Ok - thanks to you I have now Located the village that i will visit- Who do I need to contact to find about my family tree?

Quote:

For reminescence and long remembering.
From your wife > and daughter Zorka and niece Milka.
With lot of respect,
Stojana

Quote:

>
First Sergeant Culumovic Maksim.
Belsen

>
Matejic Branislav

>
Jakovljevic

I can only thank you once again....... Lots of tears spent knowiming my grandfether had a daughter. My next quest is finding family;

I will follow up hopefully tonight otherwise tomorrow with some steps for you that you can follow. If you want for sake of private data open a new thread in the SGS members forum. I will also get you the access and create a pedigree online so you can work on that as well. If you want, you can register for a blog on the site and write about your experiences. Its totally free and we let people write about their experiences this way.

Please in the mean time try the Phonebook of Serbia on the link page and see what you can find in e.g. Leskovac.

Thank you for all your help this is a very emottional experiance but it is only the beggining of a lifetime ambition to find my serbian ancestory
my wife and my children and myself are truly gratefull for all of your help so far good reguards and thank you andy

You're welcome. See http://www.metak.com its an online dictionary Serbian-English and vice versa. You are in Europe I see so we do offer phone support in case of need so just let me know and I can call you to talk about things over the phone. Its always easier. I will get back to you later.

Phone supprt would be greatly appreciated - thanks

Do you know if and where I can obtain any iformation on either 0f the villages Donje Brijanje or Gornje Brijanje as we would like to be sure these are the right places before we fly over in the summer. Also is Culomovic an unusual name as tere does not appear to be many on any lists?
Given that you translated that his first wife was called Stojan and his daughter's name was Zorka and that correspondance was from Bijelo Polje do you know of anyhere tat may still have recorded archives which coud aid my search?

Andy

If you check Google just on your surname you see this: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=culumovic

The name is extremely rare in Serbia and originates from Krajina/Dalmatia Croatia. There is a but, you have Čulumović and Ćulumović so beware those are different. Also the name can be found sporadically in Serbia, Kosovo and Vojvodina due to migration patterns.

http://nona.net/features/map/placedetail.1435696/Donje%20Brijanje/ Map
http://www.maplandia.cz/srbsko-a-cerna-hora/srbija/donje-brijanje/ Map 1

Ok this is the tricky part. Do you know if they were born near Leskovac? Or if one of the sibblings was born there?

Thank you again. Unfortunately my grandfather gave very little away with regards his life. he did tell my mother the name of his village which she recalls sounding like Brianna (Donje Brijanje or Gornje Brijanje) as suggested by Danika and gave a description that was easily recognised by my parents when they entered the village. At the time they were holidaying on the Croation coast and my father recalls it eing a 250 mile round trip to visit the village. The roads were very steep and mountanuos. To enter the village you had to drive over a small, ancient bridge and then drive through a shallow stream. The first building was a combined bar. store and Polie station. The inhabited houses were all small,block built with tin roofs. Although nobody could speak English one elderly gentleman did say that the original vilage had been destroyed during WW2 and was now only accessible by a short walk. My grandfather had advised them to say they were tourists wanting to look at the Plitva? - Waterfalls if they were stopped by the authorities. Other thigs that my grandfather did talk about was spending childhood years near to a coal mine. he was an expert gardiner and grew exotic things like tobacco. I have never heard of anyone else growing this in the UK.

When you do intend to go to Serbia, for how long and where?

Please let me know when I can call you and make sure you listed your tel# in your membership profile. I can call you tonight.

Hi Sergej - I will make sure my tel No is listed - I am now in for the rest of the day - been doing a lot of research with the aid of a decent map. My mother recalls my grandfather speaking of having holidays in Herceg - Nova. If he did live around Lescovac I doubt he would have travelled so far especially in the 1920's-1930's. Another thing is that when she drove to the village she was staying at Makarska and from there to the village she recalls it being around a 250 mile round trip. Again if this was near Lescovac then this would have been almst treble this in miles. He was receiving letters from his wife and daughter from Bijelo Polje - On my map there is a place called Berane about twenty miles to the south of Bijelo Polje. My mother also says that Larza, who told her about the village had written something very simliar for them with regards the village name. Could I know be on the right track? I will be travelling as soon as I have enough information and will probably be for two weeks - Andy

Cant find your tel# in the profile, otherwise PM it to me in the forum.