Even if no one believes that they can really help me, I would be interested to know how common a name Levanich is in Serbia. I noticed the Popvic search and someone said that Popovic is as common in Serbia as Smith is in the US. I have a set of cousins who are Popovic's. Will I be facing the same problem with Levanich? Is it a common Serbian family name?

Hi Tiffany,

First check with Ellis Island and see if you can find the immigration documents. Let me know if you need help with that.

Hello, Sergej!

I checked those records, though it has been some time ago, maybe 6 years ago. At that time I was able to find the two families that my family traveled with, the Orlovich's and the Radocovich's, but there was no record of the Levanich's. I will go back and search them again to see if any additions have been made. Or, if I can find on Ellis Island records where the other two families came from I will know where my family came from too and that would certainly give me more infomation to go on.

Thank you so much for your help!
Tiffany

I finally found my greatgrand father's death certificate and found that his last name was listed as Lemaic on that certificate. That makes no sense to my mom, she has always known the family name to be Levanich. We are sure that the certificate issued for Nikola Lemaic is him because it is the address that we knew him to be living at at the time of his death and my greatgrandmother, Staka is listed as his spouse. I was also able to track him through the Ellis Island website under the name Nikola Lemaic. He made two trips here. The first he was listed as a Hungarian National of Serbian Decent. The second just states Serbia, no city. Does any of this make sense? Is this a common thing? Is Lemaic a common Serbian family name?

I very much appreciate any help that anyone could give me.

Lemaić is a surname, its not that common though. Where was he born?

The death certificate only says, "Jugoslavia" for a place of birth. I am going to try the church here and see if there is anything in their records. Maybe baptismal records of his children will list the birthplace of the parents. Thank you for answering my questions, I very much appreciate all the help.

I do not understand why some records say Levanich, which is definately what they went by, and some say Lemaic. Maybe the Priest at the church will be able to help me.

Thank you again,
Tiffany

Yugoslavia changed form and shape several times, there should be a place name somewhere they should have this on record. Maybe you can send a PM to Danica when you find the information.

Birth or Baptismal record should have info on this.

There is no birth records for my grandparents, at least not in this country. When they became old enough to collect social security and had to prove their age baptismal records had to be gotten from the Serb church here. I don't have those records yet, but I am working on getting them. When I contacted my parish priest from when I was a little girl, that was the church that my grandparents belonged to, he told me that my grandparents came from the Lika region, it is now Croatia. He was unable to give me anything more specific, no city name or anything. I have found a Nikola Lemaic on the Ellis Island records that came to this country from Podlapaca, Croatia. I don't know if that is in the Lika region or if that is even him. Like I said, I found that Lemaic name on the death certificate, but had never heard it before then and assumed it was a mistake due to language barrier. The date of birth off by about 6 years on that Nikola Lemaic Ellis Island record.

Does that give anyone enough information to help me? I will come back with more once the baptismal records arrive.

Thank you so much for your time!
Tiffany

You will need a place of birth. Lika is rather a large area and there are in certain cases both Serbs and Croats that share the same surname. You can also check the Croatia forum and see what info there is already on there. THe last war damaged a lot.

View Larger Map

Its possible though its this place so you can try contacting the Serbian ORthodox Church and The Croatian Archives there. Use the Archival Network page on our site.

I will do both of those things. Will those places have people who speak English? I don't speak any Serbian or Croatian and am worried about communicating. Also, my parish Priest said that my family went by both names, Lemaic and Levanich when they came here, but he gave no explanation as to why they would do that. To your knowledge, is there any reason that they would chose to do this? Is there a cultural reason that they would assume two surnames?

I am off to try the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Croatian Archives. Thank you so much for the help you have provided me!
Tiffany

Hi,

Check this page about membership: http://www.rodoslovlje.com/en/faq
The two surnames could be due to immigration.

Based on the other surnames you provided and the fact that *Levanić surname was not present among Serbs anywhere where these other two families lived in XIX century,  the surname you ought to be researching is LEMAIĆ , with places of origin in GOSPIĆ municipality - the family lived in several villages there ,  the largest clan is from the village SMILJAN - birth place of Nikola Tesla and parish where his father Milutin Tesla was Serbian Orthodox Church priest , as well as SVRAČKOVO SELO and other villages in PODLAPAČA, KORENICA municipality.

http://www.rodoslovlje.com/en/documentation/nikola-tesla-origin-and-family

Due to mistranscription from original surname in civil records kept by Austro-Hungarian authorities some branches ended up with surname spelled LEMAJIĆ  ( same area of origin).

Ethnic Serbian families LEMAIĆ / LEMAJIĆ  in Smiljan villages and in Podlapača villages  suffered great losses during the WWII and the relatives you are looking for,  if anyone survived WWII from your family, will after 1995.  probably be living in Serbia .

Let me know if you managed to obtain any additional documents from SOC in the US.

LEMAIĆ family in Privrednik database ( both from SMILJAN and PODLAPAČA you mentioned) :

LEMAJIĆ:

about Privrednik database:

http://www.rodoslovlje.com/en/documentation/serbian-trade-association-privrednik-merchant-database

My Husband's Great-Great Grandparents, Ely (1875-1932) and Sophia Painovich (1880-1974), immigrated to the U.S. sometime around 1900?  All documents ive found say they were from Serbia.  I have been told that they are related to Nikola Tesla somewhere within the family tree.  I've been trying to find the link?  I've been told that Sophia and Ely lived in Gospic?  I've also been told that Sophia's maiden name is Bogic.   Any ideas??

Thanks