Immigrant Dreams : From Croatia to PA to TX : The Gift of Freedom and a New Life is Born at Ellis Island

 Immigrant Dreams : from Croatia to PA to TX : the Gift of Freedom and a New Life is Born at Ellis Island

My Grandfather, born Viecoslaw Zuvic, later Louis Zuvich came through Ellis Island with a dream, like so many.  He not only held a job, but was a supervisor, and never learned English.  Talk about your great communicators.  The tongue of my family is Serbo-Croatian, the "umbrella language" of the former Yugoslavia.

Viecoslaw means "forever glorious."  I will never forget because I looked through the Ellis Island manifests for a long time and never found "Louis Zuvich."  Well, it gets more complicated.

My surname, "Zuvich" was "Zuvic."  My grandfather added the "H" in hopes that the name would be pronounced properly with a "ch" sound, to compensate for the symbol in Serbo-Croatian, that the English language does not have.  Well, "that" didn't go well. 

He was also concerned  that he wouldn't "fit in" with the name "Viecoslaw."  So, he changed it to Louis.  My father cleared everything up for me one day on the telephone.  I called from my Texas home to Pennsylvania--where I am from, and my father retrieved the most accurate record---the family bible.

There it was--recorded for posterity.  I searched for "Viecoslaw Zuvic," and voila, there it was.

Well, again, it gets even MORE interesting.

My grandfather is from Luka, Dalmatia, Croatia of the former Yugoslavia----not Galicia--in Spain!  What happened???

I really struggled with this.  I researched and found that some Zuvic (es) came  from Galicia.  Was my family history ALL wrong.  Was I Spanish---NOT Croatian????  Hmmm....what happened?

I finally figured it out.  Well, people get in a hurry.  Can you imagine "processing" the number of immigrants that came through Ellis Island at the beginning of the 20th century?  Check this out.  N.B. the passengers' data ABOVE my grandfather on line 21.

My great Uncle--my grandfather's brother, was Father Anton Zuvic.  Here is his registration card.  He was a Catholic priest, came over on the Carpathia and founded St. Mary's Church in Steelton PA, as well as a cathedral in CA.  The "Croatian" Catholic Church in Steelton, PA.  There were 5 Catholic Churches serving Steelton PA, which at its largest had about 18,000 residents.

1. Croatian Catholic Church
2. Irish Catholic Church
3. German Catholic Church
4. Italian Catholic Church and
5. Serbian Catholic Church

Interesting note about St Peters Catholic Church.

Yes, 5 different Catholic churches in 1 little town.  Racial Intolerance was an import to the US.  See: Croats v Serbs--1991 to ???

My family is awesome.  There is SO much to be proud of.  There is SO much more to tell.  But, for tonight, a picture of me with my Daddy--Frank A Zuvich, Sr--at my undergraduate graduation from Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, PA.

I love you Daddy!