The Defranceschi Archive
Klenovica · Crikvenica · Senj · Bribir · four days

The Kvarner walk

The coast the family came down to, and the one leg of the journey where the archive already holds the register pages — so this trip is about stones and houses, not paper.

This is chapter four of our own line: the stonecutter's son coming down off the Gračišće hill between 1892 and 1894 and stopping on the Vinodol shore. Unlike Carnia, the documents here are largely already in hand — the Klenovica baptism of 1890, the Ledenice entry for Ana Kalanj, the Crikvenica burials, the 1906 death entry with its five-word life.

So the point of going is different. What is missing is physical: the house, the graves, the quarry, and the answer to a question no register will settle — whether the family's stonecutting was the reason they came to a coast that was then being built.

Where to stay

Crikvenica, or Novi Vinodolski if you want to be nearer Klenovica

Crikvenica is central: Klenovica and Ledenice are half an hour south and inland, Bribir twenty minutes up the valley, Senj forty minutes down the coast. Novi Vinodolski is the alternative and puts Klenovica ten minutes away.

Getting there · when to go

Fly to Rijeka (Krk) or drive from Trieste in about two and a half hours. The old Adriatic coast road is the one to take, not the motorway — it is the road the family would have walked and it passes every stop on days two and four.

May, or late September. July and August are the Kvarner high season: the cemeteries are fine but the parish offices keep short hours and the coast road is slow.

The itinerary

  1. 1

    Crikvenica: the house, the graves, the parish

    Crikvenica · a full day on foot

    Everything on this day is within a walk of the seafront. Start at the parish, because whether you get into the registers decides how you spend day two.

    1. 1a

      Župa Crikvenica — the parish office

      Book ahead

      The registers this archive has read in film form. What is wanted here is the marriage entry for Josip Defranceschi and Ana Kalanj — this archive has their four children and Josip's death entry but has never seen the marriage. A pencil note in the 1890 Klenovica baptism says «vjenčao se na Crikvenici», he married at Crikvenica. That is the note to take with you.

      At the doorTražim vjenčanje Josipa Defranceschija i Ane Kalanj, oko 1888.–1890. U krsnom listu iz Klenovice piše «vjenčao se na Crikvenici». Molim presliku upisa i signaturu knjige.

      What this archive already holds →

    2. 1b

      The house the family built

      Publicly visible

      This archive has the story and not the address. Photograph the whole street, not just the door — and if anyone is in, ask what the house was called. House-names outlive owners here.

      At the doorOvu kuću je gradila obitelj Defranceschi početkom stoljeća. Znate li kako se kuća zvala?

    3. 1c

      Crikvenica cemetery

      Publicly visible

      Josip died in 1906, «vešti klesar sada tvorničar». Two daughters died as children, in 1905 and 1906. Their stones — if they stand — are the only physical trace of that household. Work the whole ground, not just the Defranceschi name: Kalanj, Kalaj-Kučarica, Kovačina. This archive found «Ana Kalaj-Kučarica» only because a burial clerk added a house-name.

      At the door—

    Photograph these — we do not have them
    • Every Defranceschi and Kalanj stone in Crikvenica cemetery, whole stone first, then the inscription
    • The house, from across the street, with its neighbours in frame
    • The parish church exterior and any dated stonework — Josip was a stonecutter in a town being built
  2. 2

    Klenovica and Ledenice: where the wife came from

    Klenovica → Rijenovica → Ledenice · about 40 km

    House 22 at Klenovica is the single most precise address this archive holds anywhere. Anton Rudolf was born there on 20 January 1890 — and the register says why: his parents were staying with her people.

    1. 2a

      Klenovica, house 22

      Publicly visible

      «Roditelji djeteta nahodeć se kod svojih u Klenovici, t.j. kod roditelja žene Ane» — the child's parents being with their own at Klenovica, that is with the parents of the wife Ana. The Kalanj house. Numbers have been renumbered since; ask, do not assume.

      At the doorTražim staru kuću br. 22 — obitelj Kalanj. Je li numeracija mijenjana?

      What this archive already holds →

    2. 2b

      Rijenovica

      Publicly visible

      Where Ana Kalanj was born on 3 January 1864. A hamlet, not a town. The point of standing here is scale: this is the size of the place the coast branch married into.

    3. 2c

      Župa Ledenice and its churchyard

      Seasonal — check

      Ana's baptism is entry 2 for 1864 in the Ledenice register — godparents Josephus Ban and his wife Anna, priest Vincentius Segulja. The other names on that page are Perković, Butković, Mataija, Semper: the surnames of one valley. Photograph the churchyard for all of them.

      At the doorTražim grobove obitelji Kalanj i Perković iz 19. stoljeća.

