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CROATIAN GENEALOGY COLUMN EXTRA

Quality time with an expert (8)

Why do grandma and grandpa have the same surname?

Lidija Sambunjak
professional genealogist

21 May 2010 A few months ago a family from the United States asked me to help them out with finding their ancestors who were born in Slovenia. When I looked into the data that I received from the family, I realized that their grandfather's surname and their grandmother's maiden name were the same, although they were not born in the same parish.

So I followed both of their lines and have realized that the father of the grandfather came from the same parish as the father of the grandmother. But that wasn't all. They came from the same village.

An information caught my attention

This piece of information caught my attention. In Slovenia there are parishes where you can find people with the exact same surname who are not directly related. But is that the case here?

When the family accepted by offer for the extensive genealogical research, I had to visited the parish of Metlika, where older Vital books were kept. Both of the priests I worked with were very kind and I could search all the books I needed to.

The result was intriguing! Great-grandparents of that family were indeed cousins! Their fathers for whom I had known to be born in the same village turned out to be born to the same parents! Status Animarum book in the parish of Metlika proved this, and then birth books as well.

A family lore

This was highly unusual matter. Then the question came: how to tell the living family? How will they react to the revalation? It is not an ordinary experience to realize that someone's set of great-grandparents were cousins. So I emailed them and here is what I got back as a response: "A family lore tells that Joseph and Katharina were cousins, I just didn't know how far back the relationship extended. They were married in Wisconsin, USA, where obviously no one questioned their family relationship."

This is an interesting story for those who do the genealogy research, because sometimes we need to be prepared for the unexpected.

Recent columns by Lidija Sambunjak

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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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