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I just found out my Great-Grandfather was from Croatia. I don't know all the details, but apparently he was a stowaway at 10 years old, and jumped ship in Baltimore to join his brother in Pittsburg. He was from Slunj, and apparently left to avoid the draft at the time.
Just thought I'd share.
-Dug
Just thought I'd share.
-Dug
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New York City
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Re: Croatian Ancenstry
Wed, February 11, 2004 - 3:05 PMMy great grandparents immigrated to NY from Mlini (dubrovnik) in the 1920's. My grandmother (born in NY) spoke only croatian till she was 5. When she goes back to dubrovnik to visit the relatives, they poke fun at her because the croatian she speaks is 80 years old and now archaic. The language has changed greatly because of the heavy tourism before the war in the 90's. Italians and French folk flocked to croatia as it was a hot spot to holiday and their language has been integrated into croatian slang and everyday conversation.
I went to meet the relatives in 1998. While there I recognized traditions that my grandmother had kept alive in the US.
Croatians are hearty, funny and generous.
Wish I could speak croatian. -
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Re: Croatian Ancenstry
Fri, February 13, 2004 - 8:50 PMMy dad is from Croatia, Split to be precise. After his mom (my grandma) died when he was 3 years old, the family moved to Slavonia, to a village called Ferovac. At the ripe age of 12, he left home to go to baker apprentice school in one of the bigger towns, Slavonska Pozega, because as one of ten children, his family was not able to feed/support him.
After he became a baker, he moved up to Rijeka to live with his sister. Eventually he decided that he needed to leave Croatia to make a better life; rather than try to escape by running the border and risk getting shot by the Yugoslavian military- he did it the legal-ish way (a visa or something) and managed to get to Austria. From Austria, he got himself to Canada, then from Canada found someone to sponser him in the US, and eventually came to California. Basically, he baked his way across the world.
He met my mom (who is Mexican) in San Juan Bautista, CA and they had Joe and me. Because my dad is from the motherland, we grew up speaking Croatian and English. My mom even picked up Croatian and is now fluent except for the grammar part.
There is a huge Croatian community in the SF Bay Area, if any of you are interested I can pass on info. Just let me know. -
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Unsu...
Re: Croatian Ancenstry
Tue, March 9, 2004 - 6:00 AMIt is so wild to hear about how wide the foot print of the Croatian heritage has grown. Many people still have no clue who we are or where we are from but obviously we are very diverse and spread out around the world! -
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Re: Croatian Ancenstry
Tue, January 3, 2006 - 1:20 PMLOL....It's so funny, I recently heard of a saying associated with Croatians: "Lutati po svjetu" (rough translation -"bumming around the world"). That's why you can find Croats all over the world.
My dad is from Zagreb and my mother grew up in Zagreb. I'm interested in finding out more about my heritage....like why Vegeta is put on everything?! :)
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Unsu...
Re: Croatian Ancenstry
Tue, March 9, 2004 - 5:58 AMFYI... The Croatian Church in Manhattan has adult classes every Friday night.
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Re: Croatian Ancenstry
Thu, August 12, 2004 - 6:29 PMMy mom's relatives are from Plaat. It's right next to Mlini. They owned an olive oil stone mill right on the beach. Sold it in the 40's to pay for pennicillin for a sick sister. Pennicillin was scarcer than gold in those days...
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Re: Croatian Ancenstry
Thu, February 17, 2005 - 10:36 PMHey everyone. I kinda have similar background. Both my grandparents are Croatian, that is they were born in the US but both had Croatian parents. They came from Mrkopalj in Gorski Kotar sometime between 1910 and 20. My grandparents spoke the language, but my mom and I only speak a little, malo govorimo hrvatski, as you can see.
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Re: Croatian Ancenstry
Sat, February 14, 2004 - 12:27 PMI think your Great-Grandfather heard about the big Croatian population in Pittsburg. They went there to work in the steel industry. I've never been, but I've heard that its the oldest place where the Croatian clubs gather. I also know its where the some company sells insurance to Croatian members. Too bad I don't remember the official names off hand.
Oh, I'm Tanja's younger brother, so you've already heard about my Croatian lineage. -
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Unsu...
