Defranceski
Stonecutters on a hill in Croatia, who came down to the sea and then sailed to the other side of the world.
Defranceschi just means “of the Franceschi” — the family of a man called Francesco. So lots of families made the name up on their own, all over Italy. Ours is the one from the hill village of Gračišće.
From you, all the way back
Start at the bottom. Every step up is one more generation into the past — a real person, in a real place, written down in a real book.
What do the numbers mean? “2× great-grandpa” is just a short way of writing great-great-grandpa. Once you get past three or four greats it is quicker to count them than to say them. So your grandpa’s grandpa is your 2× great-grandpa, and his grandpa is your 4× great-grandpa, and his grandpa is your 6× great-grandpa.
Look at them
Real photographs of real people you are related to. Some are more than a hundred years old.
Things they actually did
They carved stone for a living.
Great-great-great-great-grandpa Antonio was a lapicida — that is the old Latin word for a stonecutter. He shaped hard rock with a hammer and a chisel. His son Josip did it too, and the parish book calls him a “skilled stonemason.”
Their houses had numbers instead of names.
In the village of Gračišće the priest wrote down every family by their house number. Our family lived in house 5. Then Antonio grew up, got married, and moved into house 19.
Two lines in a dusty book joined the whole family together.
Next to Antonio’s name someone had written q. Joannis — “son of the late Giovanni.” Two little words, hiding in a book for 200 years, proved that house 19 and house 5 were the same family.
Grandpa Ivan was born in a town of the big wind.
He was born at Senj, right on the Adriatic Sea, and named after his own father. Senj is famous for a wind called the bura, which comes roaring down off the mountains so hard that it can blow a person right over.
Then they crossed the whole world — twice.
From Croatia to Johannesburg in South Africa. Then from Johannesburg all the way to Brisbane. That is where Dad grew up, and where you were born.
🔎 The bit we still can't solve
Giovanni at the very top is where the ladder stops. We think he might really be a Giovanni Battista from house 31 at Gologorica — but we cannot prove it yet.