Hello to all Tomasevic,
Sorry to disturb. I am doing some research about my family origins and would appreciate your help...
I also realize I must be a baby compared to people on this website.
A long time ago, I asked Djordje Tomasevic from Serbia who was studying in the USA if he knew about the origins of our name and he told me that all Tomasevic across the Balkans come from the last kind of Bosnia, Stjepan Tomasevic who was beheaded by the Turks in 1463 or so. For me it was hard to believe that thousands of us with the same name would come from one single guy but maybe Djordje is right.
I am located in Belgium where I am born but the Tomasevic I am belonging to come from 2 villages around the town of Sinj in today's Croatia. In one branch of these Tomasevic, there was a guy called Ante TOMASEVIC (like me) and I have his biography. It says that the family was already around Sinj circa 1715 when the Turks were expelled. My own father knows that the Tomasevic around Sinj were coming from Bosnia. If you draw a straight line between the point where Stjepan was killed, Jajce and Sinj, it's only 20 kms and the wife of Stjepan survived by fleeing to the Adriatic. Sinj is exactly on her path between Jajce and the coast, there is no other way around because of the mountains.
The funny thing is that Stjepan and his wife are reported according to some sources sometimes to have, sometimes not to have had children. But when Queen Marija fled to the Adriatic, it would have made sense that she left her two sons (or more kids) for protection in the vicinity of Sinj or something like that. My father told me that the reason why there are two settlements for the family around Sinj is because two (or more) brothers came from Bosnia and one "decided" to establish in one place and one in the other. I do not believe that Stjepan had no kids. Every king had children, as a matter of continuing the dynasty. If he could not have kids with his wife, he would have taken another wife or produced bastards. It makes much more sense that, anticipating his fall, he kept the kids secretly and away. When his wife fled after the massacre, she could have just dropped the boys in Sinj because her own fate was not guaranteed (she finished miserably in the harem of a turkish general). From then on, the name did not patronize any further and was kept Tomasevic as such (not sure about this explanation).
Anyways, Stjepan's remains have been found near Jajce in 1880 something as everybody knows. It is not guaranteed that those remains are from him but still he was the only cadaver found with the head cut. So everyone supposes it is him. People in the region like it to believe it this way. The remains have been "refugeed" during the war in Bosnia in the Franciscan monastery in Jajce and I think it would not be too difficult to pick up some DNA from the bones. If my DNA matches, it would just mean the remains are those of Stjepan and that he has had kids "secretly" that his wife dropped for safety.
The problem is if my DNA does not match, it doesn't really mean that the story is untrue since one of the ladies between Stjepan and me could have cheated her husband BUT not all of the Tomasevic ladies would have cheated all of their husbands, right? So, is there any of you named Tomasevic who would be ready to take a DNA test? The ones living around Sinj would be the most interesting ones because of the most probable linkage.
Additionally, if anyone knows a bit more on this genealogy, kindly contact me.
Many thanks.
If the story is true, the genealogy is easily traceable until 1100...
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