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Mom's Turn on Stage: The Cleveland Folk Festival

Mom is third from right in this newspaper clipping. In a stroke of serendipity following last week's post on my Grandpa's involvement in Cleveland's Theater of Nations, I ran across an email I had sent in an attempt to identify the newspaper and date for the clipping above. 1 My mother, Anna Kozlina Gilbride (1937-2010), is pictured third from the right, seated on the floor. Since I was fortunate to learn the background surrounding Grandpa's role in The Colleen Bawn , I thought I'd check the newspaper websites again to try to find this clipping and finally date it. And I did find it, in the 5 February 1952 edition of The Cleveland Press ; Mom was 14 years old in this photo, lots younger than I had imagined! 2 The caption states that Mom was performing as part of the Croatian Slavulj Society. Slavulj—Croatian for "the Nightingales"—was founded by Joseph Gregorincich and operated from 1937 to about 1951. The group began as a singing and drama club and later ...
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FRANJO "FRANK" KOZLINA

Louise & Frank Kozlina.1



31 Days of Writing Family History Challenge

January 12, 2022:   Maternal Great Grandfather #1  - Franjo Kozlina (1885-1946)


by Nancy Gilbride Casey

In the pursuit of one's family history, when stories are scarce, documents and photos may be the main items with which to reconstruct an ancestor's life. This is the case for my mom's grandfather, Franjo "Frank" Kozlina. He died in 1945 when my mother was still a child of 8 or so. If she had any recollections of her grandfather—which may have been difficult given that he lived in Pennsylvania and she lived in Ohio—they were few and far between. And so, in pursuit of Frank's story, I have turned to documents to piece together a bit of his story.

Portion of Franjo's baptismal record.
 

My great grandfather was born and baptized Franjo Kozlina on 26 August 1885, the son of Franjo Novosela Kozlina and Mara Stunja, in Drežnik Podokićki, a small settlement in the Samobor administrative district in Zagreb County, Croatia, then part of the Austria-Hungarian empire.2


An 1883 map of Croatia in pink; Samobor is southwest of Zagreb.3

Present day Drežnik Podokićki indicated by red pin.4

Croatian church records show that Franjo had one brother and four sisters: Toma (Thomas), Barbara, Jaga (Agnes), Paulina and Anna.

Frank emigrated about 1904, arriving on the ship the Kaiser Wilhelm II to the port of Baltimore. In 1906, Frank married Vjekoslava Baltorinic—later known as Louise—in Uniontown, Pa. By 1910, Frank and his wife were living in Lemont Furnace in Fayette County, where Frank was employed as a laborer in a brick yard. Frank and Louise were the parents of eight children born between 1908-1928: Barbara, Stephen, our grandfather Thomas, Anna, Frank, Kathryn, Frances, and William.5

In 1917 Frank made his declaration of intention to become a United States citizen at the Common Pleas Court in Fayette County.  In part the declaration reads:

"It is my bona fide intention to renounce forever all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty, and in particularly to Charles, Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary of whom I am now subject."6

Frank was true to his oath, and became a citizen on 2 May 1924.7

Frank spent his life employed in and around the coal mines in Fayette County, working variously as a laborer, a miner and a digger, like so many other men in the area. He lived with his family in one of the many coal patch towns which dotted the southwestern Pennsylvania landscape.

I wish that I knew more about my great grandfather. What I do know is that Frank Kozlina was one of the several men in my family who worked the various coal mines in Pennsylvania, and made a better life for himself and those who followed.

 

NOTES

1 Photo of Louse & Frank Kozlina, unknown date, photographer and location; private collection of M. Graff [address for private use], 2022.

2 Roman Catholic Church of Sv. Martin pod Okićem, Births, 1858-1886, p. 157, Franjo Kozlina, 26 August 1885; database & images, "Croatia, Church Books, 1516-1994," FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G99X-6N46 : 12 January 20220; citing Arhiva Hrvatske u Zagrebu (Croatia State Archives), Zagreb.

3 "Croatia, 1883," Edmaps.com (http://www.croatia-in-english.com/images/maps/1883.jpg : accessed 12 January 2022).

4 Google Maps, "Drežnik Podokićki," (https://www.google.com/maps : accessed 12 January 2022).

5 For emigration: Fayette Court of Common Pleas (Uniontown, Pa.), Declaration of Intention #4787, 16 April 1917, Frank Kozlina; Protonotary Office, Uniontown. For marriage: "Marriage license dockets, 1885-1916," database with images, FamilySearch (http://bit.ly/3724HQU : accessed 22 Dec 2019); Marriage license dockets v. 39-41 1906, Record #17374, marriage of Frank Kazlina and Louise Baltorinis, 19 June 1906; Fayette County Courthouse, Uniontown, Pa.; FHL film Film # 004460687, image 210. For 1910 residence: 1910 United States Federal Census, Fayette County, Pa., population schedule, enumeration district 54, sheet 24A, North Union Township, dwelling 417, family 419, Frank Coselenn (24); image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GRVV-VSS : accessed 12 January 2022). For children: 1930 United States Federal Census, Fayette County, Pa., population schedule, ED 66, sheet 18A, family 322, Frank Kozeline (24); image, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XH3S-2PW : accessed 12 January 2022); NARA microfilm publication T626, roll 2040, Washington, D.C.

6 Fayette, Pa. Court of Common Pleas, Declaration of Intention #4787, Frank Kozlina.

7 Fayette County (Pa.) Court of Common Pleas, Petition for Naturalization #4787, 21 May 1924, Frank Kozlina; Protonotary Office, Uniontown.







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