The Hungarian Press
Lika and the Kvarner were administered from Budapest, and this archive's own place strings still say so. The press and the official publications of that administration had never been searched by anyone in this family — and the first afternoon in them produced a number for the tobacco factory, a Žubrinić who kept a bank's cash, and three Kalanj men of Brinje in a casualty list.
What is readable here, and what is not
Everything below is a snippet. Arcanum returns a full-text extract for every hit without a subscription and paywalls the page image behind it — «You have no active subscription». Not one of these documents has been read at the page, and the OCR's own mangling is left in rather than tidied, because a cleaned-up quotation would claim a reading that did not happen.
Nothing here has been added to the tree. Not one of these people is joined to this family by a document. What the search establishes is that the names existed, in those towns, at those dates, doing those things — and where to go next. The search register →
Six Žubrinić men of Otočac in the casualty lists — three of them killed
The first sweep of the Verlustliste gave three Kalanj men of Brinje. Run properly across this archive's surnames, it gives a great deal more. These lists print regiment, company, province, district, commune and year of birth in order to tell men of the same name apart — which makes them a genealogical record by accident, and the archive holds nobody born at Otočac between 1875 and 1900.
Zubrinić Nikola, ResInft., IR Nr. 79, 3. Komp., Kroatien, Otocac, 1886, verw[undet]
Žubrinić Jure, ResInft., IR Nr. 79, 15. Komp., Kroatien, Otocac, 1887, tot 13. 12. 1914
Żubrinić Tomo, Inft., k.u. LIR Nr. 20, 13. Komp., Kroatien, Otočac, 1876, tot 17. 2. 1915
Žubrinic Toma, Ers.Res. Gefr., IR Nr. 79, 11. Komp., Kroatien, Otočac, 1886, tot 29. 1. 1915 · Zubrinic Mijo, Inft., IR Nr. 79, 10. Komp., Kroatien, Otocac, 1890, verw.
Zubrinic Miklós, Gefr., IR Nr. 79, 3. Komp., Otocac, Lika-Krbava — Schuß i. d. …, Wasserheilanstalt Bad Kreuzen in Oberösterreich
Born 1876, 1886, 1886, 1887, 1890 — exactly the generation this archive said it was missing. Three are dead by February 1915: 13 December 1914, 29 January 1915, 17 February 1915. One is in a hydropathic hospital in Upper Austria with a gunshot wound. Almost all of them are in the same regiment, IR Nr. 79 — the Jelačić regiment, which recruited Lika. None is yet joined to this family by a document.
A Smojver of Karlobag, wounded — and Smojvers taken prisoner from Russia to Sardinia
Smojver is a direct-line surname here: ahnentafel 53, 106 and 212, all of Karlobag. Thirty hits in the casualty lists.
Smojver Blaž, ResKorp., IR Nr. 79, 6. Komp., Kroatien, Gospić, Karlobag, 1882, verw. · Smojver Mijo, ResZugsf., IR Nr. 79 …
Smojver Dragutin, Infst., k.u. LIR Nr. 26, 3. ErsKomp., Kroatien, Gospić, Koromačina, 1893, kriegsgef. Pensa, Rußland
Smojver Jure, ErsResInfst., k.u. LIR … kriegsgef. Asinara, Stretti, Italien · Smojver Lovro, Infst., k.u. LIR …
A Smojver of Karlobag born 1882, wounded. Two more taken prisoner — one at Penza in Russia, one on Asinara, the island off Sardinia where Austro-Hungarian prisoners were held in conditions that killed thousands. This archive's Karlobag people had been read only in baptismal registers until today.
The tobacco factory, counted
This archive's most-quoted finding is read out of the Senj marriage register: the brides' occupation column goes from tvorničarka on three of five in 1909 to seven of eight in 1919. It had no figure for the factory itself. The Hungarian encyclopaedias have one.
Zengg (Senj, Segnia) szab. kir. város … kir. révhivatala, tengeri halászati bizottsága, dohánygyára 120 munkás
… tengeri halászati bizottsága, dohánygyára 500 munkás
One hundred and twenty workers at the end of the 1890s; five hundred by the 1920s. And the same directories give the town itself: «Senj (Zengg), Komitat Lika-Krbava, kön. Freistadt, 3.600 Einwohner». Set those together and by the 1920s roughly ONE IN SEVEN PEOPLE IN SENJ WORKED IN THE TOBACCO FACTORY. That is the arithmetic behind the marriage register's occupation column — three of five brides in 1909, seven of eight in 1919.
A Žubrinić who kept a bank's cash
The Žubrinići of this archive are Frontier peasants at Šumećica and Prozor. Otočac's own business directory has other ones.
