Serbian Lodge Meeting in Highland Boy in 1908
The resources used to discover the details were; ancestry.com, familysearch.org, findagave.com and of course Grujić 1915 survey of Lika. The details provided here are all publicly available through the aforementioned resources.
As with many immigrant communities, the names they carried from their original culture were difficult to pronounce in an English speaking country. One way to make it easier was simply to adopt English names, both christian and surnames. Inevitably, the names they chose were relatively common, which for researchers a few generations later makes it incredibly difficult to trace their actual origin and identity.
The surname Miller was apparently used by a number of different ethnicities and not just those of Lika origin.
Researching the Miller surname in the USA is akin to researching Smith making it virtually impossible to pinpoint a specific person and therefore significant other details are needed to progress research.
These examples came to light while trying to identify a DNA match (of Lika descent) where the only clue to the person’s identify was the Miller surname and direct contact with the DNA match could not be made. At the same time, another DNA match, also with the Miller surname included more information that provided a research path. In the latter case it pointed to Carbon County in Utah, which had a significant number of immigrants working in the mines including many from Lika.
A newspaper cutting from 1911 (below right) reported an incident in Bingham and listed a Dan Miller who had been involved in some conflict. Other than him, the other names listed when considered as a whole suggested they were from Lika.
The story is somewhat gruesome, but it seems that Bingham and Highland Boy were the last vestiges of the wild west based on numerous other similar stories.
All the men are identified as Austrians, which was technically correct for Lika people in 1911. Joe Uzelac, Vigo Bigo, San Eror, and Mike Bigo are also listed with Dan Miller. All these surnames (Biga rather than Bigo) can be found in the Vrhovine – Babin Potok area (there are other areas in Croatia and Bosnia where this is possibly true). It is highly unlikely that Dan Miller would be involved with a group of Lika men who probably spoke little English at this time and therefore it’s assumed he changed his name.
This prompted research for a Dan Miller in this specific locale. Records were found easily and strangely four ‘Dan Millers’ were discovered in the Bingham area all of whom self-declared their Serbian heritage in various official documents.
So far, the Dan Miller in this story is not identified, but he’s very likely 1 of the 4.
The aforementioned DNA match identified their ancestor’s original name in a family tree. Without this, the formal records did not yield any substantive clues other than this Dan Miller (DM1) was of Serbian heritage, immigrated in 1906 (1920 census), lived next door to a Borič family in 1920 in Highland Boy and in the 1930 census had a boarder living with the family Brakus. These additional names can also be found in the Vrhovine area. In addition, on a birth record the maiden name of DM1’s spouse is listed as Annie Vukmir.
The DNA match identified their ancestor as Stojan Zjača and we have to assume this is correct. In Lika, the Zjača were only found in Babin Potok and only 4 homesteads in 1915. His wife was also identified as Annie (originally Ana or Anka) Vukmirović which fits the above birth record. No immigration could be found for Stojan or Annie.
However, the story doesn’t end there. The surname Zjačić is also and only found in Vrhovine and 1 homestead in 1915. Zjačić can be considered a diminutive form of Zjača and it’s likely this homestead originated in Babin Potok, but moved the 2 miles or so to Vrhovine.
A general search for this surname revealed a number of hits. One woman who entered the USA in 1950 clearly identifies her village of origin as Crna Vlast. This village is now officially called Gornji Vrhovine. Another record has Stojan Zjačić entering the USA in 1906 and of the right age to match DM1/Stojan Zjača. In addition, the immigration manifest is stamped with a later reference to a naturalisation application with the date of November 1937 and Salt Lake City. In his obituary, DM1 is stated as being born in Vrhovine.
In conclusion, it is highly likely that DM1 arrived in the USA as Stojan Zjačić (not Zjača) which pinpoints his family’s homestead in Crna Vlast.
Conclusion
The relatively rare Lika surname of Zjača / Zjačić was clearly difficult to use in everyday life in the USA and in the above case he changed it to Dan Miller. Three other ‘Serbians’ in the same area, Bingham, Utah, also changed their name to Dan Miller. The other Millers will be researched to see if their original names can be discovered.
With respect to the above newspaper clipping, Joe Uzelac’s death certificate exists which details further information. He was born in around 1887 and died on 11th March 1911 from a skull fracture, listed as an accident after being struck with a beer bottle. He was miner at Highland Boy mine. He was buried in Salt Lake City and states he was married which offers another research path. His parents were Gajo Uzelac and Maša Bruić. The name of the informant is not clear but clearly knew Joe’s parents’ names and therefore likely a Lika person as well.
The mines around Salt Lake City require focused research as many Lika folks moved there to work in the mines and many stayed permanently.
Lika Ancestors 