Searching for Seka

[MissMarple]

They decided, as explained to me, not to publish Anna's official website info or this site because of the false leads. real seka, or real people who knows her will recognize something without all necessary info.

This is the family magazin, with very long tradition. Belive me, in a paper copy, all of this looks much more better. I need to scan it.

 

[SideKick]

Miss Marple, I have a question;

Do you know if the name 'Seka' is a common nickname in Croatia?
Is Sigrid a common female name over there?

I wonder how hard it would be to track down wealthy families in Belgrade/Sradin?

Some sir names stand out in the news as owners of companies/wealthy families etc...

Thanks in advance! SKick.

 

[MissMarple]

Miss Marple, I have a question;

Do you know if the name 'Seka' is a common nickname in Croatia?
Is Sigrid a common female name over there?

I wonder how hard it would be to track down wealthy families in Belgrade/Sradin?

Some sir names stand out in the news as owners of companies/wealthy families etc...

Thanks in advance! SKick.

Nickname Seka is really common, both in Serbia and Croatia. I woud say that our Seka is Serbian, with a summer house in Croatia, which used to be usual for wealthy family, Croatia or Montenegro.

Sigrid is not a usual name, we, from ex Yugoslavia, would say, a foreign name, not "our name", norevgian, swedish...most probably.

It woud not be hard to track, but we need her last name. In that case I could track her in a day. I would say that she was wealthy because in 1976, in a comunisam era in Yugoslavia, she spoke English, had a summer house, and, if she was a student or postgraduate or similar, most probably woud be medicine, technical or similar, no social science for sure...

I really hope that we will have some response...I mean, she is near 60, small number of persons fits her decription...

I am exploring some new ideas also, will share with Annasmom and you...

I do not how but you can bet that we will find her!!!

 

[SideKick]

Nickname Seka is really common, both in Serbia and Croatia. I woud say that our Seka is Serbian, with a summer house in Croatia, which used to be usual for wealthy family, Croatia or Montenegro.

Sigrid is not a usual name, we, from ex Yugoslavia, would say, a foreign name, not "our name", norevgian, swedish...most probably.

It woud not be hard to track, but we need her last name. In that case I could track her in a day. I would say that she was wealthy because in 1976, in a comunisam era in Yugoslavia, she spoke English, had a summer house, and, if she was a student or postgraduate or similar, most probably woud be medicine, technical or similar, no social science for sure...

I really hope that we will have some response...I mean, she is near 60, small number of persons fits her decription...

I am exploring some new ideas also, will share with Annasmom and you...

I do not how but you can bet that we will find her!!!

~~~
Miss Marple, again thank you for your enthusiasm, you've got me pumped!

On the letter, I will have to go and have another look, the post mark Belgrade, and Skradin the smaller town, are these near Montenegro? Seka's family would be residents of this town perhaps.

 

[MissMarple]

Nickname Seka is really common, both in Serbia and Croatia. I woud say that our Seka is Serbian, with a summer house in Croatia, which used to be usual for wealthy family, Croatia or Montenegro.

Sigrid is not a usual name, we, from ex Yugoslavia, would say, a foreign name, not "our name", norevgian, swedish...most probably.

It woud not be hard to track, but we need her last name. In that case I could track her in a day. I would say that she was wealthy because in 1976, in a comunisam era in Yugoslavia, she spoke English, had a summer house, and, if she was a student or postgraduate or similar, most probably woud be medicine, technical or similar, no social science for sure...

I really hope that we will have some response...I mean, she is near 60, small number of persons fits her decription...

I am exploring some new ideas also, will share with Annasmom and you...

I do not how but you can bet that we will find her!!!

~~~
Miss Marple, again thank you for your enthusiasm, you've got me pumped!

On the letter, I will have to go and have another look, the post mark Belgrade, and Skradin the smaller town, are these near Montenegro? Seka's family would be residents of this town perhaps.

Belgrade is capital town of Serbia and skradin is near sibenik in Croatia. Not near, but with internet everything is so close. I will see whom to contact in Croatia. Only problem can be that war between sserbia and croatia about 18 years ago amny serbs never ever visited their summer houses in croatia.

