Father born in Istria

[davidprodan]

Hello,

I am looking for information about my father, Vittorio Umberto Prodan, who was born in Pinguente in July 12, 1930.

I know he had bothers and sisters but I have not seen them since 1979 when I was 5.

Hoping to reconnect with this side of my family.
He may have changed his name when he came to Canada...

Any help is appreciated.

Kindly,
David Prodan of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

[Cfarabegoli]

Hi! as you know, that part of Italy became Yugoslavia and then Croatia, and Pinguente is now called Buzet. It's a lovely little village on a hill, now some of the properties abandoned by the italians with the 'esodo' have been re-populated and refurbished and many transformed into holiday lets.
You'll find birth records specifically for the place here: https://www.familysearch.org/search/ima ... %3D2040054 (i've just clicked on marriages and find one Prodan straight away) and a LOT of other resources are here: https://crsrv.org/
I don't know how many relatives you'll find living still there, many as you know had to emigrate to Italy, but one way to see them might be via https://www.cognomix.it/mappe-dei-cogno ... ani/PRODAN

[Cfarabegoli]

you can try to see if these Prodan belong to the same family: https://prodantartufi.hr/en/o-nama/ or you can just call the local council https://www.istra-istria.hr/index.php?id=2600 to see if there is an active Comunita' degli Italiani, the website I saw online appears to be useless

Alternatively, you can try writing to the local newspaper (glasistre) but I doubt anyone reads it on a regular basis...word of mouth would be your best bet, I think.

Just be careful because there could be a certain sensitivity in families there, between who left, who stayed, who speaks Italian, who speaks Croatian, and sometimes they refuse to talk about the past because it can be quite painful. At least, I hit a wall trying to understand a bit more how my grandfather in law ended up in Dachau...

Having said so, it's a BEAUTIFUL PLACE with a rich, complex and fascinating history. Be careful because you can easily fall into a rabbit hole, whilst looking for istrian history, and it'll take up a lot of your time! I can never tire of it...

[Cfarabegoli]

http://www.istrianet.org/istria/genealogy/index.htm

[Cfarabegoli]

this gives you a glimpse at what some Prodan were doing in 1928 in Pinguente and how much taxes they were paying to the state https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=yYr ... an&f=false one was a miller, 2 were **SPAM** groceries (one making really good money, the other one much better at dodging the taxman