This site was created by Robert (Bob) Jerkovich, who passed away to be with our Lord, on December 20, 2020. May he rest in peace.

This web site is dedicated to our Jerkovic/Jerkovich ancestors, who through tremendous courage, determination and perseverance, continually migrated to foreign lands, seeking to find a better place for their families to live and work without the thought of subjugation, war, or famine.

 
So the question arises. Where did our ancestors come from?  How many times have you asked yourself that question?  It is a perplexing issue if your parents did not discuss it with you as you were growing up as was the case in our family.  The only mention of any ancestors was on our grandmothers side (Nona and the Dragicevic family) where Dad would tease her at the dinner table that her relatives came from Herzegovina.  As to whether that was meant to be derogatory or not, we never knew.  Dad never did bring up anything about the Jerkovic ancestors and Mom never did the same on the Curin side of the family.
 
Our Aunt Alice told me that the Curin/Churin ancestors possibly came from the area of White Russia or Czechoslovakia.  I believe Aunt Alice got the White Russia area confused with the western Russian Empire or Galicia and Lodomeria, present day Poland or Russia.  She also said that three Curin brothers were the first Curins to settle in Gdinj, Otok (Island) Hvar, Dalmatia, Austria.  I believe these are just family legends and hope to prove that at a later time.

Back to the Jerkovic family.  In researching the 2001 edition of HarperCollins Atlas of World History, there was the possibility that our ancestors could have derived from the conquest of the present day land of Croatia by the Slavs and their non-slav counter-parts, the Avars, and Bulgars in the 5th and 6th centuries.  Another scenario brought to my attention was by my third cousin in Split, Croatia, Saso Barbaric.  He said, “Don’t be surprised if your ancestors are Avars or Iranians.”  He said that there was a team on the Island of Hvar taking DNA samples to determine where the people came from.  The last part about Iran is strange indeed as in 2013 before moving to Knoxville, Tennessee, I spoke with two different ladies at different times in local department stores in Montgomery Village, Maryland.  One was from Pakistan and the other Iraq and both said that I had features of an Iranian.

Confusing isn’t it.  We know that our ancestors settled in four of the seven continents: Europe, North America, South America, and Australia.  But is that all!  Where did the Jerkovic family tree originate?