Anyone into Genealgy ?

Adam, the surname sounds more Slovak than Czech. My mother's family were from Slovakia and came over as coal miners and settled in western PA and WV. My maternal great grandfather was a foreman for the PRR and helped build the "Horseshoe Curve" in Pennsylvania, which was an engineering marvel of its day. My sister is doing some research into that side of the family.

One of my paternal relatives researched my dad's lineage and traced it back to the 1400s in Italy.

There are some great records dating from Ellis Island, but it came into existence only late in the 19th Century and all other immigration records seem spotty.

Many immigrants from non-English-speaking countries changed the spelling of their names to make them more pronounceable in English. Both sides of my family did this. It might have been at the time of entry or later through a court. I have also seen some common English surnames of long-time family in this country that were adulterated over the centuries, mostly due to illiteracy.