ÿþ<HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>John's History</TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY BGCOLOR=#FFFFFF> <CENTER> <FONT SIZE=7><B> John s History <P> The Piskulich and Dobric Families <P> From Novi Vinodol Croatia to Perth Western Australia</B></FONT SIZE=7> <P> <IMG SRC="image1.JPG"> <P> <I><FONT SIZE=2><B>This is the flag of the  Triune Kingdoms of Dalmatia, Croatia and Slavonia (1867  1918), then part <BR>of the Austro Hungarian Empire. It would have been the flag under which my grandparents were born. &#169 2005 John Paskulich</B></FONT SIZE=2></I> </CENTER> <P><BR><P> <div> <div class=Section1></div> <FONT SIZE=4> <span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";color:black;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language: EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA'><br clear=all style='page-break-before:always; mso-break-type:section-break'> </span> <div class=Section2> <p class=Default><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"'><![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=Default align=center style='text-align:center'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"'>Contents </span></b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"'><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=Default><b>Introduction </b><b><span style='mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt'>Page-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1</span></b><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=Default style='text-align:justify'><b>Acknowledgements----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1</b><span style='mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt'> </span><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=Default style='text-align:justify'><b>A brief history of Croatia--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2</b><span style='font-size:11.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=Default style='margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>The first Croats <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=Default style='margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>Serbia <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=Default style='margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>Unified Croatia <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=Default style='margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>The Mongol hordes <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=Default style='margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>The Turkish Wars <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=Default style='margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>Islamic Slavs <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=Default style='margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>French influence in Croatia <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=Default style='margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>Yugoslav Croatia <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=Default style='margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>The World War of 1939-1945 <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=Default style='margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>Independent Croatia <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=Default><b>Croatia through the ages--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------16</b><span style='font-size:11.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=Default style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>Around 800 AD <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=Default style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>Around 1000AD <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=Default style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>Around 1300AD <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=Default style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>Around 1550 AD <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=Default style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>2000 AD <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=Default style='text-align:justify'><b>The Croatian language and alphabet ----------------------------------------------------------------------18</b><span style='mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt'> </span><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=Default style='margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>Dialects <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=Default style='margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>Historical written Croatian <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=Default style='margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>The Croatian alphabet <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=Default style='margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>Grammar and spelling <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=Default style='margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>A few useful expressions <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=Default style='text-align:justify'><b>Novi Vinodol/ski------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------23</b><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=Default style='margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>The Vinodol <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=Default style='margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>Counts of Krk and the Frankopans <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=Default style='margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>Uskok Pirates of Senj <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=Default style='margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>History of Novi Vinodol <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=Default style='margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>Traditions <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=Default style='text-align:justify'><b>People of Novi--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------35<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class=Default style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>Novi family names <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=Default style='margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify'><i><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>Ma~urani&#263; (Mazuranich) </span></i><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=Default style='text-align:justify'><b>My family names-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------38</b><span style='font-size:11.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=Default style='margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>Piakuli&#263; (Piskulich) <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=Default style='margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>Paskulich <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=Default style='margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>Dobri&#263; (Dobrich) <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=Default style='margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>Radeti&#263; (Radetich) <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=Default style='margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>Spelling and other variations <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=Default style='margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>Nadimak <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=Default style='margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>Domazet <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=Default style='tab-stops:right 6.0in'><b>Conclusion------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------42</b><span style='font-size:11.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=Default style='tab-stops:right 6.0in'><b>Close-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------42</b><span style='font-size:11.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></p> </div> <P><div> <FONT SIZE=4><B>Introduction</B></FONT SIZE=4> <P> This article is an extract of a larger text I am writing for my children and, ultimately, my descendants. I do not apologise for inconsistencies in the language or writing style, as this is not a technical history. It is simply a more formal version of what happened in the past where an elder orally passed on the family traditions to his offspring. <P> My family s Australian heritage began with the arrival of my parents in Western Australia from Novi Vinodol, Croatia, then a part of Yugoslavia. My father arrived as a seven year old with his mother and brother in 1929. Mum, aged five, arrived with her mother in 1930. <P> Both my grandfathers were already in Australia at the time. Frank Piskulich emigrated here in 1926 and worked as a miner in Kalgoorlie Western Australia. Peter Dobric managed a farm in the wheat belt. Peter originally arrived in Western Australia in 1913 but spent a couple of years back in Croatia before returning to Australia in 1924. Similarly Frank Piskulich spent the years between 1910 and 1919 in New Zealand (mostly involved in digging Kauri gum, a semi fossilised product of ancient forests used to manufacture a form of varnish). <P> This scenario was very common in the early days. The men travelled to a new land first, found work, and when they d saved enough, brought out their families. <P> With the passage of time many of our old stories, history and traditions were lost. I can t resurrect what s gone but I can try to record what is left and add a little background about our heritage. I am sure I have missed many interesting facts about our origins but there is certainly enough in the following stories to give you an idea of who we are and where we came from. <P> <FONT SIZE=5><B>Acknowledgements</B></FONT SIZE=5> <P> I wish to acknowledge and thank the numerous authors and webmasters whose work enabled me to confirm much of the information appearing in this document. To brighten up its presentation I