The Stones
Two hundred and twenty-six names read off photographs of the memorials themselves. Five direct ancestors are among them — and every stone that disagrees with the tree disagrees by one year, on a birth, never on a death.
This archive holds two kinds of cemetery evidence and they are not the same thing. Find a Grave gives 72 memorials — an index, somebody else's transcription, where a date may be the burial rather than the death. These 230 names are stones: read off photographs of the memorials themselves, at full resolution, in this archive. For Senj and Otočac it is the only evidence there is, because Find a Grave has never covered either.
| Klenovica cemetery | photographed 29 September 2026 · 3 names · klenovica-2026-09-29.psv |
|---|---|
| Otočac municipal cemetery | photographed 8 October 2024 · 32 names · otocac-2024-10-08.psv |
| Senj municipal cemetery | photographed 9 October 2024 · 195 names · senj-2024-10-09.psv |
The confidence letter is the whole apparatus
A gravestone photographed at a steep angle runs its last words out of frame, and a vase of flowers stands exactly where the dates are. So every row says how it was read, and the letters are not decoration — they have already been right four times.
| r | 148 rows — cropped and enlarged three to eight times and read at full resolution. |
|---|---|
| p | 57 rows — read at contact-sheet scale. The surname is secure; the digits are not verified. |
| ? | 25 rows — uncertain, and not to be relied on for anything. |
Who is matched, and how
A Croatian stone gives a married woman under her husband's surname. «MILKA BLAŽEVIĆ rod. PAPIĆ» is this tree's Milka Papić, and matching on the maiden name alone would have missed her, her mother-in-law and her mother-in-law's daughter-in-law alike. Three of the matches below are made through a marriage, and they are marked.
| On the stone | In this tree | |
|---|---|---|
| Franjo Zubrinic 1846–1925 Otočac municipal cemetery | r | Franciscus Žubrinić 1 APR 1845 – ? |
| Ljubomir Blažević 1891–1966 Senj municipal cemetery | r | Ljubomir "Ljubo" Blažević 1 MAR 1892 – 1966 |
| Milka Blažević 1886–1971 Senj municipal cemetery | r | Milka Lucia Papic 9 OCT 1886 – 7 SEP 1971 matched through her married name |
| Oto Blažević 1923–1945 Senj municipal cemetery | r | Oto Blažević 1923 – 1945 |
| Mario Blažević 1933–1984 Senj municipal cemetery | r | Mario Blažević 1933 – 1984 |
| Leo Blažević 1920–2008 Senj municipal cemetery | r | Leo Blažević 1920 – 2008 |
| Tereza Blažević 1867–1931 Senj municipal cemetery | r | Tereza Žubrinić Zubrinic 29 NOV 1867 – 1931 matched through her married name |
| Antun Kosina 1921–2003 Senj municipal cemetery | r | Antun Anton Kosina 11 FEB 1921 – 23 JUN 2003 |
| Josip Papić 1857–1939 Senj municipal cemetery | r | Josip Anton "Joso" Papić 1 NOV 1857 – 19 NOV 1939 |
| Antonija Papić 1860–1935 Senj municipal cemetery | r | Antonija "Tonka" "Tonka" Perpić / Prpic 12 MAY 1859 – 2 FEB 1935 matched through her married name |
| Matilda Papić 1895–1921 Senj municipal cemetery | r | Matilda Papić 1895 – 1921 not in the tree at all — read out of a register and recorded beside it |
| Anton Papić 1868–1937 Senj municipal cemetery | r | Antonius Josip "Anton" Papić 8 JUN 1868 – 11 SEP 1937 |
| Jakov Papić 1863–1938 Senj municipal cemetery | r | Philippus Jacobus Papić 13 MAY 1863 – 7 OCT 1938 |
| Martin Špalj 1893–1977 Senj municipal cemetery | r | Martin Špalj Spalj 1893 – ? |
| Lucija Špalj 1892–1949 Senj municipal cemetery | r | Lucija Špalj Spalj 14 JAN 1894 – ? |
| Kata Špalj 1886–1981 Senj municipal cemetery | p | Kate Špalj Spalj 1886 – ? |
| Budimir Boras 1927–1976 Senj municipal cemetery | r | Budimir Boras 17 JUL 1927 – 1976 |
| Budimir Boras 1894–1954 Senj municipal cemetery | r | Budimir Boras FROM 17 MAR 1894 – 20 MAR 1954 |
