Joanna Rajčić

Father:

Joze Rajcic

Birth:

4 Jun 1791, Volosko^[6]

Death/Burial:

30 July, 1855 Volosca^[7]

Cause of Death:

cholera^[8]

Marriage:

January 28, 1816, Volosca^[9]

______________________________

Children:^[10]

Francesco Gemello POBAR (1816-)

Maria Brigida POBAR (1816-)

Lorenzo POBAR (1817-)

Antonia POBAR (1819-)

Giovanni POBAR (1820-)

Maria Rosaria POBAR (1822-)

Pasquala POBAR (1824-)

Antonio POBAR (1826-)

Ferdinand POBAR (1827-1850)

Justina POBAR (1829-1858)

Joseph POBAR (1831-)

Felice POBAR ( 1833-1915), married Emma Archer, 1858, Victoria^[11]

Francisca POBAR (1835-)

photo courtesy Mary O'Kane (2005)

Today, Volosko (its modern day spelling), is a lovely Croatian village at the northern end of the Adriatic sea. Although it's now a booming tourist resort area, it still has an old-world appearance that probably has changed little over time.

More than 200 years ago, when a local shipbuilder and sailor, 26 year old Franciscus Pobar, and his bride Joanna Rajčić were married, it was a modest little place. The language used in the local parish registers switches over the decades, reflecting the area’s changing political allegiances. Some entries are in Latin, some Croatian, others Italian (when Joanna’s name is recorded as Giovanna) and Cyrillic.

Three years after their wedding in the local church in 1816, Franciscus and Joanna had settled into house number “13”, and set about raising a family of 13 children. (Houses were given a town number, rather than a street address)

right: House number 13 on the waterfront in Volosko, where Franciscus and Joanna raised their family (now Ulica Andrije Mohorovicica 38)^[12] . Photo courtesy of Prof. Boris Zakošek

In Mary O'Kane's colour photo of modern Volosko (above top), the Pobar house can be seen. It's the pink brightly lit building on the waterfront, just to the right of a tree.

A bare 15 months after the birth of his youngest daughter, Franciscus collapsed. The church burial records of the day list “Epilepsia” as the cause of death of the 47 year old family man. This is probably a reference to what we would today call a stroke.



Franciscus’ widow, Joanna, lived for nearly another 20 years, falling victim in July 1855 to a mid-summer epidemic of cholera which swept through Volosca..^[13] 

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[1] Volosko church records

[2] Volosko church records and Rijeka town records, researched by Petar Pobar

[3] Volosko church records

[4] As above

[5] As above

[6] As above

[7] As above

[8] As above

[9] As above

[10] All children’s names derived from the baptism records of the Volosko Parish church, mircrofilmed by the LDS.

[11] Felice and Emma’s Victorian marriage certificate

[12] The actual address of house number 13, listed in the Volosko Parish records, was the subject of some research by Petar Pobar in Rijeka town hall records, and then by Professor Boris Zakošek, a researcher specialising in the Opatija and Volosko areas. Professor Zakošek has found that Volosko houses were re-numbered on two occasions (1890, and 1952). Professor Zakošek has tracked "number 13" through to the present day (2007) as being 'Ulica Andrije Mohorovicica 38', on the Volosko waterfront

[13] The Volosco parish records of the day commonly gave a cause of death of the person being buried