More on the Starcevich line

The other day I was looking for old pictures at my grandma's house, and came across my grandfather's death certificate. It lists Minnesota as his place of birth, and his father as PHILLIP DENNIS STARCEVICH and his mother as LUCY ZUPAN. I jotted this information down in hopes that this could further my research. Dead ends. Then I got to thinking... While searching the records on Ancestry.com, I realized that even though most of the people from this region are immigrants, they all had English names, like Mary, William, Tony, John, etc. I wondered if the names had been "Americanized". I found a database of names which tells the history of a name, and began researching the names Lucy, Phillip, Dennis, and Zupan. I found out that the Croatian/Yugoslavian version of Lucy is Lucia, Phillip is Filip/Felip, Dennis is Denis, and verified that Zupan is indeed from this region. Armed with that info, I then searched Ancestry again, and this time found a Filip Starcevic in the New York Passenger Lists, and a Blaz Starcevic (with an alternate name of Felip) in the Baltimore Passenger Lists.

I have been extensively searching Census records, too. I have 3 or 4 families with a John Starcevich in them, born about 1916, but only one living in Minnesota. One is in Washington, one is in Ohio, and the other is in New Mexico. I am thinking that the New Mexico one is out, and the Ohio one is probably not his family either, but the Minnesota family and the Washington family are promising. Many Starcevic/Starcevich families that were in Minnesota in the early 1900's did in fact migrate to Washington State for work in the coal mines and logging industry. If in fact I find Filip Starcevich in the passenger lists, I will know what age to look for in the census. I did not, however, find a Denis or Filip in the censuses. Something of note, though, is that many immigrants, in an effort to become 'Americanized' changed their names to something that they thought would be more American. Filip/Felip could have become a John or Tony.

11/9/09...
I have had a couple of breakthroughs on my brick wall... First, I found a website for the Minnesota Historical Society, and they have a searchable online database of births for the time period of when my grandfather was born. I did a 'fuzzy' search, and lo and behold, I found his birth record! Yipee! His last name was misspelled (STARCOVIC) so I am thinking that is why I could not locate it on Ancestry. Anyhow, I now have to order a copy of it to see what other juicy information it may have on it to help in my search.

My other breakthrough is kinda funny... I play a game on Facebook that requires you to have lots of friends, and the people that play this game will friend each other for the sole purpose of gaining players. One lady that I became friends with has a last name similar to Starcevic - so I sent her a message asking if she was from the region I am researching. She is! I told her what I am researching, what I have found out, and my theories. She told me interesting things, but most important, she told me that the last name is most likely spelled STARCEVIC and the father's name is most likely FILIP and his mother's name is most likely LUCIJA ZUPAN. This helps tremendously. I now think that the FILIP STARCEVIC I found on the New York passenger lists may be my great grandfather.