Croatians in the USA - historical photo collection

[Niccolo and Donkey]

http://croatia.org/crown/content_images/novak_vladimir/part2/vladimir_novak_blue_flame_gary_gabelich1.jpg

The "Blue Flame" in which Gary Gabelich captured the world record in Bonneville, Utah, October 23, 1970.

The best proof o fhow little attention is being devoted to the research and study of the people of Croatian descent is the fact that so few people know that Gary Gabelich, the son of an immigrant from Split, Croatia, living in San Pedro, Claifornia, held the fastest car speed record of 622 miles per hour (1,002 km/h) from 1970 to 1983. Of course, from that time on this record has been found every year in the Guinness Book of World Records under the "Fastest Automobiles".


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The oldest Croatian Grocery in Aberdeen, Washington, established in 1911, by a group of 30 Croats working in local lumber mills. They selected George Karamatić as their manager. After several years George payed off the investors and with the help of his family ran the grocery until the age of 90.


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Nalley Marcus (Narančić Marko), born in Lika in Croatia, in his first delivery car in Tacoma, Washington, around 1926. He started making and packing potato chips in his apartment until his business grew in multi-million dollar packaged dollar industry.


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Michael A. Bilandic was one of the more influential and highly respected public figures in Chicago, serving as Mayor of Chicago from 1976 to 1979 and later as Chief Justice of the Illinois Supreme Court. He was a loyal Chicagoan and proud of his Croatian heritage. Born in 1923 to Croatian immigrants, he died in 2002, at the age of 78. (Photo by Vladimir Novak).


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The first notable Croat shipbuilder in U.S. was Stephen Babare from Starigrad. Stephen founded his first shipyard in the late 1890's with his sons George and Mick. By 1913 in their shipyard they produced one ship in two days. Anyone working at the Babare shipyard in Tacoma was considered to be a master of this craft.


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Founders of the Joliet's Croatian Cultural Club, pictured in 1985 for the Club's 25th anniversary. They are, left to right, Mate Šikić, Louis Zdunich, Sr, and Marko Babić. Šikić adn Babić were a part of the post-World War II wave of immigrants that arived in the U.S. in the 1950s. Their entry into American society was eased and adjusted to the American way of life. Zdunich, himself an immigrant (1920), was responsible for asssisting many of his fellow-Lichans upon their arrival in the U.S.


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The Croatian Pool Hall and Cigar Store, built around 1916 at 223 W. Curtis Street, in South Aberdeen, Washington. It also housed a two-chair barber shop. On the second floor was the hall where the first Croatian lodges were organized, and the hall was also used for dances, with bands like the famous Zorich Family Orchestra performing. The building was torn down in the late 1940s.


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A poster announcing the play "Ciganin" ("The Gipsy") at the Croatian home in Chicago. It was presented by the drama section of the club "Nada" ("Hope") founded in 1925. They were successful and sometimes they had audience of over 1000 visitors.

[Niccolo and Donkey]

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The flag of the Slavonic Illyric Mutual and Benevolent Society of San Francisco, 1857. Underneath the picture are the words: Mother Slavia, Thy Sons. In 1923 the name of the organization was changed to Slavonic Mutual and Benevolent Society. In March of 2004 the Board of Directors of the Slavonic Cultural Center and the Slavonic Mutual and Benevolent Society of San Francisco voted unanimously to change the name to Croatian American Cultural Center.



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The grand opening of the Croatian Lodge Home in 1925 in Aberdeen, Washington. The large hall was jointly owned by the Croatian Fraternal Union Lodges 271 and 323. Important as center for varied cultural activities, the hall boasted one of the finest dance floors in the Northwest. Most of the well-known big bands played there during its heyday. With the changing times and a decline in the Croatian population, the hall no longer sustained its purpose.


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The main street in Roslyn, Washington, in 1892. At that time this was a strong mining area with mixed nationalities population of 1200, which grew to more than 4000 in 1920's. Around 1910 more than a half of the inhabitants were Croats, mostly miners. Today's population is nearly 800 residents with main industries tourism and recreation. The last of mines was closed in the 1960's.


