I would like to request some help with understanding the pronunciation and alternate spellings of Croatian names: The name is Asancaic (family originated in Perusic, Lika). How would you pronounce this? Would it be something like: AH-sahn-chaich with the ai sounding like "eye" in English? Or would the last part (caic) be divided into two syllables? The parents of Stjepan Asancaic were Mile Asancaic and Mary Hecimovich (as given by him for US Social Security application). Is Mile a form of Michael, or other name? How is Mary written in Croatian? Hecimovich was given as Eckman on Stjepan death certificate, in USA, by his youngest daughter who probably never knew her grandmother. Would Eckman be a reasonable misinterpretation of the sound of Hecimovich? How would "Perusic" sound if written phonetically in English, with the stress? Also, does anyone have the URL for Croatia telephone directory? Thank you for the help. Ann Lamb Thank you for your help.

AnnL7777@aol.com wrote: > I would like to request some help with understanding the pronunciation and > alternate spellings of Croatian names: > > The name is Asancaic (family originated in Perusic, Lika). > How would you pronounce this? Would it be something like: > AH-sahn-chaich with the ai sounding like "eye" in English? Or would the last > part (caic) be divided into two syllables? > > The parents of Stjepan Asancaic were Mile Asancaic and Mary Hecimovich (as > given by him for US Social Security application). > > Is Mile a form of Michael, or other name? > How is Mary written in Croatian? > > Hecimovich was given as Eckman on Stjepan death certificate, in USA, by his > youngest daughter who probably never knew her grandmother. Would Eckman be a > reasonable misinterpretation of the sound of Hecimovich? > > How would "Perusic" sound if written phonetically in English, with the stress? > > Also, does anyone have the URL for Croatia telephone directory? > > Thank you for the help. > > Ann Lamb > > Thank you for your help. Hello Ann, I was very surprised to stumble across your e-mail. My father's parents immigrated to the US from Perusic, Lika, in 1905. My grandfather was Stipe Hecimovic, born 1880, his father was called Cico (Chee-cho). Stipe had one younger brother, Tom Hecimovic, born 1886, who came over on the same ship. My grandmother was Mandy Hecimovic and I have been told that her maiden name was also Hecimovic. She was born Feb. 7, 1880. Her father was Mile Hecimovic and her mother was Martha Stimac (maiden name). Mandy (Mande or Magdalena) was the oldest of four; Oldest brother, Charles, born Feb. 2, 1890 Sister, Maria (married name Trgovic), born 1891, immigrated 1920. Youngest brother, steve. Mandy and Stipe Americanized the name to Hecomovich. I have heard that other family members changed the name to Heck, Hackman and in my father's case to Harlan. The Ellis Island web site, http://www.ellisislandrecords.org, lists about 15 possible variants. Its going to be like that with any Croatian surname I think. If you look up Hecomovich on Ancestry.com about 2/3rds of the listings are for my family which had settled in Taconite, MN. There were Hecomovich families in the nearby towns of Marble and Bovey which our family knew but may or may not have been related to. My grandparents had 13 children. My father is the oldest remaining of his generation and although he was born in the US he speaks a dialect learned from his parents and other members of the family at an early age. To my knowledge, I am the first of our family to try and research the history back to Croatia. I am a novice at this but I'll try to give you some tips. I'm not familiar with Asancaic but the correct spelling is Hecimovic, (He-chee-mo-vitch), there is no "ch" ending. That is an Americanization. "Ovic" is like "Mc" in McKinley, it means "son of" and denotes a clan name. Go to the Croatian Genealogical and Heraldic Society at www.croatians.com and order the "Guide to Croatian Genealogy". It has historical maps, a list of Croatian and American first name comparables, etc. Also tell them you are looking for Hecimovic and request a copy of the 1948 census for that name. The Croatian Phone/Address Listing, Telefonski Imenik, http://imenik.hinet.hr/imenik-asp/index.asp?lang+us This is also available through a link on the Croatian Gen Web. Perusic is under area code 053. There are 336 listings for Hecimovic in Croatia between 17 area codes and 96 of these are in code 053. Hecimovic is obviously characteristic to the region. You will have a lot of luck running searches for Perusic on Google. I am borrowing a friend's computer to send this e-mail and I check for messages on the weekends. Regards, Doug Harlan (Hecimovic)