have included several drawings and photographs obtained from Internet and other sources and where possible these have been appropriately cited. <P><BR><P> <FONT SIZE=5><B>A brief history of Croatia</B></FONT SIZE=5> <P> Modern Croatia is a small, boomerang shaped country facing the Adriatic Sea in central Europe. Located at the northern end of the Balkan Peninsula, it shares borders with six neighbouring countries. They are Slovenia to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the south and Italy to the west across the Adriatic Sea. The geographic shape of Croatia, along with its numerous and diverse neighbours gives an idea of the forces of history in the region. <P> <FONT SIZE=5><B>The first Croats</B></FONT SIZE=5> In pre-history, the native peoples of the region were Celts and Illyrians. Around 200 BC they were conquered and subsequently administered by Rome until the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century. The Albanian people are probably descendants of Romanised Illyrians driven out of the region by the Gothic and later Slavic invasions. It is highly likely that many of these people also stayed in the area and integrated into the invading Slav tribes. <P> The palaeontological record of the region is interesting. The high mountains of Croatia supported one of the last enclaves of Neanderthal people in Europe. It seems that the Neanderthals were driven to the less hospitable parts of the continent by the rise of modern man and died out about 35 000 years ago. <P> It is generally believed that the first Croats were tribal Slavs from the Carpathian Mountains in the region bordered by modern Ukraine and Poland. In successive waves, they migrated through central Europe, arriving in the Balkans around the early 7th century. This theory is supported by similarities in regional languages as well as historical references to early Croats in the Ukraine, Poland, Bohemia and Austria. There is even evidence of a tribal kingdom called  White Croatia (Bielo Chorvati) that existed in Poland near modern Krakow, until it was overwhelmed by other invading tribes in the 10th century. One source claims that the mother of our Polish born Pope, John Paul II, stated her race as  White Croat . <P> The  White Croats established themselves in the north and the  Red Croats were their kin who carried on south to present day Croatia and Bosnia. Legend has it that this historical relationship is celebrated in the design of the red and white  chequerboard Croatian flag that dates back to mediaeval times. <P> There are historical references to early Slavonic tribes in Eastern Europe dating back to Roman times. The Romans referred to them as the  Venedi (Wends) and  Wendish is recognised as an ancient Slavonic language, remnants of which still appear in some parts of eastern and central Europe. <P> The earlier origins of the Croats are unclear. There are several theories but little hard evidence. I like the story that we are related to the  Sarmatians : warlike nomads who conquered much of Eastern Europe during Roman times. The Aryan Sarmatians roots lie in ancient Persia. They were superb horsemen and legend has it that unmarried Sarmatian women fought alongside their men as equals, giving rise to the ancient Greek stories of Amazon women warriors. Sarmatian tribesmen probably mixed with early Slavs, adopted their language and settled the lower Danube region. <P> Some Croat scholars believe that the original Croatian tribes were formed from some of these Sarmatian/Slav unions and this link is supported by the existence of two Sarmatian 3rd century stone tablets held in the St Petersburg Archaeological Museum in Russia. Found in the Crimean seaport of Tanais, they refer to  Horovathos , Greek for Croat. <P> It is also coincidental that the last remnants of the Sarmatian tribes faded away by the 6th century, at about the same time the Croats appeared and started their westward journey. Still, it is largely conjecture and the possible eastern origins of the Croats will probably never be proved. Recent DNA surveys show that they are genetically similar to most other central European peoples. <P> <CENTER> <IMG SRC="image3.JPG"> <BR> 3rd century Crimean stone inscription referring to  Horovathos (Croat) <BR> Source: http://www.hr/darko/etf/et03.html </CENTER> <P> The Sarmatians clashed violently with the Romans and there is a historical story that in the late 2nd century, a cavalry force of nearly 6000 Sarmatian prisoners of war was drafted into the Roman army. This force was posted to Roman Britain to control northern Celtic incursions and remained in place for generations. When the Romans left Britain in the early fifth century, they left behind the descendents of these soldiers who, in the administrative vacuum, formed the nucleus of a feudal warrior class. <P> Sarmatian imagery included dragons, stone alters and swords, and a Romanised Sarmatian battle commander carried the honorary title  Artorius so it is not too difficult to see why a theory persists that the legendary King Arthur was of Sarmatian descent. I m sure the Brits would be pleased with the idea that their famous mythical king may have been an early Croat! <P> The following image of a European Sarmatian warrior certainly would not be out of place in ancient British mythology so there may be some truth in the King Arthur story. <P> <CENTER> <IMG SRC="image2.jpg"> <BR> Sarmatian warrior <BR> Source: http://www.livius.org/sao-sd/sarmatians/sarmatians.html </CENTER> <P> The Samartians in Europe were to be overwhelmed, in turn by the Goths and the Huns and there is little doubt that today s eastern and central Europeans, including Croats, carry traces of the genes of these early tribes. <P> I once read a statement from one source suggesting that only about one third of today s Croats are true ethnic Slavs. This comment may have racist overtones but it does give an idea of the diverse genetic background of central Europeans. Croatia is at the crossroads of Europe. <P> This racial diversity is demonstrated by Catholic  Vlach settlers in my ancestral region of the Vinodol, first mentioned in 1405 but with a significant influx in the early 1600s escaping the protracted Turkish wars of the time. The Vlachs (Wallachians) were a non-Slavic people, possibly descended from Roman soldiers posted to what is now Bulgaria and Rumania. They were nomadic herders who tended to adopt the culture and religion of the dominant race of their area. <P> In the Vinodol, the Vlachs were recognised as good warriors and experts with livestock. They were welcomed by the local authorities and given some privileges, but lived separately from the local Croats. Even today, there is a small ethnic group living near Rijeka describing themselves as  Istro-Romanians . These people are most likely descended from those early Vlach settlers. <P> <FONT SIZE=5><B>The great Croatian migration</B></FONT SIZE=5> <BR> In the early 7th century, Croatian tribes invaded the former Roman provinces of Dalmatia and Pannonia. According to ancient Croatian legend, the first Croats to enter the new lands were led by siblings: five brothers; Klukas, Lobel, Kosijanac, Muhlo and Hrvat and two sisters Tuga and Buga. <P> According to one source, the Croats and Serbs were encouraged to enter the Balkans by the Byzantine/Roman Emperor Heraclius (610  641) as a buffer against Avar tribes and others who were threatening the eastern empire. This story may have been a contemporary oversimplification. Although Croats would like to believe that they were welcomed into the Balkans, other sources suggest that they were brutal pagan conquerors who fought for the Avars as much as against them and there are historical stories of Croats aiding the Avars in attacking and overwhelming Byzantine outposts and towns. <P> The Avars were a tribe of fierce central Asian nomads who had established themselves in the Balkans after leaving their homeland some 100 years earlier. Their migration may have been a consequence of a cataclysmic event about 535 AD, possibly a huge volcanic explosion of Krakatoa (Indonesia) or the impact of a small comet. Whatever the event, researchers believe it created an enormous, worldwide, dust cloud and resulted in the equivalent of a nuclear winter that lasted several years This event coincides with the start of the period known as the dark ages, presumably dark in both history and climate. The result was major climate change and devastation around the world that disrupted many societies including the Avars. This tribe relied heavily on their horses, which could not survive in their home region through the loss of grasslands, forcing a mass migration. The consequences of this event probably also influenced the Slavic migrations into central Europe and the Balkans. <P> Eventually the Croatian tribes settled down under Byzantine rule, mixed with the local Romanised inhabitants and slowly adopted Christianity. This state of affairs persisted well into the 8th century when Byzantine influence over the Croat tribes waned. After The Frankish king Charlemagne the Great (742-814), crushed the Avars and drove them back in to present day Hungary he threatened the Croats with a similar fate. The Croats quickly accepted the sovereignty of the Franks and embraced the Roman Church rites. By the 9th century, most Croats were Roman Catholics. Christianity and the Catholic faith were significant influences in Croatian history. It is believed that in the late 800s, the Roman Popes, Adrian II and his successor John VIII, allowed the Slav speaking Byzantine bishops (later saints) Cyril and Methodius to say mass for Croats in Slavonic. At that time the relationship between the eastern and western branches of the church was cordial and this event is quite plausible. There is certainly evidence that many Croatian bishoprics were authorised to conduct the Catholic rites both in spoken and written (Glagolitic) Croatian by the mid 1200s. Throughout their history, Croats delivered the mass in their Slavonic language often in defiance of Papal demands to use Latin. It wasn t until Vatican II in the 1960s that all other Catholic nations were allowed to deliver the mass in their native languages! Legends persist about a Pope John VIII who was actually an English (in some versions, German) female impersonating a man. Nicknamed Pope Joan, she is alleged to have come to a violent end after