Brick Walls and the Ties that Bind
Last week I started researching my Aunt Carolyn's side of the family. I've pretty well brick-walled myself on all the line's I'm actively researching, including my husbands side. Occasionally I like to start a new line just to break away from the same names I'm so used to seeing. Carolyn's maiden name is Chilovich, and it was really straightforward to find her parents and grandparents. Unfortunately, that's where it quit getting easy. Good thing I love a challenge.
Nicholas Chilovich was born 12 September 1875 in Yugoslavia, Austria, or Croatia, depending on the year you were asking him (census records.) This miffed me a little at first, but apparently during this time the borders kept changing, and without knowing the EXACT town he was from I'm not sure how accurate any of these places are, but he speaks Croatian as his first language, which he indicated on all censuses, and that helps. He married Anna Pintar, also from Yugoslavia, sometime before 1910, as they were already married by the 1910 census. I do not yet have a confirmed ship manifest, and I haven't found a marriage record, so I'm still unsure whether they came together or separate to the States.
The 1910 census, the first record I have of them, shows them on Main street in Mt Olive. It doesn't indicate but I have to assume they are renting. The last name is spelled Curleovich (we will see this A LOT.) Nick is 30 and Anna 28, and she has had 0 children thus far. They both list Austrian/Croatian as their place of birth, as well as both their parent's places of birth. He said he emigrated in 1893, she in 1903, and both by now are naturalized citizens. He works in a coal mine (as does literally everyone else on this page of the census) and they both read and write English. They are not the only Croatians on the page, they had many neighbors from the same area: Ucowitz, Zar, Krevitz, Gorsich, Dragevitch all show up on the same page, giving them plenty of people to speak in their native tongue and share customs, despite the fact Mt Olive was (and still is) a predominantly Italian town.
Their first son, Matthew Paul, was born in Mt Olive Illinois 13 October 1911, followed by Anne in 1913, Anthony in 1915, and Catherina in 1917.
The 1920 census (This time spelled Chilovich) has them in their own home on First South Street, Mt Olive. This time Nick lists his Immigration year at 1900, and Anna's at 1910, which we know is wrong because they were here and married then. They are again listed as Naturalized, but the year is listed as Unknown, which makes me wonder if they actually were naturalized or just claiming it on the census. He says ont his census he can read and write but cannot speak english, but at this point they've been in the states at least ten, if not twenty years, so I'd say he does just heavily accented. He's still working in the mines, and still has a number of Croatian neighbors; Krevich and Gorsich still live nearby.
The 1940 census finally shows the house number, 701 First South st. If I Google that now I need either East or West, which I don't have. If it's West, it's either a Dollar General or a gas station and the house is gone. If it was East, it was this house.
Their name this time is spelled Curilovie but it's clearly still them, with children Matt, Nick, and Tony. Daughter Anne has married and Catherine has left, and I found out later why; she'd joined the convent and was a nun! (More on that later.) They no longer ask immigration years on this census, but they are listed as Naturalized. Nick still works in the coal mine, as does son Matt (listed as a "trip rider") but Nick and Tony work in a shoe factory and for the rail road, respectively.
This is also the census where I realized there are probably other family members here. Right above Nick and family was a family spelled as Chilovik, and I almost missed it. I had to go back a page to get to the parents, but at 708 East Main is a Frank and Barbara, with children Mary, Barbara, John, Agnes, and Martin. Frank is 55.
....And somewhere right around there is when Karen came in.
Karen spells her last name Curlovic, and her line comes from Madison county, which isn't terribly far from Macoupin. She, like my aunt, said the family never talked about the past or relatives. She, up until very recently, didn't know she had relatives so close. She's been talking to another recently-discovered variant of Curlovic and he didn't realize they had more family either. Somehow, somewhere, this family broke apart and never mended. On almost all Draft cards, the mother or a brother is listed as next of kin. Nickolas' children all list Anna. Why?
