Anna Kýrová’s family of five lived in a one-room house in Strážnice right next to the cemetery, where many other Romani people lived at the time. Their houses were nice, and, according to her, “not as ugly as the ones in Skalica”.
Her grandfather was very hard-working blacksmith, who she said did not to look very Roma-like. He worked for the Count and his residence,[1] for which he received building materials for his house such as wood and bricks. He died when he was over ninety years old. Anna Kýrová said her grandmother, on the other hand, had a dark complexion and was pretty, and people liked her very much. She used to help the neighbours, such as by mowing grass, cutting straw, sweeping, and cleaning, for which she always received something.
Her mother Kateřina Kýrová was born in 1884 and married a man with the same surname. Her father, Josef Kýr, who fought in World War I and suffered from asthma, did not tolerate idleness, nor did he like the Roma and their way of life. Anna Kýrová said he was one of four brothers and they were always together. He worked as a blacksmith and had a small forge at home, where he made various agricultural tools, such as hoes, rakes, and even chains. He was tall, slim, very hard-working, and would scour dumps for iron. He also taught all his children the blacksmith’s trade. She said he was a good man, but strict — everything had to be done properly, or as Kýrová says, they had to hammer the iron until it shone like gold. My father then went to sell the products, for example, in Znorov [correctly Vnorovy], where people liked him and were already waiting for him. The family was well off, they had enough money, and, as he says, they did not even have to have a pig, because my father received from the people, for example, greaves, from which they made a large pot of lard.
Just before the war, when Kýrová was twelve years old, her father died. She then went to help the peasants to earn some money. Sister Apolena, born in 1931, was still young. However, Anna Kýrová had three much older sisters, who came from her mother’s first marriage (her mother’s then husband died as a dragoon in the First World War): sister Antonia, called Tonka, then Maryša and finally Kateřina, called Kača or Daka/Daga, who married the renowned primáš Jožka Kubík from Hrubá Vrbka.
[1] Probably the Magnis family, who owned the Strážnice manor and the château until 1945. (ed.)