giving birth during a Papal procession in Rome around 855! The historical records of the time are so sketchy that her existence will probably never be proved, but it seemed like fun to mention her in this story. <P> <FONT SIZE=5><B>Serbia</B></FONT SIZE=5> <BR> Serbian tribes are thought to have entered the Balkans at about the same time as the Croats, although I found one reference to a Slavic tribe in Serbia at the start of the 6th century so they may have arrived earlier. In many ways their early history complements our own and some Serbs also believe that they are descended from Sarmatian tribes that mixed with early eastern Slavs. <P> The Serbs were Christianised at about the same time as the Croats, although they remained under Byzantine influence for much longer and retained the Byzantine church rites, now Orthodox Christianity. <P> An independent Serbian kingdom had developed by the 13th century. By the reign of King Stefan Duaan (1331-55), Serbia was a powerful, independent, Balkan state with dominions stretching into modern day Greece. Defeat at the battle of  Kosovo Polje (Kosovo Field) in 1389 brought them under Turkish domination until the late 19th century. Modern Kosovo, now largely occupied by Islamic Albanians, featured in the strife and atrocities between Serbs and Albanians in the late 1990 s. <P> An event that had a profound effect on the Croats and their Balkan neighbours was the  Great Schism of 1054, when the eastern, Orthodox Christian Church split completely from the west. Croats remained Catholic but the Serbs followed the Orthodox faith. <P> Before and during the Yugoslav era there was a push, particularly by Serbian leaders, to define the Serbs and Croats as one people. They certainly share Slavic origins and in modern times they share a similar language and culture, although that is largely due to a common  Yugoslav identity imposed between 1920 and 1991. I don t believe that Croats and Serbs are that closely related and I think we could claim equal relationship to other Slavs like the Czechs, Poles and Slovenians. <P> Croats and Serbs occupied distinctly separate regions in the Balkans throughout recorded history, used different written alphabets and followed different religions for more than a thousand years. Croatia historically identifies with central and western Europe where Serbia tends to follow the east. This is largely influenced by their religion, which is directly related to Russian and Greek Orthodox Christianity. Also, Serbia s five centuries of subjugation by the Islamic Turks has developed in them a unique Serbian national psyche. They are a fiercely proud people with a tough and uncompromising spirit. <P> <FONT SIZE=5><B>Unified Croatia</B></FONT SIZE=5> <BR> Between the 7th and 9th centuries, Croatia consisted of loosely connected but independent tribal groups operating under first Byzantine and then Frankish influence. Tomislav (910  928) became the first known ruler of a more or less unified Croatian kingdom in about 924. This kingdom persisted until King Zvonimir died in about 1090 without an heir. Petar Svacic claimed the crown between 1093 and 1097 but civil war erupted and his defeat by a coalition of Croatian and Hungarian nobles supporting Zvonimir s Hungarian Brother-in-law put an end to a pure Croatian monarchy. <P> <CENTER> <IMG SRC="image6.JPG"> <BR> A Croatian soldier of the 11th Century <BR> Source: http://pubwww.srce.hr/husar/ </CENTER> <P> After much violence and intrigue, the Croatian crown was eventually amalgamated with Hungary in about 1102 and Croatia became an autonomous, feudal kingdom with its own Parliament (Sabor) and Viceroy (Ban) under the Hungarian king Coloman. Croatia, as a partly autonomous state within another state, persisted for nearly 900 years until the recent civil war with Yugoslavia when it finally gained full independence again. <P> Within a few years of Croatia being absorbed into the Hungarian empire, Venice tried to wrest control of coastal Croatia and Dalmatia. Occupied by Croatian people from one of the earliest migrations, Dalmatia is a strip of land along the Adriatic Sea running from near the town of Senj, south, to Dubrovnik. It was a valuable maritime resource and Hungary and Venice fought numerous wars over the region for the next 300 years. Eventually, most of Dalmatia was sold to Venice in a dubious political settlement and remained in Venetian hands from the early 1400 s until the late 1700 s when much of it was taken over again by Austria. <P> An insight into the politics and intrigues of those times is encapsulated in one event. The Fourth Crusade against Islam never actually got to the Holy Land, its proponents being content to wreak havoc in the Balkans instead. To repay campaign debts to Venice, the crusading Catholic knights sacked the Catholic Dalmatian city of Zadar in 1202. Two years later the same Crusaders attacked and looted Constantinople, the seat of the eastern Christian Church, another event that widened the rift between Orthodox and Catholic Christians. The Crusade established Venetian influence in the Balkans. <P> Strife continued in the region over the centuries. Our ancestral town, Novi Vinodol was almost destroyed by Venice in the early 17th century. <P> Croats have had a love-hate relationship with Italy for a millennium. There were Croatian-speaking enclaves existing in Italy from Venetian to modern times, and many Italian words appear in the dialects of Croats living along the coast. One story claims that the great Venetian explorer, Marco Polo (1254-1324), was a Croat, descended from a family that had migrated to Venice from central Dalmatia. <P> <FONT SIZE=5><B>The Mongol hordes</B></FONT SIZE=5> <BR> Croatia, along with most of central and eastern Europe, was devastated by the Mongol hordes in 1241-42. <P> The Mongols (sometimes erroneously called Tartars) under Ghengis Khan began attacking Europe in the 1220s. They brutalised and conquered most of Russia and then headed west in the late 1230s. In almost every battle, the Christian armies were destroyed and much of Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Austria and the Balkans were laid waste by Batu, grandson of Ghengis Khan. It is known that the Mongols overran Zagreb and swept through Dalmatia but were unable to take the Vinodol. They were terrible times. The extent of death and destruction dealt out by the Mongols was compared to an epidemic of the black plague. <P> The Mongols withdrew suddenly in 1242, probably because of a power struggle within the ruling Mongol hierarchy at home. Although, in their ancient legends, the Polish people claim that their heroism in battle drove away the Mongols! <P> <FONT SIZE=5><B>The Turkish Wars</B></FONT SIZE=5> <BR> Although the Western Roman Empire had disintegrated by the end of the 5th century, the Eastern Byzantine Empire persisted, at least in parts, until the Muslim Turks finally conquered it in the 1400 s. Turkish Istanbul was formerly Byzantine Constantinople. <P> The Turks (Ottomans) began attacking and occupying parts of Croatia from the 1400 s, having previously absorbed Serbia into the Turkish Empire. They brutally <P>sacked and annexed much of the region after destroying a Croatian-Hungarian army at the battle of Mohacs in 1526. These events led to the Habsburgs of Austria assuming control of Croatia and establishing a military frontier (Vojna Krajina) near the present day Croatian-Bosnian border. Orthodox Christian Serbs and Vlachs, fleeing the Turks, established settlements and provided troops for the border garrisons. These Serb enclaves persisted in Croatia until many of their descendents fled during the recent war of partition between Croatia and Yugoslavia (1991-1995). In 1566, Nikola Subich-Zrinski, a Croatian nobleman with family ties to the Vinodol, led a heroic, but suicidal, battle with the Turks at Szigetvar (near the present Croatian-Hungarian border). With about 2,500 Croatian and Hungarian soldiers he confronted a force of 90,000 Turks intent on attacking Vienna. He and his soldiers were wiped out but their action saved Vienna. <P> This story is fascinating in several ways. Legend has it that, prior to the final attack, the Croatian and Hungarian women of Szigetvar chose to be killed by their men rather than fall into the hands of the Turks who were known for their cruelty. The Croat soldiers are reputed to have removed their armour in their final charge to allow them to fight more freely (and die more quickly). <P> Another twist is that the Sultan is believed to have died days before the final battle and his death was concealed from his troops so that they would continue to fight. Apparently his body was sat in a chair overlooking the battlefield to give the impression he was still in charge! The Turks eventually abandoned the expedition and returned to Constantinople. This combination of events saved Vienna and is believed to have been a turning point in the centuries of conflict. <P> <CENTER> <IMG SRC="image200.JPG"> <BR> Final moments of Nikola Subich Zrinski <BR> Source: http://homepage.hispeed.ch/silversurfer/ </CENTER><P> <P> After more wars, punctuated by deceit and political intrigue (mostly detrimental to the Croats who were probably seen as a threat equal to the Turks by the Viennese Habsburgs), most Croatian territory was free of the Turkish threat by the end of the 17th century. Other parts of the Balkans did not escape Turkish occupation for another 200 years and military struggle between the Austrian Empire and the Turks persisted into the 19th century. Croatian soldiers were often in the forefront of these battles. <P> An interesting historical incident occurred in 1573 when Matija Gubec led a peasant rebellion against the Croatian noble classes as a result of their profiteering due to the strife with the Turks. The revolt was crushed and its supporters brutally executed. We may have had a completely different Balkan situation today if the uprising was successful. <P> Croats bore the brunt of the Turkish attempts to invade Europe for hundreds of years and ultimately prevented Islamic penetration into Western Europe. A Catholic Pope once referred to Croatia as the  Bulwark of Christianity . <P> Although notionally autonomous for most of its history, Croatia remained uncomfortably (and sometimes brutally) under Austro-Hungarian domination until the end of the Great War of 1914  1918. The only