 croatian arrivals from trogir trauitalian splitdalmatia countygruich croatian arrivals from trogir trauitalian splitdalmatia countygruich osarep mon 12312012 1351  biloxi cemetery june 2012  gruich gruic    mitchell valentino gruich  18851958 native of trogir splitdalmatia county croatia was the founder of the gruich family of biloxi mississippi on may 18 1906 he stowed aboard the ss carolina deporting trogir and arrived at new orleans on june 22 1906 mitchell left immediately for biloxi where he settled at 235 cedar street and became employed in the seafood industry mr gruich was naturalized at biloxi on february 20 1922 his certrificate of american citizenship was recorded as no 151110 mitchell v gruich iii southern district courtsouth mississippipetition for naturalization no 274 june 10 1921 and february 20 1922  research of mitchell v gruich iii  submitted july 1 2016 mitchell valentino gruich s birth name was mihovil ivan gruic when he was born in trogir his parents were augustin gruic and maria stipcic who lived in trogir mihovil had one sister ivanica gruic and two brothers anton and ivan back in trogir when me and my father and two uncles visited trogir last year we met some of our cousins that still lived there they told us about the family history in trogir i also went to the church archives and retrieved my great grandfather s birth record so that is how i know his actual correct birth date the birth date on his tombstone was wong also his name was really mihovil which is michael in croatian so when he was going through immigration in new orleans and they asked him what his name was he was trying to pronounce it in english as michael but because of the way the croatians say michael it comes out sounding like mitchell so those were the only corrections to the information pertaining to him i added who his parents and siblings were that he left in trogir also he stowed away on the ss carolina this was confirmed by our trogir cousin s father who received a letter from him after he had arrived in america they thought he was dead because they had not seen or heard from him in months steamships would stop in trogir to fuel up or load up on supplies before heading to trieste or back out to sea to america we have several postcards and photographs that show depictions of the steamships docking in trogir for supplies everything else listed was accurate about him from mitchell v gruich iii by email on 1 july 2016 mitchell v gruich married vincentia mary barhonovich  18941968 a native of supetar brac splitdalmatia county croatia in harrison county mississippi on may 20 1914 they were the parents of  august gruich  19151993 m mable stratton 19121996  mary sophia gruich  19161998  antonio tony  and  captain breezy gruich  19181996 m joyce miller 19251990  frank gruich  19202007 m grace bodie and mitchell j gruich  19281998 m leoneade m lestrade 19292005 harrison co mississippi circuit court mrb 27 p 24  children   antonio gruich antonio  tony captain breezy  gruich  19181996 was born at biloxi mississippi on 1918 he married joyce miller  19251990 and made his livelihood as a commercial fisherman tony was a member of the slavonian benevolent society and our lady of fatima catholic church he died on may 18 1996 at biloxi and his corporal remains interred in the biloxi cemetery next to his wife mr gruich was survivied by marie gruich a sister and two brothers dr frank gruich and mitchell gruich jr all of biloxi he was preceded in death by his parents wife and august gruich sr a brother bradfordo keefe funeral home of biloxi directed the funeral services the sun herald may 18 1996 p c2  marie s gruich marie sophie gruich  age 82 years died saturday december 26 1998 in biloxi marie gruich was a lifelong resident of biloxi and retired after many years as a waitress at the buena vista hotel the broadwater hotel and the friendship house she was a member of st michael s catholic church marie was preceded in death by her parents mitchell v and vincentia mary gruich and three brothers august gig gruich sr his wife mable and their son mitchell p gruich tony breezy gruich and his wife joyce and mitchell j gruich sr survivors include a brother dr frank g gruich sr and his wife grace gruich of biloxi six nieces nine nephews 12 grandnieces 17 grandnephews and a sisterinlaw leonade lastrade sic gruich of biloxi services will be monday at 2 pm at st michael s catholic church where friends may call two hours before service time burial will be in biloxi city cemetery the howard avenue chapel of bradfordo keefe funeral homes in biloxi is in charge of arrangements the sun herald december 27 1998 p a17  dr frank g gruich sr   dr frank g gruich sr was born into this life on march 12 1920 on point cadet biloxi he was born through death into everlasting life on september 1 2007 at biloxi regional medical center   dr gruich surmounted huge challenges from working in his grass roots in the shrimp factories to launching his life s love and passion for knowledge and education in medicine he always credited his perkinston junior college days as the catalyst for his career he graduated from tulane university medical school in 1945 he served his internship at charity hospital in new orleans he then served two years as a medical officer in the army   upon his discharge as a captain he became associated with dr joseph kuljis in biloxi and practiced general medicine from 1948 1952 dr gruich underwent his specialized training in obstetrics and gynecology from 19521955 at the confederate memorial hospital in shreveport louisiana where he served as chief resident his senior year dr gruich went on to enjoy a distinguished career in medicine that spanned six decades    among his many recognitions a highlight in his life was his induction into the 1979 mississippi gulf coast junior college hall of fame at perkinston campus receiving the sam owen award also from perkinston and serving on the