My father's family came from Bobovisic and/or Split area of Yugoslavia. Last name is Sekul. Looking for information on my grandfather's parents.

Split is located in Croatia. Bobovisic? Perhaps you are speaking of Bobovisca on the Island of Brac? There is also a town called Splitska on the Island of Brac and of course Split on the mainland.

Perhaps if you gave more info about your grandfather someone could help...

1) What is his given name?
2) when was he born?
3) did he immigrate someplace? To the US? Australia? S. America? Canada? etc.
4) if he immigrated where did he settle?

Robert Jerin
Croatian Heritage Museum
Cleveland Ohio

Thank you Robert. My great-grandfather was Stefano Sekul. He immigrated in 1902 from Yugoslavia to New York. From New York he went to Chicago then to Biloxi MS. He was from Brac, however, the Ellis Island paperwork shows that he lists himself as Montenegrin from Boboviesc (sp?). He was born in 1892. He married a girl whose last name was Trebotich, also spelled Trobotich, they had four children. She died in 1917 in the flu epidemic herein. She remarried, her name was Yerka Barisic and they had two children. I know that Nicolo Sekul came over with him in 1902 and ended up in California with that branch of the family, and I have tried contact them too. This is all that I know, and appreciate all of the help.

Jennifer

Yuogslavia did not exist until after WW I, 1918. I believe a mistake was made, if you notice it states he had Montenegren citizenship as well as declaring his race as Montenegren. I believe the error may have happened as everyone above HALAT, Marco and Nicolo (today Nicolo would be Nikola in Croatia) and Stefano (Stefano would be Stjepan or Stipe today in Croatia) was Montenegren and the manifest author at the port of departure just kept marking, until he got to the person after Stefano who he changed to Croatian. The manifest gives his destination as Biloksi (sic)

There is a ship manifest from 1936 for an arrival at New York (by this time immigrants did not go through Ellis Island processing station) for an Ante (Anthony or Tony) SEKUL, Student, age 14, former residence and birthplace Bobovisce, Dalmatia where his next of kin was his mother Josephine, his destination to his uncle Stephen SEKUL living at 1601 3rd St, Bilosi (sic), Miss.

Interesting there are 2 WW I Draft Registrations for: Steave SEKUL (he actaully signed it Stivan, which is how one would spell Stephen or Stevan in Croatian) birthdate 25 Dec 1881 residence Cedar St, Biloxi, MS, wife Lucy the other is Stephen Martin SEKUL birthdate 11 Nov 1880 residence Pine St Biloxi wife Elena, both are fishermen.

But he must be the one whose wife was Lucy (Croatian would be Lucija or Luca)as the 1920 census shows one with wife Elena and the other as widower. His second wife was probably Trebotić. This family also comes from the Island of Brac. It was very common that those early Croatians would go back home for a wife.

Perhaps she is the Lucia TREBOTIC who arrived with her family in 1906 aboard the ship Pannonia she was from.. Bobovisce, Austria (Croatia inc. Dalmatia had formed a union with Hungary around 1100 and later when Austria liberated Croatia from the Turks it would be under the rule of Austria-Hungary) Note the C at the end of this Croatian name would have a diacritical mark / over it giving it the sound of CH.

Yerka (Croatian sp. would be Jerka, sounds like yarrkah from the male Jerome or Jerko in Croatian) is also from Island Brac (sounds like brrrahch) from the town of Ložišća

http://data.jewishgen.org/wconnect/wc.dll?jg~jgsys~shtetlexp...

She arrived in the US as follows
Name: Jerka SEKUL
Arrival Date: 23 May 1921
Age: 33 Years and 9 months
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1888
Gender: Female
Race: Croatian
Port of Departure: Trieste, Italy
Ship Name: President Wilson
Port of Arrival: New York, New York
Last Residence: Lozisce (next of kin there was her brother Ivan (sounds like eevahn and = John) which would indicate both parents had passed
Birthplace: Blao, Jugoslavia
Destination 211 Cedar to husband Stive Clemen SEKUL

The manifest indicates that she had been Detained but the pages which show that were not found in the info I have. My guess is that it was because the manifest showed she did not have a ticket to her destination and had only $28 with her, she was released on June 2, 1921... probably after Stive sent her money :)

The LDS (Mormon) Family History Library has mircrofilm records for Bobovisce but they only cover the years 1825-1865

http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/FHLC/frameset_fhlc.a...

Now that you have all this .... you need to visit your ancestral homeland! Island Brac has some of the most beautiful beaches with the clearest azur blue water in the world! Brac supplied some of the marble for the US White House in Wash. DC.

Bobovisca lies one kilometer from the sea, in the interior of the western side of the island of Brac that is connected to Split and Makarska by daily ferry lines. The closest tourist destination is Milna and the closest swimming beach is one kilometer in the bay of Bobovisca. The inhabitants, some 60 of them in total, live off of olive and wine growing.

Here are links to some photos of Bobivisce

http://public.carnet.hr/dalmatia/pic/Dva_Bracanina.jpg

http://www.croator.com/Investment/Brac/bobovisce/avio.jpg

http://www.oceans-evasion.com/media/image/bobovisce.jpg

And some of Lozisce, which is up the hill less than a mile away

http://www.arsuz.info/brach/lozisce.JPG

And several nice photos from all over the island

http://www.arsuz.info/brac.htm

We had our tour group on Brac in 2006 and it IS that lovely.

