The oldest known excerpts of glagolitic church records from Brbinj parish, which are kept in Archive HAZU in Zagreb, date in 1601.[1]From the middle of the 17th century we have complete preserved glagolitic records of birth, death and marriage, glagolitic Status animarum which dates from 1658., glagolitic church book of confirmation which dates from 1651. etc. [2]In State Archive Zadar are kept church books from Brbinj parish wrriten in Latin ang Glagolitic script, Status animarum and transcript of church book in which are wrriten dates of death of parishioners[3]

Besides church books of Brbinj parish wrriten in Glagolitic and Latin script, for the purposes of this research and better understanding of materia, I used also Chronicle of Brbinj parish, unpublished manuscript wrriten by former Brbinj vicar late don Leonard Riko Finka, which is kept in Archive of Archdiocese of Zadar, also documentation of Brbinj parish from the same Achive and documentation of Franciskan cadastral for Brbinj from the 19th century, which is kept in State Archive in Split.

Methodology of research that I used durin this research was as follows: After I translitered important data from glagolitic church books of Brbinj parish, with the help of before mentioned auxiliary sources, I classified data for each family trought the whole researced period and in that way I tried to follow generation lines for each Brbinj family.

By researching glagolitic church books of Brbinj parish from 17th century till 19th century and especially by looking trought Status animarum of Brbinj parish I came to conclusion that many of the Brbinj surnames as we know them today were actually made of nicknames or first names of heads of family (with one surname that derived from occupation of the head of the family), and that there were other or second surnames for most of Brbinj families. Informations from Status animarum were especially important, because Brbinj vicars were writting in that book informations about Brbinj inhabitants in sistematic way which helps us today to come much easier to some of the conclusions about the old Brbinj families. About Brbinj Status animarum I will write in more detail way in other post.

It is known in literature that surnames in researched period were relativly new. Massive use of surnames in our lands was established after Council of Trent (held between 1545. and 1564.). Ante Strgačić, historian and one of the last priests that wrote and researched Glagolitic script, wrote that although surnames in Croatia exist in Middle Ages, they were sistematicaly recorded only after Council of Trent (held between 1545. and 1564.). Namely, according to rules of mentioned Council vicars had to record in special church books acts of marriage and birth, and they had to keep those books with big care.[4] Ivica Vigato, who researched records from island of Silba wrote[5] that Church strongly forbiddened marital relations between close relatives so it was necessary to record into the church books not only a name, but also a surname. Priests got directions for a way tocreate and run those church books, so Vigato writes that on the book cover of the churh book of death from 1613. from island of Silba exists record which imposes priests to write not only the name of the deceased person and theirs fathers name, but also the surname, and all of this under the threath of fine.

Vigato also writes[6] that surnames in 17th century weren t that closely systematized as they are today so it is clear that they show up in different forms. Priests who wrote using Glagolitic script were writting them down in the way they heard it without much possibility to check the correctness of the surnames in some older documents. By time one of the variant of certain surname will prevaile.

So surnames still weren t so firmly systematized, and the priests that wrote records down often wrote surnames in the way they heard it in the vallage were they were vicars, often without or with little written records from which they would be able to check the correctness of the surname and the identity of the persons for whom they made records.

About double surnames in some of the families on island of Rab wrote Davor Frankulin Travaš [7] who states that it is old custom from island of Rab that some of the families have double surnames, that second surname can be acquired by some of the characteristic of theirs ancestors, and also a poor groom can adopt the surname of the richer family in which he is marrying into (marrying "u vlaštvo"). He wrote that many of the islanders from Rab respected the custom of adopting double (wife s) surname, which would otherwise extinct with female descendent. Also there was examples that double surname arose as a sign of resprect to the family which was extinct, but by the way of the testamen that family left their estate to cousins or godfathers, so they, with their own, took surname of theirs testators.

These conclusions match with what is recorded in church book of Brbinj parish. It seems to me that it is not necessary that groom who is leaving to "vlaštvo" (to wife s family and their estate) is nesessary poor, rather that this was an efficient way in which population from islands were dealing with problems of fadding out of certain surnames because of disappearance of male descendants. Why was it important for the groom who came to "vlaštvo" to adopt wife s surname? It seems to me that, besides of respecting of the old Croatian customs, the answer lies also in very practical problem that that population had, who mostly were "koloni" to landowners or certain monasteries, like it was the case in Brbinj, and who were exposed in certain situations, with dying out of the male descendants, to the possibility that they could lose possession of the land that they work on and they live off. To avoid the possibility to lose the lands from which they live off, by dying out their male descendants, the groom who came to wife s family and on their estate takes the surname of that family.

Why it is also important to determine that these situations of existance of double surnames are real? Because this are indication that this families were old inhabitants on these islands with much older history of existance in this parts then it was somethimes considered,.

After researching Status animarum I concluded that vicars did this lists of inhabitans of Brbinj parish almoust certainly accordnig to location of the houses of individual families in Brbinj, that is they started this list by registering families from the northeast part of Brbinj and then families from the part of Brbinj we call Jaz, and final families in part of Brbinj we call Japrk. The last families registered were family Tucić (according to my research today their surname is Grgin) and family called Maršan, which family, by my research was extinct by end of the 17th century.