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This photo from Roslyn museum "Echos of Our Past" shows a group of coalminers from this area. In the early days of 20th century a high percentage of the miners were Croatian emigrants.


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Živila Hrvatska (Hail Croatia), tamburitza orchestra of Croatian miners in Roslyn, Washington.

[Niccolo and Donkey]

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Two Franulovich sisters, professional singers performing under name Ruže Dalmatinke (Dalmatian Roses), wearing costumes from their native island of Korčula (Dalmatia, region of Croatia). New Seattle based, they specialize in authentic, traditional Croatian and Bosnian music.


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John Plancich with a big salmon in early 1930's. He was the general manager of Fisheman's Packing Corporation.

This was the largest salmon cannery on the west coast, established in 1928 as a cooperative of 35 almost entirely Croatian purse seining boat owners. They founded the co-op in order to creat a market outlet for their fish. The following year, they were joined by 45 additional purse seining boat owners. In 1933 John M. Plancich became its general manager and secreatry, remaining in that position until the sale of the co-op in 1978.


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Weekly Croatian radio programs in America play a vital role in the maintainance of Croatian communities. The picture shows the editorial staff of The Voice of Free Croatia sponsored by the Croatian Radio Club in New York, founded in 1969 and still on the air. From left Vinko Kužina, John (Ivan) Pintar (1904-1989), Kurnoslav Mašina (1904-1989) and behind them is Miro Gal.


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Steve Bubalo, Herzegovinean construction giant in Los Angeles - an exceptional businessman and patriot digging the streets in Hollywood, 1984. Steve, born in Ljubuški, focused his ambition to develop one o fthe largest and most successful construction firms in California. He did succeed. For his generosity and kindness, croatian Community of Southern California honored him with the Awarad Croatian Man of the Year.

[Niccolo and Donkey]

http://croatia.org/crown/content_images/novak_vladimir/part1/novak_vl_alma_franulovic_plancich1.jpg

Vladimir Novak was born in 1928 in Varaždin, Croatia. At the age of 14 he joined the Military Academy "Zastavnička škola", which was the most elite military unit during the Independent State of Croatia. He graduated from Real Gymnasium in Varaždin and in 1948 he studied the History of Arts at the University of Zagreb and later at the Motion Picture Academy in Belgrade.

He left Yugoslavia in 1959 as a political refugee and lived three years in Belgium. He arrived in the U.S.A. in 1962 and received his citizenship five years later. While living in Los Angeles he organized the Croatian Radio Program in 1963 (it is still on air), produced the very first Croatian flag with the printed chekered emblem, and organized the first and only rasing of the Croatian flag at the Los Angeles City Hall.

During the Entire 36 years of his life in the exile, he had been very active in Croatian and American politics and received many special commendation awards and honours.

He has been self-employed in commercial photography and advertising and he won several top awards for his work. His credits include photographs of some noted personalities, such as the United States President Ronald Reagan, general Omar Bradley, admiral dr. Uslyssess Sharp Grant IV., hotel-magnate Conrad Hilton, famous singer John Elton, and many others including motion picture stars. However, he was mostly involved in promoting the Croatian cause.

Since 1970 Vladimir Novak also collected and restored over 4000 valuable photographs dealing with Croatian immigration in America. Fortunately, he was able to bring them to Croatia in early 1994, when he retired and returned to his homeland.


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Above Josip Turkalj's studio on the campus of Gilmour Academy in Gates Mills, a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. He taught here fine arts and sculpture for many years after moving here from Notre Dame University where he was assitant to famous Croatian sculptor Ivan Meštrović.


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Above Turkalj's 18 feet bronze statue of Moses in front of the Notre Dame Library in South Bend, Indiana (1963).

