The Line, end to end
Your own descent, walked in the order it happened, across four countries. The five regional itineraries go deeper; this one goes forward.
The other five itineraries are organised by region — everything this archive knows about one valley, one coast, one district. That is the right shape for research and the wrong shape for a descent, because your line does not sit in a region. It crosses four of them, and it only makes sense in order.
This is that order. Nine stops, twelve days, about 1,400 kilometres, from a headmen's list of 1679 to two ships leaving in 1949. Each leg says which regional itinerary to open if you want to stay longer — and where the road you are driving is the one they actually took.
One honest caveat before you start. The join between Carnia and Istria is the weakest link in the whole descent: a De Franceschi of Mione is recorded working in the County of Pazin in 1679, and the Gologorica house is built in 1711. Thirty-two years and no document in between. Leg two is where you are driving across a gap, and it is worth knowing that while you drive it.
Nowhere — this one moves
Three bases in sequence: Ovaro for legs one and two, Pazin for legs three and four, Crikvenica for legs five to seven. The German leg is its own trip from Reutlingen.
Start at Venice or Trieste, finish at Stuttgart. Hiring a car in Italy and dropping it in Germany is expensive; dropping in Croatia and flying is usually cheaper.
Late May, or the first half of September. You need Alpine passes open at one end and Croatian parish offices staffed at the other, and those two windows only overlap twice a year.
The itinerary
- 1
Mione — where the name is first written
Tolmezzo → Ovaro → Mione · Carnia, Italy · 1679 · two days
The first document. On the 1679 headmen's list a Zuane De Franceschi of Mione is recorded working in the County of Pazin with his son — the only paper that shows the journey at all, and it shows it from the far end.
- 1a
Mione, Muina and Agrons, in the Canale di Gorto
Publicly visibleStand in Mione, then in Agrons. The archive has not resolved which is the seat: the 1679 list puts De Franceschi at Mione, the published scholarship attaches them to Agrons and its rights. Both cannot be primary. What you are looking at is a weaving valley — the men were licensed pedlar-weavers, cramars, who went out with a chest on their back and came home in spring. That trade is the reason this line leaves.
At the doorSto ricostruendo la famiglia De Franceschi di Mione. Ci sono ancora case o soprannomi con questo nome in paese?
Photograph these — we do not have them- Mione and Agrons from the valley road, in one frame each, for the scale of the place a family left
- Any De Franceschi name in the Ovaro churchyard
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- 2
The gap — Carnia to Istria
Ovaro → Tolmezzo → Trieste → Pazin · about 300 km · one long day
The drive that is also the argument. You are crossing from the Venetian Republic's Friuli into the Habsburg County of Pazin, and there is no document in this archive for anybody making that crossing.
- 2a
The road itself
Publicly visibleTake the old road through Gemona and Cividale to Gorizia, not the motorway. It is longer and it is the one a man with a pack would have used. Two things to notice. You cross a sovereign border that no longer exists — Venice's Friuli to the Habsburg lands — and you cross it in a day, which people did on foot in a week. The 1679 list proves the crossing was routine; it just does not prove it for the man whose descendants you are following.
Photograph these — we do not have them- The Gorizia crossing point, whatever marks it now
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- 3
Gologorica — the house with the year on it
Pazin → Cerovlje → Gologorica · Istria, Croatia · 1711 · a full day
The oldest thing this family still owns a picture of: ANNO · DOMNI · 1711, cut over a door by Giambattista, son of the late Leonardo.
- 3a
The house of 1711
Publicly visiblePhotograph the whole house and then the stone. This archive has the date and not a good frame of the building. The family farmed the bishop of Pedena's rent here until the diocese was suppressed. Gologorica is also where Carlo De Franceschi — the historian, your own line's most famous man — is commemorated.
At the doorTražim staru kuću s uklesanom godinom 1711. Kome je pripadala?
- 3b
Carlo's memorial
Publicly visibleUnder a shield. He was born here in 1809, married at his own bedside at Rovinj in 1852 while gravely ill, and lived another forty-one years.
