Croatian Genealogy Newsletter

Croatian Symbol/Hrvatski Greb: courtesy of
Tomislav Mikulic

Croatian Genealogy Newsletter

Issue No. 11, January 2005

BOOK REVIEWS:

GENEALOGIES:

Historical Demography in Croatia This recently published book under the title "Povijesna Demografija Hrvatske" has been written by Vladimir Stipetic and Nenad Vekaic. It contains a wealth of historical, ethnical, and population statistics for Croatia, plus is filled with biographical information on Croatians who have contributed to your understanding of the population history of present day Croatia. Though written in Croatian, it has a 21 page summary in English and French, as is typical of many ethnograhic works published in Croatia by the Hrvatska Akademija Znanosti i Umjetnosti, Zavod za Povijesne Znanosti u Dubrovniku (Croatian Academy of Arts and Science, Office of Historical Arts in Dubrovnik).

CROATIANS IN AUSTRALIA: PIONEERS, SETTLERS AND THEIR DESCENDANTS

Croatians in Australia: pioneers, settlers and their descendants by Ilija Šutalo traces the history of Croatian settlement in Australia from the 1800s to the present. The main focus of the book is Croatian pioneers - almost without exception single men on arrival - who settled in Australia by 1890. Dr IIija Šutalo identifies the communities of Croatian pioneers living in Australia in the second half of the nineteenth century and describes their significant contribution to the development of the wine, fishing and mining industries. The first wave of Croatian migration to Australia was precipitated by the news of the discovery of gold in 1851. Most of the new arrivals became miners, working on the goldfields with varying degrees of success. After spending time on the goldfields some became seamen, labourers, fishermen, publicans, vignerons, farmers and storekeepers. Croatian pioneers worked and held mining claims together, ran businesses together, socialised and lived together. Often very resourceful in the quest to succeed, many Croatian pioneers had more than one occupation. Between 1891 and 1945 the number of Croatian-born in Australia increased dramatically, especially the number of Croatian-born women. These settlers were better organised and founded many Croatian clubs which supported social and cultural activities. Large numbers of Croatian settlers arrived after the Second World War. They established Croatian community halls, sporting venues, Catholic parishes, Croatian language schools and folkloric groups. Dr Ilija Šutalo shows that many Croatians and their descendants subsequently made significant contributions to Australian society in sports, arts and politics.

This book shows for the first time that there were communities of Croatian pioneers living in Australia in the second half of the nineteenth century and describes their contribution to Australia’s development – which was significant in the wine, fishing and mining industries. This account also summarises the history of Croatian settlement in Australia to the present. In this study, a pioneer in the Australian context is defined as a settler who arrived in Australia by 1890.

Croatians in Australia is the first book to have multiple photographs of Croatian pioneers who settled in Australia prior to 1890. There are over 150 photographs of Croatian pioneers in Australia presented in the book which forms the largest collection of photographs of Croatian pioneers in Australia. The book lists over 850 known Croatian pioneers in Australia, their birthplace, year of arrival, and place of residence and occupation in Australia until 1890.

Although the main topic of the book is Croatian pioneers of Australia, there are frequent references to Croatians in other settler societies, including United States of America, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa and some South American countries. Croatians in these countries participated in similar activities, occupations and had experiences similar to those in Australia. The comparisons with Croatians in other countries are given when they throw light on the experiences of Croatians in Australia. For example, each of these countries had a large influx of immigrants and gold rushes. The general history of Croatian settlement to the United States is also summarised in the book.

Croatians were present at the both the discovery of gold in the Australia and the United States. Croatian pioneers formed mining companies together, formed fishing communities and were highly successful publicans or saloon keepers. Slavonian gold mining companies were formed by Croatians in Australia and the United States. Often Croatian barques who frequented Australia in the nineteenth century came via the United States. Some Croatian families lived both in Australia and the United States. For example, the Zan (Zaninovich) family from the island of Hvar had broom factories in the United States and Australia. The highly distinguished Croatian soprano, Ilma De Murska (Ema Pukšec), from Ogulin, caused a great sensation when she toured the United States and Australia.

