Resources

From the main road in Donji Babin Potok looking northwest

The availability of resources for Lika county are few and in English are generally scare. This page provides a listing of resources used by the website, which hopefully will increase as more research is undertaken.

This website is focused on pre-WW1 information and history. While there is significantly more content available covering 1918 to present it will not be addressed for the foreseeable future. Please add to the pre-1918 resources by sending a message to lika.ancestors@yahoo.com

Books – military border and Lika

The focus is on content written in English. Other books in Croatian/Serbian/Non-English that are used as reference on the website are listed here.

Author	Title	Review
Radoslav M. Grujić	Plemenski rječnik ličko-krbavske županije	Indispensable ‘census’ from 1915 listing surnames and number of houses by village. Grujić sourced the information from land registry records. A short Lika history is also provided in Serbian. Download the PDF from the internet.
Gunther E Rothenberg	The Austrian Military Border in Croatia, 1522-1747	Published in the early 1960s these books represent the best history of Krajina by far. Try Amazon and other online book sellers.
Gunther E Rothenberg	The Austrian Military Border in Croatia, 1740-1881	see above
Ivo Banac	The National Question in Yugoslavia	History & politics of the late 19th century to WW1 (& beyond). Provides a view of the Serb political experience in Croatia.
Catherine Wendy Bracewell	The Uskoks of Senj: Piracy, Banditry, and Holy War in the 16th Century Adriatic	Decent review of life and skirmishing across the Austrian-Ottoman Lika border and Adriatic sea.
Vasilije Krestić	History of the Serbs in Croatia & Slavonia 1848-1914	Along the lines of the Banac book above, but focused on the Serb experience in Croatia.
Irina Marin	Contested Frontiers in the Balkans.	Mainly concerns eastern Krajina in the 18th & 19th centuries, but a useful view of Austrian/Ottoman tensions & in part applicable to Lika.
John R. Oreskovich	The History of Lika	US ex-military of Croatian descent. Yet to be read and reviewed.
Srdjan Trifkovic	The Krajina Chronicle	Limited detail from Austrian times and mainly focused on WW2
James D. Tracy	Balkan Wars (1499-1617)	Focused on Ottoman Bosnia, but covers some details about Lika. Traditional rambling approach to history and considers all orthodox peoples in Bosnia and Croatia as Vlahs rather than Serbs.

Books – specific village histories

Over the last few years a number of books have been published concerning individual village histories. Although these books are written in Serbian (usually in Cyrillic), they remain of interest. The books listed have been purchased by the website, there are many others which will be listed here in future.

Author	Title	Review
Branko Drakulić	Gradina Korenička, Lika	Published in 2019. Purchase from the below Korenica website, however do not ship outside of Serbia. The vast majority of the book is in Cyrillic.
Vladimir Skendžić	Monografija sela Turjanski	Published in 2006 in Belgrade. The author has a facebook page.
Vladimir Skendžić	Monografija Vrhovine	Published in 2019 in Belgrade.

Village, family and related websites, webpages

History of the Kljaić family from the Udbina area. Also has hints and tips on searching for Lika ancestors

Collection of all things Korenica. Not in English but lots of old photos and surnames.

Wikipedia page covering some history and cultural aspects of Zalužnica

Youtube channel featuring drive throughs many Lika villages. The voice over is in Croatian, but it does give you a feel for the geography and lifestyle.

There are many Facebook groups that relate to Lika villages and surnames including; Villages – Donji Lapac, Podum, Škare, Turjanksi, Zalužnica and Surnames – Hinić, Vukovojac

Reference websites

Select the bold italic type to open a new window/tab

AUSTRIAN STATE ARCHIVES
Austrian WW1 daily casualty lists.	The images of the original docs have been digitised and therefore searchable for surnames, villages. Alternatively, scroll through the daily casualty lists (killed, wounded, pows, missing). The main regiments for Lika soldiers was the Austrian IR79 and the Hungarian Nr.26.
FAMILYSEARCH.ORG
Familysearch.org main menu for orthodox village bdm records from across the Krajina, not just Lika.	Only a few Lika church records from the mid-19th century and written in archaic, cursive Cyrillic script; being transcribed by this website.
Familysearch.org main menu for the Austrian army records	Thousands of images of original records from around the 1750s to 1820 and then 1870 to 1919. They are not searchable as they have not been transcribed/digitised; being transcribed by this website. Ottochaner regiment main menu Licaner regiment main menu
MAPS
Detailed map of Lika in the second half of the 18th century : Karlstädter Generalat (1774–1775) First Military Survey	Fantastic resource showing place names, churches, settlements, army posts and other local landmarks. Detailed zoom in and scrollable at all zoom levels. The areas to the east of Rakovice, east of Korenica (Petrovo Selo) and Lapac, Srb are labelled ‘New Acquisition’ which is a little early as this became Austrian after the 1791 Treaty of Sistova. The map on the website is likely an updated version of the original to label new territory post the 1791 Treaty.
1846 map of the Liccaner Regiment recruitment area	A good detailed map particularly useful for Ottoman border areas, but not the easiest to use.
The second military survey. Croatia (1865–1869) – Second military survey of the Habsburg Empire.	Almost a century later, but not as clear as the above map.
The third military survey Habsburg Empire (1869-1887)	A major improvement on the 2nd survey with 2 resolutions. The lower resolution map is here
OTHER
Poreklo in English	Poreklo.rs has a vast collection of content and some related to Lika villages and surnames. Previously only available in Cyrillic the website now provides at least part of its content in English.
Acta Croatia	Useful Croatian website that documents surnames and places names across Croatia both current and historic. The data is partially accurate for Lika, Kordun.