I am all about validation, things has to be proven before I take them as any kind of fact (yes, I brought Frank into the tree as Nick's brother without proof, but that is an easily remedied attachment and a way just to keep things within reach tree-wise in the beginning. But I digress.) but lucky for me Karen had done DNA. I have too, but this is my aunt's family, and we have no blood relatives. Then came our first point of validation; while not actually active on ancestry, Carolyn's daughter Jennifer HAD done DNA, so we matched Karen to her....at fourth cousins. Validation! While we knew they would be by gut feeling, we now know for a fact all these Chilovich/Curilovic,Chalovich/Curlovic/thousand-other-ways-I've-seen-it-spelled are all the same.
So Karen tells me her great grandfather is Joseph, and his brothers are Nick and Frank (per his obit. Validation!) So I start working on that. I now have a 1930 and 1940 census of him living in Madison country. He was born in 1873, Nick in 1875, and Frank in 1884. I'm willing to bet there are children in between, but we don't have a father for the boys. Karen thinks she might, but we need to compile records, she's got a lot of stuff squirreled that needs to see light. Language and country of origin are also an issue; these names aren't really their names. Irregardless of what the last name looks like, in Austria/Yugoslavia/Croatia (another hurdle we're going to have to tackle...what it was when they were born) their names most certainly would not have been Frank, Nickolas, and Joseph. I personally believe the last name change is based mainly on language/phonetics, but there clearly has been a family split so the two main names do make sense of someone trying to distance themselves from someone else. Joseph's wife is a bit on an enigma, she passed before I first find him in 1930, but their children are all born early 1900; Andrew, Anthony, Anna and Joseph (Karen's line.)
The name Claudiann sticks with me also. Everyone is using the same names for their sons and daughters, each dang family has an Anna, Joseph, Anthony....and Claudiann. That's one of the ways I knew all three families belonged together. When Catherine joined the convent she took the name of Sister Mary Claudiann. The children of these children are still using the name. It means something, somewhere, I just don't know where yet.
Joseph's son Andrew also was a devout Catholic; Karen told me he went to Rome to become a priest, and we do have some ships papers. At some point in his journey WWII broke out, and he decided to serve his country. He stormed the beaches at Normandy and never made it home.
We have so many bits an pieces, and so little tied together. There are passenger records for a Janko who comes to St Louis, and many met him there. He traveled many places including Mt Olive. Could this be the fahter? Karen has these records and I have not seen them yet. There is also a family in Pennsylvania who keep popping up in my records, same names, same time. Could this be another brother? A cousin?
What happened to this family?! I will update as we find more.
Nicholas Chilovich was born 12 September 1875 in Yugoslavia, Austria, or Croatia, depending on the year you were asking him (census records.) This miffed me a little at first, but apparently during this time the borders kept changing, and without knowing the EXACT town he was from I'm not sure how accurate any of these places are, but he speaks Croatian as his first language, which he indicated on all censuses, and that helps. He married Anna Pintar, also from Yugoslavia, sometime before 1910, as they were already married by the 1910 census. I do not yet have a confirmed ship manifest, and I haven't found a marriage record, so I'm still unsure whether they came together or separate to the States.
The 1910 census, the first record I have of them, shows them on Main street in Mt Olive. It doesn't indicate but I have to assume they are renting. The last name is spelled Curleovich (we will see this A LOT.) Nick is 30 and Anna 28, and she has had 0 children thus far. They both list Austrian/Croatian as their place of birth, as well as both their parent's places of birth. He said he emigrated in 1893, she in 1903, and both by now are naturalized citizens. He works in a coal mine (as does literally everyone else on this page of the census) and they both read and write English. They are not the only Croatians on the page, they had many neighbors from the same area: Ucowitz, Zar, Krevitz, Gorsich, Dragevitch all show up on the same page, giving them plenty of people to speak in their native tongue and share customs, despite the fact Mt Olive was (and still is) a predominantly Italian town.
Their first son, Matthew Paul, was born in Mt Olive Illinois 13 October 1911, followed by Anne in 1913, Anthony in 1915, and Catherina in 1917.
The 1920 census (This time spelled Chilovich) has them in their own home on First South Street, Mt Olive. This time Nick lists his Immigration year at 1900, and Anna's at 1910, which we know is wrong because they were here and married then. They are again listed as Naturalized, but the year is listed as Unknown, which makes me wonder if they actually were naturalized or just claiming it on the census. He says ont his census he can read and write but cannot speak english, but at this point they've been in the states at least ten, if not twenty years, so I'd say he does just heavily accented. He's still working in the mines, and still has a number of Croatian neighbors; Krevich and Gorsich still live nearby.