CONTENTS

Foreword

1. INTRODUCTION • Background • Researching early Croatian settlement in Australia • Why so little is known about these Croatian pioneers’ lives • Interviews with descendants • History of Croatian migration
2. GEOGRAPHICAL AND POPULATION BACKGROUND • Early Croatian settlers in Australia • How many Croatian pioneers came to Australia? • Origins and family background • Factors influencing migration • How the Croatian pioneers came to Australia • Statistics on Croatian pioneers and their family life
3. PATTERNS OF EARLY CROATIAN SETTLEMENT • Croatian settlements across Victoria • Geelong, Portarlington and Western district • Melbourne and surrounding district • Castlemaine district • Wedderburn and Inglewood district • Ballarat, Maryborough and Bendigo district • Redcastle, Costerfield and Goulburn Valley district • North-eastern Victoria, Woods Point and Gippsland district • Croatian settlements across Australia • Mobility
4. PIONEER CONNECTIONS AND COMMUNITIES • Background • Multiple Croatian connections and friendships • Rites of passage • Croatian mining and business partners • Croatian communities • Societies, clubs and newspapers • Connections with the Catholic Church • Pioneer women • Poverty and disillusionment
5. PIONEERS ON THE GOLDFIELDS • Early Australian goldfields • Gold discoveries by Croatian pioneers • Dalmatia and Sclavonian mines • Mining partners and mines named after Croatians • Connections between mining communities • Impact of Croatians on the goldfields
6. PIONEER SEAMEN AND FISHERMEN • Prior seafaring experience • Croatian seamen visiting Australia • The wreck of the barque Gange • Warships • Croatian pioneer fishermen • Croatian pioneer seamen • Rescues and storms
7. PIONEERS WITH HOTELS, WINERIES AND FARMS • Antonio Radovick, ‘Father of Korumburra’ • Hotels in gold mining towns • Metropolitan hotels • Banquets, balls and dances • Trojano Darveniza’s Excelsior Vineyard • Other Croatian pioneers with wineries • Croatian wines at Australian international exhibitions • Croatian pioneers involved in farming
8. PIONEER BUSINESS ENTERPRISE • Antonio Buzolich • Natale Vuscovich • Fortunato Poschich • Mattio Orlovich • Mattio Marassovich • Kosmos • John Terdich • John Sersic • George Bathols • Prospero Stanich
9. BEYOND PIONEERS 1891–1945 • Descendants’ contributions to Australian society • Descendants who fought for Australia • Enemy aliens and internment • Interwar Croatians and strikes • Clubs and community activities
10. POST-SECOND WORLD WAR SETTLEMENT • Overview of Croatians in Australia today • Post-Second World War Croatian settlers • Employment • Community activities • Culture, language and the arts • Sport • Halls and sporting venues • Prominent Croatian Australians • Negative stereotypes attached to Croatians • Struggle for national recognition • Croatian celebration • Future prospects for the Croatian community
APPENDICES Appendix 1: Table of Croatian pioneers in Australia Appendix 2: Croatian pioneer letters Appendix 3: Croatian halls and sporting venues