Josip Turkalj was born in Rakovica, Croatia in 1924. He finished his studies in Yagreb and Academz delle Belle Arte in Rome. He came to America in 1957 and had impressive exhibitions throughout United States, and many of works of art are in public and private collections also in Canada, Italy, Croatia and Argentina.

Josip Turkalj died in 2007 at his home in Cleveland Heights at the age of 82.


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Above Scene from Graničari (The Frontiersmen) performed in 1931 by members of the drama group Abrašević.

The drama society was founded in 1921 and was active until 1961. Its director was Joe Kovačević.


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October 15th, 1950: Grand opening of the Croatian Home at 4033 main Street in East Chicago, Ind., built by a group of Croatians of Harbor area, where there are the still mills. In the center (in white suit) is Frank Migas, mayor of East Chicago, on his left is John Vukovic and on his right is John Ceperich, the officers of the Croatian Home organization.

This organization was very active for the first 25 years, then slowly declined as the younger Croatians moved to other areas. Finally, in 1981 the building was sold.


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Above Paul Draženović, pioneer and gold miner born in 1891 in Croatia, the region of Lika. He came to Alaska in 1911. During many rough and arduous years he accumulated several smaller gold mines. From 1967 he was spending his remaining years in a Pioneer's Home.


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Horsewoman by Antun Agustinčić, in front of the main building of the UN, New York


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Louis Svećenski was born in 1862 in Osijek, Croatia. In 1885 he received contract from the Boston Symphony Orchestra as the first violinist, and thus came to America.

For thirty-three years he played the viola in the famous Kreisel Quartet. Later, he was director of New York's Institute of Musical Art and also one of founders of Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. He died in 1926.

[Niccolo and Donkey]

http://croatia.org/crown/content_images/novak_vladimir/part1/novak_vl_lucas_spindletop1.jpg

Anthony Lucas, born in Split 1855, discovered the first major gusher in Texas, The Lucas gusher. He died in Washington in 1921.
Above

18 m high granite obelisk, built in honour
to the Lucas gusher, Spindletop, contains the following lines:

On This Spot
on the Tenth Day of the
Twentieth Century
a New Era
in Civilization Began


http://croatia.org/crown/content_images/novak_vladimir/part1/novak_vl_lucas_grave1.jpg

Tombstone at the grave of Captain Anthony F. Lucas, in Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington, D.C. Photo by R.F. Perkins (The American - Croatian Historical Review, July 1946, p. 11).

As to his nationality, it is often mistakenly described as Austrian, and sometimes even Italian (like in Who is Who in America, where there is also another mistake - that he was born in Trieste). On his grave in Rock Creek, Washington, he is said to be of Illyric origin, where Illiric is a standard name for Croatian.


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Joe Marsh (Josip Marušić), a character actor with a record of 213 roles to his credit, poses with Joan Collins (center), while she was working on Daryl Zanuck's movie THE GIRL ON THE RED VELVET SWING.

He appeared in many TV and theater shows and in more than 100 films with renowned stars as Judy Garland, Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Peter Sellers, Burt Lancester, Rod Steiger and many others. In one film he played Nikita Kruschev. He also appeared as a wrestler in over 3000 mathches, a profession in which he remained for 28 years.

http://croatia.org/crown/content_images/novak_vladimir/part1/mrclean1.jpg

"US" magazine carried a story in its issue of August 29, 1983 about Joe Marsh, because we can find him in all of the supermakets as MR. CLEAN (in Europe as MR. PROPER) on the plastic bottles with a sticker featuring a bust of a strong and muscular, but very noticeable bald man with arms crossed. That's Mr. Clean.

His father, also named Josip, was born in Trogir, Croatia, and arrived in New York on ocean liner Roosevelt on June 24, 1910. Upon coming to America he married Marijana, who gave him a son on August 25, 1911, weighing 22 lbs. They named him Josip, which beacuse of his involvement in sports and film arena was shortened to Joe Marsh.


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Joseph M. Martinac, born in Sumartin (on the island of Brač, Croatia) arrived to United States in 1912. He came to Tacoma, Washington, with a determination to build boats. He learned his trade in his native country - Croatia.

