The Lie: Part 2. John Maurice Ragusin’s date and place of birth.
My grandfather, John Maurice Ragusin, was born 21 Mar 1883 in Senj, Croatia. This information comes from the Senj Parish baptismal register (see Image 1). My grandfather was baptized as Ivan Raguzin on 6 Apr 1883. Ivan is a Slavic equivalent of John. The combination John Maurice comes from his mother’s family. Finding this baptismal record took many years of research and some good fortune but is still not universally acknowledged as valid. This is because it is contradicted by the easy-to-find key document linking John Maurice Ragusin to my grandmother Edna Charlotte Steinman—their marriage application.
John Maurice Ragusin (as Maurice Ragusin) married his first wife, Miss Margaret Connelly, on 10 Nov 1909 in Rock Island County, IL. Before the need for telephone directories in big cities they published city directories that provided the inhabitant’s name, address, spouse, and occupation. Using several city directories for the Quad City area (Rock Island and Moline in Illinois, and Davenport and Bettendorf in Iowa) I established that Margaret Connelly’s husband was in fact John Maurice Ragusin. My grandfather’s first wife, Margaret, died on 26 Dec 1917 in Chicago, IL. Several years later John married Edna Charlotte Steinman in Logansport, IN on 26 Apr 1922. My evidence for the first marriage is a simple county marriage register entry with no additional biographical or genealogical information (see Image 2). If there is a marriage application with more biographical information, it is not readily available. The evidence for his second marriage is a marriage application and return (see Image 3). This marriage application is problematic. To state the problem in the simplest of terms—JOHN M. RAGUSIN LIED ABOUT HIS AND HIS PARENT’S PLACES OF BIRTH. I have not determined why he lied and will probably never be able to determine the reason.
The actual route to finding my grandfather’s date and place of birth was long and winding, and the principal breaks came from a several sources. I found a 19 Oct 1903 immigration record of Gjulio Ragusin travelling from Selce, Croatia to visit his brother John in Chicago (see Image 4). Thus, any man named John Ragusin that I suspected of being my grandfather would have to have a brother named Julius. On 14 Mar 1910 Julis Raguzin travelled to the U.S. again and listed his sister Elenora in Kraljevica, Croatia as his point of contact (see Image 5). Thus, I knew my suspected grandfather would have to have a sister Eleanora.
I have copies of several postcards and other mounted photos (all referred to as postcards) my grandparents (John and Edna) received from John’s family in Europe. The woman sending these cards identified herself as ‘your loving sister Marietta’ in both English and Croatian. Thus, my suspected grandfather would have to have a sister Marieta. One post card (a mounted photo re-annotated much later) was a picture of Julius Ragusin and stated he had died in the war (see Images 6 and 7).
Another postcard showed Marieta, John Marie Ragusin (identified as “the son of my Unkel [sic] Andre”), and John Marie’s wife (see Images 8 and 9). Thus, my suspected grandfather would have to have an Uncle Andrew Ragusin who had a son John Marie. This postcard was sent during a vacation in Split, Croatia. Who vacations wearing a tie? John Marie has an uncanny resemblance to several of my paternal uncles.
With the genealogical information contained in the immigration records and these postcards I had five different double-checks to use when I found my grandfather’s family and his date and place of birth. But none of them gave me sufficient information of where to look for my grandfather’s birth. I learned that there were many Ragusin families in the town of Veli Losinj, Croatia. I obtained the Latter-Day Saints (LDS or Mormons) microfilms for the birth records for Veli Losinj and searched for my grandfather but did not find him.
I routinely review all my genealogical notes and the evidence that I have collected to see if there is anything I might have missed. I had not recognized the significance of information on one of the postcards. One postcard showed a photo of a young boy identified as Ugo Camilo Stocker figlio di Elin…. The end of her name is missing (see Images 10 and 11). It also provided the date and place of birth for Ugo—6 Oct 1914 in Monfalcone, Italy. I had enough information to request an official birth record for Ugo but did not believe it would provide me any additional information in the search for my grandfather’s date and place of birth. Instead, I wrote to the vital records office in Monfalcone and asked for the marriage record of Eleanora Ragusin and a man named Stocker. The marriage record should include Eleanora’s date and place of birth and potentially her parents’ names and places of birth. This same information would likely apply to my grandfather. I understood that this was a “Hail Mary,” but I was still excited.