Biography

Ilija Denis Šutalo was born in Melbourne in 1968. He completed his degree with honours (1991) and doctorate in chemical engineering (1996) at the University of Melbourne. Dr Ilija Šutalo received the international ‘2000 Extraction and Processing Science Award’ in Nashville, United States for journal papers on extractive metallurgy and related sciences from TMS (Minerals Metals Materials Society). Since 1998 Dr Ilija Šutalo has been a research scientist at CSIRO in Melbourne. Currently, he is the team leader of the Medical Science and Liquid Particle Flow team at CSIRO Manufacturing and Infrastructure Technology. Dr Ilija Šutalo has published journal articles in the fields of mineral extraction and processing, fluid dynamics and medical science. He is currently undertaking a Masters of Business and Administration at the Australian Graduate School of Management (University of Sydney and University of New South Wales). Ilija Šutalo has written articles on Croatian settlement in Australia in The Australian People: An Encyclopedia of the Nation, Its People and Their Origins (2001) and the Encyclopedia of Melbourne (2004). He was a curator of the exhibition, Croatian Settlement in Victoria, The Untold Story (1999), at the Immigration Museum in Melbourne. Ilija Šutalo was also a founder of the Croatian Historical Society Inc., which documents the history of Croatian settlement in Australia. He is also writing another book: A Bibliography of Croatian Migrants. Ilija’s father Nikola is from near Stolac, while his mother Emilija Jukic was born in Bugonjo. Both their families migrated to Slavonija after the Second World War, to Đakovo and Piškorevci, respectively. Ilija’s parents migrated to Australia from Croatia in the 1960s and were married in Australia in 1967. Ilija is the eldest of their five sons. Ilija Šutalo is married and has a son and daughter.

Regarding Šutalo family The Šutalo family lived on the shores of the Derankso Jezero (Derankso Lake) Hercegovina and they belonged to the Catholic Parish of Hrasno.

My aunt Obradovic nee Šutalo (my fathers sister) and her family live in Jaksic. My Šutalo surname first cousins live in Đakovo, but second cousins live Valpovo, Zagreb, Dubrovnik and Caplina and Svitava in Hercegovina. Svitava is near Derankso Jezero. Also have Šutalo relative in the United States, but they are from a different Šutalo clan the Akšamovic clain. My ŠUTALO clan or nickname is Bijelic.

In Dašnica ŠUTALO (nickname Melak)
In Zaušlje ŠUTALO (nickname Kundic, Delovac, Medušic, Strikic and Bijelic)
In Boljunima ŠUTALO (nickname Boljunci, Đurici)
In Pod Kula ŠUTALO (nickname Vidakovic, Matagic)
In Bogutovaci ŠUTALO (nickname Pavic)
In Stupištima ŠUTALO (nickname Teharic, Madžarin, Žandarevci, Tomaševici)
In Deranima ŠUTALO (nickname Bijelic, Pavic)

Hardcover book with dust jacket
Size 275 x 210 mm
154 B&W photographs, 50 colour photographs,
4 maps, 25 B&W newspaper advertisements
340 pp + 34 pp = 374 pages

Book price including postage & handling to the US, Canada or Europe $117 Australian dollars for air mail $105 Australian dollars for sea mail To order a copy for within Australia send a cheque or money order for $80 Australian dollars which includes postage and handling. To order a copy send an international cheque/draft to:
Dr Ilija Sutalo
GPO Box 670
Melbourne VIC 3001
Australia

Alternatively payment can be made via a Western Union money transfer Email: Ilija.Sutalo@csiro.au

Searching for your Croatian Roots : a Handbook The fifth edition of Robert Jerin's "Searching for your Croatian Roots is the latest version of general handbook for use by English speakers researching Croatian genealogies. It includes a CD-ROM with a Croatian font for computers with the Windows operating systems, along with a list of Web sites of relevent Croatian genealogical information.

The handbook begins with a brief history of Croatia from ancient times to the modern period along with an assortment of historical maps.

A "Getting Started" section in the Handbook provides helpful tips on how to begin a genealogical search and how to contact the typical genealogical sources for the United States and Canada, such as the Family History Centers of the Church of Latter-Day Saints, the U.S. Census data, and contact information for the Croatian Fraternal Union and the Croatian Catholic Union for Croatian-American families. Vital records in the U.S. are described by listing over a dozen such addresses for state records where Croatians are known to have settled in large numbers. Some sample U.S. naturalization and citizenship documents are illustrated, along with census record page and an explanation of the Soundex systems used for U.S. census records.

A list of all parish records microfilmed at the Family History Center Library up to time of publication is provided in the Handbook. This is useful and could have been supplement with the range of dates of microfilmed birth, marriage, and death records. a very useful feature is the sample letters that can be used to send letters in Croatian to church parishes, , or municipal offices in Croatia requesting specific information on an ancestor.