His original name was Joseph Mijich which for business reasons he changed to his family nick name, so the firm he founded in 1924 is known as the Joseph M. Martinac Shipbuilding Corporation. Quietly, it became a multy-million-dollar corporation.

As an extremely talanted man he designed and built a multitude of vessels with uncompromising quality and for a diverse range of services. Martinac died in 1963.

[VUK]

Interesting stuff. There's a few hundred of us here in southern Louisiana. I'm a first-generation Croatian-American, but my great-grandfather lived and worked here for some time in the seafood industry, an industry we still dominate. Not even Katrina could stop us. ;)

http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/4694/1/E-Croats-in-Louisiana-and-Mississippi.html

[Niccolo and Donkey]

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Above General John J. Pershing decorating 2nd Lt. Louis Cukela (Vjekoslav Lujo Cukela), who was awarded both the Navy and Army Medals of Honor for extraordinary heroism in France 1918 during World War I. He was the only living man to hold two such decorations for extreme bravery in a single war.

Cukela was born on May 1, 1888 in Split, Croatia, son of George (Đuro) from the village of Koljane (near Vrlika) and mother Johana (Ivanica Bubrić).

In 1913 Cukela emigratted to the United States and he and his brother setttled in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

On September 21, 1914 he enlisted in the U.S. Army and later in 1917 he enlisted in the Marine Corps. With war raging in Europe, he went to France and took part in all the engagements in which the Fifth marines fought.

In addition to the two Medals of Honor, Cukela was awarded the Silver Star by the Army; the Medaille Militaire (he was the first Marine officer ever to receive this medal), the Legion d'Honneur, the Croix de Guerre with two palms, another Croix with Silver Star by France and several other medals by Italy and U.S.A. In 1940 he was promoted to the rank of Major.

Major Cukela died in 1956 and he was buried with military honors in Arlington Cemetery in March 22, 1956.


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Above The warship U.S.S. ARIZONA which the Japanese planes sank in December 1941 at Pearl Harbur (Hawaii) with entire crew of 1177 sailors and marines. Among them were also 9 Croatians: S. Marinich, J. Borovich, W. Ratkovich, Charles and Joseph Starkovich Jr., J. Claudius, Bušić, P. Hazdovac and Beg.


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In 1916 one of the largest funerals that occured in the Los Angeles Croatian community was for John Barkigia, the 13 year old son of Kata Barkigia (Born Bogišić) from the village of Dubravica, near Dubrovnik.

She was extremely active in Croatian affairs and a member of most organizations.


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The Main Street in Sutter Creek, Amador County, California, also called the Golden Heart of the Mother Lode. It was named after John A. Sutter, the first white man to come to the area in 1846. He was the first to mine localy, but few others later managed to make success of it and made millions.

The epochal event was the discovery of gold at Sutter's mill on the American River in January 1848. In the stampede of people from all over America and the world there were many Croatians.

On the top of the hill on the photo we can see a nice house. This was the first Croatian Home in the USA, built in 1874. It was built by Slavonic Society organized in San Francisco in 1857.


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A brass band in Los Angeles formed in 1917 by the members of "Sokol" (The Falcon), a Croatian patriotic organization.


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Frank Hoffer from Karlovac (first from left) is among the first who introduced the tamburitsa instrument to America. Next to him is Paval Pavlinac and Mima and Katica Hoffer. Hoffer arrived in America in 1887 and setlled in Philadelphia with his wife. In 1891 he moved to Steelton, Pa. where a large Croatian colony was in the making. In 1893 his group performed at the Chicago World's Fair. He taught his group by rote and they always played by ear.

