yugaya
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– lots of questions only briefly but I will provide you with translations and quotes/ excerpts as the subject is very interesting:
-The practice of ignoring family surnames of the Serbs by the Ottomans was ongoing in occupied territories until the end of their rule. Best examples of that are ethnic Serbian emigrants from Kosovo prior to liberation in 1912. who traveled with official Ottoman documents and their papers carried first name of the father instead of a surname of the family.
We discussed that in detail for one of our members here:
http://www.rodoslovlje.com/comment/4638#comment-4638
-The belittling is evident in derogatory names of individuals and nicknames of clans given to ethnic Serbian families under Ottoman rule and first recorded in their defters, and later just carried on as surnames by the Austro(-Hungarian) conscription clerks when families migrated in XVI, XVII and XVIII century. There is a huge corpus of such pejorative surnames, and often in Serbian Orthodox Church archival materials and other historical sources the family or a clan is listed under its original family name. Sources for this would include all onomastics and etymology authors of authority of the region, including Petar Šimunović and Trifun Pavlović or Velimir Mihajlović.
-As for the way they treated the Christian Serbs under their rule and the assumptions you made based on their ruling habits in the north – I will only highlight the example of Ćele- Kula monument to their terror over Serbs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skull_Tower
-The census takers and clerks were not Serbian Orthodox ( Christians). Under Ottoman rule, they were not allowed to hold any such position without converting.
-It is wrong to make assumptions based on etymology and onomastics of a different region or a different historical context – Ottoman rule in the examples and literature you cited was only of temporary nature and in many cases in parts where the inherited feudal apparatus remained almost intact. Ottoman oppression over most of ethnic Serbian origin areas lasted five centuries and you need to take that into account when you look at the development of surnames.
-Also the variations between different areas are immense – for ethnic Serbs in Croatia the migration to Austrian or Venetian ruled territories meant that their surnames became solid and remained the same from as early as XV century when they were fist recorded, while in Serbia the patronimic swap with each new generation had to be ended with an official decree in 1851. and even later in Kosovo in 1912.
-An example page from the Ottoman *name* census from 1528. of the population in Smederevo town area, Serbia transcribed and published by the Oriental Institute in Sarajevo in a book "Turski katastarski popisi nekih područja zapadne Srbije XV i XVI vek" ( Ottoman land censuses of some areas in western Serbia in XV and XVI century).
The district is called "Morava" ( nahija Morava) so of interest to your research directly.
It is in Cyrillic script but all individuals are recorded without surnames, only as X son of Y ( or brother, uncle…)
And as opposed to this manner of census taking I will list the example of Dečani monastery land and individuals censuses – "Dečanske hrisovulje" from 1330 and later as well as the merchant books from XV century of Dubrovnik city merchant Živan Pripčinović, in which Serbs are recorded with their valid surnames that can be tracked as such from there in other documents.
-On questions regarding the surname MORAVKO later, as it is getting rather late. 🙂
there is a cemetery in the smaller village of POPOVIĆI ( Biskupijs, Knin) which is the actual place of origin of that family there – in documents often the larger village or parish center was indicated as previous residence because smaller villages (zaselak) were administratively kept in records as part of the larger ones.
You cannot obtain any records for Serbian- Orthodox cemeteries in Croatia except for Zagreb and a few coastal towns for the cemeteries which are inside the temple fence, but I posted on the excellent service for hire that is provided by Serbian Orthodox Church monks where they are taking care of graves and are willing to go and photograph all headstones in a particular cemetary per request:
http://www.rodoslovlje.com/forum/croatia/locating-and-photographing-headstones-and-cemeteries
This is something you should consider after you establish the exact village of origin of your ancestor though, as there are no guarantees that a particular headstone still exists or that the inscriptions are readable.
-photo of the Serbian Orthodox cemetery in Popovići village, Biskupija, Knin. It seems to be in great condition.
I looked at the records you asked about and these are copies of church vital records made by Serbian Orthodox Church priests for the civil authorities.
So whenever dealing with original SOC vital records, or copies made by its priests, the dates are according to the calendar it uses still – Julian, so a person who is in them listed as born on August 16th is according to western calendar born on August 29th ( the difference is that the calendar SOC uses is 13 days late, so we celebrate Serbian New Years Eve on January 13th when the old calendar says it is December 31st).
In later records from XX century you will find two dates written as birth date – one in old calendar and in new calendar. The new calendar date is usually written in brackets.
In this particular record and all receords from XIX century, two dates are:
-first one date of birth
-second one date of baptism
and both in old calendar only, so always add + 13 days.
The name of the child in that record you found is JOVAN POPOVIĆ ( Јован Поповић).
I am attaching a help for interpreting the records like this one based on the one you asked about:
