Hi, I'd like to confirm my great grandmother's maiden name so I can continue my family research. I'd
- Full name was Ursula Osanitsch or Osanich or Ozanic or Osanitoch or ??
- birth: June 2, 1874 in Kaptol, near Banjalaka Austria (formerly Yugoslavia)
- Immigrated to NY in 1902 and lived in New York.
- Parents MAY be Maria & Martin.
- I believe she lived in Gottschee in Austria
- Immigrated Oct 15, 1902, lived in NY, returned to Austria for a time & sailed back to US in 1910 with additional children.
Answers
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There is a town by the name of Kaptol in Croatia. FS has the Catholic christening records for that town. Where they Catholic?
If she was from that town, her name would be spelled Ozanić. But in those days, spelling depended on the writer, not on the person whose name it was. So a German would spell it Osanitch, and American Osanich, and a Croat Ozanić. All would be pronounced the same way.
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So, Kaptol is a neighborhood of Zagreb, the capital city of Croatia. Gottschee is a region of modern day Slovenia that is in the southern part of the country, relatively close to Zagreb. What this means is that birth records would now be in two different countries (Ursula's would be in Croatia, additional children mentioned may be in Slovenia).
As to the spelling of your great-grandmother's name: often it depended on who the priest was. With my Jozić ancestors, if the priest spoke German, they would spell it Josich, if the priest was Hungarian, it was Jozics. It all depended on what they heard when the parents announced their surname. It's part of the detective work to find out if the individual in a record is really an ancestor. Sometimes this extends to first names. I passed over a record for Sandor Jozics before learning that Sandor is Hungarian for Alexander. Regardless, both last names are Slavic and not Germanic; both Ozanič and Gladić.
If it gets to the point of needing a local genealogist (lives in the exact area you're referring to), I know a person.
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Thank you Tracy, no wonder this is such a challenge! Yes, they were Catholic. I'll look further in the FS Catholic christening records for Kaptol. Thanks, Donna
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Thank you very much. I was in Croatia a couple of years ago but I was along the coast. I hope to visit the Gottschee region once we can travel again but in the meantime I'll continue my research online 😊 I would appreciate the name and contact number of a local genealogist. I will try some other means first but it drives me crazy that I have so little information on my grandmother's mother (even tho she died 50 years before I was born) since I knew my grandmother well!
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I think that she was from Banja Luka.
There is no way they wouldn't mention Zagreb but wrote another town (butcher the spelling but still) as "close to".
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