Balkan Borders Today and Yesterday

I'm part Bosnian and Croatian.  My great-grandparents came over from Croatia over 100 years ago. They fled for political and economic reasons. 500 years before that, they had come from Herzegovina, or the southern part of Bosnia as religious refugees from the incoming Ottoman Turks. 

During the time we did not have contact with our distant relatives, Austria-Hungary, Italy under Mussolini, a Croatian Nazi state, and two Yugoslavias all rose and fell. Then a new liberal and democratic Croatia emerged. During the war for independence, which was finishing just as I was born, Serbian guerillas came and burned down the house and the family Bible with all the genealogical information I needed. My search for my ancestors, and my interest in the history and geography of the region comes down to the fact I cannot find my ancestors. The records are gone, the people have emigrated, and few remember past the 150 years since one of my great great grandfathers moved from one small hamlet in the village to another small hamlet. I learned the language and actually managed to find my distant relatives while serving two years abroad. I still have a lot of work to do. My interest in genetics gives me another set of tools, but ultimately I am a human and cultural geographer of the Western Balkans with strong language and GIS skills. If you want, you can read my blog about the region on the blog tab.