More Coat of Arms of Sremska Mitrovica

An older coat of arms of Sirmium

The coat of arms of Vojvodina

A coat of arms of Sremska Mitrovica

A newer icon of Sremska Mitrovica

A newer icon of Sirmium

A Local Newspaper Article about the Milovancev Family in Serbian

A scan of the Serbian version of the newspaper article referenced yesterday is available below:

A Local Newspaper Article about the Milovancev Family - City and Farm Style Living

Note: It has been way too long since I have made a post! Below is an English translation of a newspaper story about the Milovancevs in Sremska Mitrovica.

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HOUSES AND PEOPLE

Original Author (In Serbian): Marija Vukajlovic

City and Farm Style Living

One of the nicest examples of 20^th Century architecture among the homes in Mitrovica, and under state protection, is found on the street “King Peter I” on the Blue Line Number 55 and belongs to the Milovancev family. The talk of the town on this Milovancev family begins with the unusual case of three Kojic sisters, daughters of a prominent merchant Milan Kojic, owner of a merchant store in Nadalj, who were all married in Mitrovica in three different houses all on the same street. Marija Kojic married Jovan Milovancev (our great grandfather), Pelagija Kojic married Stevan Sisojevic, and youngest Danica married Stevan Radovanov. Jovan sold off all of his possessions and properties in his native Vrbas and moved to Mitrovica where he bought a large lot on the main street, then called Zeleznicka, and a three century old farm with surrounding properties along the Mandjelos road. The Milovancevs liked land and they were considered farmers of high status, as they had a house in town and an estate on their farmland, where they all contributed with their hard work and their property was expanding.

Jovan’s oldest two sons, Milan and Stevan (our grandfather), built a grand city house in 1920 on a whole length of a lot facing the street with an entrance in the middle which divided the house into two parts, all to fulfill the wish of their mother Marija (our great grandmother). The house is built in a similar style to many of the wealthy farmer’s houses all around Vojvodina with a mix of Austro-Hungarian styles. The house has rich facades with decorative imitation pillars with four pairs of windows on both sides with a huge wooden entrance door with an iron style design. The decoration was typical for a 20^th Century home with a lot of geometrical forms, like triangles and rectangle, and round forms with lines, all printed within the façade. In many ways though they predicted a new era coming. We knew that Paja Sisojevic, nephew of Marija, had a big influence on the architecture of the house. Later he had two other big house projects on the same street. The house is well built as it is sturdy and of a good quality, made with the best materials available at the time. Jovan and Marija (great grandparents) had 10 children and like other big families moved to big towns like Novi Sad, Zemun, Sombor and Slovenia.

The older son Milan married Marija Conkic who is still alive and 103 years old in San Diego, California where her two sons reside. She has visited Mitrovica 4-5 times, the last time in 2005 in her late nineties. In her youth she was a real lady, very stylish and worked hard on her figure. One of her recipes for a slim figure, which is a family anecdote, is to never overeat at the dining table but to eat smaller portions to take along with you to eat as you work. The younger son Stevan (my grandfather) who stayed in the house had twelve children with Smilja Milovancev (my grandmother). She died young in her 44^th year. Stevan remarried Marija Krcedinoc with whom he did not have any children. Radovan who is telling us this story was four years old when Marija (usually called Maca) became his new mother.

Stevan liked horses and also had some breeding horses. The memory of these horses still lingers...The Milovancev family lived as farmers and the city life, depending on the land from which they lived. They lived as good stewards, never wasteful, but purposeful so that everything had to have meaning – nothing was done simply to be fashionable. They had to do so to raise so many children. On the farm estate they had an electric mine for the surrounding farm to grind wheat and corn. During the summer season, it was a farmer’s life common to others where they worked all season with dust and sweat and calluses on their hands. In the winter, they lived in the city house and enjoyed the fruit of their labor.

All that is disappearing now, estates are sold as no one wanted to continue work as farmers –the old are too old and the young don’t want to. The extended family is now all over the world and much is simply a memory within photographs…Radovan (Rada), the youngest son of Stevan, remains in the parent’s portion of the city house. From his father, he inherited a love for animals, as his hobby is raising pigeons. He has written four books about Maltese pigeons. He is a retired bookkeeper and is now president of a national Maltese pigeon-raising club in Serbia. His sister Milica plans to return to Serbia from Australia, with the plan to live here in Mitrovica. She was an opal hunter living in the wildernesses of Australia. Also living nearby from Stevan’s family is his granddaughter Snezana, daughter of Rada’s sister Ljubinka. In the back of the courtyard is a shop which belongs to Sanja, the daughter of Rada’s brother Jovan (Bata) where the master foreman Zoran still works in spite of all of the changes over the years. Other family live overseas mostly in America, Canada and Australia. Milan Milovancev’s portion of the estate was sold to Vera Latac Perisic where she now runs a foreign language school…Radovan continues to write about the family so that the family history will not be forgotten. The house has antique and historical statues and figures in the courtyard, all from excavations made under the home that come from the Roman times and which serve as a good symbol to all of the changes.

