Ellis Island

As I've mentioned before, my husband's grandparents, Anton Eterovic and Madalena Yeseta, are both from the small island of Brac in Croatia.  They came here in 1904 and 1905, and all but two of their siblings had already arrived or joined them at a later date. 

Over the months I've gathered information on all but one of the siblings.  All of Madalena's siblings came to America, married and raised families. 

Anton's brother Joannes and sister Daniela remained in Brac and raised families there. His older brother Nicholas arrived in 1907, but I was unsure of the date of his wife's arrival as she and their two children didn't travel with him.  I also had no information on a fourth sibling, the younger sister Maria.

So I returned to the records at Ellis Island where I had so far been unable to find a date of Maria's immigration, if in fact she had come to America.  I tired all kinds of spellings for Maria and Eterovic, and finally found her.  She had come with Nicholas in 1907, but her first name on the record that had been transcribed from the handwritten  manifes was "Marifa."  Now I know Marifa is not a Croatian name, and I also know that handwriting can be difficult to read, so I looked at the original handwritten document and I believe it said "Marija" which is the Croatian spelling of Maria. Since she listed her brother Anton as her contact in Los Angeles, I knew I had the right person.

Then I decided to try to find Nicholas's wife and two daughters, Antica and Maria. The name I had for his wife, Karlin, yielded nothing, so I tried the names of his two daughters.  Eventually I found two passenger manifests in 1912 with the names Maria and Antica, ages five and six, which would have been correct.  On both manifests, the mother's name was Dora. The information regarding next of kin and final destination matched, however, so I was sure I had the right family and either I had the wrong name for Nicholas's wife, or this was a second wife. 

At first, I wasn't sure why the same names would show up on two passenger lists, one that arrived in January 1912, and one in February 1912.  Then I looked at the original handwritten document for January and could see that the three Eterovic names had been crossed off.  All I can surmise is that the three were scheduled to leave in January from Trieste, and either didn't make it in time on their journey from Croatia ("missed the boat" as the saying goes), or for some reason had to change their plans and take a later ship. 

So, as often happens, one mystery solved leads to more mysteries.  Though I know know that Maria Eterovic came to America with her brother in 1907, I can find no record of her after that.  And while I have the date(s) of Nicholas's family arriving in America, I am still unsure of his wife's actual name, and whether he was married once or twice.

As a genealogist friend once told me, "Genealogy is not a sprint, it's a marathon."  I agree.

Croatian roots

My husband's grandparents traveled here from the island of Brac, Croatia, in the early 1900s.  His grandfather's surname was Eterovic, but like so many immigrants who wanted to fit in, he simplified the family name to "Terich."  (Frankly, I like Eterovic better.)  His grandmother's surname in Croatia was Jescheta, though they spelled it Yeseta in America.

Until recently, the family only knew the names of two generations before that, though there were no birth, marriage or death dates, and there was nothing on any family members who had stayed behind in Croatia.  I have done what I could to fill in the blanks.  I was given a written history starting with the parents of the immigrants and moving forward to 1982, and I have interviewed my poor mother-in-law until she is exhausted, but there was nothing on the family back in Brac.

So I decided to find out more about this family that once lived on such a beautiful island and who, for reasons I didn't fully understand, decided to relocate to America.  So I hired a genealogist in Croatia, and slowly but surely we are building a family tree.  We've found the names of three Eterovic's who stayed behind on Brac, and we have the names of their children and spouses.  Just yesterday, the researcher was able to find an entire new generation, born in the 1700s, and there are now eight new names on the tree.  And we're still looking.

For those of you who are Terich's, here's what I've found:

Parents of Anton Terich (my husband's grandfather) are:  Anton Eterovic and Antonia Capkovic
Anton Eterovic's parents:  Nicola Eterovic and Girolama (Jerka) Martinic
Nicola's parents: Giorgio Eterovic and Dorothea Martinich
Girolama's parents: Girolamo Martinic and Margaret Faxinnich

Parents of Madalena Yeseta (my husband's grandmother) are: Tomasso Jescheta and Antonia Rosa Mladinich
Tomasso came from Bohemia (modern day Czechoslovakia) so I only have the names of his parents: Matteo Jescheta and Eliza Pohele
Antonia Mladinich's parents" Antonio Mladinich and Roza Bonaccich
Antonio's parents: Giovanni Mladinich and Lucrezia Harossich
Roza's parents: Nicola Bonaccich and Caterina Filippich

(Yes, Nicola is a masculine name)

I can't begin to tell you what a joy it is to find the names of my husband's ancestors that were once unknown.  I am hoping we can plan a trip to Croatia soon to find living cousins, and piece together what life was like for his ancestors.  Because for me, it is not just about finding names.  It is about finding stories, piecing together lives, and understanding the struggles of my ancestors and my husband's ancestors, without whom we wouldn't be here.