Hello Kelly,

You need to have a place of origin to start researching. Certain parts of Serbia today were in those times part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. If you have a place then you can start by writing the district archive in that city.

Sergej

Hi,

Some question I have. Do you know where : Post Pazin Salos Saine is? Because is this one place name or more then one.

The surname Sain is from Bioиiæ, Dalamatia and is a Serbian name from that region. However in order to do real research you need to have some dates for us and at least one place name you are sure of!

Let me know if you can. If you don't respond I presume you have found an answer.

Sergej

Perhaps the place is Pazin on Istrian peninusla in Croatia and Salos could be selo meaning village. And the Saine village name may be SAINI aka SAJINI Croatia 112.6 miles WSW of Zagreb

http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?latlongtype=decimal&latitude=45.0333&longitude=13.9500

The surname SAINA is found not too far from the village of Sajini, according to the Croatia online phone book.

There are some possibilities of finding him in the Ellis Island data base:

Peter SAIN age 16 arr 1913 from Pupnat (on the island of Korcula, birthplace of Marko Polo not far from Dubrovnik) destination was listed as Hibbing, MN traveling w/ Pavel (=Paul) age 32

Why do you believe that Peter came from Serbia? Was he Orthodox or Roman Catholic faith? Some would say that Serbs are mostly Orthodox.

Based on the fact that most Serbs prior to WW II came from Croatia and that the census recorded that he came from Austria he would not have come from Serbia proper. There is an area north of Serbia proper, which is now part of Serbia, and had been in Hungary and part in Croatia.

Also the Crimean War took place 1854 to 1856. That would have been 37 years prior to Peter's birth! That meant that if his brothers were 16 years old in 1856 they would have been born in 1840. If the mother had been 16 at the time of the birth that would have made her 69 years old! Even if you go either way a few years she would have been quite up in years. Perhaps the story was about father or uncles etc or just one of those family tales that has little fact behind it and passes on from generation to generation. But regardless if you are doing a family history make note of it and if it is proven later OK and if not just note that it was a tale.

Robert Jerin
Croatian Heritage Museum
Cleveland Ohio
http://www.croatia-in-english.com/rj/index.html

Hi Robert,

I agree on the years, but do have to say that some Serbs went to fight in that region even after the big Crimean war. There are accounts of Serbs fighting in Russia against the Germans during both WW. Pretty strange if you ask me, but diaspora has a way of doing things I guess. There is even a large group of Serbs in Russia that founded New Serbia. ( we couldn't manage the old so lets start a new ).

As for the religion, it doesn't depict ones ethnical background like some people think in SE Europe. ( darn, I will never get that rethoric of religious identification )

I think Kelly should try EllisIsland for immigration records, otherwise she might start searching as you say in the complete wrong spot with all consequences of that.

Hi there!
I beleive it is Pazin in Croatia.
I checked out telephone book and there is a lot of Šajn (Shajn and Shain) and Šain surnames in Istria, Croatia, which is pronanunced Shine in English. The name Peter (if it is the real one) and not Petar points out to Istria.

Radoje Pulevic