[Niccolo and Donkey]

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Famous Croatian wrestler Marin Pleština arrived in the United States at the age of 17 in 1905 from Klis near Split. He joined the Croatian Sokol (Falcon) organization in Chicago and started to wrestle professionaly in 1909. He wrestled all over the Unite States defeating the Polish wrestler Markovic before a crowd of 15,000 in Colorado. In 1919 Pleština's manager offered a prize of $25,000 to anyone who could beat him, but there were no takers.


http://croatia.org/crown/content_images/novak_vladimir/part3/novak_plestina_offer.jpg

One of the many illustration in the American press from the beginning of the 20th century depicting top wrestlers in the United States doing their best to avoid meeting Croatian wrestler Marin Pleština.

At that time serious wrestling was popular sport with ethnic populations and with native Americans as well. Wrestlers were seen as symbols of power.


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The New Orleans Slavonic tug-of-war team in 1892, probably the first Croatian atheltic organization in the United States. They built their muscles through activities such as pulling cars and nets and tonging oysters in the Mississipi Delta.

They overpowered Norwegian, German, French, Irish, Spanish, and American teams in tournaments held in the Washington Artillery Hall in New Orleans.


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The Los Angeles Croatian Atheltic Club baseball team at Navy Field in San Pedro, California in 1932. Players of the Club were Dr. Paul Arnerić, P. Franković, Matt Kapetanić, John Badovinac, Edo Pusich, Tom Guich, Matt Stankovich, Marin Kristovich, Nick Vusich, and Matt Pendo.


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George Mikan, the greatest basketball player of the first half of the twentieth century, receiving the Helms Athletic Foundation Medallion from William Schroeder in honor of his election to the Basketball Hall of Fame. Mikan's ancestors came from Vivodina near Zagreb.


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Dr. Michael (Mike) Pecarovich (left) the son of Croatian immigrants (his father Nikola was
a Dalmatian mariner), was student of law at the University of Gonzaga in Spokane, very succesful football and baseball layer and coach for more than thirty years, inspirational leader, stage and motion picture actor, educator and dynamic speaker. On the picture with his very close friend Hollywood actor-singer Bing Crosby (on right). Mike died in 1965 at the age of 65.


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Fritze Zivic, welterweight champion of the world (1940-1941) was born in Pittsburgh in 1913. His father Josip Zivic came to the United States from Bosiljevo, Croatia, in 1899, and married a Slovene girl Mary Kepele in Pittsburgh. They had six children including five boys, all of whom were successful boxers.

Fritze was featured on the cover of the Ring magazine in January 1941.

He had 230 professional fights, winning 155 fights, 80 by KO's. He lost 65 fights. He became champion of the world on October 4th 1940 in Madison Square Garden in New York, defeating "invincible" Henry Armstrong.

Fritze retired in 1949 at the age of 36. In 1972 Zivic was elected to the Boxing Hall of Fame, and in 1984 he died at the age of 71. Sugar Ray Robinson, in a tribute, said that he learned more about boxing in ten rounds with Zivic than in all his other fights put together.


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The Second Croatian National Congress organized by the Domobran in Chicago on
November 30, 1935 (the First Congress was held in Akron, Ohio in 1934). The Chicago Tribune covered it under the headline Croatians Seek Freedom.

Five hundred members of the Croatian National Congress approved a manifesto asking that
steps be taken to assist Croatians in getting independence from Yugoslavia. The manifesto asserted that the State of Croatia was guaranted by President Woodrow Wilson in the peace treaty of 1918 speaking about the right to determine its own destiny, but by false representation of the Serbian King Alexander, forced into the so-called state of Yugoslavia.


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The Croatian Woman's organization Hrvatska žena built this float to represent the Croatian community in festivities celebrating the 1932 World's Fair in Chicago. Sitting before the sign Croatia on the right is Barbara Balija, symbolizing a Croatian Queen, while the other women are dressed in folk costumes from the various Croatian regions.


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The Honorable Kay Rendina, Mayor of Masontown, Pa., shown in her office in 1987. She was born and raised in a small coal mining village in Pa. to John and Katherine Pribanich. With members of the CFU (Croatian Fraternal Union) she visited Rome and St. Jerome's Church there as well as Međugorje where millions of pilgrims come every year to honor Our Lady of Međugorje.


