Hi and welcome to Rodoslovlje .

I think I provided extensive info on the ancestry com for this person/ family / parish of Sutorina, as well as the link for the research strategy:

http://boards.ancestry.com/localities.eeurope.yugoslavia.montenergo/2.7/mb.ashx

On December 28, 1812 Stephani Constantini Kojnevic was born in the mountainous Konavli region near Herci-Novi (Montenegro). Perhaps in the village of Sutorina. He probably grew up in a Catholic farm family. He came to the mouth of the Mississippi River in Louisiana, USA in the 1830's and with his partner John Vidacovich purchased a citrus farm in 1833. This was very unusual because almost all of the "Austrians" coming to Louisiana came as oyster fishermen. Stephani had a nephew, much younger brother or cousin that joined him, Antoni or Anthony Cognevich (Kojnevic) in Louisiana by 1850. Anthony was also born in Montenegro, about 1832. Later Ignacious (1860) and Johanni (1880) Cognevich came to the same area as oyster fishermen. Not sure Ignacious and Johanni were related to Stephani!

We were recently told that the Kognevic's originally came from Galicia (Czechoslavakia?) during the Turkish Rebellion fleeing for their lives to Banat. They apparently lived there a while, but again fleeing the Turks this family made their way to the mountain tops of Montenegro. I also understand that the family was split up with branches spred across Yugoslavia.

I am looking for anyone that can provide information on this family in Montenegro/Yugoslavia or that can provide a strategy for researching over there? Also interested in any cousins researching the family.

Most of the info  there is incorrect - the religion, ethnicity and origin of the family cannot be established on what you can google in English, ONLY in period records -  I  posted the link for the publicly available parish history written by its priests, with lots of period information on KONJEVIĆ family from Sutorina:

http://www.rastko.rs/rastko-bo/istorija/ljetopis-lucica_l.html

According to this document, family lived in villages ĆENIČ and PRIJEVOR. The family was present in the same area from the earliest time when the parish records were kept ( XVII century). Earlier origin is from MORAČA area, Montenegro, from where they came to Sutorina in XVII century.  KONJEVIĆ still live in the same area and village of PRIJEVOR even today.

Here on this link you will find (in Serbian) an extensive history of the family KONJEVIĆ from PRIJEVOR , SUTORINA , that is provided in detail by a team of established Serbian ethnologists:

http://www.vesti-online.com/Riznica/Poreklo-porodica/21570/KONJEVIC-

SUTORINA was the parish of origin and administrative center, which was often listed as place of origin after immigrating instead of the name of the exact village.

KONJEVIĆ were Eastern Orthodox, and not Roman Catholic. The family was not  from Galicia, and no people of Chech origin */fled to Banat and then to Montenegro*  at any point in time before your ancestor was born. ( Chech families migrated to Banat for economic reasons and were part of organized imperial agrarian settling, which happened AFTER the Ottomans retreited for good, and even before that no known Ottoman advances ever made people migrate from Banat to Montenego.) Similar surnames exist in all Slavic languages, due to the fact that the root word  for the animal - horse - *KONJ* is panslavic and present in all languages that branched out from the Proto-Slavic. ( See the reference for Russian variants and high frequency in  Anton Checkov short story about *a horsey surname*. )

 

KONJEVIĆ family from SUTORINA parish is of well-documented Montenegro origin. Whoever pointed you to look elsewhere  (Galicia) was wrong and did not consult any of the historical sources.

 

NIKO S. KONJEVIĆ, DRAGO T. KONJEVIĆ, ILIJA M. KONJEVIĆ, RADE DR. KONJEVIĆ, NOVAK N. KONJEVIĆ, VUKO A. KONJEVIĆ, SAVO V. KONJEVIĆ, all from SUTORINA parish, fought as volunteers helping the Serbs in Hercegovina in 1875-1878. and are listed in official records of the military family allowance their descendant family members received (names of recepients also listed individually).

ILIJA KONJEVIĆ and SIMO KONJEVIĆ were heads of households in PRIJEVOR village, SUTORINA parish in 1875.

LAZAR KONJEVIĆ, JOKO KONJEVIĆ and  ANDRIJA KONJEVIĆ are mentioned in PRIJEVOR village, SUTORINA parish as heads of households in 1894.

Both records are of families that donated money for the building of the Serbian Orthodox Church temples. First record of anyone marrying outside of Eastern Orthodox faith in the parish is from 1926. Based on all of this family KONJEVIĆ  was definitely not Roman Catholic.

 If your ancestor *STEFAN KONJEVIĆ  used a middle name then that is the first name of his father. For more records and information you will need to locate dthe descendants of the same family and contact the archives in Montenegro, as well as Serbian Orthodox Church.

http://www.rodoslovlje.com/en/documentation/guide-researching-ethnic-serbian-ancestors-austria-hungary

 

 

   Thanks for the information. I know that over half of the things someone wrote about Cognevich/Konjevic family here in us was not correct. The only reason that the Cognevich family here in the US was catholic was because that is the only religion that was here at the time. I do not know where they got their other information from.

  I have been to Montenegro many times and have meet many of the Konjevic s that live their today. The reason I am still looking to see if there are any names spelled like Cognevich is because I have found some on ships manifests that are spelled the same way. And I did a couple of DNA test with two of the Konjevic family in Montenegro and only match maybe 4 or 5 out of 12. Now I am no DNA expert but I think that there should be more of a match. 

They show me a couple of records but it is in there language and I could not make heads or tails about it. But again Thanks for all of your help.

 

Mark

Glad to hear that you have visited the old country and found relatives. I often have to disprove as incorrect what people think they know of their ancestors - like much of what was posted on ancestry  about *Cognevich from Sutorina -  it is nice to hear you established the facts about your ancestors origin accurately.

DNA matches - statistics say that out of those tested  1/3 of children are not the biological children of their *paper* fathers.   I would have to see the results and establish via records how and if you are related to be able to interpret  the genetic blueprint of a family.

If you have or can obtain the records via your relatives from Montenegro that they were showing to you I will translate them.

Of those found in immigration records, you may be related only to people from the same place of origin ( these would be listed  in manifests as   KONJEVIĆI, SUTORINA, PRIJEVOR, ĆENIĆ, even IGALO or HERCEG NOVI). Country of origin would be Herzegovina, Dalmatia, Austria, Montenegro ).

http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/EIDB/engine/gold.php?uid=13389669775481338966994194&referrer=httpstevemorse.orgellis2ellisgold.html&mode=running&time=1338994522296&arrivalPort=ellisgold&firstkind=close&FNM=&kind=close&LNM=Konjevic&companionkind=close&CNM=&townkind=close&town=&SHP=&prtkind=close&PRT=&SYR=&EYR=&MONTH=&DAY=&SAGE=&EAGE=&offset=1&MRTL=&BSYR=&BEYR=&pagesize=500&CGD=&FLD=name&FLD=yoa&FLD=age&FLD=passrec&FLD=town&FLD=tmanifest&FLD=smanifest&FLD=yob&FLD=image&FLD=annotations&SRT=name&DIRECTION=asc

the only way to establish if your ancestor and they are closely related is to examin the vital and other records in the country of origin, and see if their paths after emigrating crossed - people from same clan/family/parish tended to emigrate to the same area.

 If you do not want to share documents here on public forum send them to my email

[email protected]

 

When I get a chance I will send you a copy of what I have.

 

Thanks

Mark