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Croatian Seminar at the Ontario Genealogical Society Conference

One of the first conference seminars on Croatian genealogy took place on June 2, 2013 at the combined facilities of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) and Durham College in Oshawa, Ontario as part of the Ontario Genealogical Societies annual conference. The Socities conference usually features a large number of session for interest to genealogists of the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, and Ireland. The Croatian session is the first offical genealogical presentation to have taken place in Canada.

Library at UOIT

The University of Ontario Institute of Technology is a new university that has only been in existence ten years. The conference took place in a variety of classroom setting some seating up to a hundred or more participants. A gymasium-sized display area was available for various genealogical groups and retailers to display their products, while a computer facility allowd participants to research online at the conference. The conference was well attended.

In the presentation at UOIT, the importance of the Glagolitic script in Croatian genealogical records was demonstrated. In addition examples of Croatian birth, marriage, death records were illustrated. The recent 2001 census and the 1948 census were examined for their use in genealogy. As well as, the use of Canadian records to find Croatian immigrants using the Federal Censuses of 1881, 1891, 1901, 1911, various Canadian city directories and the Croatian Fraternal Societies in Canada. Famous Croatian-Canadians were referenced

The presentation documented the literary and historical link between the Croatia and the Ukraine and how each country is shaped by its diverse and unique past.

Language map of Europe with a yellow line demarcating
the boundary between Roman and Cyrillic scripts.

The OGS Croatian Genealogy presentation was part of dual presentation entitle "Ukrainian and Croatian Genealogical Records" by William Vetzel and Grant Karcich. While the Croatian community in Oshawa is very small, the Ukrainian community is substantial and therefore the presentation was focused to combine the the two into one genealogical presentation. Ukrainians and Croats each have their own scripts or alphabets. The Glagolitic script was developed first and was used in both Croatia and the Ukraine in the early Medieval era. However, the Cyrillic script soon replaced the Glagolitic in the Ukraine.

In the presentation attention was given to the use of Glagolitic script in genealogical records. Into the 19th Century the Glagolitic alphabet was used in some parishes of western Croatia. On the map above the Glagolitic region is featured by the red diagonal lines. The Glagolitic predates the Cyrillic script used today in Russia, Ukraine, Serbia, and Bulgaria, and was once used in an area stretching from the Czech Republic to Serbia. This ancient script was used only in Croatia since the late Medieval period, having died out in that country and is today only found on monuments.

http://www.croatiancanadianlibrary.com/archivegenealogy/croatiangenealogy.html Genealogical Resources listed at the The Croatian-Canadian Library and Cultural Society in Mississauga, Ontario.

Croatian Genealogical Society (Hrvatsko Rodoslovno Drustvo) Meetings for 2013

Hrvatsko rodoslovno društvo "Pavao Ritter Vitezović" or the Croatian Genealogical Society is a national Croatian genealogical organization headquartered in Zagreb. Named after a seventeenth century historian, the Society was founded in June of 2005 with Peter Strčić as president. The Society was formed to encourage and support genealogical research and to educate researchers by the exchange of information on genealogical issue, archival administration, and information technology.

Meetings are usually held at the Croatian State Archives, Marulićev Square 21 (near the Botanical Gardens) in Zagreb.

• On Tuesday March 12, 2013 at 18:00 hours Hrvoje Grzina presents a lecture on historical photographic processes and the examination old photos that are approximately 100 to 150 years old. Hrvoje Grzina is the senior archivist at Fototeci HDA.

• On April 4, 2013 at 18:00 hours,Hrvoje Grzina will lecture on photographs at the Croatian State Archives.

• INTERNATIONAL MUSEUM DAY AND EUROPEAN MUSEUM NIGHT 2013 Archival talker : Laforest camera 18th svibnja 2013th

  On Saturday May 18, 2013 from 10:00 - 14:00 hours the Croatian State Archives will celebrate International Museum Day and European Night of Museums. The event provides an opportunity to showcase museums and the museum profession in Croat and in the European Union.

  Igor Kozjak, from the Central Department of Conservation and Restoration at the Croatian State Archives will describe how cameras were restore. The atrium of the Archives will exhibit restored camera and protective boxes particularly those of Franz Thiard de Laforest. Laforest (1838-1911) was a photographer and writer in the late 19th century especially in Dalmatia. His photographs cover the period from 1866 to 1898.

• The 25th of May, 2013 there is a scheduled genealogist's trip to the island of Krk, including the town of Krk, Punat, Košljun, Jurandvor and Vrbnik.

• On June 6, 2013 at 18:00 hours Alisa Martek, the chief librarian at the Croatian State Archives will give a talk on the collection of newspapers and other special collections in the Archival library.

  The library was founded in 1853 by Ivan Kukuljević Sakcinski. Today the library has approximately 160,000 volumes including 90,000 books and 70,000 magazines. Approximately 770 linear meters house the unbound newspapers and books .