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The Croatian Band of Monessen, Pa., shown (1917) in front of the Croatian Home on Schoonmaker Avenue in Monessen. In the early 1900's it was very important that every larger social club or society have its own uniformed band, although some musicians couldn't even read music. Their dedication to their cultural traditions was amaying since they worked long hours in the steel mills but still found time for practice and cultural and social activities.

[harjit]

Krist Novoselic, Nirvana bassist.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y252/brigham2005/Krist.jpg

[ironweed]

Nic, I think you missed the most famous Croat-American...

Gene Rayburn (December 22, 1917 – November 29, 1999) was an American radio and television personality. Born Eugene Rubessa (pronounced [ruˈbeʃɑ]) and an only child of Croatian immigrants, he graduated from Knox College.

continued (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Rayburn)


link to youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_VCnc9Pp3M) - one of those stupid videos with embedding disabled.

I think he would occasionally speak Croatian on-air, either joking around or greeting contestants who were also fluent, but since this was a long time ago I may not be remembering that bit correctly.

[DonkeyKong]

Krist Novoselic, Nirvana bassist.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y252/brigham2005/Krist.jpg

I thought so. I always said that if a rock band of any kind has a Croat in it, you can bet 9 times out of 10 that it's the bassist.

I have to find the person who insisted it was the drummer who was a Croat and not the bassist and beat them up.

[Rogerius Josephus Boscovich]

Zanimljivo, hvala na ovome Nic.

Ovdje su natrpali sve zive, cak i one kojima je baka Hrvatica itd. ali svejedno zanimljivo:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatian_American

[slobodagovora]

Niccolo, a ovaj:

Roger Maris (Maras)


http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/pics/roger_maris_autograph.jpg

The son of Croatian immigrants, he was born as Roger Eugene Maras (he later changed his last name to Maris) in Hibbing, Minnesota. He grew up in Fargo, North Dakota where he attended Shanley High School. A gifted athlete, Maris participated in many sports while in Fargo.

http://images.scripting.com/archiveScriptingCom/2004/09/26/rogerMaris.jpg

Roger Maris was a Croatian-American right fielder in Major League Baseball who was primarily remembered for breaking Babe Ruth's single-season home run record in 1961 when he hit 61 home runs, a record that would stand for 37 years.

http://www.jamesintveld.com/images/61maris.jpg

Unlike Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa,and Mark Mcguire; Roger Maris suceeded in topping Babe Ruth's home run record without the aid of steroids and other illegal performance enhancers.
klik (http://www.stormfront.org/forum/showpost.php?p=4740549&postcount=2)

i još:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Maris

[Ace Rimmer]

Thank you Nicola, good thread, adding it to a Selected Threads (http://www.thephora.net/forum/showthread.php?t=23068).

No il ragno and his humouristic contribution?

[Kriger]

Good thread, Niccolo.

A people's culture and history should be kept alive no matter what country they happen to be a citizen of.

[Ace Rimmer]

Anthony Maglica,
Founder of Mag Instrument

http://www.maglite.com/images/maglica.jpg

Born in New York City during the Great Depression, Tony Maglica was raised in his mother's native Croatia. He was a small child when his mother decided to return to Croatia so that he could be raised close to her family. In 1950, with the country in the ruins of World War II and Communists in control, Tony escaped back to America.

[Jake Featherston]

Interesting stuff. There's a few hundred of us here in southern Louisiana. I'm a first-generation Croatian-American, but my great-grandfather lived and worked here for some time in the seafood industry, an industry we still dominate. Not even Katrina could stop us. ;)

I would've thought it would have been the Italians. Are they perhaps your main competitors?

[Niccolo and Donkey]

I would've thought it would have been the Italians. Are they perhaps your main competitors?

Last summer I was on the island of Brac in Croatia and met some Croatian-Americans who were in their seventies and who emigrated to the USA as kids. Their family that was already in California started up a company called Starkist Tuna.