exception was from about 1806 to 1813 when parts of it were ceded to France during the Napoleonic domination of Europe. <P> In the mid 1800s there was a movement to re-unite Dalmatia and Croatia but an agreement between the Hungarians and Austrians restructured the Austrian Empire as the dualistic state of Austria Hungary in 1867. Dualism effectively prevented unification of Croat lands. Dalmatia and Istria belonged to the Austrian part of the Monarchy and Croatia proper to the Hungarian part. This arrangement remained in place until the disintegration of the Monarchy in 1918. <P> As a child, I never understood the friction that existed between some Croats and Dalmatians living in Australia. It is only since researching their history did I discover the gulf that divided them. For nearly 500 years they were ruled separated and only really came together again in my parent s lifetime. <P> <FONT SIZE=5><B>Islamic Slavs</B></FONT SIZE=5> <BR> During the 400 years of Turkish occupation of the southern Balkans, many Slavs and Albanians converted to Islam. Christians under Turkish administration were denied many of the privileges of Islamic subjects and the converts were probably motivated by the practicalities of life rather than religious conviction. Parts of Bosnia and Serbia are Islamic to this day, another issue contributing to the strife that plagues the Balkans. <P> The Turks had a curious and cruel custom. They kidnapped Slav boys from villages under their control, forcibly converted them to Islam and trained them in military and administrative skills. The most successful often became high-ranking officials, the remainder drafted into an elite infantry corps called the  Janissaries . These Christian born Janissaries were often used to fight the Christian armies of the Austrians, Hungarians and Croats with deadly effect. Their influence on the Croatian consciousness must have been enormous as I remember my father repeating old stories about them, and that was 400 years afterwards! I have also heard old Dalmatian tales of parents deliberately maiming their sons so they would not be taken. Even today, calling someone a  Janissary is a particularly nasty Slav insult. <P> There are many Turks with European skin colouring and facial features, obviously descendents of these and other Christian captives. Only recently, a family member, Graeme Andrews, assisted some Turkish immigrants involved in a boating mishap in NSW. Graeme was impressed by the fact that the young Turkish woman was almost the spitting image of his wife Winsome (nee Dobric) as a young woman. His observations are not surprising. The Turks attacked our ancestral town, Novi Vinodol, in the 1500s and many of its inhabitants were captured and taken away into slavery. The girl may have been a relative! <P> It is sometimes assumed that slavery in Europe was confined to the Roman era, but in fact it was commonplace for more than a thousand years after the collapse of Rome. The Slav races were regularly targeted, first by German and later by Turkish slavers and captives exported all over Europe. The practice was so common that Slavs provided the root of the English word  slave , supplanting the old English word  weallas (Welshman). Incidentally, I read recently that in 1100 AD, the largest slave market in Western Europe was in Viking ruled Dublin, an historical fact that the Irish would probably prefer to be quietly forgotten. Another little known fact is that some Croats were among the first Europeans to prohibit slavery, decreed in the Statute of Korcula in 1214 AD. <P> <FONT SIZE=5><B>French influence in Croatia</B></FONT SIZE=5> <BR> The Napoleonic French occupation influenced political thought in Croatia and the French were probably welcomed in some quarters. They built roads and other infrastructure and introduced a French education system. Napoleon even had a personal escort of Croatian troops, many of whom died defending him in his Russian campaign. A monument in the French Military Museum in Paris even celebrated these soldiers heroism. Napoleon was reputed to have said  If I had 100 000 Croats I could rule the world It is interesting to note that many of the Croat soldiers who fought so bravely for Napoleon in Russia had only a few years previously fought equally bravely against him as part of the Austrian army in the Franco-Austrian wars. <P> It is believed that the man s necktie originated in Croatia. Croatian soldiers served as mercenaries throughout Europe from early times. Louis VIII of France raised a Croatian cavalry regiment, the Royale-Cravate that existed from 1664 to 1789, and the neckwear worn by these Croatian troops became popular with the French and, ultimately, the rest of Europe. The word  cravat is a derivation of Hrvat (Croat). <P> <FONT SIZE=5><B>Yugoslav Croatia</B></FONT SIZE=5> <BR> At the end of the Great War of 1914  1918 most of Croatia, Dalmatia and Slovenia (dominions of Austria-Hungary and thus on the losing side) were placed under Serbian control by the victorious allied forces. The exceptions were Croatian Istria and Dalmatian Zadar, which were held by Italy until its capitulation in the World War of 1939-1945. <P> Serbia had supported the allied side. The specific event that precipitated the Great War was the killing of the Austrian Habsburg, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, by a Montenegrin/Serb assassin in 1914, resulting in Austria declaring war on Serbia. The rest of that story is world history. <P> The  Kingdom of SHS (Serbia, Hrvatska [Croatia], Slovenia) was created under the Serbian King, Peter Karadjordjevic. The name  Yugoslavia (Southern Slavs) was in common use from the start and internationally recognised in 1929. Around this time, Croatia was united with Dalmatia, and parts of Bosnia, as an autonomous region within Yugoslavia. <P> Yugoslavia was an unhappy union of Slavs from the start. The leader of the Croat Peasant Party, Stjepan Radic, was murdered in the Parliament by a Serbian agent, after which King Alexander (son of Peter) established a dictatorship. In 1934, Alexander, himself, was assassinated by a Croat while on tour in France. <P> The Serb Royal Family rose from humble beginnings. The Kingdom of Serbia was only proclaimed in 1882. King Peter was the grandson of a wealthy warlord (and pig merchant), Karadjordje (Black George) who had led a heroic Serbian uprising against their Turkish masters in 1804. Karadjordje was later murdered and beheaded by a member of a rival family who had a deal with the Turkish Sultan. <P> <FONT SIZE=5><B>The World War of 1939-1945</B></FONT SIZE=5> <BR> With the invasion of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers (Germany, Austria and Italy) in the World War, and the resulting collapse of the Royal Yugoslav government, the  Independent State of Croatia was proclaimed in Zagreb in April 1941 with support from the Axis invaders. Led by Ante Pavelic, its soldiers and agents were known as the  Ustaai (pronounced oo-sta-shi and literally translated as  Rebels ). A similar pro Nazi puppet administration formed in Serbia under General Nedic and other Balkan countries followed suit. All supported the Axis powers and their soldiers often fought under German command, particularly on the Eastern Front. <P> The Croat, Josip Broz (Tito), formed the Communist Yugoslav Partisans to fight the Germans and Italians. A large number of Croats rejected the puppet  Ustaai regime and joined Tito. <P> For a while, an irregular force consisting of Serb nationalists also opposed the invaders with military support from the Allies (led by Britain at the start of the war). These soldiers were known as the Cetniks (pronounced chetniks). <P> Wartime politics in Yugoslavia were brutal and confused. A bitter civil war erupted between the Partisans, Cetniks and Ustaai. The Allies initially ignored Tito s Communist Partisans and supported the Cetniks in their fight against Axis forces but later dropped the Cetniks and supported Tito. The Cetniks went on to support Hitler against the Partisans and there is some evidence to suggest that some pro-Ustaai soldiers unsuccessfully attempted to change sides and join the Allies in 1943! <P> In my estimation, the choice of whom someone fought for was influenced more by where they lived rather than political conviction. Around Zagreb and Slavonia the Ustaai were dominant but Tito s Partisans were active in coastal Croatia and parts of Bosnia and Serbia. The Cetniks operated within isolated Serbian enclaves. <P> During this conflict, all sides committed terrible atrocities. At the end of the war the Yugoslav Partisans, with tacit British support, inflicted more atrocities on the defeated Ustaai, again, more contributing factors to the later ethnic and political strife. <P> Members of my first wife s family were Partisans along with many others from their village of Zaton in Dalmatia and they suffered terribly at the hands of both the occupying Italians and their Cetnik supporters. My relatives in Novi also suffered under the occupation and many of them were Partisan fighters as well. <P> With the aid of the Western allies, the communists took power in 1945 and formed the Socialist Federated Republic of Yugoslavia with Tito as President. Croatia became one of Yugoslavia s six republics. <P> <FONT SIZE=5><B>Independent Croatia</B></FONT SIZE=5> <BR> Yugoslavia was plagued by nationalist tensions even during Tito s era and upon his death in 1980, the Federation began to crumble. Flash point was reached in 1991 when Slovenia seceded and Croatia, led by Franjo Tudjman, followed. <P>Croatia was plunged into yet another bitter civil war lasting several years and in which up to 15,000 Croats are thought to have died. Much of Croatia was attacked and occupied by Serbian forces until the United Nations and NATO intervened. The term  ethnic cleansing , the expulsion of minority groups from a region, is a product of this conflict. Again terrible atrocities were committed (often by Serbian Cetnik irregular forces on Croat civilians) and the scars of that conflict will take a long time to fade. <P> I read an amusing, if not a little ironic, comment recently on a Croatian tourist website promoting the place as a safe, low crime destination.  