• Presentation of a new genealogy book - pjesnikinje Zlate Bujan Kovačević u povodu 100-te obljetnice rođenja Ivana Gorana Kovačića - "GORANI - dvanaestero pjesnika" (Exuberant poet Zlata Kovacevic on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ivan Goran Kovacic - " Goran - twelve poets) in Fužinama on Friday 14 June 2013. in 18 hours and in Zagreb on Tuesday 18th June 2013. in 18 hours .

• On Thursday September 12 2013 at 18:00 hours there will be a lecture by Darius Hofgräff and Stella Fatović-Ferenčić, entitled: Who was the woman in the background of Stampar?

  The life and work of Andrija Stampar, physician, founder of the World Health Organization there is an extensive historiography, but on his second wife , Desanka Ristović-Typo (1882-1968th) there is no information. Her role in the Croatian medical history has been neglected. This lecture for the first time, based on archival sources and details from Mrs. Dawn Typo, Stampar's daughter. provides more detail on Stampar's wife.

• On Thursday September 19, 2013 at 18:00 hours there will be a screening of films from the National Film Collection The films include:

  Premiere directed by Nicholas Kostelac in 1957.
  Don Quixote by R. Vlado Kristl in 1961.
  Fifth by Paul R. Štalter , Zlatko Grgic, 1963.
  And Videl sem distance Meglena and cal ; R. Zlatko Bourek , 1964.
  Wall by R. Anthony Zaninović, 1964.
  Muha by R. Alexander Marx and Vladimir Jutriša, 1966.
  Between lip and cup by R. Dragutin Vunak, 1968.
  The days by R. Nedjeljko Dragic, 1969.

• 
  Crest of the Rodsolvlje Drustvo

• For lifelong learning 2013 the following workshops will be held at the Croatian National Archives.

  September 30 palaeographic workshop at 10 a.m. and "Archives on-line" at 12 p.m.
  October 1 Lubynski Palace workshop at 10 a.m. and a Heraldic workshop at 11 a.m.
  October 2 Heraldic workshop at 11 a.m. and at 1 p.m. a workshop on the "Historic Photographic Processes"
  October 3 Archives online at 11 a.m. and Lubynski Palace workshop at 1 p.m.

• On October 10, 2013 the Croatian National Archives has a welcome by the Director, Vlatke Lemić on the sigining of a new archival cooperation agreement and the opening of the restored works from the Lubynski Palace. Various activities are slated for:

  October 9, 2013 from 12 to 2 p.m. a workshop on European archival portals.
  October 10, 2013 from 1 to 6 p.m. a symposium on the "100 years of the palace Lubynski.
  October 11, 2013 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. "Meet Zagreb"
  October 12, 2013 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. an Open House with workshops on archives, genealogy, Glagolitic, heraldry, palaeography, and history. with tours of the building, storage facilities, and restoration and photo laboratories.

• From the 17th to 19th of October, 2013 in the lobby of the National and University Library in Zagreb there will be an exhibit On Croatian Books 2013.

• From the 28th to the 31th of October at Tuškanac in Zagreb the Croatian Cinematheque, the Croatian State Archives, Croatian Film Clubs' Association and the Slovenian Film Archive at the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia featuring the completion of the restoration project of digital feature film 'black birds'.

• On Tuesday, November 19, 2013 at 18:00 hours Dr. Stjepan Cosić will lecture on the "Genealogy of Korjenić Neorić". The Korjenić-Neorić coats of arms date from 1595.The Korjenić-Neorić originated in Hum and later had branches in Dalmatia. Other Croatian coats of arms are available from Slavonia, Dalmatia, Dubrovnik, Bosnia, Primorje, and Raska.

• On Friday November 29, 2013 features the present the third edition of Stephen Obad's - Serđo Dokuz - by Suzana Martinović published by the State Archives in Zadar.

• On Thursday, Decmeber 5, 2013 at 18:00 hours o'clock at the Croatian State Archives Dean Kovačec will lecture on the history and culture of the snowflakes.

• On Tuesday December 10, 2013 at 18:00 hours in the Croatian State Archive's Hall "Catalogs" our president Dr. Stjepan Cosić will hold a lecture on "Genealogy Korjenić Neorić".

Previous Croatian Genealogical Society meetings are available for 2012 and for the years from 2009 to 2011.:

Croatian immigrants to the Pajaro Valley and Watsonville, California (Book Reviews)

Two books that were released in the last few years focus on the Croatians that came to the Pajaro Valley and Watsonville, California, an area near the Pacific coast south of San Francisco. Watsonville with a 2010 census population of 51,199 inhabitants is a city in Santa Cruz County, California. This was an area populated by Croatians from the Konavle district south of Dubrovnik. Today the desendants of this part of California maintain their links to the Dubrovnik area.

