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Greetings from Colorado,
I am searching for information on my grandfather and would love to come to Serbia to visit the land of his birth. I have only a little information but would love to find out more.
My grandfather, Milano Velkovch immigrated to the US at the age of 16 in 1912. He was born on October 14th, 1897 on one set of papers he lists his town as Popovitze, Servia and on another as Popouze. His father's name appears to be Ferizovich.
This is not much to go on but is anyone familar with an area called Popouze? Which is how I remember that he pronounced it. My grandfather was a wonderful person with a great sense of humor, always laughing and busy with his garden and making vegetable soup's and gave us kids great joy in our life. He lived to be 99 years old and was a wonderful person. I deeply regret that I did not learn more about his place of birth when he lived but I know that he was the oldest of many children. If anyone has information I would love to know more.
Best regards,
Cher
Posted : 05/12/2008 5:58 am
hi Cher,
Do you have a scanof those manifests so I can take a look?
Regards,
Sergej
Posted : 17/12/2008 9:05 am
Topic starter
Sergej,
Sadly I do not have a copy of the manifest. It is on the Ellis Island website in picture format and I cannot save it. Or at least I don't believe that I can. I did order it though. I am really trying to figure this out. At this point I have four or five places of birth when all I was longing for was one.
On Ellis Island it is the ship France on May 24, 1912. Passanger name Milovan Velco which makes more sense as the hours go by since I discovered it. Any help you can give will be deeply appreciated.
Cher
Posted : 17/12/2008 9:23 am
Topic starter
Sergej
It occurs to me that you are answering my email that I wrote some days back. At that time I had less information. I have learned some more in the past few hours and in the past days.
What I have is this. My grandfather's name was Milovan Velco and he arrived on May 24, 1912 to New York on the ship called France from Le Havre.
He always spoke of being Serbian and called us little Serbs and joked about that. However when I began doing research I saw that on several forms Serbian was crossed out and Turkey was written in. I have his WW I draft registration which I can send to you. That states that he is:
Millovan Velkovitch and that he was born in Ferizovitch, Serbia (crossed out) Turkey.
It states that his last residence was Popovitz, Serbia (crossed out) Turkey.
On his application for Citizenship it states that he is Milovan Velkovitch born in Popouze, Serbia (No Turkey and I do have a copy of this)
On the Ellis Island arrival immigration form it says that he is Milovan Velco and he is Serbian Race born in Vilayet, Turkey and that his place of birth, same line is Bitnic or Bitinic or Pitinic. The handwriting is almost impossible to read.
So this is what I have. I desperately want to visit Serbia and at least to see where he grew up. Any help that you can give would be appreciated as I am really lost right now!
Cher
Posted : 17/12/2008 9:34 am
Its hard to comment on all of this without the proper documents. But one of the reasons why Serbia is crossed and Turkey is written down is because of the situation in those days. Serbia was liberating itself from Turkish occupation. Vilayet is Turkish for Province or administrative region. His name and surname are Serbian. Perhaps you can obtain a scan of the document and post it here.
Regards,
Sergej
Posted : 17/12/2008 10:25 am
BTW we have a member in Colorado, you should contact her. Her username I believe is Dreamcastle. She can give you tips.
Regards,
Sergej
Posted : 02/01/2009 4:01 pm