The 1940 census finally shows the house number, 701 First South st. If I Google that now I need either East or West, which I don't have. If it's West, it's either a Dollar General or a gas station and the house is gone. If it was East, it was this house.
Their name this time is spelled Curilovie but it's clearly still them, with children Matt, Nick, and Tony. Daughter Anne has married and Catherine has left, and I found out later why; she'd joined the convent and was a nun! (More on that later.) They no longer ask immigration years on this census, but they are listed as Naturalized. Nick still works in the coal mine, as does son Matt (listed as a "trip rider") but Nick and Tony work in a shoe factory and for the rail road, respectively.
This is also the census where I realized there are probably other family members here. Right above Nick and family was a family spelled as Chilovik, and I almost missed it. I had to go back a page to get to the parents, but at 708 East Main is a Frank and Barbara, with children Mary, Barbara, John, Agnes, and Martin. Frank is 55.
....And somewhere right around there is when Karen came in.
Karen spells her last name Curlovic, and her line comes from Madison county, which isn't terribly far from Macoupin. She, like my aunt, said the family never talked about the past or relatives. She, up until very recently, didn't know she had relatives so close. She's been talking to another recently-discovered variant of Curlovic and he didn't realize they had more family either. Somehow, somewhere, this family broke apart and never mended. On almost all Draft cards, the mother or a brother is listed as next of kin. Nickolas' children all list Anna. Why?
I am all about validation, things has to be proven before I take them as any kind of fact (yes, I brought Frank into the tree as Nick's brother without proof, but that is an easily remedied attachment and a way just to keep things within reach tree-wise in the beginning. But I digress.) but lucky for me Karen had done DNA. I have too, but this is my aunt's family, and we have no blood relatives. Then came our first point of validation; while not actually active on ancestry, Carolyn's daughter Jennifer HAD done DNA, so we matched Karen to her....at fourth cousins. Validation! While we knew they would be by gut feeling, we now know for a fact all these Chilovich/Curilovic,Chalovich/Curlovic/thousand-other-ways-I've-seen-it-spelled are all the same.
So Karen tells me her great grandfather is Joseph, and his brothers are Nick and Frank (per his obit. Validation!) So I start working on that. I now have a 1930 and 1940 census of him living in Madison country. He was born in 1873, Nick in 1875, and Frank in 1884. I'm willing to bet there are children in between, but we don't have a father for the boys. Karen thinks she might, but we need to compile records, she's got a lot of stuff squirreled that needs to see light. Language and country of origin are also an issue; these names aren't really their names. Irregardless of what the last name looks like, in Austria/Yugoslavia/Croatia (another hurdle we're going to have to tackle...what it was when they were born) their names most certainly would not have been Frank, Nickolas, and Joseph. I personally believe the last name change is based mainly on language/phonetics, but there clearly has been a family split so the two main names do make sense of someone trying to distance themselves from someone else. Joseph's wife is a bit on an enigma, she passed before I first find him in 1930, but their children are all born early 1900; Andrew, Anthony, Anna and Joseph (Karen's line.)
The name Claudiann sticks with me also. Everyone is using the same names for their sons and daughters, each dang family has an Anna, Joseph, Anthony....and Claudiann. That's one of the ways I knew all three families belonged together. When Catherine joined the convent she took the name of Sister Mary Claudiann. The children of these children are still using the name. It means something, somewhere, I just don't know where yet.
Joseph's son Andrew also was a devout Catholic; Karen told me he went to Rome to become a priest, and we do have some ships papers. At some point in his journey WWII broke out, and he decided to serve his country. He stormed the beaches at Normandy and never made it home.
We have so many bits an pieces, and so little tied together. There are passenger records for a Janko who comes to St Louis, and many met him there. He traveled many places including Mt Olive. Could this be the fahter? Karen has these records and I have not seen them yet. There is also a family in Pennsylvania who keep popping up in my records, same names, same time. Could this be another brother? A cousin?
What happened to this family?! I will update as we find more.
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