In other places of Zadar archdiocese list of inhabitans of certain parishes (Status Animarum) were made on the same way, that is by recording certain families according to location of the houses in their villages. About this writes also Grozdana Franov Živković in her article: Surnames of the place Pakoštane in 17th and 18th century by researching glagolitic books.[8].

First on this list in Brbinj was family with surname Rančić ili Rančev (these two forms of surnames exists in oldest of glagolitic church books of Brbinj parish), probably they came from the same origin, about this writes also don Riko Finka. From these lists we can find out that as far as middle of the 17th century family Rančić, later called Rančev, lived on one end of the village Brbinj, and second family Rančić lived on the other end of the village, the same way as it is today. After Rančev family we have registered families Kamilov, Bahajev, Masnov, Kaleb, Meštrov, Mirkov, Bijakanjev, Bolonjin, Štohera, Španjol, Bručev, Supinov, Pesić, Oblak, Longin and so on. This order of families which relates to location of houses of these families in Brbinj certainly isn t coincindental. Most of these families in certain period will get second surname, from which priests use one or another surname. In accordance with the above I belive that Bahajev family had second surname Odvitović, Masnov familiy had second surname Meštrović, Meštrov family had second surname Hrišić, Bolonja family had second surname Zagorčić, Supinov family had second surname Lukšić, Longin family had second surname Cvitulić, Perin family had second surname Španjol, Kaštelanić family had second surname Mikljanjev, Grgin family had second surname Tucić and so on. For these conclusions I will give indications and direct evidence on the basis of which I came to these conclusions.

[1] Arhiv HAZU u Zagrebu, Odlomci matice krštenih (1602. – 1613.) i matice vjenčanih (1601. – 1613.) župe Brbinj, signatura IV a 80/15

[2] HR-AZDN-43 Zbirka matičnih knjiga i parica matičnih knjiga Zadarske nadbiskupije, 1569./2010., Brbinj (matične knjige i parice) 1825./2010., (knjiga krizmanih) 1651.–1804., (stanje duša) 1869.–1964.

[3] HR-DAZD-378 Zbirka matičnih knjiga Državnog arhiva u Zadru (1565. – ), Matična knjiga rođenih župe Brbinj 1693. – 1813., br. knjige 131; HR-DAZD-378 Zbirka matičnih knjiga Državnog arhiva u Zadru (1565. – ), Matična knjiga rođenih župe Brbinj 1825. – 1837., br. knjige 132 ; HR-DAZD-378 Zbirka matičnih knjiga Državnog arhiva u Zadru (1565. – ), Matična knjiga rođenih župe Brbinj 1837. – 1853., br. knjige 133 ; HR-DAZD-378 Zbirka matičnih knjiga Državnog arhiva u Zadru (1565. – ), Matična knjiga rođenih župe Brbinj 1859. – 1937., br. knjige 1671 ; HR-DAZD-378 Zbirka matičnih knjiga Državnog arhiva u Zadru (1565. – ), Matična knjiga rođenih župe Brbinj 1853. – 1886., br. knjige 2174 ; HR-DAZD-378 Zbirka matičnih knjiga Državnog arhiva u Zadru (1565. – ), Matične knjige vjenčanih župe Brbinj 1650. – 1808., br. knjige 134 ; HR-DAZD-378 Zbirka matičnih knjiga Državnog arhiva u Zadru (1565. – ), Matične knjige vjenčanih župe Brbinj 1825. – 1856., br. knjige 135 ; HR-DAZD-378 Zbirka matičnih knjiga Državnog arhiva u Zadru (1565. – ), Matične knjige umrlih župe Brbinj 1652. – 1812., br. knjige 136 ; HR-DAZD-378 Zbirka matičnih knjiga Državnog arhiva u Zadru (1565. – ), Matične knjige umrlih župe Brbinj 1825. – 1839., br. knjige 137 ; HR-DAZD-378 Zbirka matičnih knjiga Državnog arhiva u Zadru (1565. – ), Matične knjige umrlih župe Brbinj 22.02.1840. – 30.04.1884., br. knjige 1672 ; HR-DAZD-378 Zbirka matičnih knjiga Državnog arhiva u Zadru (1565. – ), Knjiga stanja duša 1658. – 1808. i prijepis Godovnjaka župe Brbinj, br. knjige 138

[4] Strgačić, Ante: Inventory of register books of the State Archives in Zadar, Arhivski vjesnik, II, Zagreb, 1959.

[5] Vigato, Ivica: Surnames in the Glagolitic registers of the dead and baptized on the island of Silba, p. 179

[6] Vigato, Ivica: Surnames in the Glagolitic registers of the dead and baptized on the island of Silba, p. 194.

[7] Frankulin Travaš, Davor: „Prezimena stanovnika grada i otoka Raba od XV. do XX. stoljeća“, Radovi Zavoda za povijesne znanosti HAZU u Zadru, 2013. str. 109.

[8] Franov Živković, Grozdana: Prezimena mjesta Pakoštane u 17. i 18. stoljeću na temelju glagoljske knjige, Radovi Zavoda za povijesne znanosti HAZU u Zadru, 2013., str. 60.