mississippi gulf coast community college board of trustees for over twenty years he also served for over twenty years on the advisory board of bankcorp south in 2006 the new surgical suite at biloxi regional hospital was dedicated to him where he served as chief of staff many years    dr gruich championed the efforts to keep catholic education a viable option for all he served for 39 years on the catholic school board always offering his reflective advice and counsel he remained a stalwart ambassador for the mississippi gulf coast community college his beloved ole miss his faith and catholic education    all who know dr g knew of his passion for sports second to none was football home life and sunday dinners were scheduled around kickoff as he rooted for his ole miss rebels and new orleans saints in baseball the atlanta braves were his team he also took on the professional teams the indiannapolis colts and the new york giants as he continued to support the manning boys    dr gruich is survived by his beloved wife and life partner gracie bo bodie gruich 19262018 his children son frank g gruich jr of biloxi daughters maureen gruich of madison suzanne and her husband dave prokopchuk of cypress texas and mary grace and her husband joe marquardt of houston texas    dr gruich was blessed with seven grandchildren frank jr s children son frankie iii daughter bonnie and son nick his wife april all of biloxi maureen s daughters erin propst of madison and ryan claire propst of tupelo mary grace s sons maxim and cooper marquardt of houston texas    dr gruich was preceeded in death by his parents mitchell gruich sr and mary bohonovich gruich brothers august geagle tony breezy mithcell jr and sister marie the family expresses deep gratitude for your love and prayers in this enormous loss   memorials can be made to the dr frank g gruich sr scholarship fund at st patrick s catholic high school or to his beloved charity the little sisters of the poor 1655 mcgill avenue mobile al 366041299    a mass of christian burial will be held tuesday september 4 2007 at 3 pm at our lady of fatima catholic church in biloxi where friends may visit from 1 pm until service time interment will follow in biloxi city cemetery the howard avenue chapel of bradfordo keefe funeral homes in biloxi is in charge of arrangements the sun herald september 3 2007    dr frank gruich dr g just loved being a doctor  from the sun herald biloxi mississippi sunday september 2 2007 p a12  dr frank gruich who rose from poverty on point cadet to success and esteem as a local obstetrician and gynecologist died saturday gruich 87 was the son of yugoslavian immigrants who labored hard in the seafood industry his character was forged as a young man during the great depression he studied hard and made his way to mississippi gulf coast community college at perkinston where he gained attention for his skill at chemistry despite never having taken a chemistry course in high school at perkinston gruich was given a medal as the best chemistry student in the state from mgccc he went on to the university of mississippi where he earned a scholarship from the kellogg foundation he joined the army which also helped pay for his education gruich later made his way to tulane s medical school and after going to work the young doctor cherished his new job title he carried that pride with him the rest of his life he was absolutely identified with his practice of medicine his daughter maureen gruich said that is who he was he was also a fierce advocate of dr gilbert mason a black colleague who became a local civil rights activist and staged a muchpublicized assembly on the beach in 1960 when mason was under fire at biloxi regional medical center over his activism gruich stood up for him and reminded the hospital s administration of the law a poor boy from the point gruich could identify with being disadvantaged after retiring in 1997 and delivering well over 5000 babies dr g as gruich was known continued to pay a daily visit to biloxi regional to visit old friends and coworkers he gave weather reports to personnel in the medicalrecords office which earned him the nickname the weatherman he also had a free lunch each day at the cafeteria which was never begrudged him considering his contributions to the place during his visits to the hospital gruich would also buy lunches for a couple of hospital workers he knew were having a hard time making ends meet he remembered being hungry in med school his daughter said gruich is survived by his wife gracie and his four children many of his relatives entered the medical profession because they were inspired by dr g s success the doctor was a big supporter of local schools particularly mercy cross but he also looked forward to the opening of the new st patrick catholic high school gruich served on the mgccc board of trustees and was loyal to ole miss his own academic triumphs over adverse circumstances led dr g to believe that in this country a degree was within anyone s reach education meant everything in the world to him maureen gruich said  gracie mae bodie bo gruich  19262018 grace b gruich a long time resident of biloxi died on sunday december 2 2018 after a brief hospital stay gracie 92 was the youngest daughter and sole remaining child of ten siblings of the late alonzo d bodie mississippi and althaia  smith  alabama she was born and raised in wiggins ms she called herself a country girl of very humble origins her late husband referred to her as his pickle queen wiggins was once regarded as the pickle capital of the world gracie received her rn license from a diploma nursing school at the new biloxi hospital on the front beach she entered school on a scholarship of wwii the cadet nurse program after practicing at the new biloxi hospital she left her nursing career to be a full time wife and mother she entered the roman catholic faith prior to her marriage in years to come gracie claimed