While researching the family tree of a client from the United States, I came across an interesting genealogical story.
His ancestor, Ivan Zarković (or Zorković), was born in 1895 in Lukoran (the island of Ugljan, Croatia) and emigrated to the United States in 1914. According to the attached document, Declaration of Intention to Become a Citizen, he entered the United States through the port of Philadelphia and changed his name to John Eskin (also known as Askin).
While researching the parish registers of Lukoran, I could not find the surname Zarković. However, I did find a record of the Iškin family, who lived in the same village. Given the similarity between this surname and his new surname in the United States, I decided to search the parish Status Animarum (Book of the Living). There, I came across an entry indicating that Ivan Zarković (born on September 15, 1895, in Zadar, Croatia) was recorded as a member of the Iškin household. Further research in the Zadar records led me to discover his birth record.
In the Zadar Hospital birth register, a note was found beside the entry associated with Ivan. The note reads:
“On October 23, 1895, at 6 o’clock in the morning, this child was brought to this orphanage. The child had with it half of a medal depicting Our Lady of Loreto and a small piece of paper on which the following was written in pencil: The child was born on September 15 at 12 o’clock. It is requested that the child be given only the names Giovanni Antonio at baptism.’ Midwife Anna Knežević.”
Ivan was adopted by Antonio Florani (known as Iškin). His entry in the parish Status Animarum also states that he was born in Zadar in 1861 and, likewise, was abandoned at the hospital without his parents. He was subsequently adopted by the Iškin family.
Based on the research, my hypothesis is that when Antonio got married and started his own family, he also took a child from the orphanage, hoping to give him a better life, just as the Iškin family had once done for him.
This discovery reveals a beautiful story of compassion, kindness, and the importance of family beyond biological ties. It is possible that Antonio, having experienced abandonment himself and received a second chance through the kindness of the Iškin family, wanted to offer the same opportunity to another child. If this hypothesis is correct, Ivan’s story is not only one of emigration and a new identity, but also a story of how an act of kindness can be passed from one generation to another, changing the course of someone’s life forever.
Although some details of this story may remain unknown, the archival records have allowed us to piece together a remarkable chapter of two lives connected by a shared experience and, perhaps, by an extraordinary act of generosity.