PART 2
THE HYPOTHESIS OF EMINESCU'S SERBIAN ORIGIN
The most detailed work published so far on the genealogy of Mihai Eminescu is "Legend and Truth in the Biography of M. Eminescu (Origins)", written by Ion Roșu. The book can be purchased from second-hand stores at a very low price. Being published in 1989, it is obviously a book that used the methods of classic genealogy, discussing all the hypotheses stated until then about the origin of the poet, adding also a new one, proposed by the author of the book.https://www.targulcartii.ro/ion-rosu/legenda-si-adevar-in-biografia-lui-m-eminescuIon Roșu (1945-1996) was a poet, journalist, and librarian, but not a literary historian. However, his book was published by Cartea Românească, the most prestigious publishing house at the time, when all publishing houses were state-owned.
One of the chapters of the book is called "Sîrb pripășit în țară [Serb settled in the country]" and deals with the hypothesis of Serbian origin on the paternal line, justified by the "ovici" ending which is the most common ending of Serbian surnames (written "ović" in Serbo-Croatian).======================
{automatic translation from Rumanian}
[...] We must say from the outset that we are actually facing the most plausible hypothesis analyzed so far about the origin of the Eminovici family. Theoretically, at least, the origin of the poet's ancestors from the homeland of Starina Novak does not encounter any difficulty. Taking first
"-ovici", we will notice that Serbia is in a way the cradle of this patronymic suffix. [...] At the same time, let us show that Serbia is one of the Balkan territories that was under Ottoman domination for a long time, suffering a strong oriental influence in the lexicon, so the presence of the appellative "emin" in Old Serbian is also to be assumed. In fact, a general dictionary of the Serbo-Croatian language records this name under the quasi-identical form
"jemin" [pronounced "iemin"], listing the meanings with which it circulated in the common Serbian language: 1. "official", 2. "village leader", 3. "consul", also specifying the Serbian word family born from this word: "jeminov", "jeminovac", "jeminluk". Which means that in Serbian from the word "jemin" a surname (nickname) "Jemin" could have been born, and from there through Slavicization with the patronymic suffix "-ović" we naturally arrived at the surname "Jeminović" [pronounced Ieminovici], that is, practically to our Eminovici. [...] Formed in Serbia, a "Jeminović" could then go to Romania, to finally settle in Bukovina, giving us the direct ancestors of Eminescu. And as for the integration of this Serb into the Romanian community, it could have been greatly facilitated by his [religious] confession - identical to ours -, so that the only sign of his foreign origin would remain his
Eminovici surname.
Ion Roșu
"Legend and truth in the biography of M. Eminescu (Origins)" - Cartea Românească Publishing House, Bucharest, 1989 (pp. 52-53)
===============
The Serbian origin is indirectly supported by the current spread of the name Eminović (pronounced Eminovich), found mainly among Serbs and Bosnians, but also present among Croats, Slovenes and Kosovars. The association with Dubrovnik, mentioned on the Acta Croatica website, is interesting. On LocateFamily.com it can be seen that those with the name Eminović indexed there are Bosnians (from Konjić and Travnik) and Serbs (from Šabac and Novi Pazar).=============
This last name [Eminović] is most commonly held in Serbia, where it is held by 928 people, or 1 in 7,699. In Serbia it is mostly found in: Raška District, where 44 percent are found, Pčinja District, where 31 percent are found and Belgrade, where 9 percent are found. Other than Serbia, Eminović exists in 7 countries. It is also found in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where 30 percent are found and Croatia, where 4 percent are found.
https://forebears.io/surnames/eminovi%C4%87In Croatia, Eminović families are mainly Croat (from the Dubrovnik area), rarely Bosnian (from the Tuzla region) and very rarely Roma (from Bjelovar, Croatia). In the last century, most Croatian residents bearing this surname were born in Serbia and Dubrovnik.