that marrying dr g and living in the catholic faith were two of the most wonderful gifts she received from her husband she was very appreciative of her faith practice she loved the prayers and meditations of the rosary and the rosary was a daily prayer for her her husband was the late dr frank george gruich sr of biloxi ms they had four children frank g gruich jr dr maureen a gruich suzanne b dave prokopchuk mary grace joe marquardt seven grandchildren frank g gruich iii bonnie elizabeth brent fountain nicholas paul gruich sr erin althaia propst brian burke ryan clairemarie propst cole wiygul maxim george marquardt and cooper joseph marquardt nine greatgrandchildren nicholas paul gruich jr aleigh rachelle gruich carter andrew fountain and chase joseph fountain tyler ernie burke lance corporal montana blake burke caroline grace mae marie wiygul and james coleman wiygul jr past times and hobbies for gracie included keeping up with and visiting her hometown wiggins and stone county the daily paper crossword and word search she was an avid football fan for the university of mississippiole miss and the new orleans saints her 90th birthday celebration had an ole miss theme in the spirit of celebration and mardi gras gracie was a member of the young matrons with their annual carnival ball she loved to enjoy the reruns of the andy griffith show and current and syndicated game shows other past times included tending to the yard gardens and keeping the birds fed and most importantly having her family visit and enjoying the grands greatgrands and eating great food gracie had a knack for bringing light and laughter to gatherings many remember her as precious fun and loving to laugh visitation will be at our lady of fatima catholic church on pass road from 1030 to 1130am followed by a mass of christian burial at 1130am all on thursday december 6 2018 interment will follow at biloxi city cemetery in lieu of flowers please choose a  charity of your choice  or contribute to the dr frank g gruich sr scholarship fund at st patrick s catholic high school in biloxi the little sisters of the poor mobile alabama the family offers special thanks to kathy foster carolyn cauthen audrey boudreaux and rose alexander for their loving care for gracie we will forever miss and love her and offer to you her chants hotty toddy who dat the howard avenue chapel of bradfordo keefe funeral home is in charge of arrangements the sun herald december 5 2018  mitchell j gruich mitchell joseph gruich sr  19281998 age 70 years died saturday aug 29 1998 in biloxi mr gruich was a native and lifelong resident of biloxi he was a member of nativity bvm catholic cathedral he was a member of the bricklayers trowel trades international local no 10 bpoe no 606 and past president of biloxi southern little league baseball mr gruich was an army national guard veteran mitchell was preceded in death by his parents mitchell v gruich and mary b gruich and two brothers august geagle gruich and tony breezy gruich survivors include his wife leoneade lestrade gruich a daughter michelle logan both of biloxi six sons dr charles gruich dr mitchell gruich jr joseph gruich thomas gruich anthony gruich all of biloxi and james gruich of ocean springs a sister marie gruich a brother dr frank gruich of biloxi and 19 grandchildren visitation will be from 6 to 9 pm monday at the howard avenue chapel of bradfordo keefe funeral homes in biloxi with recitation of the rosary at 7 pm a procession will leave the funeral home at 945 am tuesday for a 10 am mass at nativity bvm with burial in biloxi city cemetery the sun herald august 31 1998  leoneade m gruich ms leoneade m gruich 75 of biloxi ms passed away tuesday march 8 2005 ms gruich was a lifelong resident of biloxi she was a devoted wife beloved mother and cherished grandmother who most enjoyed being with her children and grandchildren especially during holidays she was a woman of faith and a devout catholic ms gruich was preceded in death by her husband mitchell gruich and parents charles p lestrade and henrietta dellenger lestrade she is survived by her daughter michelle logan of biloxi and six sons dr charles gruich and his wife madelon dr mitchell gruich jr and his wife janice joseph gruich and his wife wendy thomas gruich and his wife lola anthony gruich and his wife jan dr james gruich and his wife stephanie and also her sister ms shannon covich all of biloxi she is also survived by her 21 grandchildren visitation will be on friday march 11 2005 from 6pm until 9pm at the howard ave chapel of bradfordo keefe funeral home with recitation of the rosary at 7pm services will be on saturday march 12 2005 a procession will leave the funeral home at 945 for a 10 am mass at nativity bvm cathedral burial will be held at biloxi city cemetery the sun herald march 11 2005  first gruich trip back to croatia in over 100 years by mitchell gruich iii the real adventure in discovering my family history started when my wife booked us a trip to croatia while we were engaged we had talked about all the places we would like to visit after we were married and before we had any kids her numberone place to visit was italy my numberone place was egypt but with all the turmoil there at that time there was no way she was going to egypt my numbertwo pick was croatia because i d always wondered what it would be like to see my greatgrandparents home country as far as the gruich family in biloxi knew we had lost touch with any relatives in croatia sometime in the 1970s and no one knew if there were still any relatives living there currently we only knew that my greatgrandfather came from trogir but we were not sure if his family had lived in trogir all their lives or if they had migrated from another part of the country my wife found a reasonably priced travel package that would allow us to see the whole country from top to bottom in the span of two weeks the next thing i knew my sister and her husband