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Ethnic Serbian Community in Bela Krajina, Slovenia

March 24, 2012 by yugaya

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(early XX century, ethnic Serbs, White Kraina)

Ethnic Serbian community in Bela (White) Krajina region in Slovenia was established in XVI century, with first documented Uskoci settlers arriving in 1546. Their settling in this area was the first wave and part of the organized and sponsored Uskoci soldier migrations to Military Frontier province after the priviledges charter was issued in 1538. by the Austrian emperor Ferdinand I. This, and many subsequent charters, gave to the Carniola Serbs the rights of the religious freedom and ownership of the land on which they were invited to settle by their military commanders and general Ivan LENKOVIĆ . Uskoks came in several waves and from various places of origin, seeking refuge and protection after the fall into the Ottoman hands of the fortressess located inland where they served as bordermen defenders .

http://www.sandsmachine.com/hist_001.htm

(memorial plaque ,year and names of the settlers in one of the villages)

White Krajina Serbs community was traditionally connected with that of Uskoci descendants of the Klis defenders who founded the monastery Gomirje (Croatia) in 1600, and many marriages and godbrotherhood relations can be found in the records. Monks and priest from monastery Gomirje have to this day continued to serve as priests in the temples in Bojanci and Marindol.

– Villages: BOJANCI, MARINDOL, MILIĆI (MILIĆ SELO) , PAUNOVIĆI (PAUNOVIĆ SELO), ADLEŠIĆI

-Traditional ethnic Serbian surnames in earliest historical records and Serbian Orthodox Church vital records documented starting from the year 1551. and most of them are still present in the area:

MIHALJEVIĆ,

VIGNJEVIĆ,

MILIĆ,

VUKMANOVIĆ,

DEJANOVIĆ,

DMITROVIĆ,

PRIJIĆ,

RADOSALIĆ,

STOJIĆ,

VOJNICA,

DRAGIČEVIĆ,

STIPANOVIĆ,

VIDOJEVIĆ,

BUNJEVAC,

MIKUNOVIĆ,

SELAKOVIĆ,

KATIĆ,

DRAGIĆEVIĆ,

JAKOVAC,

VUKČEVIĆ,

PAUNOVIĆ,

KORDIĆ,

RADOJČIĆ,

RAČIĆ

VRLINIĆ,

RADOVITKOVIĆ,

MIROSALJAC,

MIROSALJIĆ,

ŽUNIĆ,

VIDNJEVIĆ,

(list of Uskoks watchmen in Marindol 1551.)

-This community was despite its small number throughout the centuries extremely compact, and resisted all attempts and pressure to abandon Serbian Orthox faith and dissolve its ethnic identity.

(Bojanci 1908)

For anyone researching their ancestry from these villages information that there were no mixed religion marriages documented before 1900s is very important. Brides were traditionally *imported* from parishes and villages around Gomirje monastery- Gomirje, Plaški, Ponikve and Srpske Moravice in Gorski Kotar, Croatia.

First mixed marriage was that of a man from Bojanci who had emigrated to America and returned to the village with his Roman Catholic wife, who was of German descent from Hungary during the World War I. Second mixed marriage that is documented is that of a man from Bojanci and a Slovenian woman from Tribuč, and in this case she converted to Serbian Orthodox faith with a special permission obtained from the Roman Catholic Church.

After the WWII and under the communist rule which tried to marginalize all religious influences, mixed marriages became frequent and no longer required special two-party faith comissions to be registered. 🙂

(temple Marindol)

These villages had many people who emigrated to the US in the late XIX and early XX century, in some of them half of the population sought their fortunes across the ocean.

“Initial settlement of the Serbian community in St. Louis falls in the eighties
of the past century, perhaps earlier. Upon the basis of recollections of brother
Simo Milich, a present church tutor, one Nikola Vrlenich and Stojan Paunovich,
Serbs from Marindol, Slovenia, were living in St. Louis even when Milich was
born, in the year 1881.”

http://www.ovenagency.com/www.ovenagency.com/Work/Pages/A_Bit_More_files/HT_book_LO.pdf

(Bojanci VRLINIĆ family wedding in America)

Documentary about the Bela Krajina Serbs :

http://tvslo.si/predvajaj/uskoska-dediscina-bele-krajine/ava2.56688081/

Church vital records of the Serbian Orthodox Church :

-parishes of GOMIRJE and MARINDOL, in state archives in Croatia for the period until 1875.

– parish MARINDOL in state archives in Slovenia for the period 1878-1940

-all other church records and resources: archive of the EPARCHY OF UPPER KARLOVAC, Karlovac, Croatia and central archive of the SERBIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH, Belgrade, Serbia.

( headstone, NIKOLA VRLINIĆ, 1849-1930, Bojanci, Slovenia )

(Celebration of Christmas Eve in the Serbian Orthodox Church temple in Marindol, Slovenia, January 2012)

-language, culture and music of the Carniola Serbs:

http://www.bemus.rs/en/programme/456-muzika-srba-granicara.html

http://www.ebay.com/itm/BOOK-Slovenian-Folk-Costume-Bela-Krajina-linen-Croatian-Serbian-ethnic-clothing-/360433255679

http://zalozba.zrc-sazu.si/sl/publikacije/pjevaj-mi-pjevaj-sokole#v

http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/0350-7653/2003/0350-76530334173P.pdf