The Family in Transition:

Oberskrill and other Gottscheer Connections 

(A brief article about language and family identity, adapted from the private notes of Col. Louis E. Skender)

My Great Grandfather

Over the years of my genealogical learning curve related to Southern Slovenia and the greater Kolpa River Valley area one of my great mysteries is exactly, what language did my great-grandparents speak at home over the Pinochle table?  What language was the language of St. Barbaras when the coal miners from Krain attended mass?  I really don't know.  But here is a brief background on both historical origins of my family who immigrated in 1890 and the political environment of the micro-region during the late 19th century into the aftermath of WWI.

My Skender family migrated starting in the late 1600's from Kuželj in the southern part of the domain of Kostel (and the Kuželj sister town across the river in Croatia) northward to villages on the boundary between the domains of Kostel and Kočevje (Gottschee).  These hamlets in Kostel bordering the linguistic island of Gottschee were populated by Slovenes, Uskok (mid 15th century) refugees and the descendants of the original Germans imported in the late 14th century.  

According to family tradition and correspondence in possession of my father, German during the mid-19th to 20th centuries was the primary spoken language in my direct lineage.  My great-grandfather, born in Oberskrill 4  (Zdihovo) was a German-speaking Gottscheer as were his brother and sisters and their families.  My great-grandfathers first wife, Maria Wetz, was a German from Hinterberg (Novi Lazi).  His second wife, my great-grandmother, was from nearby Suchor (Suhor). In later years in the US, she considered herself to be a Slovene, even though her whole family attended the German schools and her mother was a German-speaking Gottscheer (Zurl/Curl).  Great-Grandmothers father, a Krkovič, I suspect was a Slovenian speaker, but since he was a wine importer, I also suspect he spoke German, Gottscheer dialect, Slovene, and Croatian.  Her cousin, Johann Cetinski, was the mayor of German-speaking Mrauen (Morava) even though his deep lineage is likely Uskok.  - more on that in many separate posts!  Regardless, given the amount of intermarriage between members of the two linguistic communities, I suppose a couple either flipped a coin or adopted the predominant language of the village.  I personally suspect in my immigrant lineage, German was the language of business, Gottscheer the language of home and Slovene the language of necessity when traveling outside the linguistic island, effectively making families tri-lingual.  

A tidbit related specifically to language and the Church of Mary and the Seven Sorrows in Oberskrill from the book The Parish of Mosel:  Its Villages, Churches and People by Rev. Joseph Erker.  "Father Peter Teran, pastor at Mosel from 1862 to 1871, had written in Latin the following in the parish register of the Oberskrill branch:  The language of the curacy is German, the dialect is Gottscheerish, but the mills on the Kulpa have had Slavic residents since time immemorial, and over time some houses in Oberskrill and Unterskrill have come to have Slavic occupants through purchase, and therefore at public worship the Gospel must be read in both languages.  To this Pastor Erker takes the liberty of making a correction:  The mills on the Kulpa did not have Slavic occupants since time immemorial; on the contrary, only German.  This is confirmed by the Status Animarum according to which the owners of Schlebe [Žlebe- Bilpa - Beim Gergel = Unterfliegendorf 8 through 15] before 1770 were Anton and Gregor Verderber and after 1770 Andreas and Maria Verderber.  The owners of Wilpen 10 and 11 before 1779 were Nikolaus and Georg Verderber.  The owners of Gergel 12 before 1779 were Johann and Martin Verderber.  The owners of Gergel No. 15 before 1750 were Gregor and Maria Verderber and afterward Michael Verderber and Damian Ruppe.  The current owners, the Schneebergers, originally came from Tyrol.  All of these are Gottscheers (although now Slovenized) and descended from Germans since time immemorial" pg 45.  

I find this tidbit humorous because Fr. Teran is talking about language needs in 1865 and Fr. Erker is referencing families from 100 years earlier whom he admits have been Slovenized in his argument mass be only spoken in German. A quick example of the Status Animarum from Oberskrill parish to Wilpen 10 1820-1895, highlights the prolific intermarriage between not only Kostellans from Fara parish and Gottscheer Germans, but Croats from nearby Podstene and Zaveršje parishes.  The house is still in the Verderber family at this time.

For Genetic Genealogy fans, much of Tyrol is included in the South Slavic group on Ancestry.  More locally, in reality by the middle of the 19th century, there were hardly any pure ethnic Germans or Slovenes in the villages along the edges of the Gottschee linguistic boundary.  There also seems to have been little ethnic consciousness at the village level.  The Slovenes and Germans living there mostly worked closely and in harmony, sharing churches such as the one in Oberskrill -- until the fall of the Austrian Empire after WWI and the area became the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes which escalated minor ethnic tensions that had started brewing in the mid-late 1800's (you can see some tension in the Oberskrill church).  

Language related quote post WWI from Gottschee: The Lost Cultural Heritage of the Gottscheer Germans by Mitja Ferenc:  "Gottscheers were much affected by the fall of the monarchy.  At first, they fought to be a part of German Austria, then they wanted their own "Gottscheer Republik" as an American protectorate.  Yugoslav officials abolished the German representative assembly for Gottschee, almost all German organizations, and the German Gymnasium, as well as the woodworking school, the German student home, etc.  Thanks to school politics, which was based on reciprocity in light of the position of the Germans in Austria toward the Carinthian Slovenians, the number of German schools (there were 33 before the fall of Austria-Hungary), or German departments in Slovenian schools, continually diminished.  Slovenian was introduced as a required course in German schools....The public use of German was limited, and German place names were Slovenecized.  These measures triggered dissatisfaction among the Gottscheers and contributed to the fact that in the 1930's so many of them turned to National Socialism." pg 10.

By this time, my ancestor Mathias Skender had already been living in Beadling, PA since 1890. Unfortunately, the language spoken over the Pinochle table is still a mystery!  

But we do know that some of the immediate cousins were firmly entrenched in Gottscheer language and society through articles such as this poor copy which I think is from the Gottscheer Zeitung.  The article is neither dated nor sourced.  If anyone recognizes it, please tell me where I can find a better copy!  (thank you)  

Sitting from left to right:  George Skiber, Peter Nowak, Johann Cetinski, George Maichin, Michael Skender.  Standing:  Oberleherer Vrabitsch, Peter Wittreich, Heinrich Wolf, Johann Fitz.  Of all these people, only three are living [at time of publication]  Oberlehrer Vrabitsch, Peter Wittreich in der Steiermark und Johann Fitz in Kanada.