----- Original Message ----- From: "Birkholz, James" <James.Birkholz@usa.okmetic.com> To: <CROATIA-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, April 25, 2002 12:11 PM Subject: [CROATIA-L] Skuban from "Sloyerska" > On her son's birth certificate in Akron, Ohio, Helena Skuban's birthplace is > listed as > Cicilia Sloyerska > > Some time ago, I was told that "Sloyerska" meant Slovenia (I think). > > Well I knew where Slovenia is, it was on the opposite side of Croatia from > the Bjelovar district where her husband was listed as being born. > (Incorrectly spelled "Grubisko Polje" instead of "Grubisno Polje".) > > Yesterday, I'm looking at maps of the Bjelovar area and am shocked to see > Slovenia directly to the east (and a little south) of Bjelovar (but still > part of Croatia). > So I check another map and confirm that it was where I thought it was, to > the NW of Croatia. Then I see that they are spelled differently. > The one by Bjelovar is "Slavonia". Huh! > > So now I'm wondering if "Sloyerska" (or more probably a similar spelling) > can be tied to "Slavonia". This would be helpful, as the only Skubans in the > online Croatian phone directory are in Vukovar, which I believe is in this > Slavonian part of Croatia. > > I'm half convinced that the "Cicilia" reference is a mistaken answer to the > questions and refers to the father's grandmother's name, rather than the > mother's birthplace. > > I've tried checking the old version of the online phone directory, using the > list towns by county feature, for Bjelovar, Vukovar and Osjecko districts. > CELIJE in the Vukovar district might be the Cicilia referred to in the birth > certificate. > James > Hello James, Ah, here we go again adding questions instead of answers! I searched Bjelovar county phone directory for names begining with SKU and found no listings for SKUBAN, 1 for SKUBIN however I found several for SKUKAN. Checking SUKBAN, SKUBIN at Ellis Is I found nothing close to Helena for any of the listings I did finda Jana SKUKAN, which is a diminutive of Ivana, arr 1913 from Sasovac which is near Grubisno Polje, destination Brownsville, PA. Ivana is a feminine form of John. Now what would someone with that name choose as an English name? Perhaps SKUBAN should be SKUKAN? Robert