Visting Croatia and Possibly Moving There...
 

Hi all!!! I'm a 50 yr old US citizen. I'm taking my first trip to Croatia in a few months. My grandparents (maternal and paternal) were all born on Molat. I'll be visting Molat and as much of the country as possible in the three weeks or so while there. I'm hopeful to someday, in the next five to 10 years, move to Croatia at least for a short term stay - maybe a year or two.

My first question - any advice for my initial visit and subsequent possible move to Croatia? I know this is a broad question but figured maybe someone had some good advice.

My second question, and more importantly, is I'm I'm trying to understand the language and/or dialects. My grandparents spoke "slavonian". They have all passed quite a while ago so I'm not able to ask them but as I start my journey learning Croatian I'm realizing I dont think they spoke what we now call Croatian. At least I dont recognize any of the words I always heard them speaking while I was growing up. Can anyone explain this??? For example, the only word I can 100% guarantee I have correct that they use to say is "prasic" which means pig or quite possibly some curse word Attachment 7961 As far as I can tell this is slovenian for pig anyway. which would make sense for how they used it. That and my very old grandpa always told me "allah" when I was sitting in his chair. I just knew it meant to get the heck out of his seat. Attachment 7961

Thank you for taking the time to read my post.

Jason Paschich

I'll be looking for any Matulic's or Spanic's on Molat by the way. It would be really cool to contact someone on the island to chat with.

Since your family connection with the places you plan to visit is a fairly recent one, before you go I would certainly look into the possibility that you have cousins there who could welcome you & smooth your way in who knows how many ways. Failing reliable word-of-mouth contacts consider DNA testing to identify your family there. What better introduction to your ancestral home than to have your family greet you on arrival.

Someone in the family still living will very likely know more family names. Ask everyone & ask them to ask. You can’t have too much information & you may find yourself traveling to places you never knew about.

I do not know enough Croatian (I am only learning) but there are hundreds of dialects, Slavonian would just amongst the many, so I cannot translate.

As to the familial links, the suggestions provided by MmePerdu are great. Youd have an easier time transisting to moving if you're able to establish those, and might even need them for residency purposes. I'd check out the Croatian consulates in your country for more info.

Spent a month in Croatia in April and loved it. My thoughts:
-I am very involved in ancestry and 2 weeks before I left found out through ancestry.com that I am 95% Italian and (drum role) 5% Croatian. Of course I already knew about the Italian, and that Istria and other part of Croatia were part of the Venetian Empire for hundreds of years. You might want to have your DNA done, enroll in ancestry and see what you can find out about relatives before you go.

-Apparently only 42 people and no children on the island at this time so finding relatives might be tricky. Use googlemaps to find the church and write to the priest/church to see what you can find out. I would write in Croatian, Italian and english. it would be especially helpful if you knew great grandparents, etc.

-Historical records might be hard to come by as the area was Venetian/Italian/UN controlled/Yugoslavian/Croatian,
Good luck

There are Croatian American Cultural Centers and/or Clubs in several U.S. cities... Sacramento, San Francisco, Biloxi, Deerfield Beach (FL), Utica/Detroit...

If you live near one, you could attend some events, meet some people, hopefully learn more about the language/dialect. If not, I would contact one or more and see if anyone can help with your questions.

Depending on certain elements of your family's emigration to the U.S., you may be eligible to apply for dual citizenship. Have you tried to obtain birth and marriage certificates for your grandparents? Do you know the approx. date of their emigration to the U.S.?

Thank you all for the replies! Ive struck out on getting any documents from my grandparents. My best chance is to contact someone on Molat because I know there were many Matulic's on the island. I even stumbled upon a Youtube video someone posted about a visit to Molat. In the beginning they show a memorial there to residents of the island who were killed at a concentration camp there. The video showed a shot of the memorial and seven of the names were Matulic (my maternal Grandpa's name). Anyway, I need to work on contacting someone on Molat to start.

Excellent article.
https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04510a.htm

You are very lucky. Because they are largely Catholic countries, people from Italy and Croatia have an easier time tracing their families than people in other countries. Except for a few periods of time, marriages were not even recognized as legal unless they were done by the church, and the Catholic Church kept meticulous marriage and birth (baptismal) records. If you have even one correct name and town where your Grandparents lived, the local parish will have family records and you should be able to find any relatives still in the area. Start by contacting local parishes now. I think there are local people you can hire at minimal fees to go through records. The church will be able to help.

If the documents matter enough to you or you'd like to pursue dual citizenship, you can hire a professional genealogist to obtain them. Generally speaking, unless there was widespread destruction (war, fire, etc.), the records are available... somewhere.

