Hello my name is Mary [Ficenec] Peck and I am from Vancouver, Washington.  Some years ago, my brothers George, Anthony & I took up looking into our family name, with the help of my husband - who had done quite a bit of research into his own family tree.  The four of us became partners in this "project" - to recreate the Ficenec family tree & its history.  In many ways, this project is as much for our father, Francis, and his siblings and their children, as it is for us.  We hope that it will become a project for all of the Ficenec families we come across, and a tale of the history of our common ancestors.

Our first step was to trace our own 'branch' of the Ficenec family tree back as far and as wide as we could, finding out about our ancestors as well as when and from where our branch came to America.  As with the first step of any project, this proved the easiest, as well as led to many questions.  We quickly found that our great-great-great-grandfather came to the United States from the Bohemia region near the border of what are now Poland and the Czech Republic.  We also found out that his son, our great-great-grandfather, had three brothers - yet we knew of no Ficenec families descended from any of them, just our ancestor.

This knowledge of the four brothers led to our second step, which was to locate as many people in the U.S. with the Ficenec name as possible, and fit them into the family tree.  With a quick check of phone registries and some basic news searching, we found that at the time there were only about 20 families in the United States with this family name.  There was a large "clump" of Ficenec families living in the Omaha area - and we knew none of them!  There were others in the Virginia area, and a few scattered around the country.  It has taken some digging, but we're gradually getting many of them fitted into the puzzle - with 'branches' growing from each of our great-great-grandfather's brothers.

It was during these searches that we ran across a reference to a Jakub Ficenec, a hockey player here in the U.S., but who came from the Hradec Králový area of Czechia that our ancestor emigrated from.  This brought on a new goal of finding any relatives in the "homeland" and around the world, and fitting them into the family tree (or more appropriately, fitting us into their family tree).  Our second "hit" was a reference to a visiting air force pilot from Europe with the Ficenec name.  Then, during a chance trip to Europe (2002) that we had the opportunity to do a little research in the Czech Republic, and we found 26 families!

Late in 2005, we started doing a bit more internet-based research, and discovered that our great-great-great-grandfather wasn't the only Ficenec to emigrate to the US.  He had a brother, Jiri (George) who came over with wife and children about the same time, and lived very close to our ancestor Jan (John); as well as there was a Franz (Frank) and his family who came over in the early 1910s.  Knowledge of George should make it possible for us to place many of the Ficenec's that we have found over the years that don't fit into our own 'branch' of the Ficenec family tree, and hopefully Frank, once we learn a little, will do the same.

So that brings us to our current goal:  We're trying to work with family both here and in Europe to put together a comprehensive family tree and a bit of the history of the Ficenec family.  We then hope to arrange a massive Ficenec get-together with members from every 'branch' to see each other in person and make connections with distant relatives.  Hopefully each 'branch' of the family will have at least one eager descendent willing to be the 'investigator' for their 'branch', and help to compile the tree.  Click here to find out how to be a partner in the project.

Ultimately, we want to make this information available to every new Ficenec kid out there as they come along.