on 3/9/02 9:18 PM, Robert Jerin at rjerin@adelphia.net wrote: > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Frank Kurchina" <frankur@worldnet.att.net> > To: <CROATIA-L@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Saturday, March 09, 2002 1:14 PM > Subject: Re: [CROATIA-L] Polanjek/Skopeca > > >> >> >> Mary Hegarty wrote: >>> >>> on 3/8/02 7:18 PM, Frank Kurchina at frankur@worldnet.att.net wrote: >>> >>>> >>>> >>>> Mary Hegarty wrote: >>>>> >>>>> Does anyone know anything about either of these towns? I have located > A >>>>> Stefan Fonta (Austrian Croatian) who arrived in NY from Polanjek in > 1903 and >>>>> a Maria Fonta (Austrian-Slovak) from Skopeca, Austria' >>>>> Mary Hegarty >>>> >>>> >>>> In Hungarian and most Slavic languages the letter J is pron. Y. >>>> For example, Jugoslavija = Yugoslavia. >>>> >>>> Polanyek (Palanjek Pokudski) is located 21 miles SSE of Zagreb >>>> and 9 miles WNW of Petrinja. >>>> >>>> Skopeca sounds-like Skoplje (C) Skopie, Skopje (M), Macedonia. >>>> >>>> The six republics that formed the former Yugoslavia were : Bosnia >>>> and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Slovenia, and Serbia. >>>> >>>> The problem will be locating any surname Fonta bearers in Europe. >>>> What is surname ethnicity ? >>>> Did you mean Austrian-Slovak or Austrian-Slovenian ? >>>> Before WW I, Slovakia was Hungarian and not Austrian. >>>> Before WW I, Slovenia was Austrian. >>> Thank you for the information on Polanjek. I'm actually looking for > Emil >>> and Maria Fonta (my grandparents) who should have arrived in NY around > 1904 >>> but I can't find any record of their passage. >>> On my mother's birth certificate it listed their country of birth as >>> Austria. Stepan Fonta and Maria Fonta are two Fontas that I located > through >>> Ellis Island and I thought they might be relatives. Stepan was listed on > the >>> Passenger record as Austrian-Croatian and Maria as Austrian-Slovak. For >>> Maria the address of closest kin looked like Skopeca: 375 Krskaras. >>> Mary Hegarty >> >> First name Maria can be of many nationalities. >> >> Emil (E) (H) (Cz) (G) (P) Milo (Sk) >> >> 39 surname Fonta are listed at EIR and 18 surnames have Italian >> given names. >> >> When a short surname ends in a letter vowel it can easily from >> one of the Romance languages, i.e. Italian, French, Spanish, or >> Portuguese. >> >> # 24 Maria, age 17, single, Slovak, 1916 >> WW I was fought in Europe August 1914-November 1918. >> There was no official Slovak ethnicity until WW I peace treaty (1920) >> > > Of course Slovak ethnicity existed prior to 1920! There are listings for > such on Ellis Island ship manifests. Perhaps meant that Slovakia did not > exist prior to 1920. > > "Over 51 million people lived in the 675,000 square kilometres of the > Austro-Hungarian Empire. The two largest ethnic groups were Germans (10 > million) and Hungarians (9 million). There were also Poles, Croats, > Bosnians, Serbians, Italians, Czechs, Ruthenes, Slovenes, Slovaks and > Romanians. Overall, fifteen different languages were spoken in the > Austro-Hungarian empire." > > Following the 1848-49 revolution "several concessions were made in favor of > the Slovaks - participation in the Administration of the State and the > management of communities, the setting up of teaching in Slovak (three high > schools included), the creation of a national cultural institution, "The > Matica Slovenska" in 1863, the foundation of the Slovak National Museum, the > legalization of Slovak as the literary language in Slovakia... " > Thanks Frank and Robert for all your help. I'm off to Slovenia! I have a question though. What about other ports of entry? My mother was born in NYC but that doesn't neccessarily mean her parents came through Ellis Island. Also, does anyone have any suggestions about searching the 1910 census? Mary Hegarty

>Frank and Robert, especially, also anyone with thoughts about Ellis and Croatian returnees, I took another look at the ship manifest when Great-grandpa Filip PETROVIC accompanied his daughter, Matilda, and his grandson, Jerolim, to America in 1909. They travelled on the Mauritania and arrived at Ellis 21 May 1909 headed for Canton to join Grandpa, Juraji GRUBISIC. Great-grandpa is recorded in the manifest as being 5 feet, 8 inches tall, with brown hair and blue eyes, which I didn't know. He also is recorded as having been in Roslyn 1904 to 1907. This has to be Roslyn, Washington, where he headed again after dropping off Grandma in Illinois, according to what she told me about 60 years later. At some point he acquired black lung and went back to Croatia, either just before WW1 or during it, and died there. She never saw him again or her only sister / only sibling or mother either. She cried when she told me. All those years. I've been unable to find him earlier on the Ellis site. If, Frank, you've got nothing at all to do tonight, could you take a look and possibly spell his name more creatively than I? Phillip PETROVICH is the most obvious but I did not turn him up. Would he have come in in Baltimore or Philly or Galveston even? Or is he just lurking at Ellis in some misspelt corner? He's from Sunger, in the Mrkopalj valley, sometimes misread as Linger or Lunger and I thought he was born in 1855 but the manifest suggests 1865. Thanks for any help. I wanted to quote just that part of Mary's message thanking Frank and Robert, because of the wonderful and free efforts that they make for all of us. More than half my subscribed lists have been abused by a blatant advertisment, posted by a self serving and out for profit spammer. I'm glad that isn't the attitude of the many helpful people on this list, especially our list owner, and our Croatian museum spokesman. With appreciation for their help especially, Ashley >Thanks Frank and Robert for all your help. I'm off to Slovenia! >I have a question though. What about other ports of entry? My mother was >born in NYC but that doesn't neccessarily mean her parents came through >Ellis Island. Also, does anyone have any suggestions about searching the >1910 census? >Mary Hegarty --