were on board to take the trip we would be sightseeing the entire country together we would arrive in croatia in november 2014 a week before thanksgiving this would be a historic moment for the gruich family of biloxi because no one from the biloxi family had been to croatia since 1906 when my greatgrandfather left trogir to immigrate to america it had been more than a century since a descendant of mitchell gruich of trogir had returned to the homeland i was beyond excited to see all the different regions of croatia our trip included visiting major coastal cities like zadar and split since we would be in split for a day i decided we should skip that day s activities and go to trogir instead trogir was only a 20minute drive from split so i figured we could see trogir take some photos and be back in split in time to catch the bus to dubrovnik i had no expectations of uncovering any longlost relatives or finding any information on my greatgrandfather s family i hadn t really found anything online and all of the trogir offices only spoke or wrote in hrvatski the idea was just that we might as well see the whole country since we probably wouldn t have much luck finding anything in trogir i think this was the biloxi family sentiment for a long time about finding relatives in trogir if i did happen to find anything it would be pure dumb luck at best i told uncle jamie about my plans to sightsee in croatia and he asked if i was going to try to visit trogir i said of course i planned to at least just walk around and take photos of the little island that was about the size of hiller park uncle jamie had one request for me if i made it to trogir he wanted me to go to the main church and try to find the birth record of mitchell gruich who came from trogir in 1906 he hoped that his birth record might tell us the names of his parents and grandparents so we could finally learn more about our family in croatia accomplishing this strategy was easier said than done to begin with my uncle charlie said his grandfather mitchell gruich from trogir never liked to talk about his family in trogir or what life was like in the old country actually attaining the missing information was going to be quite the task since no one in croatia understood english except waiters and concierge we were also putting our money on one church having the birth records from late 19th century there were five churches on the small island and we were just guessing that the biggest oldest one would have the records i didn t really have much to go on as far as family information regarding our past in trogir what i had to go on before leaving was this 1 dad couldn t really tell me any details about trogir because no one had been back to this town since nona had left it in 1906 this was 2014 so more than 100 years had passed since nona left and someone came back to visit 2 i knew uncle charlie was interested in the family tree so i asked him what he knew he had sent some correspondence to relatives in croatia and received a letter but it was lost in hurricane katrina he said that nona was reluctant to discuss croatia with him when he was younger so no one really knew anything about mitchell gruich s life before coming to america 3 before leaving on the trip uncle jamie stressed to me the importance of trying to find the records of nona s family in the church if possible i didn t realize how big of a deal it was at the time to find any old records on greatgrandparents because no one in the family had ever expressed much interest in knowing more about where we came from other than my two uncles and father the more i thought about it the more interested i became in this family mystery discovering or solving old historical mysteries with clues was something that intrigued me a year earlier my wife and i had been investigating an old plantation site to locate the remnants of a civil war soldier s tomb that had been lost to time we eventually found what was left of that tomb and presented the evidence to the historical department at usm i ve always been intrigued by history but when it comes to something i can make a contribution to personally i get even more excited even if i couldn t get the records the least i could do was take pictures of the town to share with my family having an appetite for adventure and the means to explore a small foreign island was definitely something i couldn t wait for i had heard of a walk into a church and ask for records strategy from other families who had visited croatia looking for documentation of their heritage it is actually common for tourists and visitors to contact parish priests looking for records of their ancestry this is a pretty good plan if you have some basic pertinent information to go by but it can be an absolute nightmare if you don t know exact names or dates having dates whether they be birth death or marriage dates is absolutely necessary for the church to help you without any dates for reference there is no way they can know where to start looking because they don t have a global database having a translator or speaking the language is also very necessary since most croatians don t speak or understand english the only croatians we found that could speak english fluently were those in the service industry and you had to go to a tourist cafe to find someone who could speak english well this meant that translating was going to be a problem for me croatians prefer their native language even under the oppression of italy and france they ignored mandates to learn italian and french  november 21 2014 the first day of the trip put us in opatija which is in the northern part of croatia near the city trieste i mention trieste here because it is important as it relates to the passenger manifest of the ss carolina the ss carolina is the steam ship that mitchell gruich from trogir arrived on when leaving austria in 1906 the ss carolina disembarked from trieste on