Dear Terry J. Cestnik,

I was very pleasantly surprised when I received your note. It is nice to hear that there is a distant relative with the same surname living on the other side of the globe. So, let me give you some hints about our surname.

Surname Cestnik originates from Slovenia; however, it is relatively rare - there are several hundreds of Cestniks in Slovenia, which has about two million inhabitants. More info about Slovenia can be obtained from http://www.ijs.si. Due to the fact that we are not widely spread in Slovenia, it is even more important to realize that we have our representatives in the States :-).

An interesting issue about the surname is its pronunciation. Namely, in Slovenia we pronounce it as German word Zesstnigg (I hope you have some Germans arround to pronounce it for you). Since the surname is, according to my experience, very hard to pronounce for English speaking people, it would be nice to hear how you pronounce it.

As far as our family memory can reach, family Cestnik originates from Ravne na Koroskem in Slovenija. The place is located near Austrian border; until the first world war it belonged to Austro-Hungarian Empire. The times around 1900 were tough and the family members moved around Slovenia in search for work. For example, my grand- grand father, his name was Franc, was working as a railway worker and frequently moved along the Wienna - Trieste railway. Eventually, he settled near Ljubljana. Since the times were tough, he died when my grandfather Victor was 10. My father Bojan was born in 1935 and I was born in 1961. Victor died 20 years ago, so there is nobody to tell me more about the past times. Most of the facts I stated here come from my father Bojan, who is now 61 years old.

You said that your grandfather's name was Vincent. Probably it is a German version of Slovenian name Vincenc. It is possible that your grandfather Vincent was a brother or at least a cousin of my grand-grandfather Franc, so we might be related. Well, we are related for sure, only that the actual distance in the familly tree is hard to track.

I am very glad to hear from my distant cousin. I am interested in hearing more about you and your family.

Best wishes
Bojan Cestnik Back to Cestnik History