Hi Marnelle,

Banatsko Novo Selo is in the Pančevo municipality. You can request them via the archives in Pancevo. Their address is:

Istorijski arhiv u Pančevu
Nemanjina b.b.
26000 Pančevo

You can download the letter template (see SGS Menu) and send them a letter with the request to send you information. The archives are not big on emailing despite the fact that they have a website. Sending a letter via snail mail is a better option. Let me know if this yields any results, if not we can try another approach. We are working on improving research options with the archives but things move a little bit slower in the part of the world (-D

Thanks Sergei My friend translated a letter for me already so I will send it off tomorrow. I will let you know how it goes!

The Pancevo Archives website doesn't confirm that it has baptism records for Banatsko Novo Selo like it does for Dolovo. If not, I will try the Romanian Orthodox Church in Banatsko Novo Selo. By chance, do you see an address for the church online? I have found links to the church but no address. Of course, google translate only gets you so far! BNS only has one Romanian Orthodox Church and it is a smaller town. Maybe my letter would be delivered if I just sent the letter to the church in BNS wthout a specific address? I know the postal code is 26314.

Here is the address:
RUMUNSKA PRAVOSLAVNA CRKVENA OPЕ TINA
Ive Lole Ribara 45
26314 BANATSKO NOVO SELO
Srbija
+381 13 615 155

THANKS!!! I have been looking for this for some time

Sergei,

I sent a letter to the Archives in Pancevo on May 21st. The post office thought it would take about a week to get there. I included my email address and international reply coupons in the letter so that they could respond by either email or letter. The letter was translated into Serbian by a Serbian friend. Given the staffing at the Archives, approximately how long do you think is reasonable to wait for an answer before determining that I likely won't get one and deciding my next move?

If the Archives does not respond, would you suggest that I contact the Romanian Orthodox Church in Banatsko Novo Selo next or try something else? I'm somewhat concerned that the Church may not respond to me either.

The Archives website suggests (in the summary portion - see link below) that they may have records for Banatsko Novo Selo. However, the specific records they may have from BNS are not detailed in the tables below like the rest of the records they list. I suppose I am just looking for direction from the Archives regarding how to obtain these records before blindly moving ahead and perhaps having to repeat steps and bothering people more than once, e.g., at the Romanian Orthodox Church in BNS.

The Archives definitely has my great grandfather's birth records through either the Serbian or Romanian Church. However, the issue is that I still haven't confirmed his surname. The family story is that it was changed. I know his first name (Stefan), birth place (Dolovo) and birth year (1885) but commencing the search starting with just this information likely will be tedious and require someone to attend in person to look through the records closely.

I do know my great grandmother's maiden name (Ana Rusoloi or Rusoloj), birth place (BNS), birth year (1886) and that she was Romanian. I would like to start with her birth record, then find their marriage record (either in BNS or Dolovo in approx 1903) or my great uncle or grandfather's birth records (1904 and 1915 either in BNS or Dolovo) for the purpose of confirming our surname.

I would appreciate any suggests you have for next steps!

Thanks,

Marnelle

http://www.arhivpancevo.org.rs/fondmf.htm

The archives are known to be extremely slow, sometimes they never react. You could try the church, the should have some records and most of the time churches do react. It is possible for churches to change "ownership", this is something that can be seen in Dalmatia where e.g. Catholic churches kept records for Orthodox members. Dolovo could also have records stored in the Kovin church.

Lets see if something happens during the summer, if not we can try calling them for you, that is the archives.

OK sounds good thanks

UPDATE - I found my 3rd cousin from Dolovo just by digging a bit deeper on Google. As luck would have it, his father was the family historian. He confirmed our family surname is Dražilov, which was changed to Dragila by my great grandfather when my family immigrated to the US. Although Dražilov appears to be Serbian and not Romanian, my cousin says our family is Romanian. He's looking into how we ended up with the Serbian last name. Thankfully he speaks the language and has access to the church records there as the Archives still haven't written back to me either by email or snail mail.

I still don't have information on my great grandmother's family except that according to my cousin's records, her maiden name was spelled "Rusoloj". However, finding my cousin and confirming our surname was HUGE and something I have wondered about for years!

Great news, I found a deceased Viorika Rusoloj - 1925; 3. november at http://www.pancevac.eu/index.php?module=article&issue_id=136&id=23093&comment=true

I dont know if this rings a bell?

No. Unfortunately I don't know anything about my great grandmother's relatives except that she came from BNS. However, an acquaintance of an acquaintance is also from there and looking into it. Plus my cousin may find something in the church books. I'm hoping that my great grandmother's parents may be listed on her marriage record as that is the record that my cousin in likely to find. Hopefully I will have some answers on her side of the family soon. However, really I hit the genealogical jackpot by finding my cousin (who also sent me the names and birth/death info for my great grandfather's siblings and parents!), so I can't complain!

Keep me posted, I am glad you hit the jackpot