may 18 1906 jamie gruich my youngest uncle did a little bit of research on the ss carolina he found the departure log that lists the passengers when the ss carolina docked in new orleans jamie is also responsible for finding mitchell gruich from trogir s registration card with the state as an alien my wife was very sick with a sinus infection at the beginning of our trip the first day in croatia she slept on the bus and went back to sleep as soon as we ate dinner at the hotel the next day she only had enough energy to get up and walk to get some lunch and back to the hotel it would take another three days before she started feeling good enough to be able to actually enjoy our little adventure in croatia we spent two nights and one day in opatijia and then left the next morning to head down to zadar below is a copy of the passenger manifest on the ss carolina that lists michele gruich age 21 from austria arriving at the port of new orleans on june 18 1906 below is the 1918 registration card that marks mitchell gruich as an alien you will notice that his name is spelled mitchel gruich yet he signs it as mickel gruich he writes mickel because he was trying to write what he thought was michael he also lists his birthday as december 16 1885 which is incorrect we are not sure if he was under the impression that was his birthdate if he was confused with another date or if he just picked that date out of thin air it was not custom to celebrate birthdays in trogir in the early 20th century so it may have just been a formality for him to pick a date close to what he remembered his birthdate to be later on i discovered his actual birthdate was november 27 1885 and that he was baptized on january 3 1886  november 23 2014 the third day of the trip put us further south in zadar on the coast of the adriatic sea zadar is where they have the famous sea organ the sea organ has several holes or pipes in the seawall and each pipe is a different length as the waves crash into the pipes it sounds as if the sea is playing an organ zadar was just a midday pitstop for us to take a break on our way down to the city of split split is about 30 miles from trogir trogir is the name of the birth place written on the tombstone of mitchell v gruich in the biloxi cemetery while we were in zadar i wanted to test the walk into a church and ask for records idea to see if it worked there was a huge church not far from the promenade in zadar i walked in found a priest and asked him if he spoke english he said yes i asked him where the church baptism records were he pointed me to the baptismal font i said ne no baptism books he was confused and didn t understand so he directed me across the street to the monastery to ask one of the monks i went and found the monks and asked one of them about baptism records and it turned out none of them could speak english then one of them said baptism i said da yes da and they told me to go back across the street to the church disappointingly the test was unsuccessful and only heightened my skepticism that i would find church records in trogir we arrived in split around 7 pm that night i made arrangements at the front desk of our hotel for a taxi with an english speaking driver to pick us up at 530 the next morning to take us to trogir my wife and i were exhausted because it had taken the whole day to travel in a bus from zadar to split we set the alarm for 430 am so we could have time to put our bags out and get ready for the long day which meant we were going to be functioning on about four hours of sleep it was about midnight when we finally got settled i hardly slept at all that night because i was so excited to finally visit this mythical town that my greatgrandfather came from so long ago my sister and her husband decided not to go on the offbeat trip to trogir with us the next day and instead they went to see the sights of split with our tour group it would just be me and my wife on this little adventure  november 24 2014 the taxi was waiting for us the next morning when we got downstairs it was a monday and still early so no one was on the road and it only took us twenty minutes to get to trogir the sun was still not up when we drove onto the little island so i got to see what it was like at night for a little while with the warm glow of the street lamps illuminating the ancient stone walls we parked on the south side of trogir on the island of ciovo to give you an idea of the contrast in size of the two islands if ciovo was a dollar bill then trogir would be about the size of a grain of rice the taxi driver volunteered to come along and help translate for us he didn t really speak much english but he seemed to understand what we were saying we started our entrance to trogir by walking across the south bridge the island is so small that it only takes around 10 minutes to walk from the promenade on the south shore to the north gate trogir is comparable in length and width to the size of hiller park in biloxi the only place that was open this early on a monday morning in the historical city was a cafe we stopped and had some coffee to wait for some things to open i asked the taxi driver if he could ask the barista if he knew where the trogir cemetery was the barista gave him directions and we left after finishing our cappuccinos we exited the north gate and walked across the north bridge onto the mainland the cemetery was a brisk 15minute walk up a steady hill behind some neighborhoods here is what the cemetery looked like as we approached it early in the morning sun the groundskeepers were already working on cleaning up leaves and debris before it got too hot we learned from our tour guide that while it is extremely expensive to have a burial plot in a cemetery in croatia the grounds are incredibly beautiful and well kept the weather that morning was cold enough for me to wear my thermal jacket but by noontime with the sun out it was comfortable enough