We leave the corruption to the politicians and the homicide until wartime. <P> By January 1998, Croatia regained most of its lost territory. Tudjman died in 1999 and on 18 February 2000, the newly elected President, Stjepan Mesic, was sworn in with the stated aims of democratic reform and integration of Croatia into Western Europe. <P> <FONT SIZE=5><B>Croatia through the ages</B></FONT SIZE=5> <P> <CENTER><IMG SRC="800ad.jpg"><BR> Around 800 AD: Croat and Serb tribes were well established in the Balkans. The Croats <BR> had fallen under the influence of the Franks but Serbia remained with the Byzantines. </CENTER> <P> <CENTER><IMG SRC="1000ad.jpg"><BR> Around 1000AD: Croatia was an independent kingdom </CENTER> <P> <CENTER><IMG SRC="1300ad.jpg"><BR> Around 1300AD: Croatia was an autonomous state under a Hungarian king. <BR> Serbia had become a powerful kingdom controlling much of the southern Balkans </CENTER> <P> <CENTER><IMG SRC="1550ad.jpg"><BR> Around 1550 AD: Dalmatia was under Venice and the rest of Croatia was under Austria. The Ottoman Turks had conquered most <BR> of the Balkans and made inroads into Croatian territory. The Turks did not completely leave the region until the early 1900s. </CENTER> <P> <CENTER><IMG SRC="2000ad.jpg"><BR> 2000 AD: Once again, Croatia is a sovereign European state. </Center> <P> <FONT SIZE=5><B>The Croatian language and alphabet</B></FONT SIZE=5> <BR> The Croatian language is one of a number of related Slavonic languages spoken in central, eastern and southeastern Europe. There are three major dialects in Croatian, with variations often existing between adjacent towns and villages. These dialects date back to the earliest Croatian migrations and identify three distinct waves of invading Croats. <P> Croatian as an independent language has been under attack from outside forces for tens of generations. Not only was the language officially suppressed by Austria and Hungary from early times but in the 19th century and again in the Yugoslav era there were concerted efforts to unify Croatian and Serbian into a common language. The first known official attempt to implement changes in 1850 was vigorously encouraged by Viennese bureaucrats because it simplified dealings with their Croatian and Serbian subjects. Incidentally, Ivan (later Ban) Ma~uranic of Novi was one of the scholars that signed off on those agreed changes. <P> Between 1920 and 1991, Croatia was part of Serbian dominated Yugoslavia and in 1954 further attempts were made (largely by Serbian scholars) to erase Croatian language  peculiarities . In this era, the regional Croatian dialects were further diminished. For example, the Novljanski (Novi) dialect spoken by my grandparents and preserved for many years by their relative isolation in Australia was quite different to that spoken by young people in Novi today. <P> <FONT SIZE=5><B>Dialects</B></FONT SIZE=5> <BR> The three major Croatian dialects are named after the word for  what in each. The ato (pronounced shto) dialect is the most common and is used over much of Croatia and Bosnia with variants appearing in Serbia as well. The kaj (kay) dialect appears in the north in Slovenia and around Zagreb and the ca (cha) dialect is used around Novi Vinodol and some Adriatic islands. <P> These dialects have sub-divisions, identified by the use of the vowel sound  i ,  e or  ije (pronounced  ye ). The word for  nice in Novi and parts of Dalmatia is  lipo ; in some regions it is  lijepo and others, with Serbian influence,  lepo . The  ca , or  Chakavian dialect using  i , or  Ikavian vowels is one of the earliest Croatian languages and was the dialect spoken by my ancestors in Novi and surrounds. <P> With the passage of time, the kaj and ca dialects are expected to disappear in Croatia except as academic curiosities. The Bosnian/Herzegovian ato dialect with the ije subset is the agreed national language and is officially encouraged throughout Croatia. <P> <FONT SIZE=5><B>Historical written Croatian</B></FONT SIZE=5> <BR> The Croatian language was suppressed in official circles for centuries with the Austrians and Hungarians trying to impose German or Hungarian (Magyar) respectively from time to time as the official language of the region. To avoid being taken over by these languages, Croatian leaders retained Latin as their official administrative language up to the mid-19th century. <P> In earlier times, certainly until the end of the 16th century, many documents and engravings were written in Croatian using the ancient  Glagolitic , a unique Slavonic script with no modern equivalent. It was apparently based on an ancient Greek script and its development is credited to Saint Cyril whose name, ironically, is given to the Cyrillic script used by the Serbs. A good example of Glagolitic appears on the 11th century Baaka tablet found on the island of Krk near Novi Vinodolski. <P> <CENTER> <IMG SRC="baska1.JPG"> <BR> The historic 11th century Baaka Tablet <BR> Source: http://www.hr/darko/etf/et03.html </CENTER> <P> In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Catholic Church in many parts of Croatia (including Novi) kept its records in Croatian, but written in a Latin/Germanic script similar to that used in modern English. For example, my family name  Piakulic was written as  Piskulich until the mid 1800s. <P> In some regions of Dalmatia under Venetian control, Italian was the official church language and it appears that early Croatian churches in some border regions also used the Serbian Cyrillic script. <P> <FONT SIZE=5><B>The Croatian alphabet</B></FONT SIZE=5> <BR> A unique Croatian alphabet, based on the Latin script, was developed in the 1830 s by French educated Croatian leaders and after many difficulties and some violent incidents, Croatian, using this script, became the language of officialdom by the late 1860 s. <P> The Croatian alphabet is phonetic. There is a letter to match each sound used in the language. This makes learning to read and write relatively easy. My grandparents only received three or four years of education but they could all read and write in their native language. <P> The alphabet consists of 30 letters, some using diacritic marks to indicate special sounds. There is no  th or  w sound in Croatian. Also, the letters  q ,  x and  y are absent. In most other cases, the sounds are similar to English. <P> The alphabet, and its sounds, follows. Upper and lower cases are shown. I have made notes alongside sounds that are substantially different to the English. <P> A-a, as in the Australian bath <P> B-b <P> C-c, a  ts sound as in rats <P> -, a  ty sound as in the Australian tune. My family name ends in  <P> - , as in rich <P> D-d <P> D~-d~, a softer sound than the English j in John <P> Ð-d, approximates the English j in John. I often received cards addressed to Ðon! <P> E-e, similar to the English e in bed <P> F-f <P> G-g <P> H-h <P> I-i, similar to English i in bid <P> J-j, a  y sound as in young <P> K-k <P> L-l <P> Lj-lj, an  ly sound close to the Australian brilliant <P> M-m <P> N-n <P> Nj-nj, an  ny sound close to onion <P> O-o, a sound close to the English  aw in shawl <P> P-p <P> R-r, rolled like the Scottish. Often used as a vowel, as in the family name Mraa <P> S- <P> `- a, as in English  sh <P> T-t <P> U-u, similar to the Australian  u in pull <P> V-v <P> Z-z <P> }-~, a soft  z as in Australian treasure <P> Grammar and spelling <BR> Croatian spelling is easy for a foreigner to understand, but the grammar is another story. The articles  a ,  an and  the are absent in the language so ideas such as  the child and  a child etc. require some verbal gymnastics for a non-native speaker like myself. <P> Another grammatical characteristic is that adjectives and nouns change their form depending on their function in a sentence. That caused me a lot of discomfort when travelling in Croatia and trying to speak with the locals! <P> There is also a sense of formality when addressing and speaking with others that is not easily understood by Australians.  You has two forms, the formal  vi for strangers and the informal  ti for friends, relatives and children. If I asked a friend  how are you? it would be  kako si? from the informal  ti si (you are). An unfamiliar person would be asked  kako ste? from the formal  vi ste , and so on. <P> A few useful expressions <P> <CENTER> <TABLE> <TR><TH> Da; </TH><TH> Yes. </TH><TH> Zbogom; </TH><TH> Goodbye.</TH></TR> <TR><TH>Ne; </TH><TH> No. </TH><TH> Dobro jutro; </TH><TH> Good morning.</TH></TR> <TR><TH>Dobro; </TH><TH> Good. </TH><TH> Dobar dan; </TH><TH> Good day.</TH></TR> <TR><TH>Slabo; </TH><TH> Poorly </TH><TH> Dobro vece; </TH><TH> Good evening.</TH></TR> <TR><TH>Kako si/ste?; </TH><TH> How are you?</TH><TH> Laku noc; </TH><TH> Good (lit. easy) night</TH></TR> <TR><TH>Ni je loae; </TH><TH> Not bad. </TH><TH> Sve najbolje!; </TH><TH> All the best!</TH></TR> <TR><TH>Molim; </TH><TH> Please. </TH><TH> Dovidjenja!: </TH><TH> See you (later)!</TH></TR> <TR><TH> Hvala; </TH><TH> Thankyou. </TH><TH> }ao mi je; </TH><TH> I m sorry.