Re: Croatian Ancenstry
Tue, March 9, 2004 - 6:05 AMThe insurance company in Pittsburg is "Hrvatska Bracna Zajednica" or "Croatian Fraternal Brotherhood". The church in the Pittsburg area is St. Joseph Parish in Bethlehem.
The church in Chicago has a cool website with a lot of good links www.stjeromecroatian.org/eng/u...a.html you can also check out www.hic.hr
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Re: Croatian Ancenstry
Mon, June 21, 2004 - 4:51 PMThat's pretty weird, my grandfather was from Slunj. It's not a big town at all, but really nicely situated on some waterfalls on the Korana River. He came just before WWI, probably for the same reason, with his brother, who went back to Croatia.
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Re: Croatian Ancenstry
Mon, June 21, 2004 - 4:52 PMHmm. My other message in this strand was supposed to be a reply to Dug's message. I'm not sure why it ended up at the bottom of the strand instead.
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Re: Croatian Ancenstry
Tue, March 29, 2005 - 4:52 PMFamily is from Banija, from a small village on the Una River between Kostajnica and Dubica. If you're ever in the Los Angeles area, stop by Ante's Restaurant in San Pedro (in the harbor area). It's a Dalmatian Restaurant. San Pedro has the largest Croatian population west of the Mississippi. Also, there is an annual Croatian picnic in Southern California, usually during June.
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Re: Croatian Ancenstry
Sat, April 2, 2005 - 10:43 PMMy grandmother is Croatian...she would tell me all these really cool but wierd Croatian(?) sayings when we were kids, such as "From the ass you came, shit you know," and a lot of other ones I can't remember, mostly about food.
Croatian grandmas rock. -
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Re: Croatian Ancenstry
Tue, May 17, 2005 - 11:53 PMhahah
your gramma is funny.
San Pedro, I've been there and I've been to that festival! A long time ago though... and it's true that there are a hell of a lot of Croats in that city. Also in San Jose, CA there are tons of Croats as well as in the Sacramento are. There's another huge yearly festival that happens in Sac-town... I think it's also June, and maybe the week after the San Pedro one. It's called- EXTRAVAGANZA!!!
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Re: Croatian Ancenstry
Mon, December 5, 2005 - 10:18 PMMy Great-Grandparents on one side came from Split and Fiume (Rijeka) and gradually worked their way west to Albany, CA. I'm very interested in this aspect of my family and have been looking for language classes in the area to no avail. -
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Re: Croatian Ancenstry
Mon, December 12, 2005 - 12:08 AMhmm.
I don't know about any Croatian classes- I can ask around to see if my dad knows anyone.
When I went to UC Berkeley, they offered Serbo-Croatian classes which were excellent. I don't know if they still offer them or if you have to be a UCB student to take them... but it was awesome to take the classes. It cleaned my spoken Croatian up SO MUCH! -
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Re: Croatian Ancenstry
Thu, February 2, 2006 - 4:24 PMMy father's grandparent's came from Croatia on a little island called Pag. My family has got a chance to visit twice, once when I was 4 and then 5 years ago. It's nice to be at least 1/4th something being a mix of a lot of different ethnicities and it was really nice to go to the family island and see all these little old people walking around that looked like my grandma and her siblings. My dad's 3rd cousin own a restaurant there and really does look like him. Croatians are a very warm and hearty people and, yes, Croatian grandmas are the best! Mine used to groan every time she sat down, "oh, my dupah!" (spelling probably worng, sorry), meaning, "oh, my butt!
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Re: Croatian Ancenstry
Mon, March 27, 2006 - 5:10 PMBoth of my grandparents came from the same dalmatian island of Unije. My grandfather grew up when it was under Italian rule and he had to join the italien Navy. he also served in the merchant marines,and before shipping out with them he got a letter saying that he was due for another tour with the navy, so when (well into the voyage when they would anounce destination) he found out they were headed to america and he decided to jump boat.
he made his way to new york and met my grandmother, who was first generation, her dad had come over to work, and had sent for his wife. he was a longshoreman and bare knuckle boxer in hells kitchen.
my mother is one of the last people in the last generation who can speak our dialect, and there are no native residents living on Unije anymore. -
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Re: Croatian Ancenstry
Tue, March 28, 2006 - 7:02 AMgreat story... and a bare knuckles boxer in hells kitchen. that's enough to write a book!
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