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CROATIAN GENEALOGY COLUMN EXTRA

Quality time with an expert (1)

Bingo! Elderly superladies!

Lidija Sambunjak
professional genealogist

15 Jan 2010 In spite of the holiday season, past couple of weeks were quite busy. Between the Christmas and the New Year's Eve I had an interesting experience while researching genealogy for Plemenitaš family.

One of their ancestors came to the US in the late 1800s and in the Ellis Island records it is stated that he came from Karlovac (which was back then Austo-Hungarian Empire and today is in Croatia). Upon researching vital records from Karlovac area, I realized that this surname doesn't appear there. How come? The person must have lived there and worked hard to earn money to pay for the fare to the US, but he wasn't originally from Karlovac. Where did he come from then?

Village as surname

I looked into the census data and realized that Plemenitaš family name is most frequent in Donji Miholjac area, namely city of Donji Miholjac as well as nearby vilage Ivanovo. Also, there are persons carrying that surname in other parts of Croatia like Rijeka and Čakovec.

Since the person for whom I do the research was certain that her Plemenitaš branch didn't come from any of forementioned places, I decided to check out another village which interestingly also carries the name Plemenitaš near Bosiljevo (it is not uncommon that Croatians carry surnames which are the same as the name of their village of residence). Unfortunatelly, there were no persons with Plemenitaš surname there.

A phonecall brings success

The only thing left for me to do was to make a phonecall to a member of a Plemenitaš family somewhere here in Croatia to see if they know anything about their ancestry.

Bingo! An elderly lady from Ivanovo was more than helpful. She explained to me that all Plemenitaš family members living in Croatia today originate from Šid, a city on the very border between Croatia and Serbia on the Serbian side. Many of them reportedly came to Croatia during the Croatian war for independence (1991-95). The city has a significant Catholic minority, and that's where I am going to continue my research.

Recent columns by Lidija Sambunjak

New! By their noses shall they be recognized People who want their family trees to be researched come from all around the world and it's no wonder every one of them is different. But as special as family Sadar was, none were before them.(11 Oct 2010)

A joy of finding destroyed records Wars produce negative consequences on today's genealogical research, because, during wars, vital records are in a threat of destruction. (28 Feb 2010)

A postcard that revealed a family secret Old pictures and old letters can sometimes be a very good source for researching our family history. But they can also be a source of surprising revelations. (8 Dec 2010)

Pictures engraved in the stone For a family picture to be preserved for a century or longer takes a small miracle. How many of us have a picture of an ancestor born in the 19th century? Not many, I presume. (4 Sep 2010)

A unique wedding present One of my best friends got married this month. I wondered what could I possibly give her as a wedding present which would be of any real worth to her? (2 Aug 2010)

Why do grandma and grandpa have the same surname? There are parishes where you can find people with the exact same surname that are not directly related. But sometimes they are. (21 May 2010)

Death records are not easy to read, but it's not about handwriting I think we need to be grateful for our ancestors whose challenges we can hardly imagine. (15 Apr 2010)

Building family history on a firm evidence A true genealogist should base his or her research on written records, and not on questionable tales. (27 Mar 2010)

What a joy it is to connect lost relatives! It is very rewarding and often quite emotional for a researcher to witness how profound impact he or she can have on the people (6 Mar 2010)

Help saving vital records from the worms! One thing every genealogist is concerned about is the condition of the books he or she uses in the research. (21 Feb 2010)

Where did the children hide? As I was trying to find siblings of a grandfather of a family, I looked back and forth in records of many years, but with no success. (06 Feb 2010)

Be careful not to miss a widower The case was clear: the man had been married more than once, but the question was - how many times? (22 Jan 2010)

Bingo! Elderly superladies! As I exhausted all the ideas on how to continue with a paricular case, a simple phonecall saved my day. (15 Jan 2010)

Quality time with an expert Probably the best way how to learn to do our own genealogy is to watch other, more experienced genealogists doing the job, and then emulate them. (29 Dec 2009)


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