Srpska štedionica dioničarsko društvo u Otočcu, 1904 … Vorstand Oskar Gara, Otocac, Komitat Lika-Krbava … Buchhalter Stjepan Meniga, Kassier Venzeslav Žubrinić, Hilfsbuchhalter Juraj Milošević
Daniel Žubrinić, Handelsmann in Otočac … Regimentsgericht in Otočać, Ungarn Militärgrenze
Diözese Zengg … Ernannt wurden zu Kooperatoren … Daniel Zubrinic in Otocac
A cashier of a joint-stock savings bank in 1908, a merchant in 1862, and a priest of the Senj-Modruš diocese posted to Otočac in 1885 — the same diocese whose registers this archive reads. None of them is joined to this family by anything yet.
A man born at Otočac in 1886, in three newspapers
The archive holds nobody born at Otočac between 1875 and 1900. Three Austrian papers carried the same story in April 1914.
Mijo Zubrinic, der im Jahre 1886 in Otocac … geboren ist … Polizist: Haben Sie einen Reisepaß? — Nein, aber einen Militärpaß … Mijo Zubrinic, 1886 geboren, aus Otocac, Kom. Lika-Krbava
A man of this surname, stopped without a passport, whose birth year and home district the police certificate spells out and the papers reprint. It is exactly the generation and the place where this archive is empty.
A patronymic for Prozor, in an official gazette
Court notices name a man by his father, which is precisely what this archive cannot get from the films.
Zubrinić Franje iz Prozora sina Jure. Rok 8 dana. Općinski sud Otočac
Zubrinić Josip iz Otočca
Franjo Žubrinić of Prozor, son of Jure. The FindMyPast manifests of 1910 put a Franjo Žubrinić born 1883 at Šumećica on the Noordam with a wife left behind — this is a different route to the same household name, and neither has yet been joined to the other.
Senj's men of business, and a Papić among them
The Papići of this archive are težaci and tobacco workers. The Senj shipping company's board is a different floor of the same small town.
Zengg. Hrvatsko parobrodarsko družtvo na dionice … Rukavina, Ivan Lončarić, Papić Ivan
… Vukelić Ivan, Polić Ivan, Lončarić, Papić Karlo, Budak Frane, Budak Ante
Főszámvevő Blažević Milán … Zengg–Fiume–Obrovazzo–Cirkvenica–Novi
A Papić on the board of the Croatian steamship company of Senj across at least five years, and a Blažević keeping the books of the coastal line. Same surnames, same town, no proved kinship — and worth knowing that the names existed at that level at all.
The Prpići of Krivi Put, in a criminal court
Twenty-one hits on one pair of words. A robbery trial that ran two years and names the woods, the fairs and the cattle dealers of this archive's own villages.
der Prpić-Bande … Raubüberfall im Walde Guvno zwischen Krivi Put und Brinje, 11. Juli 1926 … Raubüberfall im Walde Lom zwischen Krivi Put und Otočac, zum Schaden … Viehhändler Ilija Butković aus Krivi Put … der Hut der Prpić
Two of this archive's surnames — Prpić and Smojver — appear in the dock, and the geography is the archive's own: the wood between Krivi Put and Brinje, the road to the Otočac fair. Nobody here is named. The world is.
The First World War, which this archive had never once opened
Austro-Hungarian casualty lists print regiment, company, province, district, commune and year of birth in order to tell men apart — which makes them a genealogical record by accident.
Kalanj Ivan, Inft., k.u. LIR Nr. 26, 3. Ers.Komp., Kroatien, Brinje, 1891, kriegsgef. Prokuplje, Serbien
Kalanj Franjo, Inft., IR Nr. 79, 13. Komp., Kroatien, Brinje, 1893, tot 6.3.1915 · Kalanj Mile, LstInft., IR Nr. 79
Brinje is the parish this archive discovered yesterday that the Kalanji actually belong to. Here are three Kalanj men of Brinje with their birth years and what became of them — one a prisoner in Serbia, one killed in March 1915.
And a migration nobody suspected
This archive knows an emigration to America and one to Australia.
And. Blazevic, geb. 1867 in Staroselo, Krmpote, und dahin zust., verehelicht, Maurer · Sof. Blazevic, geb. 1869 in Staroselo
Blaževići of Krmpote working as masons in western Austria in 1902, listed with their birth years and their home commune. There was a third road out, and it went north.
What was searched, and the two zeros
Every query run on 14 September 2026, with its hit count — because the next person should be able to see what has been asked and not ask it again.
| Query | Hits |
|---|---|
| "Zubrinic" | 343 |
| Zengg dohánygyár | 244 |
| Zengg kivándorlás | 114 |
| "Vukelić" Zengg | 81 |
| "Žubrinić" Otočac | 27 |
| "Prpić" "Krivi Put" | 21 |
| "Zubrinics" | 17 |
| "Papić" Zengg | 13 |
| "Kalanj" Brinje | 8 |
| "Pilipić" Karlobag | 7 |
| "Blažević" Krmpote | 6 |
| "Zubrinic" Zengg | 6 |
| "Žubrinić" Prozor | 5 |
| "Žubrinić" Šumećica | 0 |
| Zengg 1943 razzia | 0 |
«Blazsevics», the Hungarian spelling, returns 2,168 hits and almost every one of them is a modern footballer. It is recorded so that nobody spends an evening on it.