STACH Matyáš [ Notable personality ]
Matyáš Stach , a traveller and missionary, born in Mankovice in 1711, who emigrated from Mankovice to Herrenhut in 1728. He was one of the Herrenhut outstanding travellers. He was the author of "Grönländische Grammatik" and "Grosses grönländisches Wörterbuch", the first books which have familiarised European people with the Eskimo language.
As he was a native of the village, both the local authority and the village chronicler made effort to find the house which was his natal home. However, it was not an easy task as it had demanded several hours of researching both in the Land Archive in Opava and the District Archive in Nový Jičín. Due to the register records of the time when Stach was born were very brief, simple data such as father's first name and name and mother's first name were only found. As the houses in Mankovice were started to be numbered as late as 1781, any information on the natal house number was certainly missing in the register as well. Due to their age, the records were hardly readable and hard to copy to a microfilm. During that research, 9 Stach families (married couples) and their children were found. Then, their names were compared to the Land Register records of that time period relating to the individual house numbers which included the name Stach.
Christian and Mariana Stach were found to be the parents of Mathias Stach. According to the record relating to the house No. 70 in Mankovice, the following people were found to have the house No. 70 in Mankovice in their possession: Merten Dohalmer (in 1658), his daughter Mariana and Pevel Frank (in 1679) and Christian Stach (who was probably her second husband) (in 1707). In 1730, the house after" the emigrated Christian Stach "(nach dem entloffenen Christian Stach) was bought by Hans Willert from suzerains for 42 golden coins .
As it is stated that Mathias Stach emigrated to Herrenhut in 1728, it is probable that the whole family escaped. Therefore, it is probable that Mathias Stach was born in the house No. 70 as the house was in possession of his father Christian between 1707 and 1728. At that time, the house No. 70, which is in possession of the Hrabovský family at present, undoubtedly had not its present appearance; it was probably a hut with a thatched roof.
In addition, the name "Stach" was found in records of 17th and 18th centuries on 3 other houses however, the time data and the first name included in that records are different from that of the Mathias Stach's family.
This description was compiled, based on archive documentation of the Land Archive in Opava and the District Archive in Nový Jičín, and translated from German,
by Anna Orlitová
, a chronicler.
