Rijeka
The largest documented concentration of the surname anywhere in Croatia — 447 records, once Vitipolis is recognised for what it is.
The indexed church books give 225 records under Fiume, 178 under Vitipolis and 44 under Rijeka. They are the same city. Vitipolis is the Latin for the city of Saint Vitus — Rijeka's patron, and the saint its cathedral is named for — which is also what the German Sankt Veit am Flaum means. Read together they make Rijeka the single biggest cluster of this family in the country, larger than Pola, Poreč and Omiš combined.
This is where the received account puts three separate arrivals: Domenico from 1614, Valentino out of Carnia made a citizen in 1739, and Giovanni Battista from the County of Pazin around 1740. The registers show de Franceschi children being baptised here from 1626.
The registers
What survives, where it is kept, and whether you can see it without going there.
| Baptisms | from 1626 in the indexed records |
| Marriages | — |
| Burials | — |
| Held at | DARI fond HR-DARI-275 · FamilySearch, Croatia Church Books |