Senj, Crikvenica, Klenovica

The Grave

Six names on one family plot — and one of them belongs to a man who is not buried in it. Two further graves, found since, say something consistent about what a stone is good for and what it is not.

The Blažević family grave at Senj — The Blažević plot, Senj. Neighbouring stones read VUKELIĆ, TOMLJANOVIĆ, BEZJAK and ROGIĆ — the same surnames that fill this tree.

What is cut into it

Upper stone	LJUBOMIR BLAŽEVIĆ ✳ 1891 † 1966 MILKA BLAŽEVIĆ rod. PAPIĆ ✳ 1886 † 1971 OTO BLAŽEVIĆ ✳ 1923 † 1945 MARIO BLAŽEVIĆ ✳ 1933 † 1984
Later plaque	BLAŽEVIĆ — KATA ✳ 1924 † 2007 · LEO ✳ 1920 † 2008

rod. — rođena, “born”, the Croatian equivalent of née. The stone therefore records Milka's maiden name, Papić — and not the Vukelić name she married under in 1920.

Why this photograph matters more than any other here

It corroborates the account of Oto's death

OTO BLAŽEVIĆ ✳ 1923 † 1945 is on this stone. The family record carries two irreconcilable accounts of how he died — a snakebite, and the war in Slavonia — and the second one, from Nives Blažević, said this:

…he died in the war somewhere in Slavonia, his grave is unknown, so they put his name in his grandmother's and grandfather's grave — and now Leo is there, and Katica.

The stone shows exactly that. Oto's name is on the family plot; and the later plaque below carries LEO (1920–2008) and KATA — Katica — (1924–2007), added afterwards, precisely as she described.

One wrinkle resolves easily. Nives calls it “his grandmother's and grandfather's grave”, but the names on it are Oto's parents. Nives Blažević was born in 1953: Ljubomir and Milka were her grandparents. She is describing the grave from her own position in the family, which is what people do.

What this does and does not prove. It does not prove he died in Slavonia. It proves that the person who said so knew this grave in detail — including who was added to it half a century later — and that the family commemorated Oto somewhere other than a grave of his own. That is real corroboration of the witness, and it moves the snakebite account into second place. The brother →

And it contradicts the register

The stone gives Ljubomir's birth as 1891. The 1920 marriage register, written in his lifetime from his baptismal certificate, gives 1 March 1892. This archive follows the register.

It is a useful reminder in a family whose evidence is mostly stone and memory: a gravestone is a secondary source. It is cut after the fact, paid for by the bereaved, and carved by someone who never met the person.

Added 13 September 2026

Two more graves, and the same lesson twice

When that last paragraph was written it rested on one stone. Sweeping the family's photo library turned up two more, in two more cemeteries — and one of them repeats the error exactly, while the other corrects the tree.

The Defranceschi family grave at Crikvenica — **Crikvenica.** ANA DE. FRANCESCHI ✻19 IX 1863 ✝28 V 1936, her husband JOSIP, RUŽA JARMACKI rođena DEFRANCESCHI 1903–1939, and PEPE, TONI and BOŽICA below.

The Kalanj grave at Klenovica — **Klenovica.** LOVRO KALANJ 1906–1965, ANA KALANJ 1919–1971, IVAN KALANJ 1942–1996, MARIJAN KALANJ 1944–2009 — a father, a mother and two sons.

Crikvenica gets a birth date wrong, exactly as Senj does

The stone gives Ana de Franceschi, born 19 September 1863. Her baptism survives and does not agree: Anno Domini 1864, no. 2 — Anna, legitima, Josephus Kalanj et Rosalia nata Perković ejus uxor, at Klenovica N° 22, born 3 January 1864 and baptised three days later. The death on the stone, 28 May 1936, is exactly right; the birth is out by three and a half months.

So both stones this archive can test get the birth wrong and the death right — which makes sense. The death is what the family had just lived through. The birth is what somebody remembered, seventy years later.

Every name on the Crikvenica stone is in the tree

Read against the record it resolves into one household over three generations, and the dates agree throughout:

On the stone	In the tree	Who
ANA DE. FRANCESCHI ✻19 IX 1863 ✝28 V 1936	Ana Kalanj, 3 Jan 1864 – 28 May 1936	born Kalanj of Klenovica 22 — the birth date on the stone is wrong
JOSIP DE. FRANCESCHI	Josephus “Josip” de Franceschi	her husband
RUŽA JARMACKI rođena DEFRANCESCHI ✻1903 ✝1939	Ruža de Franceschi, 10 Dec 1903 – 29 Mar 1939, m. Miro Jarmacky	their daughter
ANT… 1890 · URSULA 1895	Ante Defranceski, b. 20 Jan 1890, and Ursula Kovačina, 1895–1975	their son and his wife
PEPE 1911–1980 · BOŽICA 1911–1994	Josip Petar “Pepe” Defranceski, 1911–1980, and Božica Blašković	grandson and his wife
TONI 1937–1984	Anton “Braco” Defranceski, 16 Nov 1937 – 17 Jan 1984	great-grandson

Only one of the seven is published here. This archive publishes nine surname groups and Defranceski is not among them, so the stone is almost entirely the sister archive's material — reached, as it happens, through a Kalanj girl from Klenovica who married into it.

And reading it caught a fault in the tree. Božica Blašković is entered as born 3 December 1911 and dying 18 May — the same day and month as her husband Pepe, in both cases. Two people do not share a birthday and a death-day. Her years, 1911 and 1994, match the stone; the days and months have been copied across from his record. She is not published here, so this is noted rather than corrected — but it is worth the sister archive's attention.

Klenovica corrects the tree instead

The four names on the Kalanj stone are all in this archive — and all four are in it twice. Because the duplicated parents are spelled Lovro in one copy and Lovre in the other, the duplicate check rejected the two sons as different people. The photograph is what overruled it: one family, one plot, four names. The same person, twice →

A stone is a poor witness to a birth and a good witness to a household. It was cut by people who knew exactly who was buried together.