| Marica Boras 1904–1980 Senj municipal cemetery | r | Marica Milkovic 1904 – 1980 matched through her married name |
| Ante Boras 1923–1942 Senj municipal cemetery | r | Anton Boras 13 MAR 1923 – 1942 |
| Fabijana Boras 1926–1926 Senj municipal cemetery | r | Fabiana Boras 10 JAN 1926 – 24 JAN 1926 |
| Nikola Šojat 1878–1965 Senj municipal cemetery | p | Nikola Šojat ? – ? in the tree, with no page of their own |
| Ivan Defrančeski 1925–1995 Senj municipal cemetery | r | Ivan Anton Defranceski ? – ? in the tree, with no page of their own |
| Ivica Žubrinić 1887–1934 Senj municipal cemetery | r | Ivan Žubrinić 16 AUG 1887 – ? |
A stone is good for a death and weak for a birth
Where a full-resolution reading matches somebody here, the years were compared rather than merged. Every difference is a birth year and every difference is exactly one year. Not one death year disagrees anywhere in 230 names.
| Person | Field | This tree | The stone | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Franjo Zubrinic Otočac municipal cemetery | birth | 1 APR 1845 | 1846 | +1 year |
| Antonija Papić Senj municipal cemetery | birth | 12 MAY 1859 | 1860 | +1 year |
| Ljubomir Blažević Senj municipal cemetery | birth | 1 MAR 1892 | 1891 | -1 year |
| Lucija Špalj Senj municipal cemetery | birth | 14 JAN 1894 | 1892 | -2 year |
It is the obvious thing once it is written down. A death is carved by people who have just lived through it. A birth is carved from memory, sometimes forty years later, by the generation after. The pattern holds across two cemeteries and three families — Blažević and Papić at Senj, Žubrinić at Otočac — which is what makes it a rule rather than a coincidence.
The direction is not consistent, and an earlier draft of the Senj note said it was. Ljubomir's stone is a year early; the other two are a year late. That claim was written before these surveys were wired into this page, and putting the three side by side is what exposed it. It is the size that means something, not the sign.
Who is in the ground together
A plot number is a household claim, and a family stone is the same claim in carved letters. These are the largest.
| The stone | Who is on it |
|---|---|
| Senj municipal cemetery «TIHI DOM OBITELJI BORAS - MILKOVIĆ», Croatian arms carved at the head [full-res pass: the death year is 1954, not the 1950 first recorded] IMG_8140 | Budimir Boras 1894–1954 [r] Marica Boras 1904–1980 [r] Ante Boras 1923–1942 [r] Fabijana Boras 1926–1926 [r] Domagoj Boras 1940–1948 [r] — not in this tree Fabo Boras 1878–19?? [p] — not in this tree Marija Boras 1880–? [?] — not in this tree |
| Senj municipal cemetery family tomb, four names cut in the face; the register says he was born 1 Mar 1892, so the stone is one year out on the birth and right on the death IMG_8055 | Ljubomir Blažević 1891–1966 [r] Milka Blažević 1886–1971 [r] Oto Blažević 1923–1945 [r] Mario Blažević 1933–1984 [r] |
| Senj municipal cemetery stone cross, «JOSIP PAPIĆ»; ahnentafel 6, and the register agrees to the year on both dates (b. 1 Nov 1857, d. 19 Nov 1939) IMG_8131, IMG_8133, IMG_8135, IMG_8137 | Josip Papić 1857–1939 [r] Antonija Papić 1860–1935 [r] Matilda Papić 1895–1921 [r] — not in this tree |
| Otočac municipal cemetery family tomb, arch carved ZUBRINIC, wrought-iron cross, four plates, ivy-covered IMG_7024-7027 | Franjo Zubrinic 1846–1925 [r] Ivanjica Zubrinic 1848–1886 [r] — not in this tree Venceslav Zubrinic 1874–? [r] — not in this tree Ju[v]ana Zubrinic 18–? [p] — not in this tree |
| Senj municipal cemetery «OVDJE POČIVAJU U MIRU BOŽJEM», three names, small crucifix at the right IMG_8159 | Ivica Žubrinić 1887–1934 [r] Fana Žubrinić 1890–1974 [r] — not in this tree Marijan Žubrinić 1919–1996 [r] — not in this tree |
