[Sergej]

Hello,

Please read through the FAQ. Did they migrate into the US?

[Sergej]

The Diocese doesn’t necessarily stick to one country due to the changing borders over the past 100 years. You can also try this: http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/diocese/dlugj.html
Since they are in the EU now they are more accessible then their Serbian counterparts.

[Sergej]

Did you get any response from Subotica?

[Sergej]

At the moment the whole municipality only knows 13 households that are identified as German in the last census. There are efforts to let German families return though.

You should contact the eparchy; more info here: http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/diocese/dzren.html and here http://www.catholic-zr.org.rs/

Also the historical archives are an option: http://www.arhivzrenjanin.org.rs/index.php/kontakt
We have a letter template in the download section (see left hand menu).

I am checking out the phonebooks for you to see if I can get a match of people with the same surname. Perhaps some stayed and still live there. Are Meissner en Bortscheller the only family names you have from there?

[Sergej]

Sorry for the late reply, I somehow missed your post. I will get back to it later this week.

[Sergej]

You should see a Attach File below the texdt field and the notification box for new emails in this post. I attached a screenshot.

[Sergej]

Ok, do you have immigration records stating their info as they entered Canada? Could you perhaps attach a scan here?

Dolatz is in what we refer to as historically the Banat region, it encompasses parts of Croatia, Hungary, Serbia and Romania. There was a large German population there referred to as Donauschwaben. Most of them came there during the Austro-Hungarian wars with the Ottoman Empire. Dolatz is close to Zitiste and they fall under the same Catholic eparchy.

[Sergej]

Većina ljudi sa ovog prezimena živi u Vojvodini, kao i u Hrvatskoj, Vukovaru regiona. Ako mjesto rođenja bila Bela Crkva tvoja porodica trebao napisati pismo da:
1. u arhivi: http://www.arhivbc.rs
2. belacrkva.rs

Trebalo bi da koristite dva pristupa, prvi preko arhiva je saznati ako imaju bilo kakvu informaciju. Drugi putem opština je preko tvoje roditelje, i baku i tako dalje.

Javi mi ako ovo je jasno.

[Sergej]

Hi Greg,

I need to ask, did you read through the FAQ section etc? I need to know which religion. Do you still have family there?

[Sergej]

Zdravo,

Da li zivete u Srbiji?

[Sergej]

The chances of them being related is pretty substantial. I checked the name with the Jasenovac database and they are not listed. See if the synagogue answers you, if they do they might have records, or know of records.

Keep me posted, if they don’t speak English 😉

Sergej

[Sergej]

Hello Avi,

From what I know there are some graves still preserved from the Jewish cemetery. The town was heavily hit during WWII but also prior during the WWI and the Balkan Wars.

There was a synagogue but it was destroyed in the 1940-ies.
Your best bet of getting info is from people that live there in the area, there is a synagogue in Subotica which is really close. You can find info here: http://groblje.josu.rs/
They have pictures of an Ehrenreich tombstone: http://groblje.josu.rs/sektor-5-red-16-grobno-mesto-50/

I assume you are not living in Serbia, so I would try to email the people that run that site to see what they know.

I will check some other sources I have in the mean time.

[Sergej]

Try this: [email protected]

[Sergej]

Ok FYI, the following villages are in the region: Sjeničak, Moravci, Kovečavec, Prkos, Lasinja, Crna Draga, Muljci i Selnica

Today there aren’t that many people living there anymore due to the last war.

In the whole Karlovac region today the following people are still registered with the same surname:

BJELOŠ DRAŽENKA
Dr. Milana Nemičića 10
47000 Karlovac
095 5508624

BJELOŠ IVAN
Luka Pokupska 93A
47203 Luka Pokupska
047 713281

BJELOŠ JOVO
Bartola Kašića 6
47000 Karlovac
047 422641

BJELOŠ MILA
Stanka Vraza 42
47000 Karlovac
091 6201998

BJELOŠ MIRKO
Mahično 12A
47000 Karlovac
047 651107

BJELOŠ MIRKO
Mahično 12A
47000 Karlovac
098 1712789

BJELOŠ MIROSLAV
Domobranska ulica 20B
47000 Karlovac
047 654023

BJELOŠ ŽELJKO
Dr. Milana Nemičića 10
47000 Karlovac
047 634480

BJELOŠ-RKMAN DUŠANKA
Grge Tuškana 13A
47000 Karlovac
047 655723

Most likely their family was St. Peter or Paul, or St. Nikola.
If you find any icons or anything that might help.

