65 cousins met in Singleton over the weekend for the first Juratowitch gathering since Nicholas and Elizabeth and their children lived there over 100 years ago.
A few hardy souls started the weekend on Friday night at the Imperial with a good
meal and some cold drinks. It’s OK, everybody was well on Saturday morning.
On Saturday morning, the Singleton sun was vicious, but that did not deter the touring party from setting off to Whittingham Cemetery to visit the graves of a number of
Matthew’s family and some Mantle’s as well. Philip Juratowitch was able to give us some great details about the funerals of his Aunties that he attended as a young man. Then to Argyle and Bathurst streets where the houses that Matthew and Emily
built from the reclaimed timber of the White Swan Hotel are still standing. The current owner of the house that Matthew lived in was very generous and allowed our mob to tramp through his house like a crowd of would be buyers. Philip was delighted to be able
to visit his Grandfather’s house and also to show us the house where he was born, 2 doors away. Castlereagh Street was next with the carpark that used to be the house where the family lived when they moved to town and the chance for Kay Knight to visit
the home of the family she used to play with as a child. The corner of John and Hunter streets is the site of the Juratowitch shop. Now appropriately a Super IGA, a grocery business continues on the same site. Wylie’s Flat was next and while the local
natives were not as friendly as the Argyle street ones, we did see the house where Elizabeth died. There is no knowledge of where the families lived at Wylie’s Flat all those years ago.
Saturday afternoon at the Golf Club provided a lot of information
about Nikola Đuratović and his becoming Nikola Ross and finally Nicholas Juratowitch. We now know where he came from, something of how he got here and the history of his family in Croatia. Ned Đuratović who lives in Perth was with us as was Katarina Antunović
from Wollongong. Both these cousins have direct links to our family in Croatia. If you want more information about that presentation please email juratowitchreunion@hotmail.com . There was also a lot of discussion
about the family, some sharing of photos and updating family tree records.
The Saturday night dinner was a time to relax with a good meal, a few drinks and great company, and more photos and family news. It was great that of the 11 children of Nicholas
and Elizabeth who had children of their own, 8 were represented on the weekend. Perhaps next time Andrew, Clara May and Mary Jane will also be represented. Beth Juratowitch and her family would have been there except for a very enjoyable trip to Hong Kong.
If anyone knows how to contact someone from Mary Jane’s or Clara May’s family please let me know.
Sunday morning’s weather was much more pleasant than Saturday’s was and a BBQ brunch was the perfect way to finish the weekend.
On Sunday I remembered the feedback sheets I was supposed to give out on Saturday night. If anyone who did not get one would like to offer some feedback the 4 questions were:
- Should we do it again?
Yes No
- How often?
2yrs 5yrs
Other
- Should we combine it with the Kavanagh reunion Yes
No
- Comments:
I would appreciate your input so please email your responses to the address above.
I know many photos were taken over the weekend and I am sure everyone would like to see them. Could you please download them from
your cameras and email a selection to me and I will load them onto the website.
Thank you for all the positive comments about the weekend and please keep in touch.
Tim J