Bohemian

My ancestors came from an area called Bohemia in what is now the Czech Republic, and I've long been curious as to why people with eccentric, or offbeat lifestyles were called Bohemians. Certainly all odd people did not come from this one tiny corner of the world. This season I'm going to see the opera "La Boheme" and it's about artists in Paris, not people from Bohemia...plus, the musical "Rent", based on the opera, is much loved by my daughter. Anyway, for whatever reason, I've been puzzled. So, today I looked it up and am now here to enlighten us all.....Apparently people in Europe thought that the gypsies, with their unconventional ways, came from Bohemia, so they took to calling all unconventional people "bohemian." There--questions answered, puzzle solved.