Croatian roots/genealogy

Permission to marry
In my many years of work on genealogical research, I have only once come across a record like this, dated 1934, in which the future groom receives a medical certificate for marriage based on a detailed examination. The record concludes that he has no sexually transmitted diseases.

We cannot determine who and why requested the said examination, whether such an examination was legally required or whether it was requested by one or both of the future spouses. In any case, the marriage between Jakov Špaleta and Ivanica Barešić lasted for the next 59 years until his death on May 27, 1993.

Attached is the original certificate of medical examination of Jakov Špaleta (and the English translation) and an entry from the register of marriages of the parish of Diklo about his marriage to Ivanica Barešić on October 7, 1934.

Love vs. tuberculosis
While researching the parish Veliko Trgovišće in Hrvatsko Zagorje, I came across a letter from a concerned father of a teacher named Stefania to the parish’ priest in which he warned him that the marriage of his daughter to a teacher Mr. Biščan would be dangerous because of her illness (tuberculosis).

Despite this paternal warning, I found a record in the parish’s records of the subsequent marriage of the teacher Stefanija (b. 1878) to the teacher Stjepan Biščan (b. 1869) on April 6, 1899.

Love, in the end, overcame the tuberculosis and a worried father’s warning. I was interested in this story because I have been working as a history teacher for the last 30 years.

I enclose a transcript of the father’s letter to the pastor with an English translation. The original letter is full of spelling mistakes, but it should be taken into account that it was written at the end of the19th century when the majority of the population in Croatia was illiterate.

https://www.croatiaweek.com/tracing-croatian-family-roots-back-in-the-old-land/

Tracing Croatian family roots back in the old land Tracing Croatian family roots back in the old landby croatiaweek August 28, 2019 inNewsFamily historyWith such a huge diaspora, more and more people of Croatian origin around the world are becoming interested in trying to trace their family history back in the ‘old land’. With Croatia having suc...

In a bell-ringer’s barn…

During my research on the Matković family tree from the Virje parish, I came to a point when in that parish there is no further information about that family. It came to me that I should try looking in a nearby parish of Đurđevac. At that time I did not know that the birth and death records, which are kept in the Croatian State Archives in Zagreb, are severely damaged. During my research I found out the reason for such a state of the books. The reason is written in the books, shown in the next picture (translation added).

“Remark: This book was found in a barn of Đakovo’s (wrongly written Đakovo, which is a town in Slavonija, it was meant to spell Đurđevac) bell-ringer, where it was hidden during the Cossacks invasion after the Second World War. The book was found after the bell-ringer’s death and the priest’s return from prison!”

You can see the state of decline of the books from the additional pictures I included. This shows some of the problems genealogists must face during their research. Even when the records exist and are available, they can be in a lousy state.

6. July 2018
Letter on a grave
This genealogical story begins in October of 2017, when I was contacted by ms. Barb from USA to research the family tree of her husband Craig. His roots are in the Pavelić family from the parish Krivi put, located in Lika, Croatia. His mother Zora emigrated with her husband to Minnesota in 1922.

Zora Pavelić came from a large family and one of her sisters Vjera married Herbert Kundich and lived in Zagreb. After researching Craigs family tree, Barb wanted me to find his living relatives.

For that purpose I send letters to all families Kundich and/or Kundić listed in the Zagreb phone register ( I didn’t send the letters to the Pavelić family because there are more than cca 200 of them listed in the phone book).

When I didn’t get answers to the letters, I came up with an unusual idea how to contact the people I needed. I wrote a letter, put it in a plastic bag to protect against the bad weather and left it on the grave of the families Kundich and Pavelić on Mirogoj cemetery in Zagreb. Only a few days after that I was luckily contacted by Ms. Ana (widow of Herbert son from his first marriage).

Thanks to Ms. Ana, we were able to find the rest of the Pavelić family. The happy meeting of Barbra, Craig and the rest of the American part of the family with the living Croatian members of the families Kundich and Pavelić took place in Hotel Esplanada in Zagreb. It was a big family reunions full of emotions. I was privileged and happy to be a part of that :)

Barb and me

While researching the births in Lipnik parish for the year 1814, I stumbled upon an interesting review of the economic and social situation on Croatian soil during the French occupation under Napoleon. The text was written by the Lipnik vicar Matija Sečen in 1814. His parish was part of the Ilyrian Provinces (a major part of the French Empire during Napoleon’s rule).

I could not translate the whole written text because it was written in a language different from today’s standard Croatian.

