Hi Rick,

Religion and ethnicity have nothing to do with each other. There are a lot of Serbs that are Catholic or Atheist.
Do you have any more detailed information? Place of birth e.g.?

I am resending my previous posting where I mention place of birth and birth date information.

I have read that only 5% of the population of Serbia is Catholic. In trying to find the likely reason for my Grandfather being Catholic, I discovered that Janjevo has (had) a significant % of Croats who were mostly Catholic, which provided the likely answer.

I recently learned that Glasnovici is a prominent name in Janjevo and that they came from Dubrovnik (and many centuries ago from the Republic of Dubrovnik) and maintained a significant presence in Janjevo over the centuries until the recent strife in Kosovo.

I am fascinated with the history of the region and would love to find out more about my ancestors there as well as living relatives. I hope someone can help.

Here's my earlier post:

My Grandfather Mathew Phillips (Mate Filipovich) was born in Serbia, probably in Janjevo on 21 September, 1887. He fought with the Serbian cavalry in the Balkan Wars 1912-13 and immigrated to the US in 1913. I have learned that he may have had a wife, Marta, who remained in Serbia.

His mother's name was Katerine Glasnovich, probably born in Janjevo around 1860-1870.

He was also Catholic. I have learned that Glasnovich is a Croatian name (Filipovich too?) and that Janjevo has been predominantly Croatian for many centuries.

Can anyone help me search for family records and possible relatives?

Thanks.

Rick Phillips

Rick,

We provide tools for people to do research, past experiences learned that doing research for people doesn't create the wanted results. Thats why we offer membership and help people out with their research as researcher are pricy and never garantuee anything.

Now I assume you are talking about Janjevo in Kosovo. There is a problem, most Serbs and Croats(if not all) have fled the region after the 1999 war. I do not know where you got the information of Glasnovic from so I can't say anything about that.

Filipovic is mentioned in the Benkovac region as a Serbian surname. But if you read the articles we posted in the Learning Center you will see that both Serbs and Croats have patronomical names so it really matters who your ancestor is, and since Filip is a common name there will be many families with that name that are not related. The same for the surname Glasnovic. As for the original population of Dubrovnik or Ragua as its medieval name was, they are neither Croat or Serb of origin.

Your first step in this would be to write the archives in Nis, Novi Pazar, Raska and Krusevac to see where the government relocated the Kosovo archives to. Also you should check with refugee organizations to see where people fled to before, during and after the war.

As for religion, this is something that is a very political issue. Needless to say that our approach as a society is to say to people that they need to do proper research into their family history. We are about to publish an article about Medieval Serbia, but feel free to browse through the site and forums to get aquinted. It will require time and patience.