</TH></TR> <TR><TH> Izvinite; </TH><TH> Excuse me. </TH><TH> Boli mi & ; </TH><TH> My & hurts </TABLE> </CENTER> <P> <FONT SIZE=5><B>Novi Vinodol/ski;</B></FONT SIZE=5> <P> My ancestral town, Novi Vinodolski (Novi) is located on the Adriatic coast at the southern end of the Vinodol region. Today it is a popular tourist centre with several large hotels, good beaches and facilities. The words  Novljanski ,  Novljani ,  Novljanac and  Novljanka refer to Novi, its people and its individual men and women respectively. <P> To give some idea of Novi s location with respect to the rest of Europe, it is only about 90 kilometres from Trieste in northern Italy and about 130 kilometres from the Austrian border. <P> <CENTER> <IMG SRC="image22.jpg"> <BR> Novi  Stari Grad in the foreground <BR> (John Paskulich) </CENTER> <FONT SIZE=5><B>The Vinodol</B></FONT SIZE=5> <BR> The  Vinodol is in the region known as  Hrvatsko Primorje (Coastal Croatia). It is a narrow strip of land about 25 kilometres long and a kilometre or so wide between the coast and the nearby  Kapela mountain range extending south from the city of Rijeka. The title Vinodol is derived from the ancient Roman name of  Vallis Vineris and loosely translates as  Valley of Vines attesting to its long history as a winemaking region. <P> Croats began settling in the Vinodol during the 8th century, often occupying and strengthening abandoned Roman forts for protection. The  Lopar ruins at the eastern end of Novi are believed to be the site of one of these forts. By mediaeval times the Vinodol was protected by a network of castles, each with visual communications to the next. The fortified towns that developed from these castles were Trsat, Grobnik, Bakar, Hreljin, Drivenik, Gri~ane, Bribir, Ledenice and Novi. <P> <CENTER> <IMG SRC="image24.jpg"> <BR> Lopar ruins-Novi <BR> (John Paskulich) </CENTER> <P> The Vinodol region suffered many times in its history. Few records are available from the times of the attacks of the Mongol hordes but it is known that in 1242 Croatian soldiers at  Grobnicko Polje (Grobnik Field) at the northern entrance to the Vinodol successfully defeated a Mongol army attempting to invade the valley. <P> Due to its strategic location, Grobnik appears several times in the history of the Vinodol. The traditional  Morcici (Moors head) earrings and brooches popular among women of the region until the early 20th century are reputed to celebrate a victory over the Turks who attacked at Grobnik in the 16th century. On a family note, my mother was given a pair of those earrings as a small child. When she realised that they depicted black heads with turbans she refused to wear them! Obviously no one took the time to acquaint her with the tradition and glorious history they represented! <P> <CENTER> <IMG SRC="image25.jpg"> <BR> Typical Morcici design <BR> Source: http://croatiagifts.safeshopper.com/ </CENTER> <P> <FONT SIZE=5><B>Counts of Krk and the Frankopans</B></FONT SIZE=5> <BR> <FONT SIZE=4> Only a few kilometres offshore, in the Adriatic Sea, lies the Otok (Island) Krk. At about 40 kilometres long, it is one of the Adriatic s largest islands. The island s impregnable nature and its links to the ancient Roman Empire allowed the early development of a feudal aristocratic family group commonly known as the  Counts of Krk . <P> History suggests that, in 1225 the Hungarian King, Andrij (Andrew) II, officially gave the rights to rule the Vinodol to the Counts of Krk, but in practical terms this family would have controlled the region much earlier. These noblemen later adopted the family name Frankopan. <P> Baaka is a settlement in the south of Krk where the historic Baaka Tablet was discovered. This stone inscription, in the Glagolitic script, is one of the earliest known Croatian documents written during the reign of King Zvonimir (about 1090). <P> According to family legend, a family ancestor on the Dobric side, Katarina Umiljenovic (1823-1887), was nicknamed  Baba Baaka (Baba means grandmother). It is difficult to say what connection Katarina had with Baaka. Her family may have originated from there, but given the Novljanski custom of nicknaming people; the contact may be more tenuous. My father spoke of  Marija Merikanka so named because she spent some time in the USA! <P> The Croatian telephone directory shows that there are families of Umiljenovic living in the town of Senj, about 20 kilometres south of Novi. Senj is the nearest mainland port to Baaka, so there is at least a vague connection. <P> The Frankopans of Krk controlled the Vinodol until about 1450, by which time their power had weakened. Eventually, control of the Vinodol was divided between the Subich-Zrinski family (mentioned previously), who took over the major part, and the Frankopans of Tr~ak (relatives of the Krk noblemen) who administered Novi and its surrounds. The aristocratic Zrinski and Frankopan families were prominent in Croatian history for two centuries to follow. <P> The island of Krk was conquered by Venice in 1480 and remained in Venetian hands for several centuries. Novi stayed within the Hungarian, and later Austrian and Austro-Hungarian, empires. <P> Australians can t imagine how close these places are to each other. Krk is so close at one point, that it is now connected to the mainland by a bridge. Yet it was occupied by a hostile power for centuries. <P> The Zrinski-Frankopan rule ended violently in 1671. Ban (Governor) Petar Zrinski and soldier-statesman Fran Krsto Frankopan attempted to lead a rebellion against the Habsburg rule but were arrested and cruelly executed in Vienna on 30th April 1671. The Habsburgs persecuted the Zrinski family and destroyed its influence forever. The Frankopans suffered a similar fate and their estates, including the castle in Novi, were confiscated by Vienna. <P> <FONT SIZE=5><B>Uskok Pirates of Senj</B></FONT SIZE=5> <P> Although not strictly part of the Vinodol, the town of Senj, located about 20 km south of Novi, is an integral part of our history. In the early 16th century, Senj became the haven of Slavs fleeing from the Turks who, unlike their kin in surrounding towns, chose piracy over farming. The Croatian word  uskok can be loosely translated as refugee. The difficult terrain made Senj an ideal pirates haven and the Uskoks small, fast and manoeuverable vessels were ideally suited to the narrow island passages of the region. <P> For eighty years the Uskoks preyed on Turkish shipping in the Adriatic, with the justification that they only attacked the enemies of Christianity. For this reason they were tolerated (and sometime employed) by both the Venetians and Austrians in the region. Over generations, the pirates developed both outposts and relationships with townspeople along the coast and I have found a couple of references that suggest that the Vinodol towns including Novi supported and even provided recruits for the pirates. <P> Unfortunately, Venice entered into various political arrangements with the Turks in the mid-16th century and they also became enemies in the eyes of the Uskoks. To end the pirate  menace , Venice attacked the region (including Novi) on several occasions, finally concluding a political settlement with Austria in 1617. Under this agreement, the Uskoks were deported to other regions of Croatia, their ships destroyed and Senj repopulated with more compliant subjects, thus ending Croatia s pirate history. The Venetian Admiral (later Doge) Giovanni Bembo especially targeted Novi in 1598 and 1601 and his successor Marcanton Venier devastated the town in 1615. <P> One fanciful local story is that the Caribbean pirate Captain Henry Morgan sought refuge with the Uskoks and lent his name to the village of Mrgani in Istria. The only problem with this yarn is that Morgan was born some 20 years after the Uskoks were disbanded and exiled! <P> <CENTER> <IMG SRC="image27.JPG"> <BR> Uskok of the early 17th Century <BR> Source: http://pubwww.srce.hr/husar/ </CENTER> <P> <FONT SIZE=5><B>History of Novi Vinodol</B></FONT SIZE=5> <BR> Accurate dating of the founding of Novi is impossible. The site has been occupied since pre-Roman times, but in a European map of 1154 drawn by the Arabic geographer Al  Edrisi, it apparently wasn t important enough to be included. Al  Edrisi worked in the court of the Norman King Roger II, of Palermo. <P> The first official reference to Novi is in 1163 as a parish under the Split diocese. In 1185 it reappears in the Senj diocese. <P> <CENTER> <IMG SRC="image29.JPG"> <BR> Mediaeval Novi <BR> Source: http://www.novi-vinodolski.com/ </CENTER> <P> An event in Croatian history that did put the town on the map was the passing of the  Vinodol Zakonit (Vinodol Law Code), in Novi, on the Feast of the Epiphany, January 6th 1288. The laws, passed in the presence of Prince Leonid of Krk and Vinodol leaders, codified the relations between the new Counts of Krk and the Vinodol towns. <P> <CENTER> <IMG SRC="image30.JPG"> <BR> Artist s impression of signing of the Vinodol Code 6th January 1288 <BR> Novi Museum (John Paskulich) </CENTER> <P> The code dealt with criminal and property law and restricted the powers of the Counts over their feudal subjects. It also made provisions for the protection of women. This mediaeval legal document showed a high level of social and political sophistication in its authors. The code did not recognise divine judgement or torture but relied on witness testimony, oath taking and juries, things not seen in Western Europe until many centuries later. <P> <CENTER> <IMG SRC="vcode.JPG"> <BR> Vinodol Law Code 1288 AD <BR> Source: http://www.croatianhistory.net/ </CENTER> <P> The original name of Novi at the time of the Vinodol Law Code was  Novi Grad (New Town) possibly describing the settlement that grew after the old Roman  Lopar fort was abandoned. It was known as  Novi Vinodol for centuries but, in 1962, the variation  Novi Vinodolski was proclaimed. <P> The original fortified town of Novi, now the suburb of  Stari Grad (Old Town), is located at the western end. It is now Novi s cultural centre, containing the main church, part of the original Frankopan castle and remnants of the town s fortifications. <P> In 1480 King Mathias Corvinus granted Novi s people free status and, in 1493, after the Turks devastated Hungarian and Croatian forces at the Battle of Krbava, the bishopric of Lika was transferred to Novi and the town church of Saints Philip and Jacob was proclaimed its cathedral. <P> Novi suffered many times in its history. In 1496, the plague struck with such severity that the townspeople abandoned the town until it subsided. Legend has it that the votive church of Saints Fabian and Sebastian was built in 24 hours in 1511 as a vow to God to protect them from the disease again. The church (demolished in the early 1900 s) was built on the site of the present day bell tower located alongside the church of Saints Philip and Jacob in Stari Grad. The bell tower is a prominent landmark in the district. <P> Turkish raiders attacked and burnt Novi in 1527 and took away many of its people as slaves. The Turks attacked the area several times and 50 years later they devastated the nearby stronghold of Ledenice, the fortress that protected the southern entrance to the Vinodol. <P> <CENTER> <IMG SRC="IMAGE34.JPG"> <BR> Artist s impression of Turkish enslavement on Novi citizens 1527 <BR> Novi Museum (John Paskulich) </CENTER> <P> In addition to the Turkish menace, Novi was attacked by Venice in 1598, 1601 and 1615. In the 1615 attack they breached the town walls, pillaged and almost destroyed the town. The severity of this attack on Novi supports my belief that the Venetians considered Novi to be a significant threat and associated with the Uskok pirates of Senj. The  modern church records begin in 1650 with only a few dozen entries indicating the extent of the devastation and the time taken to rebuild the community. <P> <P> <CENTER> <IMG