Overview
Click here for an interactive map showing the places we visited on this tour
After sailing for a week in the islands between Split and Dubrovnik, we made the long (7 hour) overland journey by car from Dubrovnik to Malinska on the island of Krk, near the seaport of Rijeka. Our intention was to visit family villages, to meet cousin Tonci for lunch, and to visit an ancestral lot or two … all planned for the next day, Sunday September 30. While I had planned the itinerary for just this one day of our multi-week journey, I was questioning my planning skills in trying to pack so much activity into one day. 
To pass the time on the long trip, I made Wynn and Mare read some of Lisa’s short family history books so they’d be better prepared for the next day. There were some tears in the back seat while they were reading.
Malinska
Following the 7 hour ride, we settled into our cozy, harbor-front accommodations on Saturday evening that Marlene had selected; it was perfect. We had drinks on the harbor-front, a late dinner and, for the first night in a week, slept on beds lacking pitch, roll, and yawl. Our plans for Sunday were to visit Kostrena to see the family church, hope to speak with someone about church records there, then see the house in which Grandpop was born. From there, on to visit Skrljevo, where our great grandmother was born to see if we could find any additional information about her from the records in the Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I had hoped that being Sunday morning, we might actually be able to speak to someone at the churches. Then we planned to drive back to Krk and to cousin Tonci’s house outside of Sveti Vid to have lunch, followed by visits to the Church of St. Michael, some ancestral ruins, and the “family” land said to have an olive grove on it. No problem, right?
Kostrena – Sv. Barbara
We had breakfast on a beautiful, cool, clear Sunday morning on the Malinska harbor-front at King’s Caffe – where the eggs, bacon, and toast were presented to look like a sailboat. 
We set off for Kostrena. We quickly found the Sv. Barbara Church and, while it was closed, found a caretaker out back who let us into the church. It is a beautiful little church. She explained that the church records we were looking for were not stored in the Sv. Barbara church, but were instead kept across town at the Sv. Lucija church. We visited the Sv. Barbara cemetery and found the old headstone of Francika Cuculić. We also found the new grave of cousin Ervin Soic who died in 2013. In Croatia, grave sites are surrendered if they are not maintained; maintenance usually involves regular payment to the church. So it is likely that someone is still paying for Francika’s grave site; maybe Ervin’s family.
Our next stop was 29 Urinj, the home in which our grandfather Marion was born. When we were here in 2001, Cousin Ervin Soic and his wife and mother (Marija) were living here; Ervin and Marija have since died. Ervin and Tugomila raised their sons Fredi Soic and Davor Soic in this house. Fredi and Davor are third cousins to my generation. We walked to the back (which is actually the front) of the house where there is a small courtyard. The gate was closed and the house appeared empty. The view is out over the Adriatic – interrupted by the oil refinery down the hill. On the way out a young man was playing with his son on a concrete platform; Wynn stopped to engage him. He spoke English well. He is friends with Fredi and had seen him recently. We asked him to tell him that his third cousins from Philadelphia send our greetings.
Kostrena – Sv. Lucija
With the idea that maybe we could speak to someone at the Sv. Lucija church about church records, we set off across town and arrived at about 10:45 just as mass was letting out. I attempted to speak to the priest, but he did not speak English; he offered German or Italian as options. Maryann found another congregant who did speak English and we learned that we could come back after 6pm the following day to speak with someone who could give us access to the records. That was not going to work out for us.
Skrljevo – Sacred Heart Church
Having not made any significant progress in Kostrena, we got back in the car and drove the 15 minutes to Skrljevo (pronounced skrl – yevo) to find the Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to see if we could speak to someone about records there. The 11am mass was still taking place when we arrived. A friendly neighbor gave us directions to the church cemetery (about a 7 minute walk from the church), and we waited a few minutes for the processional hymn to finish before going inside. We were all warmly greeted by a variety of people who were interested in our reason for visiting. We met Biska, Tin (short for Martin), Pope Ivan (Father John), and a young seminarian who told us his life story. I exchanged email addresses with Pope Ivan and left a copy of our family tree showing the Pavletic line back to Cuculić with birthdates; he suggested that he would do some research when he had time. Cuculić is a very common name in Skrljevo. We said goodbyes to our new acquaintances. As we were walking out of the church, the noon bells began to peal. It seemed a fitting send-off.
We followed the neighbor’s directions to the cemetery but could not find it. Suddenly Tin and the young seminarian appeared in their car from a direction different than the church. We were just down the hill from the gates of the cemetery. With hopes of finding a parent of Francika Cuculić we searched for a marker with Cuculić who’s birth date was in the 1800, but most of the markers were more recent with only a few going back to the 1800s. Nearby are some photos of the ones we found. This is a very nice cemetery.
On the way back to Sv. Vid we stopped to take pictures on the hillside above Bakar where the Maritime Academy is located. It is a very scenic, small seaport. While Grandpop did not study here, many of the renowned sea captains of Kostrena did.