I have seen the postcard, and I have noticed that she has funny way for the letter k in her signature. I wish we have more letters from her.

 

[OzzieMum]

Belgrade is capital town of Serbia and skradin is near sibenik in Croatia. Not near, but with internet everything is so close. I will see whom to contact in Croatia. Only problem can be that war between sserbia and croatia about 18 years ago amny serbs never ever visited their summer houses in croatia.

I have seen the postcard, and I have noticed that she has funny way for the letter k in her signature. I wish we have more letters from her.

Hi MissMarple (love the name),

Welcome to WS and Anna's forum.

Do you know of any Serbian or Croatian blogs you might be able to post the above article on. Or maybe start a Facebook, Myspace page for Anna on the Serbian/Croatian sites.

 

[Cubby]

Hi MissMarple (love the name),

Welcome to WS and Anna's forum.

Do you know of any Serbian or Croatian blogs you might be able to post the above article on. Or maybe start a Facebook, Myspace page for Anna on the Serbian/Croatian sites.

excellent idea OzzieMum!

 

[MissMarple]

Hi MissMarple (love the name),

Welcome to WS and Anna's forum.

Do you know of any Serbian or Croatian blogs you might be able to post the above article on. Or maybe start a Facebook, Myspace page for Anna on the Serbian/Croatian sites.

Thank you OzzieMum.

I will work on that!!! Good idea!

 

[Annasmom]

Miss Marple took a picture of the letter which was published. Here it is.

 

[Cubby]

MissMarple, do you have any updates?
Has there been any response to the Montenegro media article?

 

[Cubby]

I wish Miss Marple would come back and update us if any info came from this article.

Of course I am also curious if the article has a comments section. Not being able to read the language it is difficult to tell if there is a comments section readers may have been able to reply to or offer suggestions on assisting with the search.

Annasmom, you had mentioned you were in contact with Miss Marple via facebook. Perhaps you can send her a FB message with the link to this thread and ask her to please check in for an update.

thanks!

 

[MissMarple]

Hi!!!!

I am back!

I had a hectic September after beautiful vacation,,,I hope to have more time as of today!!! Ready to explore new possibilities!!!

I an no longer on FB due to security reasons as asked by my company...which means more productivity...

Promise to returm soon with the new and fresh ideas!!!

 

[smile22]

have we hit a dead end with skeka leads? she might be the key to solving this or could lead us into some direction

 

[SideKick]

have we hit a dead end with skeka leads? she might be the key to solving this or could lead us into some direction

~ Smile, I agree with you, I too believe Seka is the key to alot of information. Wish we knew her 'real given name'. Seka may have only been used by Brody, therefore, no one would know who she is/was in Croatia land.

Any ideas!!

p.s. was there a mailbox the G's used? and was it closed down? Not that there would be any mail there but was wondering what happened to their mail box.

Do we have any other names of anyone who knew either George? nurse, friend, patient... ... Dr. ...?

 

[MissMarple]

I have been trying during past year a lot to find out who she is but nothing...I was leaving messages on the various blogs, especially on the emigrants blogs but nothing...info on her is to general and due to war people are quiet...also. since she is an older person, younger population often have no clue about older generation...most probably she is not talking about George to anyone...But, HOPE that sooner or later shall be able to locate at least one person of her age in SF...

 

[Annasmom]

I have been trying during past year a lot to find out who she is but nothing...I was leaving messages on the various blogs, especially on the emigrants blogs but nothing...info on her is to general and due to war people are quiet...also. since she is an older person, younger population often have no clue about older generation...most probably she is not talking about George to anyone...But, HOPE that sooner or later shall be able to locate at least one person of her age in SF...

Thank you, MissMarple. I doubt whether she is in San Francisco; it seemed to me that she went back home and probably is still there.

 

[MissMarple]

Thank you, MissMarple. I doubt whether she is in San Francisco; it seemed to me that she went back home and probably is still there.

I was also thinking on it. If she have seen the article in the most popular for decades a magazine in Serbia, she probably sealed her lips...

