Sergej..... Thanks for the link to the Family History Center. I located a LDS Family History Center in my vicinity, Monroeville, that is only 2 miles away. Guess I lucked out. A larger center is located near Pittsburgh that is about 20 miles away.

I visited the local center to get an idea of what I have to do to get the microfilms I seek at the main center in Salt Lake City, Utah. I found out that I could obtain the microfilms at the local center, read the microfilms and print out the pages I need, and even transfer the pages to be read on a disk.

The format on the film is titled Manuscript (On Film) with language of Serbo-Croatian (Cyrillic) that would be a problem for me since I do not know the language. I asked the woman at the center if there are known translators who I could contact and she told me that one of the persons at the local center is a Croatian and might be able to help me, so I will have to wait and see.

When I asked about the format on the films, the woman told me that the Catholic Church (my grandparents were Catholic), specified orderly listed formats for entries of births, baptisms, marriages and deaths. She showed me an example of a Slovenian birth film that was easy to interpret the data flow except, of course, for the language but one could make out some of the words for translation. But, Serbo-Croatian Cyrillic is quite a different script and I feel that it will be difficult to find what I search for. I may have to take a basic course in converting surnames and vital statitics words into Cyrillic script.

Neverthess, the cost of ordering the films for loan is quite reasonable, $3.25 for 30 days and an additional same cost for an additional 60 days. It takes about 2 to 3 weeks for deliverly after ordering.

I would appreciate your thoughts on what you think of this venture of mine.

Bob

Bob,

Sounds great. I mean you will have the luxury of doing commited research yourself. Yes the Cyrillic script can be hard, but I dont think it is in Cyrillic since its from the Catholic Church and in Vojvodina. BUt then again if it is you need help, and it wouldnt hurt to learn Serbian for that matter.

I think the Croation guy can read Serbian, if not let me know. We will figure something out. First see if you can obtain the documents, if you get things on disc send them to me per email.

3.25 is no price I would say for ancestral records. It think it will be worth while. Let me know how it goes.

Sergej,

Finally got the microfilms and viewed them at the LDS History Center. Quite convenient, only about a mile away. They were recorded in Croatian/Serbian & thank goodness not in Cyrillic script.

I didn't have too much trouble in translating because I downloaded a dictionary web site to help me along. Had trouble with some of the Croatian word's grammer but the basic roots of the those words gave me an idea of what they meant. A few words used that I couldn't decipher were stališ, vjeroizpovjest, sanimanje, and dobaim. How about the phrases, "Jesu li ozvani je li im se oprostio kojl oziv ili koja zapreka" and "Ime prezime sluzba, onoga koji ih vjencao" in the marriage records of matica vjencih.

There wasn't much on Sremska Mitrovica because most of the records on the films were German records.

From Sremska Mitrovica, there were Marriage, Burial, Death, and Birth & Baptism records but overall, I didn't find anything on my ancestry. Found a few familiar names but nothing of value. The first batch of records covered from 1891 to 1912 and the second from 1905 to 1944. The records listed were very limited in each year, sometimes only a few. Considering that in 1902, there were 1817 houses with 11,518 inhabitants in Sremska Mitrovica, there has to be a lot of other records to be had. I will have to take another look at the films to make sure I did not miss anything. They were in pretty decent shape except for some of the penmanship.

Concerning my grandfather's half-brother, Anton Seberle (Schoberl), I found his USA censuses of 1920 & 1930 under the names of Schalerde & Scherle. It was interesting to find that he, his wife and daughter returned to Yugoslavia in 1913 and when he returned to the USA without her (she was in Ivankova) in 1914, he came with a woman, Gertruda Kilian, who was listed as his wife on the Censuses. Interesting...a Bartos ancestry skeleton-in-the-closet case?

One more thing, I sent a completed template letter this past June 14 to the archives in Sremska Mitrovica concerning my grandfather but haven't had any reply yet.

Bob

Bob,

The archives in Serbia are a mess. Serbia is having elections and the Radicals are winning slowly more ground. Which is bad for us, beccause the archives will get no funds, which means no new people. I talked with the other board members about this and we are kinda in the dark on what to do next. But at the end of next month we will publish some news in the new SGS Magazine.

As for the documents. If you want you can send them to me with the info of your ancestor and I can take a peak. Maybe I will notice something. Let me know if you want that. I will PM you my address then.

Let me know.

Sergej

Hi Sergej,

As for the microfilms I leased from the LDS, I viewed them a couple of times but didn't find any ancestry names. Less than 20% of the info on the films concerned Sremska Mitrovica, which covered years from 1905 to 1944 and even those were very limited. Nothing earlier of which I seek. The rest of the film was concerned with German records and genealogy.

I don't think it would be of any use to send copies of the info on the films because I am sure there is nothing of value.

It appears that the only hope I have is for the archives in Sremska Mitrovica to become operational for research. I know that you are trying your best to get things going, so all I can say is that I'll be praying for you and your staff.

Bob

Hi Bob,

We are opening some kind of office now in Serbia. So things will change for sure this year. Things are chaotic in Serbia ( election again).

We will soon publish another magazine with some news

Best,

Sergej

Bob,

In the PAF file you send me it has a Martha (of Simo Ivosevic) /??/
I cannot find her in the documents you earlier send to me. Who is Simo Ivosevic?

Sergej,

Simo Ivosevic is the father of my brother-in-law, Michael Evasovich who changed his surname to Evans. Simo is not a direct ancestor in my blood line. He immigrated from Krakar, Yugoslavia in 1901 and his mother tongue was Serbian. His wife, Martha, immigrated in 1907.

Bob

It seems all to fit and to work out. What would be a good thing to do though in this file is to use the original spelling in the names and the sources of the birth records. Do you happen to have those?

Sergej,

It's difficult to use the original spelling like the Ivosevic surname down through the generation of my brother-in-law because the identity of his American spelling of Evasovich and changing it to Evans would be confusing unless I use the surnames of Ivosevic, Evasovich and Evans in his full name. I believe that Simo Ivosevic's individual notes would be sufficient to establish the connections between the surnames. Do you have a simple solution on how I can handle such a situation?

I understand that I have a lack of sources in the PAF file. When I first ventured into this genealogy project, I was a novice and began with date sources that I knew and through family contacts and then built the ancestry file with immigration, census, and archive data that I included and indicated as sources in the PAF notes of the individuals. This is probably not the correct way to establish a genealogy file because the sources should be included separately, especially since I got information from the Sremska Mitrovica archives. I will have to do it as such when I have ample time.

Bob

Bob,

In Windows there is a feature that allows you to display additional languages in your taskbar. You can configure that in your Configuration screen. I advice to spell the names the way they were in original spelling untill their arrival in America and then to spell the names the way they use them now. That way the record keeping will be proper.
If you use PAF it allows for extra surname possibilities and additional notes, this info will also be exported to e.g. Gedcom files.

As for the sources, perhaps you can ask the researcher to provide you with it, I dont know if he gave you any copies of the books.