Photograph these — we do not have them- The 1711 house, whole, then the lintel
- Carlo's memorial, whole, then the inscription
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- 4
Gračišće — house 5, house 19, and a baptism
Gologorica → Gračišće · 11 km · a full day
Three generations in two houses. Joannes Baptista the farmer of house 5 in 1787; his son Antonius the lapicida — stonecutter — at house 19 in 1825; and on 22 March 1863, entry 23, the baptism of Josephus.
- 4a
Gallignana — houses 5 and 19
Publicly visibleNumbers have been renumbered; ask at the parish or the municipality rather than assuming. The trade matters here: this is where the line stops farming and starts cutting stone, and the stone is what takes it to the coast.
At the doorTražim stare kuće br. 5 i br. 19 iz 19. stoljeća — je li numeracija mijenjana?
- 4b
The parish church
Seasonal — checkThe register whose certified copy the family kept. The original is at DAPA Pazin, not here — see the Gologorica itinerary for how to book it.
Photograph these — we do not have them- Houses 5 and 19, if they can be identified, with any number plates
- Any dated or carved stonework in Gračišće — Antonius was a lapicida in a village of stone
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- 5
Down to the sea
Gračišće → Klenovica · about 120 km · half a day
Between 1892 and 1894 the stonecutter's son came off the hill. Drive it slowly; this is the shortest leg and the biggest change.
- 5a
Klenovica, house 22
Publicly visibleAnton Rudolf was born here on 20 January 1890 — and the register says why: «Roditelji djeteta nahodeć se kod svojih u Klenovici, t.j. kod roditelja žene Ane», the parents being with her people. This is the Kalanj house, and the single most precise address this archive holds anywhere.
At the doorTražim staru kuću br. 22 — obitelj Kalanj.
Photograph these — we do not have them- Klenovica house 22 and its neighbours
- The road down from the Istrian plateau to the Vinodol, from the top
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- 6
Crikvenica — the house they built, and the five words
Crikvenica · a full day
Where the line settles, and where the century catches it. Against Josip's name in 1906 the clerk wrote a whole life in five words: «vešti klesar sada tvorničar» — a skilled stonemason, now a factory worker.
- 6a
The house, the cemetery, the parish
Publicly visibleJosip died in 1906; two daughters died as children in 1905 and 1906. The marriage entry has never been seen — a pencil note in the Klenovica baptism says «vjenčao se na Crikvenici». Ask for it while you are standing there.
At the doorTražim vjenčanje Josipa Defranceschija i Ane Kalanj, oko 1888.–1890.
Photograph these — we do not have them- Every Defranceschi and Kalanj stone in Crikvenica cemetery
- The house, from across the street
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- 7
Senj — the branch that went the other way
Crikvenica → Senj · about 40 km · a full day
This is why the regional itineraries were the wrong shape. Senj is your line too — Antonio's brother's branch, one headland north — and it sits in a different walk from Gračišće because the walks were organised by coast and valley rather than by descent.
- 7a
Senj town cemetery
Publicly visibleNine graves of the name, and this archive holds them as a list with no photographs. Ivan died here on 30 October 1995 under a slab cut IVAN DEFRANČESKI — with the Croatian č, the spelling this branch settled on. The same Carnian stock as Crikvenica, gone into shipping instead of stone.
At the door—
- 7b
Gradski muzej Senj
Book aheadFor the maritime papers — crew lists, ship registers, harbour-master returns. None of it is on any film this archive can reach.
Photograph these — we do not have them- All nine Senj stones
- The IVAN DEFRANČESKI slab specifically — quoted here, never seen
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- 8
Pfullingen — where everything after 1945 leaves from
Senj → Reutlingen · about 800 km · a long day, or fly · then two days
Petar left in April 1939, five months before the war. Zdravko was taken by the Partisans in 1943 and then to Germany. Ivan, born at Crikvenica in 1925, was issued papers at Pfullingen and Anton Rudolf was certified by that town's mayor in 1950.