 

[Firefly75]

No offense meant, this is just my opinion and thoughts.

"Sigrid" is a Germanic name (it comes up in German and Scandinavian languages, I believe) and it would have been quite rare in the former Yugoslavia.

A baby girl could have been named Sigrid if [one of] her parents were German, Austrian or Scandinavian by origin, or perhaps (but less likely) if she were born to Yugoslav parents working and living temporarily abroad (German-speaking or Scandinavian country), perhaps because they liked the name or called their child after a benefactor.

It was certainly not a common name in Yugoslavia (still isn't); most people couldn't figure out for sure what gender a "Sigrid" would be from the name itself, and an awful lot of them thought it was a corruption of the name "Siegfried".

A "Sigrid" wouldn't be nicknamed "Seka", but rather "Sigi" (or very, very rarely "Siga", usually because someone cannot get their head around the declension and corrupts the name to fit in with the easiest feminine declension). I think "seka" (meaning 'sister') would more likely be a nickname that a family might have for a person, which makes me wonder why someone would introduce herself as "Seka" to two people totally unrelated to her, and abroad as well (no familial connection) - unless it was her real name?

Again, no offense was meant, I just wanted to share some thoughts.

 

[Odyssey]

It's been awhile... but I've just started digging again and I seem to remember that we thought Seka was a waitress at one of the restaurants... but I can't remember why we thought that.

Anyway, following that thought, I found a few names of people who were mentioned in news articles that were long time employees of Zim's. There was a Kim Vallianos (or Vallinos) who was a waitress at Zim's on 3490 California St for 19 years, and a Jean Roy who was a waitress at an unknown Zim's location for 19 years. Apparently after the last Zim's restaurant closed in 1991, they partnered with other longtime Zim's employees Andy Asvakovith and Jeffrew Lew and opened a new restaurant called Seva.

Also, Steve Zimmerman was an owner of Zim's, and now owns "Restaurant Realty" in San Francisco. They have a website.

Lastly, there was a big uprising in 1978 involving the Hotel and Restaurant Workers local #2 which included large protests and walk-outs against Zim's restaurants all across the city. I realize that Seka would already have been gone by 1978 but she still most likely was part of that union if she ever worked in that restaurant.

The San Francisco library has a collection called:

Collection Title:
Finding Aid to the Hotel & Restaurant Employees and Bartenders International Union Records, 1937-1980 Collection#: MS 458A

Collection contents include union histories; contracts; arbitration records; correspondence; minutes; by-laws; flyers; bulletins; official and rank-and-file newspapers; newspaper clippings; oral history transcripts and original sound recordings; audiocassettes; and ephemera.

Inquiries concerning these materials should be directed, in writing, to the Director of Research Collections, North Baker Research Library.

There are also some mentions on yelp by people claiming they used to work there, hang out there, etc...

Hope some of this info turns out to be useful... Good to see you all!

 

[Amy74]

Nickname Seka is really common, both in Serbia and Croatia. I woud say that our Seka is Serbian, with a summer house in Croatia, which used to be usual for wealthy family, Croatia or Montenegro.

Sigrid is not a usual name, we, from ex Yugoslavia, would say, a foreign name, not "our name", norevgian, swedish...most probably.

It woud not be hard to track, but we need her last name. In that case I could track her in a day. I would say that she was wealthy because in 1976, in a comunisam era in Yugoslavia, she spoke English, had a summer house, and, if she was a student or postgraduate or similar, most probably woud be medicine, technical or similar, no social science for sure...

I really hope that we will have some response...I mean, she is near 60, small number of persons fits her decription...

I am exploring some new ideas also, will share with Annasmom and you...

I do not how but you can bet that we will find her!!!

If Miss Marple is still here...
Is there anyway to explore if there are physicians named Seka in the areas mentioned, or female physicians educated in San Francisco. I have no idea how it is done there, but in the US, physicians are licensed by state and there are typically online databases that will provide some basic info about them. It would make sense if she were a physician in training or resident and she could have met GW that way.