Part of the text goes:

„Ovo leto vina nikoji arga bura i mraz Bozji Korbacz vu mladju szu ofurila. Kruha jako malo = glad je vre velik, smiluj se nam Bože, ljudi nisu pobožni, kradu, merze, kunnu. Francuz bil je i pri nas do Save od 27.11. leta 1809, do leta 1813. dan 19 augusta – potiran od vojske Austrijanske: leto 1812 potučen od Moskova i od zime i od glada…“

(Translation)

In this year there was not much wine because of bura (strong wind) and frost. God’s horsewhip destroyed the whole cultivation. The amount of bread is very low – the famine is too great. God have mercy on us, the people are not devout, they steal, hate, curse. The Frenchman was with us all to Sava river from 27. November 1809 to the 19 August 1813. He was banished by the Austrian army. In the summer of 1812 he was beaten by Moscow, the winter and the famine…

Opet malo rodoslovlja :)

Place of birth: The Atlantic Ocean!

Recently I researched the Terihaj family tree, who were located in the Tlake village of the St. Martin under Okich (Croatian: Sv. Martin pod Okićem) parish. While looking through the birth records of the parish dating from the ending of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, I found a child written up with a unusual place of birth. The note states: „Na putu iz Amerike u Europe rodila na moru.“ (translation: “On the voyage from America to Europe she gave birth at sea.“)
Such an exciting way to start a life! A child born on a ship somewhere in the Atlantic and christened after the mother and her infant returned to Croatia. Based on the record, the child was illegitimate, so the question is: what happened in America? (this time it didn't stay in America ;))
Emigration as a consequence of great poverty and hunger wasn't such an uncommon occurrence in that time period in Croatia. First the men left to find jobs in coal and iron mines, and after some months (sometimes even years) the girlfriends, fiances and or wives followed. Numerous people who emigrated in that period stayed in America, So it's not surprising that some cities in like Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Cleveland, Ohio and Chicago, Illinois, have many Croatian descendants.
We will probably never know what happened in America that a pregnant woman decided to return to her hometown. It's fun to imagine a lot of different scenarios. Maybe the baby's father perished in a mine accident... Maybe the fiances had one final fight and decided to part ways... Or maybe the mother just couldn't adjust to that new life so far away from her homeland and family... In any event, let's hope that the mother and child had a long and happy life back home!

Place of birth: The Atlantic Ocean!

Recently I researched the Terihaj family tree, who were located in the Tlake village of the St. Martin under Okich (Croatian: Sv. Martin pod Okićem) parish. While looking through the birth records of the parish dating from the ending of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, I found a child written up with a unusual place of birth. The note states: „Na putu iz Amerike u Europe rodila na moru.“ (translation: “On the voyage from America to Europe she gave birth at sea.“)
Such an exciting way to start a life! A child born on a ship somewhere in the Atlantic and christened after the mother and her infant returned to Croatia. Based on the record, the child was illegitimate, so the question is: what happened in America? (this time it didn't stay in America ;))
Emigration as a consequence of great poverty and hunger wasn't such an uncommon occurrence in that time period in Croatia. First the men left to find jobs in coal and iron mines, and after some months (sometimes even years) the girlfriends, fiances and or wives followed. Numerous people who emigrated in that period stayed in America, So it's not surprising that some cities in like Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Cleveland, Ohio and Chicago, Illinois, have many Croatian descendants.
We will probably never know what happened in America that a pregnant woman decided to return to her hometown. It's fun to imagine a lot of different scenarios. Maybe the baby's father perished in a mine accident... Maybe the fiances had one final fight and decided to part ways... Or maybe the mother just couldn't adjust to that new life so far away from her homeland and family... In any event, let's hope that the mother and child had a long and happy life back home!

A geneological mistery :)
A visit to Croatia from my former client Tracy Mayor Vukich during the Christmas holidays reminded me of the research I did of her Croatian roots back in 2013.
Her great-grandfather Simon Vukić was born on October 7th 1882. in the parish Vrsi (near the city of Zadar in the Dalmatian region of Croatia – then part of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy). What I found interesting while researching his life was the fact that he was born as an illegitimate son to Magdalena Perinić and his father was not listed in his birth records. The question that was raised was how was it possible for an illegitimate son to have an different surname than his mother? I found the answer to that question by looking at his birth records in detail. The picture in attachment shows that his father’s name, Ivan Vukić, was additionally added (it is written in an different handwriting than the original text).
Having found Ivan’s name I gave into the search for his death records which would show me a part of his life story. The next attachment shows that Ivan died on June 6th 1883. at the age of 22. The remark next to his name gave me the answer for the illegitimacy of his son. The priest who was at Ivan’s death bed wrote his last words, which state that in that moment Ivan recognized Simon as his legitimate son. The record states (translation from the original Italian text): “He confessed to me that he has an illegitimate child in the house of Kuštera” (Ivan’s mother’s surname).
Another genealogical mistery solved! 😀