Lunch at Tonci and Mladenka’s House
We arrived at Tonci’s house at 21 Milovčići, a few minutes outside of Sv. Vid, just about at 1:30 as planned. He was waiting outside for us. We were greeted with big grins, hugs, kisses, and exclamations of “Cousins!”. For the next 5 hours Tonci, Mladenka, and their two children Hrvoje and Micala, overwhelmed us with their hospitality, warmth, and food.
After introductions, we took pictures and then retired to the garden to enjoy home-flavored raki (a liquor) and dried figs from their trees. The home-made theme was to continue for the rest of the afternoon. Mladenka showed us the traditional surlice pasta she had made. This type of pasta is used on the island of Krk for festive occasions. They all had been at a wedding the night before; wedding celebrations in Croatia typically go until at least 3am. They had not gotten home until 4am, yet here they were entertaining the four of us.
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Mladenka invited us inside to lunch. We were presented with a tray of sheep cheeses, prosciutto and goat cheese all homemade from animals that they raise. Over the next three hours we were served olive oil from their olive trees, bread, soup, goulash with the surlice pasta, freshly pressed apple cider (the apples came from a friend’s trees), and a delightful lemon cake. We contributed a meager bottle of Grk wine from the island of Korcula.
While Tonci and Mladenka have a flat in Rijeka, they prefer to raise the kids in this village setting, close to the earth and close to the food they eat. They have recently discovered that they can rent the house during the summer months to tourists and had just returned to the house a few days prior to our arrival. Here is a link to their listing: https://www.booking.com/hotel/hr/house-villa-mare.html?aid=356980
We enjoyed plenty of laughs and ate too much food (did I mention the wine and beer?). At one point while Tonci was telling us a story; the four of us from the States were all listening intently. One of the kids asked Mladenka in Croatian “Why are they all crying?”. She had to explain they were tears of happiness. We saw some of Micala’s very artistic pottery. Cousin Zach from CA … just by chance … sent a WhatsApp message to Tonci while we were there; they regularly stay in touch with one another.We briefly toured their gentleman farm, met some of the prosciutto-to-be, saw their chickens (daily fresh eggs), the large barrel of apples yet-to-be pressed, and saw the large garden that they cultivate. As the sun was sinking low, we piled into our two cars and went on a short tour of Sv. Vid.
Sv. Vid Tour
The first stop was a piece of land that is presently an olive grove. It is Radic land passed down from Grgr Radic. It is just off the road that leads into the center of Sv. Vid and has views of the Adriatic. Tonci told us that he hopes to build a house on the land and give it to Hrvoje when he gets married as a wedding gift. He told us that based on Croatian law, some ownership has been passed through Mitza’s mom Katherine to her 3 children. Specifically, Mitza, Betty, and Marion each had rights to 1/24 of the land (one eighth total). Tonci’s mother owns 3/4 of the land. Descendants of Uncle Joe Radic own the other one eighth. When I asked Tonci what he needed to do to secure title to the land, with a smile he replied “I’d have to sue you.” Without missing a beat, Wynn retorted “We have better lawyers.”
From there we headed to the house that Grgr was born in, a little closer to the center of Sv. Vid. Then back in the cars and a hundred meters up the road; we stopped and went up on the porch of what to me is “the reunion house” – the porch where we first discovered our connections to one another. Tonci and Hrvoje made a point of telling us that Hrvoje is “Miholjice”, that is, of the village of Sv. Vid-Miholjice. Hrvoje told us very proudly in English “I am Miholjice.” Tonci’s mother, Marija stays at this house when she is in town. She has just retired from her work as a professor.
As the sun was setting, we made our way past the church to the other side of town, past what is now a pair of big-box stores at a fork in the road a little north of town. About 400 yards on the right past the fork in the road are some old stone ruins. We stopped, parked our cars and then walked down a narrow path in the woods to more stone ruins. These ruins are the remains of what was the small group of houses where G.G. Mom’s Gardinic family lived before many of the settlement died from malaria. Those who survived, including G.G. moved into town; she moved in with her uncle as her parents had died in the malaria outbreak.
It was getting dark. It had been an amazing day. Our hosts escorted us back to the heart of Malinska and we said our goodbyes on the waterfront harbor. There were hugs and kisses, then hugs and kisses again and discussion of Christmas 2019 when they all hope to come to the US. Wynn promised to try to get tickets to a 76ers game. Maryann started worrying about what to serve them when they come. One more round of hugs and kisses and we parted ways. Walking away we heard a shout from Hrvoje – just a little to late: “Don’t all cry again!”.
The next morning, Marlene and I visited the other Gardinic lot that is located to the left and behind St. Michael’s church. It appears that it is unused other than a few olive trees and boat trailer that someone has stored on it.
Marlene and I then started the next leg of our journey; we were on to Trieste.