DNA matches on 23andMe.com and Ancestry DNA confirm that descendants of Matej Krystufek (1788-1837) of Talin, South Bohemia are related to the descendants of James Kristufek, however no direct record of the existence of James Kristufek can be found. Given how close the DNA connection is, James Kristufek is likely the son of a Matej Krystufek sibling, perhaps younger brother Vaclav Krystufek (born 1793).
According to the records that exist, it is indicated that James Kristufek Sr. married Anna Votana in Bohemia and had two children: Kate Kristufek (June 20, 1848) and James Kristufek Jr. (Sep 1851). Around the Great Bohemian Migration of 1868-70, they came to the US, settling eventually in the Chicago area. Manual searches of towns in South Bohemia around those birth dates haven't yielded any records and James Jr.'s death record indicated he was born in Prague. So it is more likely that they were born in or around Prague.
The earliest US record for this family tree is James Kristufek Jr. and Kate Kristufek Wanek's appearance in the 1880 Census. Records indicate she married Charles Wanek in 1874 and they are listed in 1880 in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Chicago. James Kristufek Jr. is also listed as living there and records indicate he married France Hajek also in 1874. This would seem to be the 9942 Vincennes address that James Kristufek Jr. and Kate Kristufek Wanek are listed at, along with their mother Anna Votana Kristufek, in the 1900 Census.
It is also the address listed for James Kristufek Jr. in the 1892 Chicago Voter List. That entry indicates that James Jr. was naturalized as a US citizen on Oct 29, 1872 and had been a resident of cook county for 17 years, which would put him in the Chicago area for the first time in 1875.
Also in that year, on March 29, 1892, there is a record of a lawsuit in the Daily Inter Ocean newspaper between Charles Wanek, Kate's husband, and James Kristufek Jr., with Charles suing him for $5,000 for slander.
"In the Circuit Court, Charles Wanek sued James Kristufek for $5000 damages for alleged slander. The parties reside in Washington Heights, and in his declaration, plaintiff says the defendant called him 'a swindler and a thief' and 'a dead beat and a robber.' He wants the defendant to prove it in front of a jury if he can."
The case was still going on more than two years later when it appeared in a docket notice for Judge Burke in the Dec 21, 1894 edition of the Daily Inter Ocean newspaper. But whatever the outcome of the lawsuit, it didn't result in either of them moving away since they are listed as living at 9942 Vincennes at the same time in the 1900 Census.
James Sr. doesn't appear in the 1880 Census and in the 1900 Census his wife, who also isn't in the 1880 Census, is listed as a widow. It is possible that he died in Bohemia before the rest of the family came to the US. Or they may have been living in another part of the country when they first arrived around 1868 and he died before she made it to the Vincennes address in Washington Heights.
Kate Kristufek and Charles Wanek had three children that lived to adulthood: Emil Jacob Wanek (spouse: Pearl Louise Wesell), Matilda Wanek (Alexander Egon Dierkes), and Katherine Wanek (Edgar L. Bradley). Kate Kristufek Wanek died on Dec 9, 1917 and her husband Charles died on Dec 12, 1919.
James Kristufek Jr. and his wife France Hajek had 12 children, 8 of whom lived to adulthood: Amelia Kristufek (spouse: George Ellsworth Stewart), Edward Frank Kristufek (Margaret Eyer), Otto Milton Kristy (Eva Pearl Williams), Rose Kristufek (Benjamin Thomas Taylor), George Edward Kristufek (Lillian Reimers), Frances Kristufek (Ernest J. Peters) and twin Frank Anthony Kristufek (Matilda) and Edmund Alfred Kristufek (LaDonna F. Lamb). James Kristufek Jr. died on July 8, 1931 in Montana at the home of his daughter Amelia Kristufek Stewart. Frances Hajek Kristufek died in Chicago on June 16, 1908.
It is unclear from the record when the parents of Kate Kristufek Wanek and James Kristufek Jr. died. Clearly James Kristufek Sr. died before 1900 and Anna Votana Kristufek died sometime after the 1900 Census.
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