| Senj municipal cemetery with the Galjanići IMG_8065 | Marija Vukelić 1889–1937 [r] — not in this tree Slavka Galjanić 1913–1979 [r] — not in this tree Ivan Galjanić 1908–1995 [r] — not in this tree Dragica Vukelić 1908–1966 [r] — not in this tree Milan Vukelić 1906–1989 [r] — not in this tree Milan Vukelić 1939–2014 [r] — not in this tree |
| Senj municipal cemetery OBITELJ RUKAVINA IMG_8113 | Luka Rukavina 1901–1944 [p] — not in this tree Ana Rukavina 1905–2001 [p] — not in this tree Rina Rukavina 1936–1996 [p] — not in this tree Ante Rukavina 1958–? [p] — not in this tree Nevenka Rukavina 1944–? [p] — not in this tree |
| Senj municipal cemetery «OVDJE POČIVA U MIRU BOŽJEM»; tree: Stephannes Papić, b. 16 Aug 1860, d. 8 Jul 1917 IMG_8119 | Stjepan Papić 1860–1917 [r] — not in this tree Anica Papić 1864–1928 [r] — not in this tree Danica Papić 1902–1918 [r] — not in this tree Boža Papić 1891–1973 [r] — not in this tree |
The matcher was reading the register file, not the tree
Until 15 September 2026 this page matched stones against
people.json and nothing else. That is not the tree, and it is not even everyone
with a page: fifty-two direct ancestors live in ancestors.json and not in
it, so their graves could not match at all. Beyond both sits everyone who exists only
as a name on somebody else's record — a parent, a spouse, a child — with
no page and no slug.
Five more names came back with him — three Špalj, a Šojat — all of them people this tree carries and this site has never published.
sources/found.psv exists for a single reason: a person
who is in a register and not in the tree had nowhere to be recorded. So it holds the
one population a stone is most likely to name and the tree least likely to explain — and the
matcher could not see it either.The cost was one name, and it is the name that proves the point. «MATILDA PAPIĆ 1895–1921» stands third on a Senj cross. She was photographed, read at full resolution, found to be absent from the tree, and written down in found.psv as a discovery — and then the matcher reported her stone as matching nobody, because the file written to hold her was not in the pool she was matched against. Both her years agree to the digit.
She keeps her null slug and the page says what she is. A found person stands beside the tree, and the row above would otherwise have called her «in the tree, with no page of their own», which is the one thing she is not.
When two graves want one person, the archive does not choose quietly
Two Senj stones read KATA ŠPALJ — 1884–1975 and 1886–1981 — and this tree holds exactly one Kate Špalj, born 1886, with no death recorded. Both matched her, because a match needs a year within two and there was no death year to disagree with.
| In this tree | Claimed by | Kept |
|---|---|---|
| Kate Špalj Spalj | Kata Špalj 1884–1975 (Senj municipal cemetery)Kata Špalj 1886–1981 (Senj municipal cemetery) | Kata Špalj 1886–1981 |
The better-scoring stone keeps the match and the other is unmatched again; a tie drops both. One of those two women is not in this tree, and publishing her under somebody else's name would be the Defrančeski mistake run backwards — not a person missed, a person invented.
The rest wants ten minutes in the cemetery, not another pass
57 rows are «p» and 25 are «?», and that is now a statement about the photographs rather than a backlog. Where a stone was shot at a steep angle the far end of each line runs out of frame; where flowers stood on the kerb, they stood on the dates. No amount of enlargement fixes either.
One name defeated the sweep entirely — a fallen plaque under reeds, upside down, reading «MARIJAN …» and no more. It is the single best reason to go back. What to photograph →