FRESH START

Vjekoslava Baltorinic, later known as Louise Kozlina, my great grandmother, pictured with Frank Kozlina, my great grandfather, likely 1930s.

I am occasionally participating in 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks, a writing challenge encouraging genealogy researchers to write about their ancestors. The challenge is hosted by genealogist, blogger and podcaster Amy Johnson Crow.

This week's prompt: Fresh Start

By Nancy Gilbride Casey

As we turn the calendar to 2020, with a new decade dawning, of course our minds turn to starting anew. With resolutions and renewed energy, the blank page of January 1 beckons to us: "What will you accomplish this year?"

It's a fresh start.

As I think of my ancestors, my mind wanders to my great grandmother Louise Kozlina. She was born Vjekoslava Baltorinic on 14 August 1882 in Gorica Svetojanska, Zagreb, Croatia.¹ She immigrated  to the United States in 1905 on the ship Slavonia. She travelled having paid her own way, and with $8.00 in her pocket. The ship manifest shows that she was destined for Lemont Furnace, in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, to her "brother-in-law Jacob Vukic."² I know she had a sister named Zora who married a Jacob Vukic, and lived in Pennsylvania, so this matches up.³

Louise immigrated aboard the S.S. Slavonia, departing Fiume, Croatia and arriving in New York Harbor in Dec. 1905.

As it was, Louise—as she was later know—would marry Frank Kozlina,⁴ and spend the rest of her life in Fayette County. She lived to be 91 years old, dying in 1974.⁵

I wonder that I never met her that I'm aware of, as I was well into my teens by then. But we were not close to my maternal grandfather Thomas Kozlina's family (as my grandparents were divorced), and this is his mother, so that seems to be that explanation.

I ponder why she came to the United States. Was her betrothed already here? Or did she simply follow her sister Zora to a better life? There are reasons that push folks to immigrate and those that pull them to their new destination. For Louise, what was it? Was this her fresh start?

I find I am particularly interested in my female ancestors, as usually, there is so little known about them once they married, and took on the identities of their husbands, more than having their own.

So, I've made this one of my 2020 genealogical goals: To find out more about Louise and her family, the reasons for her immigration, and more about the place in Croatia from which she came.

It's a fresh goal for a fresh year. Stay tuned.

Until next time...

Subscribe to "Leaves on the Tree," to receive more family history stories, right in your email box. Click the green Subscribe link above.




NOTES

¹ The Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island - Ellis Island Foundation, database (http://bit.ly/2Qg90B8 : accessed 22 Dec 2019), "Passenger Record," for Vjekoslava Baltorinic, age 19, arrived 1 Dec 1905 on the Slavonia from Fiume, Croatia.
² The Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island - Ellis Island Foundation, "Passenger Record," for Vjekoslava Baltorinic, age 19, arrived 1 Dec 1905 on the Slavonia from Fiume, Croatia.
³ "Marriage license dockets, 1885-1916," database with images, FamilySearch (http://bit.ly/39FqUGC : accessed 1 Jan 2020); Vol. 13, 1902-1904, Record #7462, marriage of Jacob Vukich and Lora Baltornica, 28 April 1903; citing Fayette County Courthouse, Uniontown, Pennsylvania; FHL film Film # 004811653, image 740.
⁴ "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; citing Fayette County Courthouse, Uniontown, Pennsylvania; FHL film Film # 004460687, image 210.
⁵ Ancestry, Find A Grave, database with images (http://bit.ly/2ZEIUMG : accessed 1 Jan 2020), memorial 147209798 , Louise Baltorinic Kozlina (1882-1974), St. Mary's Nativity Cemetery, North Union, Fayette County, Pennsylvania; gravestone photo by unknown photographer.