Sophia and Jovo Klaich in the 1910 Census

Deb found Sophia and Jovo Klaich in the 1910 census!  Here's the record:

1910 Census Record

One reason it was hard to find this record is that the enumerator spelled their last name as "Kliach."  In some ways this is actually closer to how it is pronounced in Serbian so we should have looked for the name using this spelling earlier!

It is also interesting that they are living in a neighborhood with other Serbians, including individuals with family names come in Urbina (e.g., Basta, Radakovich, etc.).

At first glance you might think that we have the wrong name because the father in the record is named John (not Joseph).  However, recall that Joseph's Serbian name is Jovo, which is often short for Jovan.  Jovan is serbian for John.  I think he may have gone by John early and then changed to Joseph later.

The other details all match including the number of children and their ages.  By 1910, they had just two daughters at home.  One that was born in Colorado in 1908 (Mary) and one that was born in Nevada in 1909 (Mildred).  That matches this record with the exception that the name of the second daughter in the census is Milka.  I think that Mildred was born as Milka, which is a Serbian name, and they changed it later to Mildred to make it more American.  We are going to try to track down a birth certificate to see what it says.  But it looks like my great-grandmother may have been born Milka!

We are also pretty sure this is correct because the 1920 and 1930 census say that Mildred was born in Nevada so the family was living in Nevada by 1910.  There is no other record for the family in the 1910 census.

It looks like she isn't the only one to change names.  In the 1920 census, Eli is listed as "Elia", which is a transliteration of a very popular Serbian name: Ilija.  Here's a copy again of the 1920 census form for the family:

1920 Census Record