Dear Melanie It is posible that copy exist somwere but highly unlikly. Tha contry of Yugoslavija sufered great distruction in the Second World Warr. beside lost of approximatly 1.7 milion inhabitants existing infrastructure, including building was devastated. Then recent civil warrs starting 1990's make hardly posible.I would guess that if any record exist it would be most likly in the Ship record, ellis island or even US Tax record, Census etc.

B.M.

Below is the link from the Ellis Island web page showing 

http://www.ellisisland.org/search/matchMore.asp?FNM=VASO&LNM=POPOVICH&PLNM=POPOVICH&first_kind=1&kind=exact&offset=0&dwpdone=1

Residence Raguse, Hercegovina ( at the timeKingdom of Yugoslavia) Arived 1920 Age on arrival 29

I hope this help!

P.S. You need to register in order to see the record.

bmistrelovic,

Thank you for this link.  I've seen it before but did not pay any attention because I thought he was too old or headed to the wrong location...I've learned a lot since then.

I see the Vaso in this record came directly from the military in Raguse/Dubrovnik in 1920.  He was headed to Anaconda Montana.  I suspect it was for steady work in a mining town which does fit with what I know of the Vaso I'm looking for.  However, I can't find him on a census there and I can't find any records of employment held by any of the mining companies.  I've already looked for information on Vaso in Hibbing Minnesota as I know he worked in an iron mine there.  I was hoping to find some record of where he came from before he arrived in Minnesota.

I can check alien registration in Montana as I already have the USCIS office searching around the Milwaukee area in Wisconsin.  I was hoping I could get some help in searching for military records from the Raguse/Dubrovnik area.  Ancestry.com seems to only show US Military records even though I have a World account.  Is there any other way to look for this military information?

Melanie

Also, on Ancestry.com, when I view this record (before I click on the actual manifest picture), it lists Rijeka as a birthplace/other.  I'm not sure where that comes from because it looks like the same record that is found on the Ellis Island site and neither site shows any information on a birthplace.

I think at one point another person I had help from on this site said they found that name in that area but I could be wrong.  I have to look over my previous messages to make sure.  Is there any way you can help me figure out what records show this name in that area?

Melanie

Check the articles Yugoslava wrote in the Learning and Research Center. US immigration made a lot of mistakes when people entered and Ancestry's records. Also, Serbs use the Old Calendar -->see Orthodoxy, so its possible you get different dates of birth.

Am I correct in understanding:

To request church census records, it has to be done through the SOC.  How is that done?  Can the census books help you find what parish your family belonged to?  If the parish temple was destroyed (along with the vital records), the only information available will be that from family members that made a sworn statement regarding accuracy of information.  That in itself may be inaccureate as it may reflect the new locatino if they were re-located after WWII correct?

So if I cannot get a copy of the SOC census records, I am out of luck because I don't know how else to determine the parish Vaso may have belonged to.  I am not aware of any family members that would have made a sworn statement but that doesn't mean they didn't exist.

I read further where it says all males living in the Military Frontier province were consigned to military service at birth.  Is th eonly military frontier in Croatia?  Would that include Rijeka?  The record that bmistrelovic pointed out shows a Vaso Popovich from Raguse, Herzegovi.  I did find a record that said the person in the same record came originally from Rijeka...that was I believe on Ancestry.com.  So if many that were born in this frontier settle here, it would be reasonable with military service to find that Vaso was from Rijeka but left the military after obligatory service from Raguse/Dubrovnik?

I believe I was told that military obligatory service started at the age of 18.  Robert Jerin indicated that this service didn't start until they were 20 or 21...I can't remember.  Can someone confirm what the age is that this service starts?