CROATIAN HERALDRY

By Adam S. Eterovich

PETROVICH-PETROVIC

The surname Petrovich, or Peter, is found in great numbers in all parts of Croatia. The name has many variations: Petrich, Petricevich, Petrin, Petrinec, Petrinich, Petrinovich and Petrovcich.

Since namesakes were plentiful, the Petrovich clan was granted many coats of arms. Arms were granted in 1555, 1578, 1771 and 1800 for Peter, Elia, Frank, Joseph, Martin, Michael, Paul and Jacob. Information can be found in Zagreb, Budapest and Vienna archives. They were fighters and known to be a tough bunch to tangle with. The above Arms displays a Turk’s head. This was a Warrior Clan.

COLOR CODE: Red-verticle lines; Blue-horizontal lines; Green-lines slanted left; Purple-lines slanted right; Gold-dots; Silver-white; Black-black.

Andria Petrovich married a French-Creole girl in Louisiana in the 1790's and George Petrovich surveyed a plantation in Rapides Parish, Louisiana, in the 1820's. In the 1840's and 1850's, John, Marko, George and Paul Petrovich had fruit and grocery establishments in New Orleans. Corporal George Petrovich of Company D. 1Oth Louisiana Infantry was wounded and killed at the battle of Gettysburg on July 2, 1863. He enlisted in the Confederate Army on July 22, 1861, and participated in most major battles of the Civil War.

"X" Petrovich and Nikola Perasich owned a restaurant in 1873 at Panamint, California. Being a rough and tough silverboom town, they had a gunfight over money with some Irishman and Perasich was killed while Petrovich was shot in the hand. Petrovich was then thought to have left town for safer parts.

Soldiers, gunfighters, goldminers and all around troublemakers, the Petrovichs were a mighty gang in Nevada and California in the 1860's. You could never turn your back on a Petrovich!

Courtesy of the Croatian Genealogical and Heraldic Society, 2527 San Carlos Ave., San Carlos, California, 94070. E-Mail croatians@aol.com; Web www.croatians.com. Adam S. Eterovich.