A Search for our Slovenian Family

Before we started our trip I did some research because I really wanted to find my Slovenian and Croatian families. I had my Grammy Csurics’ cookbook with Pappy’s twin brother’s address, but it was dated 1914. When I was a child I often asked my mom’s parents about Slovenia, so I knew that Grammy lived in Turnišče and Pappy in Zizki. I didn’t have any information about my Simonic grandparents, and I wish I would have checked further.

When I plan our trips I use the Rick Steves guidebooks for the most part, and went with Rick’s recommendation for a tour guide in Slovenia: LOOPY SLOVENIA. Jernej Zakelj - Bart, who runs the company, did an excellent job and I’d definitely recommend him. He went over and above our expectations, doing a lot of research with the little information I sent him about my family. He does group tours, but we hired him for a private eight hour tour to find my missing Slovenian family.

Because Bart did the driving, Bob had a chance to look around and we agreed that while North Eastern Slovenia didn’t have the dramatic Julian Alps, the rolling hills were beautiful.

Our first stop was Maribor, the second largest city in Slovenia and the location of the cathedral where Bart found my grandparents’ baptismal records. Bart did a good job on his research and he also found Pappy’s twin brother’s burial location and arranged to have copies of these records for me. So, now we know where Josef, Pappy’s twin, is buried, and we went to find it.

Bart’s English was excellent and he was a great tour guide. He drove to a village and stopped to ask if anybody knows someone named Csurics. Apparently it was a common name in the area because they pointed to a house and said Angela Csurics lives there. Angela wasn’t home because she was at the fire chief’s funeral, so Bart drove us to the cemetery so we could try to find her.

The fire chief was well liked and the whole town must have turned out for his funeral. Somewhere in that crowd is my cousin Angela. I knew that my Pappy’s twin brother had a granddaughter named Angela because when I was a little girl I helped pack boxes that they sent to our family in Slovenia, including a little girl named Angela.

Bart asked and yes, there were some Csurics’ here at the funeral. While we waited we looked around for Josef’s grave. Could this Plesec be Plesic? Gloria’s family??

Is this it? Čuričevi = family of Čurič. Is Elizabeta Angela’s mother?

Angela’s daughter, Mateja, was at the cemetery. Angela was too, but we missed seeing her so Mateja called her mother and arranged a meeting for us. This is amazing! I’ve finally met my Slovenian cousin, Angela!

They invited us to Mateja’s house so we could meet the rest of the family. Here we have Angela talking to Bart who was our fantastic tour guide and translator. I can understand very little Slovenian and Angela could understand a little English so Bart was invaluable and he did an outstanding job.

I was still somewhat skeptical. Could this really be my Pappy’s family - my family? While Mateja prepared a delicious meal for all of us Angela went home and brought back pictures that my Grammy and Pappy sent to her grandparents. This is my sweet Grammy, Pappy, and Aunt Mary with my cousin! Yes! We are family!!! She also has a picture of me riding the rocking horse that our Baby Claire loves to ride when she to comes to our house! I was amazed!

The man on the right is my Great Uncle Josef, my Pappy’s twin brother. I think he looks a little like my Pappy, and Angela said he was a kind and loving man, just like my Pappy.

Here we are - the Čurič family! From the left: Herman Krajnc (Angela’s husband), Jacob (Damian’s son), Matej (Angela’s son), Mateja, Tomi (Mateja’s son), me, Bob, Angela, and Damian (Angela’s son). We found out later that Damian has a daughter. Sorry to have missed you Ana!

When Damian arrived he bought a huge box that looked like an oversized pizza box. It wasn’t pizza! It was actually the same thing that my Grammy made every year the day before Easter. It has what I think is bread dough on the bottom topped with cottage cheese mixed with egg and sour cream. It was delicious and a very nice surprise! Does anyone else remember eating this? Recipe!?!

A view with a few slices missing.

Here we are again, the Čurič family outside of Mateja’s house.

Angela and Herman wanted us to meet some friends. It was a nice drive, and I really wanted to see the area that Pappy lived in when he was a young boy.

I didn’t make note of their friends’ names, but they were very welcoming to us.

We stayed and talked until it was almost dark, and when we left Bart granted me one last wish: I wanted to see Turnišče, the place where my Grammy lived until she was 13 and immigrated to America.

It was too late and too dark to see much in Turnišče, but I took a picture of the church hoping that it was the same one that Grammy went to. We spent far more than eight hours with Bart and he made sure that we enjoyed our day. Thanks so much Bart, for making my vacation dream come true and finding at least one quarter of my Grandparents’ family. I wish I would have done more research on the Simonic side. When we got home I heard that Grandpa Simonic was born near Ljubljana. We were so close and I was really disappointed to hear that news.

Angela, I’m very happy that we finally were able to find you. I’m sure Anton and Josef would be very happy that we finally met. Thanks again Mateja, for the delicious meal and introducing us to the rest of our Slovenian Family.

We have three more days on our trip. I really want to try to add a video to the next post, so stay tuned!