Coat of Arms of Sremska Mitrovica

The coat of arms of Srem

The current coat of arms of Sremska Mitrovica

An older current coat of arms of Sremska Mitrovica

An older coat of arms of Sirmium (Roman name for Sremska Mitrovica)

An older coat of arms of Sremska Mitrovica

Where Did It All Start?

Before I get too deep into the Milovancev family genealogies, let's talk a bit about where it all started. Remember, Paja and Staka Milovancev, the earliest known patriarch and matriarch of the family, were from Vrbas, Serbia.
 
Vrbas is a small town in the South Bačka district of the Vojvodina province in Serbia. It has about 25,000 inhabitants. I have never been to Vrbas but would love to go one day.

Paja and Staka's fourth son Jovan (Joca) and his wife Marija relocated to Sremska Mitrovica, Serbia at the beginning of the 20th Century. A post about them will be coming next. Sremska Mitrovica is about 75 km south of Vrbas.

Sremska Mitrovica is the administrative center of the Srem district of the Vojvodina province and is located on the left bank of the Sava River. It has about 40,000 residents. Sremska Mitrovica is about 70 km west of Beograd (Belgrade), the capital of Serbia and is central to the family history of the Milovancev family. I will be making many posts about Sremska Mitrovica and I have thankfully been there a few times in my life.

Not only is Sremska Mitrovica important to the Milovancev family history, but it is a generally important historical city of some note. Sremska Mitrovica's history dates back to 34 B.C. as the Romans conquered the area and settled Sirmium as an important military stronghold. In 297 A.D., Sirmium even became one of the four capitals of what became the four parts of what remained of the Roman Empire. More about this important town soon.

Who Started It All?

So with whom did the Milovancev family history all start? I wish that we knew going a long way back. Way further than we do now. The farthest back that has been recorded so far (to my knowledge) was to our "Pradeda" Paja Milovancev. He was my father's great-grandfather.

What do we know about Paja? We do not have any pictures of him that I am aware of. We do not know when he was born but we do know where, in Vrbas, Serbia. We also know when he died. He was tragically killed in 1870 by horses in a "suvač", which is a horse-powered dry mill. There are only three remaining in all of Europe, below is a picture of the one in Kinkinda, Serbia.

An example of a suvač in Kinkinda (Source: http://www.kikindskimlin.rs/mlinnekad-suvaca.htm)

Paja Milovancev was married to Staka, whose maiden name was Mijatov. Staka died in the 80th year of her life. Paja and Staka Milovancev had seven children, six boys (Aca, Nikola, Djurica, Jovan, Ljubomir and Nenad) and one girl (Milica). Their fourth son, Jovan (Joca) Milovancev would be my great-grandfather. An upcoming post will be about Jovan (Joca).

First Post - Why Start This New Blog?

So why would I start a new blog called "Milovancev Family History?" For many valid reasons. First, I want to keep and preserve as much of my family history as I can for my children (and future progeny?) to have once they grow up and hopefully become interested in it. There may also be others who would be interested in reading these posts as well. And I know that other family members and friends have additional insights and comments to share that I am not aware of - these are all definitely welcome.

Much of the written family history is available in the Serbian language mostly thanks to the selfless work of my uncle, Radovan (Rada) Milovancev who lived in Sremska Mitrovica, Serbia. Radovan is on the far right of the below picture of some of the "Milovancev Men".

From Left to Right (Milorad, Branislav, Pavle, Jovan, Svetozar, Borislav, and Radovan)

More on Radovan in an upcoming post. These histories are only available in the Serbian language and many members of our family that emigrated out of Serbia and their progeny can neither read nor translate from the Serbian. Nor do they have access to the written materials. I want to make this family history available online and in the English language.

I have collected family items and mementos for many years but much of them are piece-meal and stashed away in several places. I would like to eventually have them all in one central location that is available online.

Lastly, my father, Branislav (Branko) Milovancev of Bath Township, Ohio, United States, passed away a few months ago.

Branislav (Branko) Milovancev

We loved and cherished him and miss him dearly. I am writing these posts in memory of my Tata. He would have absolutely loved this.