When I first started researching my family history, I believed my OVEN family would be the easiest one to track. I am not sure why I came to that conclusion, maybe because I knew an awful lot of cousins in this family! During one of my first on-line searches of surnames of interest, I came across a first cousin-in-law who had also just started on the OVEN line. A quick exchange of emails with Loren Dahling proved to be a wonderful start of a great friendship and terrific research! Loren has been doing genealogy for a number of years on his own lines and has proven to be a fantastic mentor for me.
From a baby book, the names of my maternal great grandparents are known; Jakob OVEN and Frances POZNIK. They lived in Strahomer, Austria, (8.1 miles South of Ljubljana) and had a family of about thirteen children. Family history has it that there was a daughter, Rose, who died at the age of 16 from tuberculosis; and a daughter, Gertrude, who never married and sold flowers in Ljubljana for a living. One son, Josef, (my grandfather) was born 03 October 1875; another son, Anton, was born 12 March 1886. It is believed that Anton was the youngest of this large family, with several of the older siblings already married at the time of his birth. Another part of this family history has it that several of the children died the same year (year unknown at this time) due to some kind of plague/illness (of unknown origin at this time). According to one of Anton's descendants, Anton married Elizabeth GLAVEN in January of 1910 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and also served one year in the army.
Grandfather Josef immigrated to the U.S. around 1900 through the port of Baltimore, although this is still being researched. From his obituary, I found that he first went to the town of Ely, St. Louis County, Minnesota. I located him on the 1905 Minnesota State Census listed as Joseph OVAN, stating that he had been residing in the state for 4 years and 6 months, and within that Enumeration District for 3 years and 4 months. His brother, Anton, is also listed, stating that he had just arrived. (Family history has it that he had made a previous trip to the U.S. at the age of 16.) Other Austrian OVAN individuals are also listed on this same page of the census: Frank, who would have been born around 1865, with his wife and children; Anton; and Florian. These individuals also need to be researched, since most Slovenians migrated with family--either immediate or cousins. By 1906, Grandfather Josef had moved to the Eveleth, Minnesota, area.
Meanwhile, in December of 1906, Marija TRONTELJ immigrated to the U.S. Marija was the first of three daughters born to Anton TRONTELJ and Mariana KOZLEVCAR. She was born 13 December 1882 in Smarja-Sap (7.5 miles Southeast of Ljubljana). Mariana is said to have been the second wife to Anton. Most of what we know of this TRONTELJ family has been recorded by a descendent of the youngest TRONTELJ daughter, Frances, who migrated to the U.S. in 1907 and married Luke KRZISNIK. The middle daughter, Ursula, remained in Slovenia and married a widower named DROBNIK.
Marija married Josef OVEN on 21 January 1907 in Eveleth, Minnesota. The county marriage registration, however, lists the marriage as between Joseph OVEN and Mary TRONTAR, which is also how it is listed in the church record and in the line item I found in a newspaper. No parents were listed for Mary in the church record. Joseph and Mary purchased a large house from a friend and operated a boarding house in Troy Location, a small community just outside of Eveleth that was made up of all Slovenian immigrants. All of the land there was leased from the Oliver Iron Mining Company. By 1948, the mining company wanted to excavate this land, and all the remaining houses were either moved or torn down. This was a fairly common occurrence in mining towns.
According to surviving OVEN descendents, it is believed that the family of John and Frances KORENCHEN of Aurora, St. Louis County, Minnesota, are relatives. According to John's immigration papers, Frances was also from Strahomer, Austria. In one of her son's obituaries, Frances's maiden name is listed as MATTJAS. It is believed that she was Grandfather Josef's niece, but that is also still being researched.
There is also a family of John POZNIK and Helena REBOL that is believed to be related to our OVEN family. John was born about 1875 (perhaps a younger brother to Great grandmother Frances?)and according to information relayed to the funeral home upon his death, his parents were John POZNIK and Frances TEKAUTZ. John and Helena married in Ely, Minnesota, around 1900, and later moved to Troy Location.
As you can tell, there is much more research to be done with this family! For a listing of the OVEN family, check Loren's site here. For some of the miscellaneous individuals that I have come across during my research, check here. Also check here for individual OVAN/OVEN passenger arrival index cards.