Croatia-in-English.com

How the Croatian alphabet
is shown on this site.


 

Getting more help

home > getting help < you are here

Need more help? We suggest:

1. Go to Robert's Links (on this site) and check out the many resources he has listed. You won't find a better links list for Croatian genealogy anywhere. Robert is always updating his list.

2. If you have a specific question, the best place to post it is on the Croatian Forums. Links to these can be found on our links page. These Forums are perfect for most questions because they are read daily by many helpful people who are looking for questions to answer. Please don't send specific questions to this website. We do not have a question-and-answer section on this website because the forums (mentioned above) are serving this purpose very well.

3. Was the spelling of your surname changed? Register with our Surname Variant Registry. Believe it or not, many people do not know the original spelling of their surname. You may be the last person in your family to know the original spelling. Register it here for future searchers.

There is no magic button.
We get a lot of e-mail stating, for example, "my grandfather was so-and-so, born on [date]. Send me what you find." Well, for starters, we're not going to find anything because we don't do that kind of searching. You might try posting such a statement on one of the forums (mentioned above). Someone might read your message who has already done some research on your line. Or you can try one of the few professionals who specializes in Croatian genealogy. But there is no magic button in genealogy -- especially Croatian genealogy.
The diasporas* of most other European nations are far ahead of Croatians in the study of genealogy. They have been doing it longer, their numbers are greater, their corpus of knowledge and published information is larger, etc. On the other hand, there are a few European countries that lag behind even Croatia in this regard (Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Rumania). But even for countries like England, Scotland, Ireland, and Germany (where the interest has been longest and greatest), the quest for family lineage still requires a concerted effort -- often over several years. If you put out inquiries that lead to someone who has already done research on your family, more power to you. By all means, such inquiries should be submitted and hopefully will be fruitful. But, for the most part, there is no quick fix.
So that means you must find and read the old vital records yourself or hire someone to do it for you. If you choose the former method, this website was created to help and encourage you.

[* diaspora = a scattering of people who have a common origin.]