    Photograph these — we do not have them
    • Klenovica house 22 and the houses either side, with any number plates legible
    • The Ledenice churchyard, every legible 19th-century stone
    • Rijenovica from the road — a landscape frame, for the scale of it
  3. 3

    Bribir and the Vinodol

    Bribir → Grižane → Hreljin · about 35 km

    Inland, and older. This is where the Fiume and Kvarner households sit that this archive cannot attach to any line — and one of them held an office worth checking.

    1. 3a

      Bribir

      Publicly visible

      Kobler's account has a De Franceschi brother becoming castellan of Bribir around the 1740s, when Giovanni Battista arrived at Fiume from the County of Pazin. This archive has never tested that. The castle and the parish are both here.

      At the doorPostoje li popisi kaštelana Bribira iz 18. stoljeća, i gdje se čuvaju?

      What this archive already holds →

    2. 3b

      Grižane and Hreljin churchyards

      Publicly visible

      Both appear in this archive's sweeps with nothing attached. A negative is a finding: if the name is not on these stones, write that down.

    Photograph these — we do not have them
    • Bribir castle and any inscription or arms on it
    • Grižane and Hreljin churchyards — the name, or its absence
  4. 4

    Senj: nine graves and a shipping family

    Senj · a full day

    The other Carnian household on this coast, one headland north — Antonio's brother's line. Nine graves in the town cemetery, and a family in shipping.

    1. 4a

      Senj town cemetery

      Publicly visible

      Nine graves of the name. This archive has them as a list and not as photographs. Ivan died here on 30 October 1995 under a slab cut IVAN DEFRANČESKI — with the Croatian č, which is the spelling this branch settled on.

      At the door—

      What this archive already holds →

    2. 4b

      Gradski muzej Senj and the parish

      Book ahead

      For the shipping records. A family in coastal trade leaves crew lists, tonnage returns and harbour-master papers, and none of that is on any film this archive can reach.

      At the doorIstražujem obitelj Defranceschi / Defrančeski u Senju, 19.–20. st. Zanimaju me pomorski dokumenti — popisi posade, upisnici brodova.

    Photograph these — we do not have them
    • All nine Senj stones, whole then close
    • The IVAN DEFRANČESKI slab specifically — this archive quotes it and has never seen it
    • Any Defranceschi name on a Senj shipping or harbour plaque

4 doors, and what to say at them

The wording is there to be read off a phone. It is plain and it is polite. Check the address and the opening hours on each institution\u2019s own site before you go.

WhoHowWhat to sayWhat it gets you
Župa Crikvenica Telephone or email first; parish offices here keep short and irregular hours. Tražim vjenčanje Josipa Defranceschija i Ane Kalanj, oko 1888.–1890., te upise za njihovu djecu. The one register entry this archive is missing from its own direct line.
Župa Ledenice Through Novi Vinodolski if Ledenice is unstaffed. Molim preslik upisa krštenja Ane Kalanj, 3. siječnja 1864., Rijenovica kbr. 22. A certified copy of a page this archive has only as a film image.
Državni arhiv u Rijeci Reading room, book in advance. Bring the fond numbers. Zanimaju me fondovi HR-DARI-254 i HR-DARI-382, kut. 1, vezano uz prezime Defranceschi u Rijeci i Bakru. The Kvarner households that are attached to no line — the whole point of day three.
Gradski muzej Senj Email ahead; small staff. Istražujem obitelj Defrančeski u Senju. Zanimaju me pomorski i grobljanski izvori. Shipping papers, and possibly a cemetery plan that saves a day.

What the trip is actually for

Questions this archive cannot answer from a desk. Going is the only method left.

Did the stonecutting bring them down?

Josip was «vešti klesar» and his father Antonius was entered at Gračišće as lapicida. Crikvenica in the 1890s was being built. No document links the trade to the move — but a quarry, a mason's yard or a dated lintel in the town would be the first physical evidence either way.

Where is the marriage?

A pencil note says he married at Crikvenica. The entry has never been seen. It would give both sets of parents and settle whether the couple met on the coast or on the hill.

Is Kobler's castellan of Bribir real?

It has been repeated in this archive from Kobler and never checked. Bribir is twenty minutes from the base.

Everything to photograph, in one list

11 frames this archive does not have. Print it.

Five rules for the churchyard
  • Photograph the whole stone before the detail. Half the gaps in this archive are because a name was framed and the dates were not.
  • Ask before photographing inside a church, always, and never during a service.
  • Do not photograph recent graves with living relatives named on them. This site omits living people, and that begins in the churchyard.
  • Write down the house-names. Nobody else is going to.
  • Note what you did not find. An empty cemetery is a finding, and this archive publishes those too.

Sources for every claim on this page are on the pages it links to. Drive times and distances are approximate and were not measured on the ground; check the roads and the opening hours before you go. The other itineraries →