Hello,
I've been having trouble researching my family lines.I was wondering if anyone out there might have any ideas about where to go from here.Any help would be appreciated.
JOSEF GRAILER/GREILER born May 30,1874 in Austria and died February 28,1941 in Iron Mountain,Michigan.Father was Joseph George Greiler, mother was Maria Makonc.Joseph stated that he was from Drasic on records from New York passenger records when he came to the U.S. in 1899.He was married to - MAGDALENA MORTL born July 22,1874 in Austria and died April 18,1941 in Iron Mountain,Michigan.Her parents were George Mortl and Magdalena Cesar.It's unknown what city she may have been from.Thank you.
Susan

What are you having trouble with?

There is a Maria MORTL on the line below Josef on the manifest and it says her former residence was Drasic.

Drasic was most likely in an area with a Slovenian or Croatian population. So it may not be in present day Austria.

Robert

Thanks for the reply,I appreciate it.I was trying to figure out where to start looking as far as location.I wasn't sure if Drasic was in Austria at the time or somewhere else.
Susan

As a guess, there is a town with the name Drasici near Metlika in the Republic of Slovenia, close to the border with Croatia.

Your last names, Grailer and Mörtl, are German. Therefore you need to look for a Drasic where ethnic Germans lived. Metlika is not too far from Kocevje (Gottschee), a former German enclave in Krajina (Slovenia).

Thanks so much for the info.I'll check out your suggestions and see if I find anything.This has been confusing and I wasn't sure where to start.Josef Grailer was supposed to have been in the German Army before he went to the U.S,but he and his wife say they were from Drasic.I appreciate your help.
Susan

Susan: I checked a bit through the Ellis Island arrivals of persons with last name Grailer (Greiler, Greiller) and Mörtl (often transcribed as Mortl but also as Moertl). As a result, my guess is that your ancestors hailed from the lower Gail valley in the Austrian state of Kärnten (Carinthia).

There is a town there with today's spelling Draschitz. The Austrian phone directory shows seven entries for the name Mörtl in Draschitz. The name Grailer and Greiler also exists in Carinthia.

There are a few other Mortl/Moertl listed as coming from Drashitz and similar spellings at www.ellisislandrecords.org . Perhaps these were relatives of your ancestors. Several other Mörtl and Greiller hailed from places which are very near Draschitz.

The url for the Austrian phone directory is http://www.etb.at/ . Just enter Moertl as the last name, and place Draschitz into the location field. You will see the seven entries I mentioned above. I feel that you have found your ancestral place.

Thank you so much for going to all the trouble.It's greatly appreciated.I really think you found our ancestral place to.I was excited to see Moertl's still living in the area as well as Grailer/Greiler's to.My next move is going to be checking Catholic Churches in that area for any records they might have.Thank you for all your help.
Susan

The problem you will unfortunately encounter is that the parish records of Carinthia/Kärnten have not been filmed by LDS. You could write to the Diocesan Archive in Klagenfurt (they are on e-mail) to find out the place of the parish for Draschitz, and whether the records are still at the parish or are in the archive. However, from there onwards you would need the assistance of a local researcher or plan a visit yourself.

You should also move your search to the board for the province (or state) of Carinthia or the board for general Austria. This here is the board for the province of Upper Austria which is the wrong place for your search.

Thanks so much for everything.You have been very nice.I'll be sure to move my queries elsewhere.
Susan

Dear Susan,

I was searching the web for the family name Moertl and found this interesting thread. It is not unusual that US citizens are puting most information about European names on the web - and so it is in this case.

My name is Blaz Mertelj from Slovenia - the tiny country below Austrian Carinthia - Kärnten. Actually, before the WW I these land were all in one bigger Austria. A common country for many nations.

Well, recently my family "Mertelj" built quite a fine family tree on http://geni.com and we got to our ancestors from 1700's whose name was Mörtl. "Mertelj" is actually pronounced the same as Moertl in Slovenian language. It is well known that the beautiful Upper Sava valley (with town of Kranjska Gora) http://www.worldmapfinder.com/Map_Earth.php?ID=/En/Europe/Sl... has been populated by people from Gail valley from north - where Draschitz is located.
That valley and three more in south Carinthia always were inhabited by Slovenians and Germans, which is typical for Carinthia. Many Slovenian names were and still are formally written in German spelling. Draschitz is simply german spelling for a name that in slovenian would be spelled "Drašic", if you omit the accent on s you get Drasic that you mention. That makes perfect sense to me.

Well, anyway, me and quite some (around 50) Merteljs (pronounced moertl) live in Slovenia, all of us coming from the Zgornjesavska valley (Upper Sava valley), most of them still living there and some have moved to other parts of Slovenija, closer to the capital Ljubljana. I am pretty sure we have common origins in the Gail valley.

We can exchange more information if you are interested.

Best regards from Slovenia,

Blaž