While every house in Slovenia has a civic address, many houses also carry a household name. These names are how other people typically referred to that family. This house carries the name of Veliki Dejani. This name is most likely derived from the fact that this family was one of the first families in the division of Balkovci known as Dejani.
Through the period of our studies, we have found three distinct houses which originally carried the Dejan surname in Dejani. This is the first of the three houses (in order of house address). The Dejan surname is only originally found in Dejani.
The oldest record we have found to date for a person from this house is for Janko Dejan b. 1787. He married Ana Dejan. Together, they had at least 3 children, including:
1A. Janko Dejan b. 1818, m. 1838 to Marija Balkovec (Petrišina from Zilje) — they remained at this house.
1B. Barbara Dejan b. 1824, m. 1843 to Jurij Dejan (Dejanski)
1C. Marko Dejan b. 1830, m. 1865 to Barbara Dejan (Antonova) — they remained at this house.
Janko Dejan [1A] and his wife Marija Balkovec had 7 children:
2A. Ana Dejan b. 1840, m. 1856 to Jože Balkovec (Vukov from Zilje).
2B. Katarina Dejan b. 1843, m. 1862 to Nikolaj Miketič (Solišin from Jakovini) — they lived at Kroci 13.
2C. Nikolaj Dejan b. 1845, m. 1869 to Katarina Grdun (Štalarska from Grduni) — they remained at this house.
2D. Matija Dejan b. 1850, m. 1881 to Helena Balkovec (Ivančeva from Balkovci).
2E. Helena Dejan b. 1854, m. 1873 to a man from Prilišče 11.
2F. Barbara Dejan b. 1857, m. 1875 to Janko Balkovec (Dolnji Baljkovski from Balkovci).
2G. Marija Dejan b. 1862, m. 1879 to Janko Miketič (Rtičkev from Jakovini).
Marko Dejan [1C] and his wife Barbara Dejan had 4 children, including:
2H. Ana Dejan b. 1870. At this time, it is unknown what happened to her afterwards.
Nikolaj Dejan [2C] and his wife Katarina Grdun had 7 children, including:
3A. Marija Dejan b. 1873, m. 1891 to Franc Starešinič (Rihtarov from Brdo).
3B. Ana Dejan b. 1878, m. 1898 to Nikolaj Balkovec (Dorinov from Brdo) — they remained at this house.
Nikolaj Balkovec and his wife Ana Dejan [3B] had 6 children, including:
4A. Marija Balkovec b. 1899, m. 1919 to Jože Grdun (Mihaljev from Grduni).
4B. Ana Balkovec b. 1902, m. 1925 to Janko Krotec (Bahoričev)
4C. Franca Balkovec b. 1908, m. 1928 to Janko Grdun (Jurasov from Grduni) — they remained at this house.
4D. Katarina Balkovec b. 1913, m. 1930 to Miha Starešinič (Jurkov from Brdo).
4E. Barbara Balkovec b. 1916, m. 1936 to Janko Grdun (Mihaljev from Grduni).
Janko Grdun and his wife Franca Balkovec [4C] had 1 child.