This is good advice. Thank you! I wouldnt of thought of hiring someone. I'm fairly confident I can find relatives since I'm only going two generations back but proving the relation is another story.

I have an older second cousin who visited Molat a couple years ago. I found a priest on Molat and they had baptism records of his aunt still on hand from sometime around 1910.

Since there are baptism records in Molat of family, get copies of ship’s manifests from when they immigrated, then census records from the US where they settled and you have proof of all the connections. There are so many people doing this now, it is pretty easy. Also highly recommend you do at least one test for Ancestry.com or 23 and me, etc. whichever rates best for people from Croatia. That should be your first next step. Just my one test shows my distant cousins in several countries. It is quite specific, so I could easily connect with them if I chose. That one test may be all you need. If any other relative is registered and also doing research, you are set. Wouldn’t it be great to find some of your cousins and family are already registered? If they are and you do it, one simple email will put you in touch with each other.

Before giving up your DNA to some commercial organisation which may or may not link you to family (more probably not since Europeans aren't as keen on these things as Americans) I would just plan your visit to Croatia. Get a feel for the country, decide if you like it enough to think you could live there. Make a couple of trips even.
Then find somewhere to learn the language, not a dialect but the official language.

Your DNA may well be the last of your personal data that is private and not used for commercial or other purposes. Once you give it up to these companies they use your DNA data, may sell it, the police have access to it, plus three different companies can give you three very different results depending on how big their database is and how many people with a certain ethnicity have used their service. Even then I would take with a pinch of salt clams you are x% such and such nationality.
They can also throw up family secrets and family you wish you didn't know.

Meanwhile go to Croatia, have a lovely holiday, and if you love the country then think about your future plans. No need for all that before you go.

I think people misunderstand what a DNA test will tell you in a genealogy context. (Testing for health reasons is a different topic.) hetismij2 is correct that results won't necessarily tell you more about your lineage than actual historical records will. Results are infintessimal in comparison to the entire world's population, and the rate of testing has declined in recent years. Yes, you might get a "hit" for a previously unknown very distant relative, but the chances are small and the info not necessarily useful. About 5 years ago, my brother and I participated in a "closed," invitation-only DNA genealogy study limited to people with my family name (which is uncommon) and have learned nothing that I didn't already know from my own records search.

https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/12/1...andme-ancestry


And you don't have to do a DNA test to have family secrets come to light. I've discovered a few things in my normal digging...

I have had real relatives contact me due to ancestry.com and my DNA, whom I knew nothing about. Had some interesting conversations. I don't care about my DNA to be honest, and don't care if the police has access to it as I don't commit crimes. I consider my SSN more personal and potentially problematic, to be honest, or anything that can get me in financial problems. I don't see how DNA can possibly be private given the zillions of lab tests I've taken over the year, all these labs plus doctors' offices plus hospitals plus insurers have it, after all. The police have to have search warrants to get it.

It is true they obviously can't know specifics, they just tell you where you likely came from based on matching to other people in that area. I am not sure that basis of their database given how much migration has occurred. The "jewish" European segment is particularly questionable in many cases as it just refers to a specific part of a country, it can't tell if your ancestors were Jewish. I got that and it has 0-10 pct confidence or something which means about nothing as it was just because I had ancestors in an area of Germany/Poland where there were also a lot of Jewish people.

BUt I don't think you'll find Europeans on those, I agree.

@jpasic you might find this website helpful - https://www.expatincroatia.com

On Facebook there are expat forums you might also find helpful. There is one for Split that has at least two members with your maternal grandpa’s name. There is also an expats in Zadar group which would be the closest to Molat.

S;avonia is far from the coast and any Croatian island:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavonia

Thank you for this! The FB group you mentioned - is it just named "Split Expats"? I found it and am following that now. How do you know there are some Matulic's? I cannot see member names. Did you just see someone w/ that name post something at some point? I'm thinking about posting something myself and just asking if anyone knows any Matulics originally from Molat. Part of me thinks that is kind of weird to do and some might be inclined to not reply for fear of whatever - and I cant say I blame them. I was born and raised in the states and I think we might be known for being too outspoken, loud, obnoxious etc. Not sure if that is true or not - this is all I know.

You might try the Zadar group before the Split group. I think you have to join, then you can search for members but I am not sure..To search you just go to "members" and do the search. I am in a group called Expats Meet Split and another one Digital Nomads Croatia (I am not a digital nomad but this group morphed from another group and I got automatically added.) People are very helpful and there are often get togethers and other events. If you are worried, you could always write to one of the administrators, usually they just don't want people to be mean or try to sell stuff, just like every other forum :)