Dvořák and his descendents

Dvorak with his wife, children, and friends in New York.
Photo courtesy of Muzeum Antonina Dvoraka v Praze.
(Antonin Dvorak Museum in Prague)

Numerous Dvořák descendants are alive today, though few bear the name Dvořák.  The name itself is common enough in families of Czech heritage.  The problem in the case of this composer is that of his six surviving children, four were girls who gave up the family name upon marriage.  So of the dozens of descendents of those four girls (all of whom had children), none has the name Dvořák.  As for the composer’s two sons, the elder boy, named Antonín after his father, married but had no children.  The younger boy, Otakar, married and numbered one son amongst his children.  That boy’s descendents still carry on the family name today. 

--Betsy Schwarm