to walk around in a tshirt the taxi driver asked one of the groundskeepers if they knew where any gruich tombstones were located the groundskeeper then went into the cemetery office as we followed she opened up a book and as she started flipping the pages i noticed that there were dozens and dozens of gruich last names entered into the book i couldn t believe it i had never seen so many gruich last names before i brought my camera to try to document everything my first reaction was to ask if i could take a photo of the book the groundskeeper looked at me like i was crazy i told the taxi driver to explain i was from america and i was there to find longlost relatives the groundskeeper refused to let me photograph the book due to privacy laws she did at least say where we could find some gruich graves in the cemetery so she pointed us in the right direction and we found two gruic gravesites in the west section of the cemetery trogir cemetery office the cemetery was our first stop in documenting any gruic families buried in trogir november 2014 we spent over an hour in the cemetery taking photos i knew there was no way to be sure which ones we were related to so i figured it was best to photograph everything and we could try and figure out any family history later as for the little cemetery book with all the names in it i was eventually able to obtain some copies of trogir birth registries from the zagreb archives in the trogir baptism book for 1880 to 1890 there is also a small miniature notebook that contains about 16 gruic names 24 ivacic names and no plazibacic names in it the miniature notebook is a reference book with just names and rubric numbers for each name a rubric number is the number of the row where that the individual can be found in that baptism book the mini notebook acts as a crossreference index with the names from the baptism book in alphabetical order this was the kind of book i saw in the cemetery but probably with grave plot locations a few years after this first trip i found on a map from 1830 that the little cemetery existed back in the early 19th century the below photo is of the baptism registry from zagreb archives this particular book covers the 1880 1890 birth records while looking through this book there appears to have been a small reference notebook that contained all the names of the book listed in alphabetical order correlating with their rubric number the below photo is of the tombstone of anton and ana mise gruic in trogir cemetery anton gruic was the brother of mihovil gruic i took this photo on my first visit to trogir also buried in this grave is mihovil and anton s sister ivanica antonia gruic ivanica gruic died on october 7 1958 the below photo is of the tombstone of ivan and niko bakica gruic in trogir cemetery ivan married niko bakica on november 19 1925 niko died in 1949 after niko passed away ivan married her sister palma bakica who helped him raise the two children he had with niko this was all information that i found the year after we had visited the cemetery for the first time surprisingly some of the gruic graves had photos on them one of the tombstones had a photo of anton gruic who slightly resembled my uncle tom i thought for sure this had to be a blood relative but amazingly he was no relation after an hour of combing the cemetery for gruic graves we were only able to find a handful this was disappointing because i was expecting to find so many more after seeing all the names in the cemetery book there was no way to know if any of them were actually related to nona what i found was that there are also variations of the last name some tombs had the gruic name ending with the letter a or had a j in it later on i found out that this was done to establish differentiation between families a long time ago over the course of time their last names changed either intentionally or accidentally after visiting the cemetery we walked back to trogir where the businesses had begun to open we only had 6 hours in trogir before we had to be back in split to meet with the rest of the group and catch the bus to dubrovnik my main objective for this time in trogir was to get the names of nona s parents that was the plan no matter what if i could get the names from the church then we could know a little more about nona s life before coming to america there was one small problem even though trogir is very small there are at least eight churches on the island most of them are still active and there was no way to tell which church would have the records my best guess was to start with the oldest largest church the cathedral of st lawrence the cathedral is situated on the east end of the island in front of the town square in this square which is called a trg there was of course a cafe there are cafes everywhere in croatia croatians love coffee the cathedral didn t open until 9 am so the taxi driver suggested we wait and have coffee in the square until the church opened here are some photos of me waiting in the town square at a little cafe early in the morning at that point we d been in trogir for more than three hours we d already walked the island and the alleys been to the cemetery and had coffee twice by this time seeing the tombstones in the cemetery had made me even more excited i don t think anyone could really understand the bewilderment i felt being there it was a very surreal feeling i don t know how else to explain other than that it was a feeling that made you feel complete that you were at home or at your grandparents house it was all brand new but couldn t feel more familiar i was on a mission i felt there had to be something there on the island that i was missing destiny was teasing me i had been to the cemetery so i knew we had history there i had seen all the names in the cemetery book there had to be more as we sat there drinking our cappuccinos i just got more impatient with not doing anything i couldn t