About us
The Sedlak / Sedlacek Project is open to all with the surname SEDLAK or SEDLACEK or other Hungarian (Magyar), Czech, Slovak, Polish, or German versions, as well as any Anglicized versions of these European names.
Historical background: surname SEDLAK means 'farmer who owns his
own land' in Old West Slavic. This was a small social class of
land-owning freemen in Old Bohemia (part of the Holy Roman Empire),
Moravia, and former N. Hungary. The sedlaky (szedlakek) were gentry,
directly below the lower titled nobility and often intermarrying with
them as well as with the burgomaster and merchant classes in the towns
and cities. Over time, this social class became an occupational term
and thereby a surname.
Czech SEDLAKs (and other Czechs) in the 19th century mainly settled in the heartland of North America (Nebraska, Kansas, parts of Texas, parts of the Dakotas, S. Minnesota and Canadian prairie), while Hungarian SEDLAKs (and most other Magyars) in the late 18th, entire 19th, and early-mid 20th century usually settled in or near Eastern urban areas such as NYC (e.g. Little Hungary in the Upper East Side), Bridgeport/Fairfield/Stratford/Milford and New Haven (CT), Cleveland-Sandusky-Toledo (OH), Philadelphia-Trenton-New Brunswick (PA and NJ), Detroit-Dearborn-Ann Arbor (MI), Pittsburgh-McKeesport (PA), Toronto, etc. Chicago and environs saw both Hungarian and Czech (plus even more Polish and Ukrainian) settlement in the 19th and early 20th Cent.
If you are a male SEDLAK or surname variant, we urge you to join regardless of your nationality or ethnicity. You are more than welcome to be a part of this group. And, by doing so you help our cause.
How many different SEDLAK clans (groups of families of the same male lineage) are there? That is what we would like to discover. Are the Sedlaks of Kassa (Kosiče) - Barcza (Barca) the same Sedlaks of Spišská Nová Ves? Or, are they different clans? Are any of the N. Hungarian (Slovakia) Sedlaks originally from Moravia or Bohemia? Are the Kosiče Sedlaks the same as those in Miskolc? Are the oldest clan of Sedlaks in the old city of Prague the same as those in České Budějovice (Budweiss)? How many different Sedlak and Sedlacek families went to Nebraska? How many different families ended up in SW Connecticut? And so on.
Surname variants include SEDLÁK, SZEDLÁK, SEDLAK, SEDLACK, NOVASEDLÁK, NOVISEDLÁK, NOVOSEDLÁK, NOVOSEDLIK, NOVOSZEDLAK, NOVYSEDLÁK, SEDLAKOVA, SEDLOCK, SHEDLAK, SHEDLOCK, SEDLEK, SIEDLAK, SYDLAK, SZELLEK, SELLECK, SZÉNÁSI, SZÉNÁSSY, SENASHI, SENASHY, etc. They also include diminutives like SEDLÁČEK, SEDLACSEK, SZEDLACSEK, SEDLAČEK, SEDLACZEK, SEDLACHECK, SEDLACKO, etc., and potentially related surnames such as SETLAK, SADLAK, SIEDLIK, SEDŁAK, SEDLICKY, etc.
This group is also open to those in the Y-DNA "node" of any Sedlak (or surname variant) member of the group. In other words, it is also open to relatively closely related male lines of different surnames to Sedlak members. Some surnames in the node of the Kassa-Barca-Gelnica Sedlaks (in Y-DNA Hg G2a) include STECH / STECK / STEACH, GEORGE, HOFMEISTER, STARK, STAEBLER, SCHLETZ, RENNER, GUSTANSKI, REIDEL / RIEDEL, MAISEL/MEISEL, and a dozen others. Any male member of any node of any SEDLAK (or variant) is welcome to join. In this way we can better compare the STR data. If you have questions as to nodes and relevant surnames, don't hesitate to ask.
How many different SEDLAK clans (groups of families of the same male lineage) are there? That is what we would like to discover. Are the Sedlaks of Kassa (Kosiče) - Barcza (Barca) the same Sedlaks of Spišská Nová Ves? Or, are they different clans? Are any of the N. Hungarian (Slovakia) Sedlaks originally from Moravia or Bohemia? Are the Kosiče Sedlaks the same as those in Miskolc? Are the oldest clan of Sedlaks in the old city of Prague the same as those in České Budějovice (Budweiss)? How many different Sedlak and Sedlacek families went to Nebraska? How many different families ended up in SW Connecticut? And so on.
Surname variants include SEDLÁK, SZEDLÁK, SEDLAK, SEDLACK, NOVASEDLÁK, NOVISEDLÁK, NOVOSEDLÁK, NOVOSEDLIK, NOVOSZEDLAK, NOVYSEDLÁK, SEDLAKOVA, SEDLOCK, SHEDLAK, SHEDLOCK, SEDLEK, SIEDLAK, SYDLAK, SZELLEK, SELLECK, SZÉNÁSI, SZÉNÁSSY, SENASHI, SENASHY, etc. They also include diminutives like SEDLÁČEK, SEDLACSEK, SZEDLACSEK, SEDLAČEK, SEDLACZEK, SEDLACHECK, SEDLACKO, etc., and potentially related surnames such as SETLAK, SADLAK, SIEDLIK, SEDŁAK, SEDLICKY, etc.
This group is also open to those in the Y-DNA "node" of any Sedlak (or surname variant) member of the group. In other words, it is also open to relatively closely related male lines of different surnames to Sedlak members. Some surnames in the node of the Kassa-Barca-Gelnica Sedlaks (in Y-DNA Hg G2a) include STECH / STECK / STEACH, GEORGE, HOFMEISTER, STARK, STAEBLER, SCHLETZ, RENNER, GUSTANSKI, REIDEL / RIEDEL, MAISEL/MEISEL, and a dozen others. Any male member of any node of any SEDLAK (or variant) is welcome to join. In this way we can better compare the STR data. If you have questions as to nodes and relevant surnames, don't hesitate to ask.