"Marie ." wrote: > > Hi Everyone, > Can anyone tell me if there was a time before the 1840's when many Croatians > would have left their country to go to America. And if so what ports they > may have left from and where they may have landed (ports) back then. > Thank You, > Marie > Name: Mateo (Mathieu) Guiranovich/Giuranovich who was born about 1791, in > Rugusa Dalmatia Austria, per his death certificate dated 1892. Found in > several directories in New Orleans as of the 1840's. But have never found > him in any census records or ships records so far. > Other possible spellings of this name that I have also been looking for are; > Gjuranovic, Juranovic and Duranovic. Early on they used the Gulf States ports and New Orelean LA for entry to the U.S. and settled in the same region. What ship records did you look at ? Indexes to Passenger Lists for New Orleans exist for the period 1853-1899. But, Passenger Lists exist for 1820-1902. Passenger Lists for other Gulf States ports begin around 1899-1900 ? They probably left from the port city of Rijeka (C)/Fiume (I), now Croatia, which is considered to be the best port on the Adriatic Sea. Or, the port of Trieste (Trst) now located in Italy. For over 450 years , Austria and Italy traded rule of parts the Dalmacija region of Croatia. In 1409 the Croatians elected a Neapolitan prince Ladislas, king of Croatia and he sold Venice his rights to all of Dalmatia. By 1420 Venice (Italy) controlled all of Dalmatia except Dubrovnik (Ragusa) 1718-1792 Trieste and Dalmatian coast down to Dubrovnik was Venice. Ragusa was an independent city-state. Napoleon signed a peace treaty with Austria in 1797. Whereby Austria ceded to France its holdings in Belgium and along the Rhine River in return for Istria, Venetia, and Dalmatia, which had belonged to Venice. The Republic of Venice ceased to exist in 1797. Austria's acquisitions along the Adriatic Sea were short-lived. ________________________________________________________________ > Join the worlds largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. > http://www.hotmail.com