I got a response back from the clerk of Monfalcone that Eleanora had never married. Therefore, I could obtain no information about her or John’s place of birth or parents. This devastating news was quickly erased by a tremendous act of kindness on the part of the Monfalcone clerk (good fortune #1). The clerk had taken my letter to the local parish priest who did have information for me. He said that Eleanora had been born in late 1800’s in Cerkvenica south of Fiume to Anton Ragusin and Frances Michielli. Cerkvenica and Fiume are the Italian names of the Croatian towns of Crikvenica and Rijeka, respectively. There were LDS microfilms for the birth records for the town of Crikvenica covering the time of Eleanora’s birth.
I ordered the microfilm and anxiously waited. Within minutes of its arrival, I had found Eleanora’s baptismal record (born 16 Feb 1890). This record corroborated everything the Monfalcone parish priest had told me. I also found the baptismal record for Eleanora’s brother Anton (born 5 Nov 1888). This same microfilm also contained some death records for Crikvenica. Eleanora’s brother Anton died 13 Nov 1888 (aged eight days) and her mother, Frances, died 27 Apr 1891. On her death record, Frances’ place of birth was smudged but ended in “enj.”
One afternoon I was scrolling through the microfilm to the end of the Crikvenica birth records so as to work backwards through time and scrolled too far. What I saw on the screen before me were birth records for the town of Senj. I had accidently stumbled across records for Senj (good fortune #2) which appeared to be Frances’ birthplace. I quickly went through these Senj birth records and found two more of Eleanora’s siblings. I was able to find the birth of another of Eleanora’s brothers, Valerianus Franciscus, who was born 11 Mar 1877 (this record was in Latin not Croatian) and a sister Marija Matilda Ivanje (born 14 May 1879). The records for Senj were very brief so I had to order other microfilms for Senj to confirm Frances’ birth.
I ordered more microfilms for births in Senj and again waited. Although my grandfather claimed his mother was born in France, I found Frances’ birth on 1 Jan 1852, in Senj. I continued looking through all the birth records and found four more siblings for Eleanora. On this film, I found that Frances Michielli and her husband Anton Ragusin had Antonia Beatrice (born 26 Jun 1881), Ivan (born 21 Mar 1883), Genosefa Marija (born 1 Jan 1885), and Julius Anton (born 10 Apr 1886).
Other microfilms for Crikvenica and Senj allowed me to determine that there was only one Ragusin family in these locations, the family of Anton Ragusin and Frances Michielli, and that only four children had survived to adulthood. Anton was an Imperial port official in Senj and Crikvenica (both coastal towns) which explains why he and his wife had children in both locations but never had a house number.
Of Nicolas’ and Frances’ eight children, born in Crikvenica and Senj, only Ivan (my grandfather John), Julius Anton (Gjulio/Julis who visited the U.S. twice and then died in the war), Marija Matilda Ivanje (Marieta who sent the postcards), and Eleanora (who was the point of contact for Julius’s second trip to the U.S and had a son Ugo) survived to adulthood. Three of the five double-checks had already been validated. The names of all of John’s surviving siblings matched the names of my grandfather’s siblings identified in the postcards and immigration records.
On a different microfilm for Senj, I also found the marriage record of Nicolas Anton Ragusin and Frances Michielli that provided Nicolas Anton’s place of birth. They were married on 28 Dec 1876 in Senj, and Nicolas’ place of birth was identified as “Ponte en insula Veglia.” This phrase using words from several different languages translates to Punat on the big island. Punat, Croatia is a town on the island of Krk (yes that is spelled correctly) which is the largest of a small group of islands off the coast of western Croatia. My grandfather had claimed on his marriage application he and his father were both born in Rimini, Italy. There were many LDS microfilms for Punat.
In these Punat microfilms, I found Nicolas Anton’s birth in Punat on 13 Aug 1836. I was also able to confirm that Nicolas had a younger brother named Andre John Maria who was born on 18 Mar 1844. This is John’s and Marieta’s Uncle Andrew whose son John Marie was vacationing with Marieta. This was the fourth double-check I was able to validate. Unfortunately, the birth records for Punat occurring after 1870 were not microfilmed. Therefore, I had no way of validating whether Andrew had a son John Marie.
Despite not finding information to validate the final double-check, the overwhelming evidence indicated that I had found the correct John Ragusin and his family. The information found on his marriage application to my grandmother was entirely erroneous.
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