For any new edition forth coming editions of the Handbook, colored maps and photographs should enhance the look of the publication. The list of Croatian parish records listed in the 5th edition could be appended to the back of the Handbook of any furture editions with the dates of available records along with the language and script used in these records. Pre-1918 Croatian records could have been written as easily in Hungarian, or Italian, as well as, Croatian, since Croatia was administered under two separate zones in the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. Zagreb, the area north of the capital, and Slavonia, under Hungarian administration may have Hungarian vital records, while the region on the coast covering Istria and Dalmatia, may have Italian vital records.

Another useful features is

There were other alphabets used in Croatia and the Handbook provides a a sample Cyrillic and Glagolitic alphabet. Although, the Cyrillic alphabet is used in Greek Orthodox parishes, the Glagolitic alphabet was used in some Croatian parishes during the 17th, 18th, and 19th Centuries in place of the now standard Roman script, no mention of this is found in the Handbook, execpt for mention of an archaic Croatian Glagolitic script used in Dalmatia. This is true, and could have been elaborated and mention made that it was found in other regions of Croatian besides Dalmatia.

Robert Jerin
17317 Lomond Blvd.
Shaker Hts., Ohio 44120
USA

Babic & Mulac - 1771 Kastav, Croatia

(Ray Mulac, Chicago, Illinois) I have copies of the documents (birth, marriage, school and military) of my grandfather Augustine Mulac. Other documents (birth and marriage) were of my grandmother Milka Babic. Other copies of registers listed their parents. I am interested in finding out more about there parents and their grandparents. For example were there census records taken in the country, possibly listing siblings and occupations? The ancestral home, is near Rijeka, at Kastav.

The archival research shows that Andrija Babic son of Matija was married to Helena Anicic on November 27, 1776. Their son Ivan, was born in 1777 and later married Helena Jurdana in 1800. Ivan and Margareta’s children were: Ivan b. 1802; Lucija b. 1804; Maria b. 1806; Helena b. 1808.

Research on the Mulac family shows that Matija Mulac married Kata Pletenac. Their son Gregorij was born in 1771 and he later married Marija Gapic in 1799. Greogorij’s and Marija’s children were: Andrija, born 1800; Matea b. 1801; Lucija b. 1804.

Editor’s note: Research in Croatia was carried out by Sanja Frigan Ciuha.

Bratti – 1869 Istria

(Melody Masi) I know when and where my grandfather was born (Crevalcore, 1869) and when he came to the United States. I recently discovered the Istria website that states the Bratti name is found there early on. My family comes from Crevalcore, which is near Cento, Italy and now I realize that this must be a relatively recent settlement for this family. I’m interested at this point as to how the Bratti’s got to Crevalcore from Istria.

I am interested in the genealogy of the family from the historical and migratory perspectives. There appear to be two branches of the Bratti family. I am also interested in an unusual genetic disorder, familial x-linked hypophosphatemia, and I would be willing to do a DNA study. I’d like to find out if other Bratti’s in Istria have this problem and what the consequences have been for them.

Editor’s notes: The surname index for Istria (Prezimena i naselja u Istri, Pula 1985) does not contain the name Bratti. The surname Brattina appears in Pula, Croatia.

Jurmanovic – 1905 Michigan

(Irene Willis, Michigan) My grandfather Luka Jurmanovic (Jurmanovich) of Michigan was born 8 listopade(October) 1879 and married Elizabeth Jurisic (Jurisich). Luka's father was also called Luka and was married to Barbara Filipovich. They came from Pasijan, kuchni 37. I do have grandfather's military passbook. I need to find Luka's brothers and sister and if he was in the Austrian army in 1902, at age 23. He came to the U.S. in 1905 and went to Ohio. My grandmother Elizabeth had a brother John (Ivan) and a sister Anna. Anna was married to Vinko Robic, who disappeared in the U.S.