Enjoy!

Robert

How would I go back to the records there without actually being present? Anything online that is not in Croatian or Italian?

Jennifer

Jennifer,

I am sorry I don't know what you mean by "how can I go back to the records without being present"... what records? Present where? All the records I found were in English. But if you are really serious about research you will need to learn a handful of words in Croatian and/or Italian. The LDS records are not online but all you need do is go to one of the over 2,000 LDS Family History Centers (there will be one near you) and order the films... for $5 they will allow you to view and copy them... I gave the link to LDS Family History Library in my last message

Robert

Long ago memories of a child being told, "We are slovonians from Yugoslavia" and hearing grandmother telling her daughter to teach her children to speak her language. The daughter resisted and won the argument. Thats why I can't speak Croatian, but I heard many words and can remember some to this day. Dubrovnik, Split, Trebotich, hurstala(spl?)twisted pastry, pishalata(spl?)at christmas, New Orleans, 1906-1908?, three brothers, Bellingham, WA., Biloxi,MS., San Jose, CA.. The brothers names are unknown.

Marino Rossetti, my grandfather and his bride Domina(Dinka) Sekul Rossetti went to California to raise their future family. I have no idea where or when they were married. Their children are Margaret, Vincent, Olivia, Lucille and Paul. Lutcie(spl?) was the name grandmother used many times to get my mothers attention when us kids were around. Paul is the sole survivior of his parents.

Marino b1882 d1956, his mothers maiden name was Svitanich. Domina b1892 d1968, her maiden name was Sekul. The birth, death and maiden name info was found in the California Death Record maintained by the state and accessed thru RootsWeb.

I started looking for my roots last summer and have been concentrating on my fathers side of the family. Scotch-Irish-English-Slovonian is what Dad said we were. GGGG Grandfather and family(Martha and six children) came from Ireland(Ulster?) to ??. Found them in NC>TN>TX>CA. I am still looking for the right ship between 1765-1776. Thomas's last son was born in Ireland in 1765 and Thomas died in Mecklenberg, NC in 1776.

I found your post after many hours of browsing all things related to Croatia. Robert Jerin links were found at Croatia-in-English.com. Without these two sites I would still be looking for relevant info about Croatia and other things "Slovonian"

After reading the above do you think that my grandmother Domina is related to your great-grandfather?
Did Domina know your great-grandmother Lucia Trebotic? If they knew each other were they on the same ship? Your 1902 crossing would make Domina ten years old, while my 1906-1908 would have her at fourteen to sixteen years old.

The above info is all the info I have assembled so far. I did check the Rossetti name in the all Croatia telephone directory. There were only six Rossetti's in all of Croatia. They were four in Dubrovnik, one in Lopud and one in Zaton. I need a better map for the smaller towns and villages.

Your query and subsequent replys by Robert Jerin provided me enough info that compelled me to respond to your posts.
There are many simularaties and questions. Please let me know what you can make of my info.

Randy

Randy, it was great to hear from you. I had almost given up hope of someone replying to that message since it has been a year almost. There are several Rossetti's in this area, and I have always been told that we were related but never quite knew how. My greatgrandfather was on board a ship here with a Nicolo Sekul who was headed to California. There was a Peter Sekul that went there too. I understand from my family that Peter has sisters, but do not know there names. Some of Peter's family lived here in Biloxi and were called cousins by my family. My great grandmother was a Trebotich, who came here from Croatia to marry my grandfather. We have several Trebotich family members here as well. Hrustla is a bowtie pastry which my grandmother and several of her friends would make every Christmas. Pusharattas are a pastry too, like a fried donut with fruit that are fried and covered with icing. I make them every Christmas for my family here like my grandmother taught me. Dubrovnik and Split are cities in Croatia, and I understand that those are the cities where the Sekul family was. Another branch has actually gone there to see the cemetery and do some genealogy but only on their side of the family and it doesn't go very far, and doesn't connect the family. We have actually connected with a Sekul family member in Germany before my grandmother died. But since Katrina I don't have his information anymore. Have you check Ellis Island website? They have the actual manifest on the website, several female Sekul's including Doma arrived through there. I found out when my great-grandfather arrived through the website and got his signature on the manifest and his destination. How did you get the phone directory? Any names for Sekul? Do you have the website?

Slovonian or Slavonian is from a term applied to the Croatians by the Venetians, Schiavonians. Glad that my links have helped.

Robert

I am glad that you have new hope for your family search. If there are Rossetti's living in Biloxi they are probably distant cousins of mine as one Rossetti brother remained there after arriving in the states. I dont recall the Sekul name from my childhood.

To further my own search I will need to subscribe to Ancestry.com for the info that is not in the free areas.

I am going to give you the address for all things Croatian.
This is a super site. WWW.Croatia-in-English.com/ . Go to the home page and look for "Robert Jurin's links" click on his links. The Croatia online phone directory link is 3/4 of the way thru Robert's links. There are 145 Sekuls and 26 Trebotics listed. I think you will be pleased as there are listings which might be in your little town on the Island of Brac.

Good luck to you for the search. I ve tried to search without spending any excessive amounts of $s but it looks as if its going to change. Stay in touch. I will pass any info along to you as I come across it. I cannot vist any of the family in California except by phone, letter or computer as I live in Montana.

Randy