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Calculating a Possible Birth Date for Jane Darragh

Image by Willfried Wende from Pixabay   Trying to figure out a birth date, death date, or range of dates for an ancestor with just a piece of information or two? Perhaps you have a death date and an age on a headstone and want to calculate their birth date. Or maybe you have several censuses with differing ages and are attempting to hone in on the right one. After watching Carolyn Ladd's excellent RootsTech webinar " Which Date Is Right? Solving Birthdate Conflicts Through Genealogical Analysis ," I decided to implement some of her suggestions to tackle determining Jane Darragh's birth date. I have not yet found a birth or baptism record for Jane, so I've had to rely on other sources which give her age, which—typically—vary somewhat from document to document.  I used some great date calculators on Tony Proctor's Parallax View   blog .  He included several in his post, "Measurement Tools ," published in 2015, with various updates since then. Perhaps ...
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Unusual Name: Vjekoslava

This blog post is part of the "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" writing challenge by genealogist, blogger and podcast host Amy Johnson Crow. Week 3 prompt: "Unusual Name."


Being of Croatian and Slovak ancestry lends itself to having many unusual names in my maternal line. So far, my favorite is Vjekoslava, my Croatian great grandmother's name. According to the website "Behind the Names" it is the feminine version of the male name Vjekoslav or "glory through the ages." How beautiful!

My mother knew her grandmother as Louise Kozlina, her married name. So it was a giant leap to actually determine her real name. My aunt recalled her first name was "Alouisa," Americanized to Louise. Various documents such as her childrens' birth certificates and United States Federal Census records have her variously listed as "Loyza," "Elizabeth," "Elizie," "Lojza," and "Loyzka."

But Louise was actually baptized Vjekoslava on 14 August 1882, in Gorica Svetojanska, Zagreb, Croatia, as seen in her birth and baptism entry from the "Matična Knjiga Rođenih," or Parents Book of Births1. It was apparently a very popular name at that time, as two other baby girls were recorded as being named Vjekoslava on the same page.

Reading from left to right, record number 70, born on 14 Aug 1882, baptized same date, Vjekoslava, "zakonita" or legitimate, to Petar Baltorinic and Bara Celinscak.

I have also found her name listed in the ship's manifest for the "Slavonia," which sailed from Fiume, Croatia (now Rijeka), bringing her to New York in December 19052. In the manifest Vjekoslava is listed as 19 years old. She gives her destination as Lemont Furnace, Pennsylvania, and the home of "Jakels Tukich." I recently realized that this is a misspelling of her sister Zora's husband's name: Jacob Vukich. So, she must have lived with them when she first arrived in the United States.

Shortly thereafter, in May 1906, Vjekoslava signs her own name to her application for a marriage license in Fayette County, Pennsylvania.3  I love her clear, strong handwriting. She applied for the license as Louise Baltorinic, but signs her birth name to the document.

Detail of signatures on Fayette County, Pennsylvania marriage application for Frank Kozlina and Vjekoslava Baltorinic, May 1906.

Louise became a United States citizen in November of 1941, making her declaration and petition with her full married name: Lojza Vjekoslava Kozlina. My theory is that the Lojza is perhaps a confirmation name, and from which her more commonly-known name derived.

Detail of Lojza's signature on her Petition for Naturalization.

Just the other day, I happened upon a news item published in The Morning Herald on 13 Sept 1973 in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, which mentions my great grandmother by her Croatian name. The photo caption detailed a testimonial dinner held by the Croatian Fraternal Lodge No. 72:

"Also recognized were the 60-year members of the lodge: ....Lojza Kozlina..."4

Lojza Vjekoslava Baltorinic had come a long way from the 19-year-old travelling alone to a new country--to become "Lojza" Louise Kozlina, a women with deep roots in her Croatian American community in southwestern Pennsylvania.


 1 Roman Catholic church, Gorica Svetojanska, Matična Knjiga Rođenih 1858-1897 (Parents Book of Births) entry for Vjekoslava Baltorinic, 14 August 1882; digital image, "Croatia, Church Books, 1516-1994," image 354, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org : accessed 13 Jan 2019); citing FHL microfilm 00549381. 

2  Statue of Liberty - Ellis Island Foundation, database with images (https://libertyellisfoundation.org : accessed 14 Jan 2019), "Passenger Record," entry for Vjekoslava Baltorinic, age 19, arrived 1 Dec 1905 on Slavonia from Fiume; citing passenger ID 102479100440, frame 672, line 2.

3 County of Fayette, Pennsylvania, marriage application and license entry for Frank or Franciscus Kozlina and Louise or Vjekoslava Baltorinic, 19 June 1906; database and digital images, "Pennsylvania, County Marriages, 1885-1950," image 201, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 13 Jan 2019), citing Marriage, Uniontown, Fayette, Pennsylvania, United States, various county courts and registers, Pennsylvania; FHL microfilm 1,318,045. 

4 Author unknown, "Testimonial," The Morning Herald, 13 Sept. 1973. (Newspapers.com database with images, https://www.newspapers.com : accessed 14 Jan 2019), page 9; citing print edition.

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