SRC="venicebadguys.jpg"> <BR> Artist s impression of Venetian attack on Novi citizens 1615 <BR> Novi Museum (John Paskulich) </CENTER> <P> An earthquake struck Novi in 1750 and the town was hit by a hurricane in 1757. I have no information on how the townspeople fared but they must have suffered considerably. The earthquake damaged the mediaeval Frankopan castle (the centrepiece of Novi) and the authorities demolished a major part of it a few years later. Today, the remaining part of the castle is still used as a museum and administrative offices. Similarly, the hurricane of 1757 was so intense that the waterfront Pauline monastery was destroyed. <P> Disease was ever present. The town records show that smallpox epidemics in 1734 and 1775 between them killed over 100 children and outbreaks of cholera in 1836 and 1849 killed over 300 hundred people in total. Given that the population of Novi was only around 1100 in 1732 and 2300 in 1844 these losses must have been devastating. <P> The French occupation of Croatia in the early 1800 s left a legacy of public roads, infrastructure and enduring legends in Novi. I have vague memories of my father recounting stories passed down to him about the French some 150 years before. I also uncovered a curious historical incident from this time. In 1812 civil marriages were introduced in Novi, no doubt reflecting French egalitarian ideals, but by the December of 1813 they were abolished. This coincides with the defeat of the French by a European coalition at the Battle of Leipzig in that year. <P> Famine struck and the town records show 17 people died of starvation in 1817. 1816 is sometimes recorded in history as the  Year without a summer and most crops were lost across Europe and North America. It is thought that a huge volcanic eruption of Mount Tambora (Sumbawa Indonesia) in April 1815 threw up a huge dust cloud that affected sunlight and global temperatures worldwide. Very similar to the event believed to have occurred in 535 AD. Widespread disruption, famine and food riots occurred across Europe over the next couple of years and Novi was particularly hard hit. <P> It is possible that our next great human tragedy may not be the product of global warming, terrorism or the other prominent issues of our time but simply a result of a belligerent volcano doing what volcanoes do. <P> From the mid 1800s Novi s fortunes appeared to improve. A postal service began in 1851 and a steamship line serviced the town from the late 1860s. 1878 is celebrated as the year that Novi became a tourist centre when the Mr~lak family established a bathing area and buildings for tourists. Within a few years, inns and other facilities were well established. The imposing Liaanj hotel was completed in 1894 offering a new level of sophistication. The Liaanj hotel is still a tourism icon in Novi. <P> During the Great War of 1914  1918, Croats were at the front again, providing huge numbers of soldiers for the Austro-Hungarian forces. In one bitter campaign fought against the Italians in the mountainous border regions near Trieste, over 400 000 men died from both sides. My two grandfathers escaped the Great War. Peter was in Australia and Frank in New Zealand, but both of my grandmothers were in Novi for the duration. They rarely spoke of the war but from what they did say, it was a miserable and hungry time. <P> In the Second World War (1939-1945), Novi played an important part in the Partisan struggle. It was attacked and occupied by Italian and later, German troops. A wall of photographs of fallen partisans in the Novi museum bears mute testimony to that time. <P> <CENTER> <IMG SRC="borci2.JPG"> <BR> Another wall hosts this placque in honor of Novi's fallen heroes <BR> <FONT SIZE=1><I>photo by Michael Pottorff, c. 2002</I></FONT SIZE=1> </CENTER> <P> <FONT SIZE=5><B>Traditions</B></FONT SIZE=5> <BR> Novi is rich with traditions and has managed to preserve much of its cultural heritage. For generations, the town has conducted the summer festival of  Mesopust . Traditional garb is worn and the  Novjansko kolo (circle/wheel dance) is performed, supported by traditional folk singing and music. Popular folk musical instruments are the  sopile , a long wooden wind instrument and the  tamburica a string instrument similar to a mandolin. From early times, part of the Mesopust festival involved parading and burning an effigy of a man that took the blame for the year s misfortune. This tradition persists to the present day. <P> While on the subject of music, my grandfather Petar Dobric and most of his siblings were accomplished musicians. I sometimes heard stories from my grandfather about how he and his brother Ivan would be hired to play their instruments at local weddings and other events. The pay was usually a few coins and a good meal! Another brother, Bo~idar was a respected dance-band leader and Bo~idar s daughter Adica was a musical director in Zagreb Radio and is still prominent in music and Croatian cultural activities. <P> <CENTER> <IMG SRC="image39.jpg"> <P> Ivan Dobric-Lukinic (on left) and Anton Ma~uranic in traditional garb playing the sopile (approximately 1975). Ivan was my great uncle. <BR> Source: Unknown </CENTER> <P> <FONT SIZE=5><B>People of Novi</B></FONT SIZE=5> <BR> Novi accepted many immigrants in its history. Although the original Croats began settling the area in the 700 s, it is believed that the Frankopan, and later Austrian rulers, encouraged settlers from many regions. Many families in Novi can trace their history back to particular events (often Turkish or Venetian wars) and other areas of Croatia. <P> <FONT SIZE=5><B>Novi family names </B></FONT SIZE=5> <BR> The modern recorded history of Novi dates back to the mid 1600s. Below are listed most of the names in the town from around 1700. Where appropriate I have placed the Latinised spelling of the period in brackets. <P> <BR> <P> Baran <P> Brnic <P> Brunko <P> Cikovic <P> Cikulic <P> Culinovic <P> Dobric <P> Gabrijelic <P> Ivanovic <P> Ivic <P> Jelicic <P> Jezic *this name was added as two of my collaborators, Lynette Sebalja of New Zealand, and, Michael Pottorff of the United States, have traced a Jezic union with a Liljan, through birth records--corroborated by Charles Jezick, of the US who also received them from Dr. Herve Jezic of Spain--to individuals born before 1700. Also, one of the children of this union had a son, Ivan Jezic, the bishop who became the champion of the primorje dialect, spoken in the coastal region of Novi. <P> Kabalin <P> Kargacin <P> Kozaric <P> Kriakovic <P> Kukalj <P> Liljan <P> Lindaric <P> Loncaric <P> Malabrunic <P> Malcinic <P> Mariaaevic <P> Maricic <P> Ma~uranic <P> Mrzljak <P> Mudrovcic <P> Paladin <P> Pericic <P> Petrinovic <P> Piakulic (Piskulich) <P> Potocnjak <P> Radetic <P> Sajcic <P> `ebalja <P> `egulja <P> Sekulic <P> Sokolic <P> Stipanic <P> Toljan <P> Umiljenovic <P> Vlaaic <P> }anic (Xanich) <P> Zoricic <P> }vanovic (Xvanovich) <P> <BR> <P> In a previous chapter, I mentioned that Vlach families entered Novi in the early 1600s under the auspices of the Frankopans. Although completely integrated today, in earlier times they tended to live apart from the mainstream in the village of Donji Zagon, a few kilometres to the east of Novi. These families were identified separately in the local history. Some of their family names included: <P> Deranja <P> Glavicic <P> Jovanovic <P> Karlovic <P> Kostic <P> Krajncic <P> Mrkulja <P> Tomic <P> <FONT SIZE=5><B>Ma~uranic (Mazuranich)</B></FONT SIZE=5> <BR> The Vinodol region provided heroes, statesmen and academics over the centuries. The Zrinskis and Frankopans have been mentioned previously but another family of note is Ma~uranic. The family s roots in Novi have been traced back to the 15th century and the name appears earlier in the Dalmatian city of Split in the mid 14th century. <P> Ban Ma~uranic, was my great, great, great, great, great uncle from my maternal grandmother s side. My very tenuous link with Croatian history! <P> <CENTER> <IMG SRC="image41.JPG"> <BR> Ban Ivan Ma~uranic <BR> Source: http://www.answers.com/topic/ivan-mazuranic </CENTER> <FONT SIZE=5><B>My family names</B></FONT SIZE=5> <P> <FONT SIZE=5><B>Piakulic (Piskulich)</B></FONT SIZE=5> <BR> I will repeat some earlier comments to dispel any confusion about the original spelling of my surname. In 17th century Croatia, it was spelt  Piskulich in the old Latin/Germanic script used by the Church, but after the introduction of the modern phonetic Croatian alphabet in the mid 19th century it was altered to  Piakulic . <P> There is an amusing version of the origin of the name Piakulic.  Piaku sounds similar to the Croatian slang for female genitals and I remember being the butt of a joke about this once by one of my first wife s relatives. (Damatians are not noted for their sensitivity). <P> The only Croatian words I can find that may be roots of our name are  piskor (also spelt  piakor ) meaning lamprey, an eel-like fish or an old word,  piskarati , to write. There is also a similar sounding Russian word  piskulka which is a bird of the goose family and recently I learnt that  pishka means  chick in a Slovenian dialect. So we may be descended from someone who was a scribe or simply named after a fish or a bird! I like the scribe theory implying a well-educated, sophisticated individual and I won t even contemplate the fact that the  piskor is a slimy, parasitic fish with a large mouth! <P> Piakor is a relatively common Slavonic name. In mediaeval times throughout Europe, lampreys were prized delicacies and the English King Henry I was famously recorded as dying from a  surfeit of lampreys in 1135. My ancestor may have been the supplier of lampreys to his feudal master. Since Croats share ancestry and language with both Russians and Slovenians, the  piskulka and  pishka also cannot be ruled out. <P> I have a vague memory of my father suggesting that our Piakulic ancestors came to Novi from the peninsula of Peljeaac, near Dubrovnik at the southern end of Dalmatia. Although according to the telephone directory, Novi is where the name is now most concentrated in Croatia. Only one telephone directory entry of the name Piakulic exists in Peljeaac today, at a place called Pijavicino but the name was first recorded in that village in the 16th century, adding support to my Dad s belief about our origins. I passed through Pijavicino in 2004. Nowadays it