ringgold County ’s searchable database can be found at:

https://iowawpagraves.org/index.php?cid=80

 

 

The link for all Iowa Counties included in the WPA searchable database can be found at:

https://iowawpagraves.org/