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A Rose for Sharon

    For many years now, I have posted the single pink rose image to my social media on August 19th and June 4th. Those who know me well know it is in honor of my little sister, Sharon, who died in 1994. Her birth date and her death date. That has been the extent of my communication about my sister or her life since. Thirty-two years is a long time to hold onto words. I have considered writing about her. It doesn't matter how deep my feelings are for her or how much I cherish her memory, the words don't come easily, if at all. Words feel cheap and wrong. It's hard to even describe why. Maybe it is because she was our family's: Our sister, our cousin, our niece, our daughter. We knew her best, so no one else should have the right to know about her like we did. Maybe that's why I hold onto my words. But I realize that if I don't tell her story, who will?  I have spent hour upon hour researching my long-gone ancestors, yet I haven't written about my own sister. ...
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MARA STUNJA - BIRTH MYSTERY SOLVED!

This image is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

31 Days of Writing Family History Challenge

January 31, 2022:  Maternal Great, Great Grandmother #1 - Mara Stunja (1853-After 1894)


by Nancy Gilbride Casey

I love research! I find out something new every day, and on a day when I solve a mystery, that is really special. 

I was troubled by the age discrepancy in the marriage record of Franjo Novoselec Kozlina and Mara Stunja, which I noted in yesterday's post. At their marriage, Franjo was noted as 26 years old to Mara's 37 years. Was she a widow? An older spinster? Was the record correct? 

My first line of thought was that the record was incorrect. I theorized that she was actually 27 years old at her marriage, and estimated that her year of birth would then be about 1853 or so. Off to search the Croatian church records on FamilySearch...

Bingo! I found her birth record fairly quickly. She was baptized on 15 May 1853; her parents were "Stevo Stunja" and "Jana Budisćak" from the town Petkov Breig. With slight name variations, these parents matched those on her marriage record to Franjo Kozlina: "Stefan Stunja" and "Ana Budasćak."1

Detail of Mara's baptismal record with parents "Stevo Stunja" and "Jana, born Budisćak."2

Detail of marriage record. Mara's parents are listed as "Stefan Stunja" and "Anna b. Budisćak."3

The correction in age means Mara's childbearing years then end when she was 41—not 51—as would have been the case if she were truly 37 when she married. This is a much more reasonable timeline—and why in this avocation, it is always advisable to carefully analyze all the evidence in a record. Everyone is human and humans make mistakes—even when charged with recording important events in church records!

Franjo and Mara had six children who have been identified. There may be one or two others, as there is a gap of over five years between the couple's daughters Paulina, born May 1889 and Anna, born 1894. In the past, couples usually had a child roughly every 2 years or so. A search of the Sv. Martin pod Okićem church baptismal records might hold that answer.

While I spent the day looking for Mara Stunja Kozlina's death record after 1894, I had no luck. In the process though, I did find a death record for her husband Franjo Kozlina, which helps fill in some of his missing details. He died on 29 April 1901 of typhus, at the age of 46.4

Detail of Franjo Kozlina's death record. He died on 29 Travnja (April or "month of grass) 1901. It was easier to find this record when looking for the couple's address of Drežnik 6.5

While it is unknown what became of Mara Kozlina after her husband's death, one theory is that she remarried again, as her youngest child would have been only six when Franjo died. I look forward to fleshing out more of Mara's story in the future and will be sure to share it here when I do.


BONUS I: Fun facts on our ancestral surnames.

According to the website ActoCroatica:

  • The surname Stunja has historically been the most prevalent surname in our ancestral town of Petkov Breig, and is still the most popular there today.
  • The surname Kozlina is currently the second most common name in our ancestral town of Drežnik Podokićki; in the past it was the fourth most common.


BONUS II: Lineage chart of Mara Stunja to me:


NOTES

1Roman Catholic (Rimokatolička crkva) Church of Sv. Martin pod Okićem, Baptisms 1848, p. 52, 6th entry on page, Mara Stunja, 11 April 1853; database with images "Croatia, Church Books, 1516-1994," FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-899C-59NG-5 : accessed 31 January 2022); citing FHL film 005482630, image 520; Arhiva Hrvatske u Zagrebu (Croatia State Archives), Zagreb. 

2 Ibid. 

3 Roman Catholic  (Rimokatolička crkva) Church of Sv. Martin pod Okićem, Marriages (Vjenčani) 1858-1904, p. 9, #42, Franjo Kozlina and Mara Stunja, 24 November 1880; database with images, "Croatia, Church Books, 1516-1994," FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L99X-6J8G : 30 January 2022); FHL film 005693949, image 146; citing Arhiva Hrvatske u Zagrebu (Croatia State Archives), Zagreb.

4 Roman Catholic (Rimokatolička crkva) Church of Sv. Martin pod Okićem, Deaths (Umrli) 1894-1920, p. 371, #70, Franjo Kozlina, 29 April 1901; database with images,"Croatia, Church Books, 1516-1994," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-899X-6V2M : accessed 31 January 2022); citing FHL film 005493960, image 129; Arhiva Hrvatske u Zagrebu (Croatia State Archives), Zagreb.

5 Ibid.


 


 

 



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