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OUR MAIN INTERESTS ARE:
1. Genealogy
Presently researching and writing a book called FROM LONDON TO LJUBLJANA - A Family History of Tom Smith of Ljubljana. (see draft introduction below)
We are currently interested in anything about Thames Watermen, Deptford in London, UK and the village of Stara lipa in Bela krajina, Slovenia. We are also interested in hearing from any ROGINA families anywhere in the world or any SMITHS with their origins in Deptford, London, UK.
2. Hospital School Projects We would be very interested in hearing about any projects for hospitalised children that can be carried out in a children's hospital school. Anyone interested in our school's HOSPITAL OLYMPICS, please get in contact.
OUR E-MAIL: Mojca.Rogina@guest.arnes.si
Every family history must start and finish somewhere. Traditionally, such a chronicle begins with the earliest discovered ancestor on the male line. It then continues down that line to the latest addition to the family. Rarely does it have much to say about the wider family, confining itself to the one surname and the briefest mention of wives and their families. In Tom Smith's family history, I have started in London with the first known Smith and finished in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, where his mother was born and the Smith family have made their home. Along this journey I introduce all Tom's known family.
The story begins with Tom's British ancestors. The Smiths of the first chapter down to his grandfather's birth, give way to subsequent chapters on each wife's family. The English section ends with both Tom's grandparents in Enfield, North London, their marriage and their children growing up. At this point, I go back to introduce Tom's Slovenian ancestors. This section begins with a chapter on the Roginas (Tom's maternal grandfather's family) down to where Tom's grandfather comes to Ljubljana at the end of the second world war. Subsequent chapters trace all the other Slovenian families until, in the final chapter, Tom's grandparents marry and start a family in Ljubljana. In the same chapter, Tom's father comes from Enfield to Ljubljana, marries his mother and Tom is born. Along the way, I have introduced all the uncles, aunts and cousins I could find, to provide a complete as possible "picture" of Tom's whole family.
This account is a story where all the characters are related. It is a tale of ordinary people contributing to what we now call the present. Apart from Tom sharing their genes, they also made the world in which he lives. A person is not only the product of past generations but his life is largely shaped by the environment his ancestors helped to create. Thus, we shall not only see the stuff of which Tom is made but also learn of his inheritance.
Apart from Tom's great-great-great grandmother's people, who were Irish, all other ancestors on his father's side were English as far back as the story goes. On his mother's side, all the families are Slovenian but they are of quite mixed stock. Distant ancestors came from the Tyrol, Germany, Croatia and other parts of former Yugoslavia. Many of Tom's English ancestors were boatmen, sailors and fishermen or artisans and labourers. Those on his mother's side were mostly small holders.
There is a sharp contrast between the two countries in which Tom's ancestors lived. On the one hand there was a powerful island nation with a great empire, on the other a rural colony with no say in world events. The earliest Smith lived in a city that was the richest and most powerful in the world. All his mother's ancestors came from a border province where the land was always too poor to support all its population. It was the Slovenians, however, who mostly owned their land and worked for themselves. English ancestors usually lived in rented accommodation and were hired by others. Certainly Tom's father's ancestors enjoyed a better standard of living, but the Slovenians were more free. Their only master was the land.
On both sides of Tom's family, his ancestors tended to live as those around them. There were no real saints or heroes. When called upon to do so, however, the ordinary working people left their occupations to serve their king and country. Members of Tom's family have answered the call to turn back Turkish invaders, defend their way of life against European dictators and fight distant campaigns in Africa. They have taken part in the struggles for emancipation at home and made very real contributions to the world as we know it today.
Most of Tom's ancestors lived fairly routine lives. They worked from Monday to Saturday, often rising at or even before dawn. On Sundays and holidays, they went to church. Tom's English ancestors were all Church of England before his great-great grandparents on his mother's side converted to Roman Catholicism. His Slovenian ancestors were always Catholic. In fact it was religious persecution which lead to Tom's maternal great grandmother's family fleeing the Tyrol in the 13th century. This family, the Schweigers, became nobles in Slovenia, although those in this chronicle were farmers like most of his Slovenian ancestors. Their working lives were punctuated by festivities such as births, marriages and deaths - of which we shall read of many - and holidays. In England, many of Tom's ancestors took the opportunity to marry on a holiday as there was no paid leave then. In Slovenia, there were (and still are in country parts) different customs marking Saints days and other seasonal occasions. I have tried to include as many of these as I can where it is known Tom's ancestors celebrated them.
Wherever I have been unable to obtain sufficient data on a family member to adequately describe his or her life, I have elaborated on the times and place in which he or she lived. All Tom's ancestors lived lives similar to their neighbours and I feel we can get a good picture of them through the life of their village or neighbourhood in the time in which they lived. I have included portraits of their occupations and descriptions and pictures of buildings and other places they frequented. In this way, I have tried both to set the scene in which the ancestors lived and attempted to flesh out the characters in the story. I have also tried to gain as much information as I could from dates which tell us who was living, and when and the different ages of people living together at any given time. All major events affecting the ancestors' lives, such as wars and natural disasters or even the weather, have been included wherever possible.
As each major family is introduced, I have provided a pedigree showing all the known descendants from its earliest known members. There are 11 such "family trees", six English and five Slovenian. There are as many portraits and photographs of family groups as I could get hold of. I hope the relationships of all the various family members to each other is quite clear but I have also included at the end, an index of names showing each family member and his or her relationship to Tom.
As will be seen from his family history, Tom is not just an only child, but has just one first cousin. It is hoped that this chronicle will show that he has a much larger family with many, many cousins and a lot of loving aunts and uncles too. It is also hoped that this book will serve to give Tom and, of course his descendants, a sense of belonging. Rather than seeing himself as simply half English and half Slovenian, Tom can be proud to be the product of generations of decent, hardworking people - there's not a single scoundrel among them - from all kinds of backgrounds. In his blood there is the honest Londoner, the seafaring Norfolk villager, the hardworking Essex labourer, the earthy farmer of Bela Krajina, the teacher from Ljubljana and a lot more.
THANK YOU FOR STOPPING BY
Mike, Mojca and Tom Smith
Ljubljana, Slovenia
July 19, 1998
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