is only a tiny, neglected hamlet consisting of a few houses and a small church. <P> It is interesting to note that there is a smaller but significant concentration of Piakulic families in Slavonia (inland central Croatia) in the region around the town of Nova Gradiaka. It seems that this group are all descended from one family that moved from Novi several generations ago, first to Lika and then to Nova Gradiaka during the World War. <P> <FONT SIZE=5><B>Paskulich</B></FONT SIZE=5> <BR> In Australia, my father was unofficially using  Paskulich as his surname by 1941, and to clear it all up, I changed mine legally to Paskulich in 1970 when I turned 21. My parents and siblings followed a short time later. <P> Considering the way it evolved, I believed that the spelling of my surname was unique so I was intrigued to find Internet references to Same Paskulich (1886-1949), Anna Paskulich (1892-1982), and Mayme Paskulich (1914-1950?) in Montana, USA. Mayme married a Harold Brown (1902-1985). I cannot find any current records in the USA so that line must have died out. <P> It is interesting to see the spelling variations of our name as our people migrated around the world. So far I have found Piakulic, Piskulic, Piskulich, Pisculich, Piskolich, Peskulich and Paskulich! <P> <FONT SIZE=5><B>Dobric (Dobrich) </B></FONT SIZE=5> <BR> My grandfather, Petar Dobric always maintained that his ancestors were relative newcomers to Novi (only about 400 years ago!) although they appear in the earliest available town records. We will probably never know their origins for sure as Dobric is a common surname throughout the Balkans but there are large concentrations of the name in Istria and around Zagreb and Split. One suggestion from Adica Dobric-Jelaca, my mother s cousin now living in Zagreb, is that the Dobric clan came to Novi from Donji Lapac in the Lika region. Donji Lapac is located close to the Bosnian border due east of the coastal town of Karlobag. Novljani had a propensity for nicknames and my grandfather s family members were often referred to as  Podlapace , possibly a reference to their origins. <P> The Turks occupied the Lika region after they crushed a Hungarian-Croatian army in a great battle at Krbava in 1493. As with many other Novljanski families the Dobric move to Novi was most likely a consequence of this invasion. <P> A town called Dobrich exists in Bulgaria but it has only used this name since the late 19th century so I doubt that there is any historical connection. <P> The earliest historical record I found of the Dobric name was Dobric Dobricevic, also known by the Latin translation Boninus Boninis. I think it loosely translates as Goody, son of Goody! Born on the Adriatic island of Lastavo near Dubrovnik in 1454, he was a famous typographer and printer in the Venetian empire. He died in 1528 after spending his final years as Dean of the Cathedral of Treviso. This man was another example of a successful Dalmatian Croat in Italian history. <P> <FONT SIZE=5><B>Radetic (Radetich) </B></FONT SIZE=5> <BR> The old church records of Novi show that, in about 1710, another ancestor, Ivan Rade, arrived in Novi with his wife (born Margareta Dubrovich) and family from  Kastua (Castua), now better known as Kastav, a few kilometres west of Rijeka. Their descendents in Novi carried the nickname  Kastavac for generations. Even today, the surnames Rade and Dubrovic appear in the area around Rijeka. In the early 1700s, Castua was near the Venetian border so the family may have been escaping military action or harassment. Within a few years of arrival in Novi they married into local families, adopted the name Radetich/Radetic and established family lines that persist to the present day. My paternal grandmother was a Radetic. <P> I sometimes wonder about the way surnames develop and also the veracity of the old records. There is a village called Radetici located in central Istria (about 50 km west of Rijeka) populated by families with the surname Radetic and there is a very large concentration of the Radetic surname throughout the Istrian peninsula. <P> Did Rade become Radetic or was it the other way round? Is the name Rade simply a diminutive form? Did Ivan originate in Radetici and move to Kastav before coming to Novi? Studying family history can become an obsessive and frustrating pastime! <P> <FONT SIZE=5><B>Spelling and other variations </B></FONT SIZE=5> <BR> The various genealogy lists of our townspeople appear to mix up the spelling of surnames but they follow historical or local variations. First names will also vary, as their owners often used translations or diminutives. <P> Spelling and other variations are particularly apparent in some old church records. For example, Latinised Christian names were fashionable in Novi during the late 18th century, but had fallen out of favour a generation or so later. One ancestor, baptised as Hieronijmous Dobrich (1764 -1842), also appears as Hiro and the Croatian equivalents Jerolim and Jere! In different records scattered over the centuries his surname also appears as Dobrich, Dobric and Dobric. <P> <FONT SIZE=5><B>Nadimak</B></FONT SIZE=5> <BR> In addition to their surname, many families from Novi also carried a semi-permanent nickname to identify particular family lines. The Croatian word for this name is  nadimak and its use was common throughout Croatia. It must be a widespread European custom, as a similar system appeared as far away as Highland Scotland in places where many families shared common surnames. <P> Both my maternal grandparents were born Dobric but, according to my mother, Peter s side was identified as Dobric-Lukinic and Kate s as Dobric-Kontic. My father s line was Piakulic-Arbice (Arbice is the diminutive form of Adalbertov). Peter Dobric s mother was born as Piakulic-Zdolcevic. We had an old family friend by the name of Frank Fumic, who started life as Piskulic-Fumic! I have heard of other lines such as Piakulic-Anic and Piakulic-Vujica as well. Similarly my paternal grandmother s family Radetic carried the nadimak Lulic. <P> There is no apparent pattern to the way the nicknames developed. Some are obviously derived from a family patriarch as in Dobric-Lukinic. The suffix ic can mean  little one of so in this example Luka (Lucas 1794-1829) probably started the line but Piakulic-Zdolcevic apparently derives from  iz (from) Dolac , an area around Novi. My grandfather Peter identified my grandmother Kate s line as Dobric-Kontic. I am not sure if this is a genuine  nadimak or one he made up to tease her about her family connection with Ban Ma~uranic (Kontic  Count). <P> In my grandparents time in Novi, there were possibly four separate Dobric family lines and at least half a dozen different Piakulic lines that would have shared common ancestors hundreds of years ago. As far as I can work out, these  nadimak names started appearing around the early to mid 1800s during a time of rapid population growth in Novi. <P> <FONT SIZE=5><B>Domazet</B></FONT SIZE=5> To confuse the situation a little more, there are family legends that somewhere in the distant past at least two of our male ancestors actually changed their names and joined their wives families. Apparently a Piakulic ancestor was born Modric but adopted Piakulic on marriage and similarly a Dobric ancestor on Petar s side was born Umiljenovic. The names Modric and Umiljenovic still appear around Novi today. <P> There is no evidence of these incidents occurring in the last 350 years, but they quite possibly happened earlier as this was a common custom in the old days if there were no sons to carry on a family name. In fact, the custom was so common in old Croatia that there was a word for it,  domazet , literally  home son-in-law . The meaning of this word becomes obvious if you understand that it was customary for a new daughter-in-law to join her husband s family house or  home (in Croatian; doma). In this case the son-in-law (zet) lived in the home of his wife s family. Usually a younger son of a family with poor inheritance prospects would be encouraged into this arrangement and he would become entitled to his wife s inheritance at the cost of surrendering his surname. <P> <FONT SIZE=5><B>Conclusion</B></FONT SIZE=5> <P> Repeating my introduction, my family s Australian heritage began with the arrival of my grand parents and parents in Western Australia from Novi Vinodol in the decade or so after the Great War of 1914  1918. <P> Frank and Maria Piskulich worked hard and suffered a lot of privations and disappointments in their lives but their contribution to Australia has been an auspicious one. They brought up four children in this country who, in turn, produced 10 grandchildren and then 25 great grandchildren. Their descendents include tradesmen, teachers, social workers, medicos, academics and business professionals. Their two sons served in Australia s armed forces during the Second World War and a grandson fought for Australia in the Vietnam War. <P> My mother s parents, Peter and Kate Dobric battled the odds in a similar fashion and their contribution to this country was equally auspicious. They brought up three daughters and at last count had 12 great-grandchildren. Their descendents have made their mark equally to those of Frank and Maria and one son-in-law, Graeme Andrews, even received a national accolade, the Order of Australia Medal for his contribution to academia. <P> Not a bad effort overall! <P> <FONT SIZE=5><B>Close</B></FONT SIZE=5> <P> History is, at best, a collection of perceptions held by people. Croatian history is particularly subjective and is richly coloured with mythology and legend. I have endeavoured to be as objective as possible but I know that my observations will be biased both by my own experiences and the views of the people from whose stories and writings I gleaned much of my information. I believe I have made reasonable assumptions when information was ambiguous or incomplete but I am sure that in the future some errors will be found in my interpretation of events. Just as I have corrected errors in stories passed down to me, please continue the process if you come across new or more compelling information. Any additions or corrections fed back to me would be most welcome. <P> John Paskulich <P> Perth, Western Australia <P> August 2005 <P> <A HREF="mailto:johnp1949@iinet.net.au">johnp1949@iinet.net.au</A> <P> <p> </BODY> </HTML>