> hello list!- i have some slovenian ancestors that went to illinois. my ancestors > were franz ostros(z)nik and maria ostrosnik(wichernik or vec'ernik) from the > celje area. they moved to blue island in the late 1880's probsably from > 1888-90with their only two children that survived the plague, maria and john > ostrosnik, maria was born in 1872, the mther ùmaria was born in 1847 and > father franz was born in 1840. they soon moved to the chicago heights area, to > a farm near steger or what is now richton park , illinois, then to steger , > illinois. they had ostrosnik relatives in the blue island area too that i hope > to contact. i saw one posting of an american girl called possibly lisa > ostrosnik from the chicago area once on a message board . i wondered if there > are any ostrosniks in your commmunity or that you know of. also people with > the last name wichernik or vec'ernik from area north of celje. the daughter of > maria and franz married robert rheinhold klawitter and lived in steger > illinois, they had 7 or 8 children , my grandfather and great uncles's and > aunts. we don't know what happened to john ostrosnik , the son. and also an > uncle , possibly a brother of franz ostrosnuik came over in 1900 he was called > frank ostrosnik too. originally , franz ostrosnik was a n orphan adopted by > the ostrosnik family near celje, his family had died of the plague- franz > suffered much and had told everyone in slovenia that he was going to brazil , > when he really went to illinois, just south of chicago in blue island, then > steger. we are searching relatives of the ostrosniks and > wicherniks(vec'erniks) in usa and slovenia now. there was a wichernik family > castle called "house of uran" , we found a tiny village called uran in > koroska region about 25 miles norrth of celje, ther e are mlany vec'erniks in > region in town a little bigger than uran, we beinieve them to be relatives > that moved out of uran to a bigger city in region. we are hoping to regain our > castle as we were supposed to inherit it.....any information available is very > very welcome , aldso if anyone has information about how to regain lost lands > in slovenia with today's actual government, it would be most appreciated! best > regards, to list, mary (ostrosnik-wichernik descednant)