stand sitting still feeling like time was wasting i told ashleigh my wife that we were on the clock and sitting there was not getting me anywhere i started looking at the map to see exactly where i could go to investigate and maybe take more photos to have something to show my dad and uncles when i got back if i couldn t find the names in the church after what happened in zadar i honestly did not have high hopes that st lawrence would have someone on hand who knew where the old baptism books were while sitting and being jolted by my second cappuccino i noticed on the tourist map that we were sitting right across from city hall trogir s city hall is in an old palace that once belonged to the duke of austria i looked at ashleigh and said don t move i m going to go see if city hall is open ashleigh gave me this crazy look and asked why i explained that they might have a census of all the people who lived here that i could look at and find nona s name i ran over to city hall and could hear people at the top of the stairs having a meeting i ran back to the cafe and told ashleigh that city hall was open and i was going to see if i could find someone who could help me i went up an old marble staircase to the second floor and walked down the hallway to the other side of the building where i found a woman standing in the doorway of an office with two other women the woman in the doorway noticed me wandering around and i asked her if she spoke english she said yes and told me her name marianna i explained to marianna that i was looking for census records of trogir she understood i was looking for relatives but did not understand what a census is she took me to another office and asked the other women if they knew about a census and after much deliberation they finally understood what i was looking for and looked up the address of where i needed to go the woman seated at the desk wrote down the address and said i needed to go to the split archives to find the census then another woman came into the office asking about me marianna asked me what part of america i was from and translated back to the woman inquiring they then told me we needed to go back to the first office marianna took me back to the first office and began translating for the other woman a series of questions marianna explained that the woman has relatives who are gruic in trogir she then explained that this woman also knows that there are some gruich relatives in america they began to ask me questions do i know a doctor named frank how about a maria or a charlie i said yes to all of these questions and the woman got up and left the office marianna continued to inquire about what i was doing in croatia and i explained that i was traveling the country on vacation with my wife sister and brotherinlaw when ashleigh showed up and asked me what was happening i explained to her that i met someone who thinks she knows about my family in biloxi soon another man from down the hall appeared to see what was going on and then the taxi driver showed up and asked what was happening at this point there were a lot of loud croatian conversations taking place and questions as to how the taxi driver was involved in all of this with the american tourists looking for family in trogir it was quite chaotic the woman returned with an armful of photographs and i immediately recognized my grandparents in several of them i said their names which corresponded with the names written in croatian on the photographs it was explained to me that the woman i was speaking with toncica emer has a mother named dinka gruich dinka is the daughter of anton gruich anton had a brother named miho who immigrated to america and lived in biloxi toncica kept pointing at miho her greatuncle in the photographs i didn t understand why she kept saying miho when my greatgrandfather s name was mitchell after a lot of confusion and translating between marianna the taxi driver and the man from down the hall we finally understood that miho and mitchell were the same person mitchell is actually michael in croatian there is a phonetic mistranslation from the pronunciation of michael in croatian to the english pronunciation which sounds like the name mitchell below are photos that toncica brought from her mother s house of my grandparents wedding day uncle frank and grace getting married and my greatgrandfather s funeral casket a photo of my grandparents wedding day that was sent to toncica s grandfather anton gruic the collection of photos that toncica brought from her mother s house to show me who miho was this slowly began to make a lot of sense to clarify my greatgrandfather was born in trogir with the birth name of mihovil ivan gruich when he came to america in 1906 he did not speak english very well when he was asked his name at the port in new orleans he was trying to say michael which is what mihovil translates to in english because of his accent michael sounded like mitchell when i was in toncica s office that day anytime someone said my name it sounded like they were saying mee chel this is how they say michael in croatian my greatgrandfather probably didn t care how they wrote his name down at the port or on his registration card when he signed his name he signed it as michel he probably didn t think twice that they were respelling his first name in english coming to america was almost a matter of life and death and he wasn t going to make too big of a deal of how they spelled his name as long as they were going to let him live and work in america so in croatia his name was mihovil or miho for short as he was referred to by his family in america because of the phonetic mistranslation at the port his name became mitchell because that is what it sounded like he was saying his last name stayed the same as it was easy enough to translate other gruich families who immigrated to the different ports in america were not so lucky and had their last names