[Jake Featherston]

Their family that was already in California started up a company called Starkist Tuna.

My wife eats Starkist Tuna all the time (I probably would too, if I didn't regard canned tuna as swill).

http://dreaminginjavascript.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/tuna_mercury_charlie_starkist_1.jpg

Charlie the Tuna was in a lot of commercials back in the 1970s. I remember they were always saying "Sorry, Charlie!," I think perhaps he was rejected as not being fit for canning by Starkist, his apparent ambition in, uh, "life?"

In case that other pic doesn't show:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/77/Tunacharlie.png

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StarKist_Tuna

[VUK]

I would've thought it would have been the Italians. Are they perhaps your main competitors?

You mean in Louisiana? Here, the seafood industry is pretty much dominated by immigrants, probably due to the fact that it's very difficult work. You can still make a great living if you're willing to work hard. The entire seafood industry here is pretty much Cajun (of course), Croatian (80% of the oyster industry), and Vietnamese (shrimp).

[Empress Cheesatine]

Which of Gary Gabelich's parents was the Croat? Gabelich sounds more German than Croat to me.

[Rogerius Josephus Boscovich]

Which of Gary Gabelich's parents was the Croat? Gabelich sounds more German than Croat to me.

Gabelich German ? It doesnt sound German at all.

Its obviously a slavic surname, and its probably Gabelić. Gabelich is an americanized version.

[VUK]

Victor Grinich, (fifth from the left) one of the 8 founders of Fairchild Semiconductor.

http://www.nationmaster.com/wikimir/images/upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/16/Traitorous8.jpg

[Ace Rimmer]

Gabelich German ? It doesnt sound German at all.

Its obviously a slavic surname, and its probably Gabelić. Gabelich is an americanized version.

Probably reminded her on German -ich they have, like in Heinrich.

But you're right , it's Americanized form of Croatian Gabelić.

[Niccolo and Donkey]

Which of Gary Gabelich's parents was the Croat? Gabelich sounds more German than Croat to me.

Croatians (and Serbs) often added an "h" to their last names when arriving in the USA or Canada to make the name easier to pronounce correctly. Gabelich means "from Gabela" which is a small village on the Dalmatia-Hercegovina border.

Adding the "h" was very common one hundred years ago, but is much less common today. When we showed up on the cigarette boat here in Toronto, we didn't bother adding an "h" and allow the mispronunciation to stand.

[Königin Luise von Preußen]

Great thread, Niccolo!!! well done! Hvala velika! pocimaju mi sada biti simpaticni Amerikanci.. ima Hrvata - koliko - ca. 2,5 miliona u SAD! super slike!

[Niccolo and Donkey]

Great thread, Niccolo!!! well done! Hvala velika! pocimaju mi sada biti simpaticni Amerikanci.. ima Hrvata - koliko - ca. 2,5 miliona u SAD! super slike!

Taj broj je prevelik.....mozda toliko Amerikanci imaju Hrvatski krv ali sigurno nema vise od 400,000-500,000 cisti Hrvati i od ovaj broj dosta su vec asimilirani.

Kad ides naprimjer u Pennsylvaniu, Hrvati su tamo vec 4-5 generacije i 90% od njih neznaju vise Hrvatski nego "kako si" i "fala" itd.

[Ace Rimmer]

http://www.muni.org/iceimages/Mayor/BegichFamily.jpg

Mark Begich
Mark P. Begich (born March 31, 1962) is the junior United States Senator-elect from Alaska and the current mayor of Anchorage. A member of the Democratic Party, he served on the Anchorage Assembly for ten years before being elected mayor in 2003.
He is the first Croatian-American elected to the United States Senate.

[WillieBrennan]

Interesting stuff Nic! Thanks.

I'll never look at a bottle of Mr Clean detergent the same way again.:)

[Königin Luise von Preußen]

je si vidio ovu stranicu (http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9611/2/Croatians-in-America---photo-collection-by-Vladimir-Novak,-part-3) isto