You can check with the Serbian Orthodox Church:

jerej Slaviša Simaković
C. Medovića 11; 47 000 Karlovac,
Tel/Faks: 047/411 506; Mob: 098/188 26 48
E-mail: [email protected]

You can use the letter template and try to write the archives in Karlovac: http://www.da-ka.hr/
If they can find her they can find the rest as well.

Please keep looking and let me know if you need help with the template.

[Sergej]

Ok, your great-grandfather was lucky because he immigrated. Stara Kršlja and that whole region got heavily hit during WWII. And the Jasenovac Research Institute keeps a list of victims in that concentration camp. Now unlike other camps the regime in Croatia at that time also locked up ethnic Serbs. There isn’t a family from that region that didn’t experience any losses. I checked their database and came up with the following:

Family Name First Name Father’s Name Place Of Origin Year Of Birth
BOROVICA BRANKO DRAGIĆ RAKOVICA 1918
BOROVICA ILIJA ÐURA NOVA KRŠLJA 1897
BOROVICA ILIJA RADE NOVA KRŠLJA 1876
BOROVICA JANKO SIMO NOVA KRŠLJA 1936
BOROVICA JOVO PETAR RAKOVICA 1934
BOROVICA LATA LAZO GRABOVAC DREŽNIČKI 1905
BOROVICA LAZO NIKOLA GRABOVAC DREŽNIČKI 1888
BOROVICA LJUBO PETAR RAKOVICA 1933
BOROVICA MANE ÐURA NOVA KRŠLJA 1907
BOROVICA MARA PETAR RAKOVICA 1942
BOROVICA MIHAJLO VUK SELIŠTE DREŽNIČKO 1888
BOROVICA MILADIN NIKOLA NOVA KRŠLJA 1938
BOROVICA MILAN PETAR NOVA KRŠLJA 1941
BOROVICA MILAN PANTELIJA SUBOTICA 1924
BOROVICA MILJA LAZO GRABOVAC DREŽNIČKI 1924
BOROVICA MILUNA JOSO RAKOVICA 1902
BOROVICA NADA PETAR NOVA KRŠLJA 1942
BOROVICA NIKOLA MIHAJLO NOVA KRŠLJA 1927
BOROVICA PETAR JOSO RAKOVICA 1905
BOROVICA PETAR RADE SLUNJ 1909
BOROVICA SIMA ÐURA NOVA KRŠLJA 1910
BOROVICA TIMO UROŠ NOVA KRŠLJA 1913
BOROVICA ÐURA NIKOLA NOVA KRŠLJA 1862
BOROVICA ÐURA NIKOLA NOVA KRŠLJA 1873
BOROVICA ÐURO MANE ALIBUNAR 1924
BOROVICA ÐURO SIMO NOVA KRŠLJA 1937

Check this link: http://www.jasenovac.org/victim_search.php?field=lastname&searchtype=contains&data=borovica&submit=Go

Downbelow the only Borovica’s I could find in the Croatian phonebook:

-3
BOROVICA KSENIJA
Karta
Dr. Franje Račkog 39
32270 Županja
032 833036

BOROVICA MIRJANA
Karta
Kapela Korenička 7B
53230 Kapela Korenička
053 8909229

BOROVICA MIRJANA
Karta
Prilaz Gjure Deželića 63
10000 Zagreb
091 5574023

Because a large group of Serbs also moved to Vojvodina after the war I would suggest the following steps.

1. Contact the Serbian Orthodox Church in Masvina and see what they have and if they know anything about the families from Stara Krslja,
2. See if there are any leads to Vojvodina, as there are over a 100 people there with that surname and the chances are pretty big they are related: http://www.11811.rs/BeleStrane/Pretraga/sve/sve/sve/borovica/sve/1/2L6ROY18

As for older records, it is hard to rule out the existence of that. I would take the data from your great-grandfather and see if you can pinpoint his parents, siblings etc and first work towards you. If you run into living famility today they might help with the info they may have.

That is all I can do from here for now. Hope this helps.

[Author]

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