First, a little background: My grandfather, Mate Puz, left Rukavac for America in 1910, at age 18, leaving his father, brother and 3 sisters. His brother, Ivan Puz, followed in 1923; Ivan's wife, Ivanka Sepic, and their daughter, Nada, came about 1930. They are all deceased. My grandfather said he was from Fiume, Austria (now Rijeka, Croatia) so it was just recently that I learned the name of the village where he was born and had lived. In October, I wrote to the Opcina and tourist office in Matulji (the closest municipality to Rukavac) and to the priest of St. Luke's Roman Catholic church in Rukavac. I didn't get a reply from anyone. Sent e-mails to all travel agencies in Matulji and received a reply from one, in English (bless her heart). Before leaving home, I made photocopies of everything I had pertaining to my grandfather; his collection of old photographs (no names), immigration records, etc. and put them in a binder and we were off to Croatia. Our hotel in Opatija was right on the bay, so we had a beautiful view of Rijeka and the island of Krk from our room. The next morning we rented a car and set out to explore the villages and cemeteries. We found the cemetery at Rukavac, but the dates on the headstones only went back to the late 1930s, which I found surprising. And, on some headstones, there was up to 4/5 names on the same stone. None of the other villages in the area had a cemetery. We went through the cemeteries in Volosko, Opatija and Kastav, and found the same thing. Then we found out why. A burial plot is "leased" for 30 years. The grave cannot be disturbed for 10 years; after 10 years, the bones can be removed and the next deceased family member interred in the same plot. If, after 30 years the family does not "renew" the lease, the bones are removed, the headstone placed against a back wall and the grave is ready for new occupants. The only microfilm on Rukavac available at the archives in Rijeka is the one made by and available from the LDS family history library, so we didn't learn anything new there. Then we hit the JACKPOT. Not able to speak any Croatian, we were getting discouraged, and decided in ask (in a little English, a little Italian) at the little market in Rukavac if there were any other cemeteries in the area and told her the name we were researching. She quickly ushered us out of her store and across the street to the home of professor Franjo Sepic, who, she said, knew everything about Rukavac. Franjo's wife knows a little English, so with the help of our Croatian/English, English/Croatian dictionaries, we set to work. In the meantime, I pulled out my binder which Franjo's elderly uncle began to look through. After a couple of pages, he pointed to a picture, said something in Croatian which sent everyone scurrying over to see what he found. What he found was a Sepic family photograph, (Franjo's father, the father's siblings and parents.) Ivanka, the wife of my grandfather's brother, Ivan, was Franjo's aunt. Once that was established, he knew who we were. He told us that the name of our family home was Kalinari; that each house has a name, to distinguish families with the same surname. Franjo's sister arrived, we had lunch, they showed us the house where my grandfather was born, gave us a tour of upper and lower Rukavac and shared family stories. For days they gave HOSPITALITY like you wouldn't believe, absolutely wonderful people! Franjo telephoned our cousin, Josip, who lives down the road in another village and then took us over to Josip's house. Josip's son speaks English, so he acted as our interpreter. I pulled out my binder again as I have a photograph of one of my grandfather 's sisters, but I didn't have a name to go with it, of course, it turned out to be Josip's mother, Katarina, called Tonca. Josip still owns the family home though I doubt if it would even qualify as a fixer-upper, tear down and start over would more adequately describe it. Josip pulled out his box of goodies, (old documents, photographs, letters from my grandfather, etc.) for us to look through. His son, Lari, said Josip has not allowed his wife or sons to look through this box. Josip was saving this box, in case anyone from America ever showed up. Even though Josip has a wife and two sons, he always says he is alone in the world, now he has family. Josip's wife kept thanking us for coming because it made her husband so happy. It was a very emotional experience. Again, HOSPITALITY, plus. Cooking for us, showing us around, etc. The only disagreeable person we had contact with was the priest at St. Luke' s church. When contacted for an appointment by my new travel agent friend who said we were researching our family, he replied that he hoped we would do our research without involving him, and said, "Oh these Americans, if they want to know about their family, why don't they keep in touch with them." After much persuasion, he finally agreed to meet with us (on our last day there) for a few minutes, (he's a very busy man, you know). Cousin, Lari, went with us to act as interpreter. The priest had the letters I sent to the Opcina and tourist offices in Matulji but said he did not receive the letter I sent to him, (the one with $, self addressed return envelope and international reply coupons for postage). After making us wait outside for 10 minutes, he ushered us into his office where we all sat at a table while he went through the Rukavac book. It must have been the "book of souls" because it took him about one minute to turn a few pages to the Puz page which has vitals on three generations of my family. He was pleasant enough to us but kept up a constant chatter which Lari later told us was his complaining about looking up this information for us. He kept saying he didn't have to do this, this wasn't his job, he is a very busy man, etc., etc. After leaving his office, the three of us unanimously agreed that he lied when he said he did not receive my letter to him. While we were in the area, a letter to the editor appeared in a newspaper saying he should be ashamed of himself for charging 500 kuna (about$60) for a one-hour funeral service when it took the family about a week to earn that much. We were told that he yells at his congregation during mass, saying they don't know how to pray (because they use their dialect), that they're stupid, etc. He's not very well liked, to say the least. St. Luke's church was destroyed (by mistake) during Allied bombing in 1943 and rebuilt in 1982, so records between those years are elsewhere, probably Kastav, (Franjo is going to inquire there, on our behalf). The Puz family home, located near the church, was also destroyed. Vinko Puz, my great grandfather, refused to leave his home when the bombing started so had to be dug out of the rubble, damaged, but alive. Now I know where the family stubborn streak comes from. To make a long story shorter, we had a successful trip and a wonderful experience. Roanne

Roanne and other Co-Listers, Glad to hear you also had a successful trip and that you also found some members of your family. Our trip to Trieste/Cres this past November was the best. We met so many cousins (took 300 pictures) and these people are absolutely wonderful. They also made us feel that we had been in the family all of our lives. We did find our family stones in the cemetery against the wall with many names and pictures on them and they started from the mid 1800's also. We visited the church and met the priest and he took us on a tour of the grounds and there is apparently an older cemetery but only a few stones remained that we could see. We plan to pursue this further. At this church, there is a bust of my cousin who is a retired archbishop, who I met the week before, another truly wonderful person who spent many hours talking to us about our family. Unfortunately, for me, my direct line left Cherso/Cres in 1803-05 so I did not find much on them but our family is working with the LDS records to put all 5 families who are working on the Bolmarcic line together. We know we are all related, so these cousins I met are very dear to me. In the pension (we had a kitchen, living room, bedroom, and a restaurant downstairs-Super!) we stayed at which also was right on the water, the owner had a daughter-in-law who was looking for her grandfather who came to Chicago in 1903. I told her I would do my best to find him and I have just received his records, he died only 3 years after coming to the US and I am forwarding the information on to her. So it is not only us from the US looking for our ancestors over there, they also are looking for their ancestors who came to the US. They tell me I am now a "Garini" and I consider it an honor! We even went to Mali Losinj to help another "cousin" find her family. I went to the tourist office and gave them the name I was looking for and they said, go to this cafe down the street. We went there and ordered a cup of tea and asked the waitress about the name and she called on the phone and said "wait 5 minutes". In comes a wonderful gentleman of the last name I was looking for and he said ""have her call me, email me, write me and I will help her all I can". He even asked how long we were going to be in Mali Losinj as he would take a day off to talk to us. Unfortunately, it was our last day on Cres--upon our return home I gave the information to our "cousin" and she is pursuing her line For all of you who are "thinking" about going, go--you will have so many wonderful memories. We are going back in 2003! Elaine