- 8a
Stadtarchiv Pfullingen
Book aheadThe Einwohnermeldekartei — the residents' cards, which give every address, arrival, departure and usually the employer. This archive has two documents from this town and nothing behind them.
At the doorIch forsche zur Familie Defranceski, 1941–1955 in Pfullingen. Gibt es Einwohnermeldekarten und Ausländerlisten?
Photograph these — we do not have them- Every residents' card for the name, front and back
- The 1947 foreigners' list page, in full
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- 9
Where it ends, and does not
Reutlingen · a half day, and a decision
8 March 1949: Australia. 22 July 1949: «a une maison, 2 autos» — Petar stays. The line divides here and the rest of it is on three other continents.
- 9a
The end of the road, and the two that carry on
Publicly visibleZdravko died at Horsham, Victoria, on 22 December 1979 — twenty years before the date the family carried. Hedviga died at Johannesburg on 30 October 2001, six years to the day after Ivan died at Senj. Those two graves are the real end of this itinerary and they are 14,000 kilometres apart. This archive holds both, and has photographed neither.
Photograph these — we do not have them- If you ever get to Horsham or Johannesburg: the stones. They are the last two frames this line is missing.
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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.
| Who | How | What to say | What it gets you |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parrocchia di Santa Maria di Gorto, Ovaro | Through the parish office; do not turn up expecting registers. | Sto ricostruendo la famiglia De Franceschi, originaria di Mione. Cerco i registri parrocchiali del Sei e Settecento. | Whether the 17th-century books are at the church or at the Archivio Diocesano di Udine. |
| Državni arhiv u Pazinu (DAPA) | Book six weeks out. This is the single most important door on the whole route. | Molim uvid u matične knjige Gračišća i Gologorice, te u Status Animarum, za prezime Defranceschi. | The originals behind legs three and four, and the Pićan registers that are errand 1. |
| Župa Crikvenica | Telephone or email first. | Tražim vjenčanje Josipa Defranceschija i Ane Kalanj, oko 1888.–1890. | The one entry missing from your own direct line. |
| Stadtarchiv Pfullingen | Email; appointment needed. | Ich forsche zur Familie Defranceski, 1941–1955 in Pfullingen. | Addresses, dates and employers for the German years. |
What the trip is actually for
Questions this archive cannot answer from a desk. Going is the only method left.
Does the Carnia–Istria join hold?
It is the weakest link in the descent. A De Franceschi of Mione in the County of Pazin in 1679, a house at Gologorica in 1711, and thirty-two years with nothing in between. Leg two is the gap, driven.
Did the stone bring them down to the sea?
Antonius was a lapicida at Gračišće; Josip was «vešti klesar» at Crikvenica, in a town then being built. No document links the trade to the move — a quarry, a mason's yard or a dated lintel would be the first physical evidence either way.
Why is Senj in a different itinerary?
Because the five walks were built by region and your line is a descent. It should have been one road from the start — this page is the correction, and the regional walks are now the deep-dives off it.
Everything to photograph, in one list
16 frames this archive does not have. Print it.
- Day 1Mione and Agrons from the valley road, in one frame each, for the scale of the place a family left
- Day 1Any De Franceschi name in the Ovaro churchyard
- Day 2The Gorizia crossing point, whatever marks it now
- Day 3The 1711 house, whole, then the lintel
- Day 3Carlo's memorial, whole, then the inscription
- Day 4Houses 5 and 19, if they can be identified, with any number plates
- Day 4Any dated or carved stonework in Gračišće — Antonius was a lapicida in a village of stone
- Day 5Klenovica house 22 and its neighbours
- Day 5The road down from the Istrian plateau to the Vinodol, from the top
- Day 6Every Defranceschi and Kalanj stone in Crikvenica cemetery
- Day 6The house, from across the street
- Day 7All nine Senj stones
- Day 7The IVAN DEFRANČESKI slab specifically — quoted here, never seen
- Day 8Every residents' card for the name, front and back
- Day 8The 1947 foreigners' list page, in full
- Day 9If you ever get to Horsham or Johannesburg: the stones. They are the last two frames this line is missing.
- 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 →