Leaving, and the ground they left

Part IV · 🇭🇷 🇩🇪 🇺🇸 🇦🇺 🇿🇦 🇦🇷 🇧🇷

Three movements across five centuries: weavers walking south out of the mountains, two men arriving at one port in the same eighteen months, and a twentieth-century scatter across four continents. Passenger manifests and naturalisation petitions follow the name abroad; imperial, naval and shipping paper show the work it did; the burial registers and the graves show where it lies; and seven walks go to the ground itself.

Start reading: Journeys →

1. 1JourneysWeavers out of the mountains, two men at one port, and a twentieth-century scatter across four continents.
2. 2LeavingPassenger manifests, naturalisation petitions and draft cards, searched across every destination country.
3. 3Where the Name WentWhole branches found by searching the migration indexes by country, the largest in southern Brazil.
4. 4The name in imperial serviceNinety-one years of Habsburg paperwork: the passport desk, the quarantine station, the port, the navy and the army.
5. 5Julius DefranceschiA complete officer's career from 181 entries in the Austro-Hungarian navy lists; not proved kin.
6. 6The name at seaSeventy newspaper articles, most of them shipping intelligence from Lloyd's List.
7. 7Il Giornaletto di Pola, read end to endOne hundred and sixty-four issues of Pola's daily carry the family name; all read in full.
8. 8The Register of the DeadWhat the burial register tells that baptisms cannot: how many children a family kept.
9. 9Where the Name Is Cut in StoneEvery grave recorded under any spelling of the surname, gathered from the memorial indexes.
10. 10Walk the lineOne itinerary across four countries and five deeper ones, each an order to do things in.
11. 11The Line, end to endThe descent walked in the order it happened, across four countries.
12. 12Walk the Carnia lineForty kilometres of one valley, all of it still standing.
13. 13Walk the Gologorica lineA triangle twelve kilometres on a side: Gologorica, Gračišće, Pićan.
14. 14The Venice and Dalmatia walkThe oldest and best-documented line, whose evidence is in state archives rather than churchyards.
15. 15The Kvarner walkThe coast the family came down to, where the archive already holds the register pages.
16. 16The German legThe smallest district in the archive, and the one where the line turns.

The whole book: Contents