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.

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