retranslated to various spellings a letter that my greataunt marie gruich wrote to dinka s father anton in 1966 once we established that miho and mitchell were the same name and the same person using the photographs toncica ran out of the office again she returned with her daughter marina who could speak and understand english toncica introduced me to marina and explained who i was marina asked me what i was doing in croatia and i explained we were there on vacation seeing all of croatia marina was in the middle of a catering job and had to return to it so i only met her for a short minute after several hours of much translating and finally rejoicing over the longlost connection i was finally able to ask toncica who the parents of anton her grandfather and miho my greatgrandfather were toncica called her mom and spoke with her for about five minutes she wrote the names augustin gruic and maria stipcic on a piece of paper marianna explained that these were the names i was looking for to make sure i was clear about what i had just learned i drew a family tree placing augustin and maria at the top and their sons mihovil and anton below i filled out mihovil s half of the tree following it down to my own branch toncica then filled in anton s half completing it to show where she and marina were located in the tree below are the names of miho gruic s parents which toncica wrote down while on the phone with her mother below is the tree i drew for toncica in her office which helped us to see how our families connected it was close to noon by the time all the excitement had passed and we only had about an hour left before we had to return to split i asked toncica where augustin and maria were buried since i hadn t seen their grave in the cemetery toncica asked marianna to explain to me where they lived marianna said they lived by the church of saint michael it was getting lost in translation that i was asking about the graves so the taxi driver tried to explain what i was asking toncica made another phone call to her mother and with the taxi driver translating i learned that the graves were destroyed during world war ii i asked if we could see where they used to be and toncica gave directions to their location on the island while toncica had her mom on the phone they asked if we could return tomorrow to have dinner with them i explained that we would be in dubrovnik the next day and then onto zagreb with our group i thanked them for all of their patience and explained how grateful i was to have met them i asked toncica to tell her mom thank you for the invitation and that i would love to return to see them before leaving i asked toncica if i could take a picture with her and marina she ran downstairs and came back with marina for one last photo during this whole craziness my wife sat quietly in the corner of toncica s office taking photos and videos of everything as it unfolded she took some great photos and video of the whole experience as it happened this was a onceinalifetime kind of experience and luckily we got some photos and video of it after reluctantly leaving trogir i kept in contact with toncica and marina for the rest of our trip fielding a barrage of questions from my father and uncles who were the siblings of nona what year were they born did the siblings have kids which siblings were still alive who were nona s grandparents what did nona do in trogir before he came to america where were the rest of the gruich families in the cemetery the information came in sporadically whenever marina had a chance to email me back this was a very slow process since none of us in america could speak hrvatski we couldn t just call dinka and ask her about her father s family history during the following several months we were able to get many questions answered once i had the names of nona s parents i was able to return to the states and have a starting point that put us one more generation back in the tree from the little information that was uncovered in just the few hours i spent in toncica s office combined with the fragments of information i received in emails from marina after leaving trogir we were able to put together a small skeleton of the family tree that extended to nona s brothers and sisters after conveying everything i learned to my father and uncles we began discussing making a pilgrimage to trogir for the following spring to meet with dinka and spend time in trogir the idea of formally meeting croatian cousins who descended from the same family that we had was something of a dream come true my wife and i on the northern bridge into trogir when i was in toncica s office that day we had luckily brought along our camera my wife took a short video of when we were in the middle of trying to figure out the top of our family tree connecting us if you are interested in watching it you can click on the photo below to see what it was like to be in the croatian city hall with three different people translating for me and toncica to communicate this is part 1 of the reconnection story for my family going back to where they came from i will be following it with a part 2 that describes what the second visit was like when me and my father and two uncles visited croatia and formally met our croatian cousins if you are researching gruich genealogy and your family goes back to croatia please get in touch with me at my email address mitchellgruich at gmail  references  the daily herald   dr frank gruich  september 3 1945 p 5 the daily herald   mitchell v gruich  february 24 1958 p 2 the sun herald   tony captain breezy gruich  may 18 1996 p c2 the sun herald   mitchell j gruich sr  august 31 1998 the sun herald   marie sophie gruich  december 27 1998 p a17 the sun herald   ms leoneade m gruich   march 10 2005 p a6 the sun herald   dr frank g gruich dr g just loved being a doctor   september 2 2007 p a12 the sun herald   dr frank g gruich sr  september 3 2007 588 views  