https://actacroatica.com/en/surname/Eminovi%C4%87/https://www.locatefamily.com/E/EMI/EMINOVIC-1.html=============
The hypothesis of Serbian origin was first mentioned in an old genealogy book of the Moldavian nobility. The notion of "pripășit" means "a man who came from somewhere else and settled somewhere". The chamberlain was the boyar in charge of collecting taxes for drinks sold in taverns. The particle "vel" in the name of the position of "vel-chamberlain" means "big" and comes from the Slavic word "veliki", with the same meaning. The chamberlain Gheorghe Eminovici, the poet's father, stubbornly refused to give any information about his origin. Research in the archives showed that Gheorghe was the son of the cantor Vasile Eminovici from the village of Călinești (Șerbăuți), Suceava County, himself the son of Petrea Eminovici. Things are not clarified even today. It is only known that Vasile Eminovici came to the village of Călinești in 1804, but it is not known from where.==================
{automatic translation}
Indeed, the hypothesis appears formulated for the first time in
"Arhondologia Moldovei" by the cupbearer Constantin Sion, that is, around 1844-1856, when the grumbling and foul-mouthed old man was writing his cited work. In this original dictionary of the Moldavian boyars from the last century, [...] the following can be read next to the name
EMINOVICI: "Serb settled into the country [Moldova] after the introduction of the "Regulation" and raised to the boyarship by Mihai Vodă."[...] Where did the old cupbearer have this information about
Gheorghe Eminovici? [...] Regarding Gheorghe Eminovici, Constantin Sion would prove to be quite well informed, because as we will see in a later chapter, the poet's father had indeed come to Moldova after the introduction of the Organic Regulation (1831) and was honored with the title of "vel-căminar", around 1841, by Mihail Vodă Sturdza! Knowing so well the most important moments of the chamberlain's life, it is to be assumed that the statement about his Serbian origin must have had a cover in facts and that, therefore, in the Eminovici family there could have been some indications about a Serbian origin of their ancestors...
Ion Roșu
"Legend and truth in the biography of M. Eminescu (Origins)" - (pages 53-54)
https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C4%83minar===============
The name Iminovici, considered a variant of Eminovici, is mentioned in the city of Blaj, Alba county, Transylvania, being associated with the Serbian ethnicity.==============
{automatic translation}
Our presumptions get a spectacular confirmation, with the publication by a resident of Iași, M. Bodinger, of the following manuscript belonging to a bookbinder from Blaj: "This holy book, namely Pentecostal, was bought from us
Vasile Iminovici Rați by master Ursu [...] in the year 1771 in the month of December Day 10". What jumps out from the beginning is of course the name of the former owner of the pentecostal, i.e. that Iminovici, under which we guess without fail our Eminovici from Bucovina, because the vowel alternation
i -
e, often found in other names as well (see the cases: Irimia - Eremia, Iftimie - Eftimie, etc.) cannot prevent us from identifying it. Incidentally, let's remember that Gh. Eminovici himself will often appear in documents as
Iminovici, for example in the Moldovan ruler's decree awarding him the "căminar" title. Starting from the rarity of the name, which must be taken into account, and adding the fact that the bookbinder's baptismal name is purely Romanian, as well as the language in which he expresses himself, we can justifiably assume that this Vasile Iminovici from Blaj and Vasile Eminovici from Bucovina descend from a common ancestor. However, unlike his cousins from Bucovina, we see that this Vasile Iminovici from Blaj also has an unusual addition -- Rați --, of course a nickname, which intrigues. [...] A researcher of our old patronymics notes that "Raț" [proununced Ratz] or "Rați" is a common nickname in Transylvania, developed from the Hungarian appellative "Racz" [pronounced Ratz], which means "Serb". Therefore,
"Rați", from the tail of the name of that bookbinder from Blaj, is a nickname that suggests the ethnic origin of its bearer; so that his full name must actually be read" Vasile Eminovici - the Serb! An indication -- one would say -- as clear as possible that the cupbearer Sion was not mistaken in his statement and that therefore the origin of the Eminovici, in general, had to be sought in Serbia, where we saw that the patronymic Jeminović could be formed so easily. From Serbia, then, this patronymic could arrive together with its bearers in Transylvania, where among the Transylvanian people he received the addition "Rați" -- the onomastic proof of his origin -- and eventually arrived in Bucovina, where, with the full Romanianization, he lost his nickname, remaining simply
Iminovici or
Eminovici, to the confusion of later biographers...
Ion Roșu
"Legend and truth in the biography of M. Eminescu (Origins)" - (pages 54-56)
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It must be said however that there is no testimony or documentary evidence to support the assumption that the Eminovici family from Bucovina descended from an Iminovici ancestor from Transylvania. Eminescu himself wrote in a newspaper article, republished in his Complete Works, that he is not a Transylvanian and no one from his family was from Transylvania. It is only an assumption that Petrea Iminovici/Eminovici would have been born in Blaj, and one of his sons, Vasile Eminovici, would have migrated to Bucovina and would be Eminescu's grandfather.In addition to that, in the 4 civil status registers from Blaj (1895-1906) now available on the archival portal, no Iminovici/Eminovici can be found. But in the older archives mentioned in Ion Roșu's book they do appear.
Тема: Haplogroup I-FGC22045, a Balkan branch of I-P109 (Прочитано 47036 раз)