Slovenian Home Land
for the Jordan, Kosak, Rogelj and Baznik families
Work in progress. Please pardon the dust and inaccuracy.
General Area
Elizabeta Jordan's line hails from Eastern Slovenia nestled between Zagreb (capital of Croatia) and Liblijuana (capital of Slovenia). Nearer Zagreb, which is down river, and the Croatian border to the south and west. The towns in Eastern Slovenia are only 10 km from the border with what is now Croatia and less than 100 km from Trieste and the Adriatic Sea. This was the known, starting point. But discoveries since then have widened the scope of interest.Map of Families in Slovenia
We now know the Košak and Filipić lines came from Gabrovka and Velike Rebrce around Zagradec. So the remembrance of Žužemberk by my mother was not too far off. Rogelj and Udović are from the Trebnje area. Specifically Rožni Vrh and Repiće. The map shown can be right clicked to see the image full screen.
Most reading this will not have had the opportunity to visit the homeland; either on their own or with the relatives born there. So I will try to bring in photos, maps and the like from visits to the area by relatives and myself. Some, like Karel Jordan and his family, visited almost every year once they were allowed back in. Betty Jordan Kosak went about once a decade with various groups — sisters, her kids and the like. I was a grand kid with her on one of those trips.
Šentjernej
Map of Šentjernej
Trebnje
For many years, we have heard of the large family house in Trebnje. Betty clearly remembered being there a year before she emigrated and took us there in 1985 to see. And the family photo from the 1940's of Karel and Maria's families clearly depicted it in the background as shown here. It is so large that it is clearly visible from the satellite photos as well as depicted in structure on the topological map of the area. Using the Geopedia.si site again, we show you the general topo map of the area depicting the edge of Trebnje the town and the house. We also then zoom in and show the satellite view with the various directions the photos below are shown.But according to Vlad Rus, the "castle" in Trebnje is simply a historical and well known destination for tourists and was never the home of Karel nor Maria and their families. They had the house in the smaller town xxxx nearby but in fact both Karel and Maria's families spent most of their time near Trieste and the coast in Rijeka. Ends up. Lilian's mother is from Trebnje. She says the "castle" has always been an apartment building. And that her father Karel put his brother Ignac and his family up there for a few years. Betty had stayed with them for a few months before she left for America. Guess maybe it was while they were living there then. As Betty left when she was 11, and was shuffled from her grandmothers house to different places and basically an orphan, she could have easily been confused by this.
But the area is still of significance after all. As it is where the Rogelj family came from. The father traveled to Cleveland in the 1880's to early 1890's. Meeting others and arranging for marriages to his daughters. Then his final trip back to the states in 1899 sees him bringing his daughter Josephine, first to Cleveland to meet family, then on to Montana to be married and where he had a land claim waiting for him.
Zagradec near Žužemberk
With no real clue to discover the village, we find the Košak line is from an area known as Zagradec near Žužemberk. And also discover the mother is bron with the surname Filipić and from the same area.Sevni Name History
Some have asked how I came up with the name Sevni for my business venture of the '00s. The answer lies in this page as well.Most interestingly Sevnica is now seen as one point of a diamond with the other three cities of my forefathers as the other points. And the Sevani village in India is actually better known as Sevni and very central to the area of Surat and Navsari where my wife's ancestors are from. Maybe we should have stuck with Sevni for this site instead of creating the new name MyCuz !