----------------------------Original message----------------------------
A patron here is trying to track down some place names that he
came across doing genealogical research.  The names were in use
in the late 19th/early 20th century in what is now northern
Slovakia, near the city of Ostrava, just south of Poland.  These
should be located in or near the West Beskids mtn. range, which
is to the east of Ostrava:
        Arva (a political division of some sort);  Orova, Osvay,
        and Walch (three towns within it).
 
Every geographic name in this area seems to have a Slovak and a
Polish spelling, and maybe a German one, too.  The BGN gazetteer
shows lots of places in this area with similar names, but nothing
exactly the same.  I also don't know anything about eastern
European languages, which might help in identifying cognates.
 
We have scattered sheets in a 1:25000 series of pre-WWII topos of
Czechoslovakia, but none covering the area in question.  Other
than those, we just have more recent small-scale maps and atlases
of all of Czechoslovakia, which didn't help.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Any leads would be appreciated.
 
Thanks,
       .------.           Mark Thomas
       |      |           Evans Library
       |      |           Texas A&M University
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