Thomas Ninkovich's book, The Slav community of Watsonville, California : as reported in old newspapers (1881-1920) was published in 2011 by Reunion Research Press in Watsonville, California. Covering 835 pages, Ninkovich's book is an exhaustive compilation of newspaper articles of Slav immigrants, who were primarily Croats. The book provides a journalist history of the Croats including short biographies. An appendix provides details on the surnames of the immigrants and their villages of origin in Europe, while additional appendices provide maps and language details.

Croatians started coming to California when Croatia was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. In the Watsonville area they came to work in the mines at Jackson in 1870 and later they began to settle in Watsonville itself. There they bought apple orchards and by 1920 they constituted about twenty percent of the town's inhabitants. They built up the area's economy by their entrepreneurial enterprises in apple growing and cold storage industries.

Main Street around 1888 about the time
the first Croats settled in Watsonville

Ninkovich is an archivist and historian based out of Fresno and Watsonville, who is working on a project to collect information and photos for the Croatian Immigration History Project about Watsonville area residents of Croatian descent. "You still see the common Croatian surnames in Watsonville like Scurich, Resetar, Lucich, Matiasevich, Secondo, Alaga, Kralj, Marinovich, Pista, Bachan, Fiorovich, Lettunich, Skocko, Bokarica and others," Ninkovich said.

In his own words Ninkovich describes what lead him to undertake his research. "I first came to Watsonville in 2002 after having spent three years researching the history of my mother’s Croatian family... and I was looking for a project that would involve a Slavic community. I didn’t want to write the history of a community; I just wanted to collect the information. I knew that someone would come along some day and use such information to write a proper history or genealogy, or perhaps produce a documentary film."

He outlines the difficulty of take on such a project. "It is truly tedious to read newspapers on microfilm machines. Often they are too dark or too light. Many are scratched. But after about two years I made it up to 1905 (I could only do it for about 3 hours a day, every other day or so, without burning out). But I finally did burn out. At that point (to 1905) I had collected over 1200 excerpts from the microfilmed newspapers. It was a good, basic collection. It covered the very early years of the Slavs in Watsonville.... At that point I approached the directors of the Borina Foundation and they provided the funds to hire professional researchers and transcribers to continue to 1920. Having once been in the publishing profession, I provided the editing, book design and indexing. And that’s how this book came to be."

The Croatians who came to Watsonville were primarily from the region around Dubrovnik, that is Konavle and Peljeac, and the island of Brać. Gospodnetich, Hrepich, Matulich, and Kusanovich families arrived from Brać. However, there were other areas represented in Watsonville from the islands of Mljet and Lopud and from the mainland including Knin, Primorje, and Herzegovina. The Strazicich, Belin, Dabelich, Cumbelich, and Sersen families came from Mljet, while around Dubvronik came the Puhiera, Milanovich, Ivanovich, Biskup, Banovac, Zadielovich, Pulisevich, Borina, Knego, Colendich, and Gera families.

The book contains a wealth of photographs of these pioneer Croats from Watsonville collected by Ninkovich from early newspapers and from local families. A superb index provides links to these photographs and individuals and a large appendix gives biographical details on the early settlers. The book which was printed in Canada is available in DPF format from Tom Ninkovich at tom@croatia-in-english.com.

The other book review is by Donna F. Mekis & Kathryn Mekis Miller entitled, Blossoms Into Gold: The Croatians in the Pajaro Valley. The Pajaro Valley is in the Watsonville region. Donna and Kathryn are granddaughters of Croatian immigrants who came from Konavle to Watsonville, California, in 1901. Their father, Andrew Mekis, was born in Watsonville’s Croatian colony in 1920.

Blossoms into Gold was published in the Spring of 2009 by Capitola Book Company of Aptos, California. Its length of 309 pages has details of those Croatian immigrants in the Pajaro.

Kathryn describes the “the Croatians who came to the Pajaro Valley... as businessmen, not farmers.” They included men such as, Marko Rabasa, Luke Sresovich, Luke Scurich, M.N. Lettunich, and F.P. Marinovich. Their work revolutionized the apple industry by creating contracts with growers for apples while blossoms were still on the trees, and forming packing and distributing cooperatives, as well as, merchandising their products with their own distinctive apple-box labels. By 1910, there were 53 packing companies in the Pajaro Valley consisting of 80 Croatian families. The book also describes the lives of John and Martin Franich were two young brothers when they arrived in the Watsonville area. Rocky Franich, owner of Franich Ford Mercury dealership in Watsonville, described his great-grandfather, Martin as one like so many who immigrated to the Pajaro Valley when the were teenagers.

In the autumn of 2013 Blossoms into Gold was reported to be translated into Croatian by the University of Zagreb and published by Matica Hrvatska in the Dubrovnik area. The English version can be purchased online for $29.95 US at www.blossomsintogold.com.