According to a Urbarium (tax register) of 1674, the village of Zilje included a total of 12 Hübe or arable land divided amongst 19 Ziljani (inhabitants of Zilje). Also evident from these documents is that the hamlets of Balkovci, Pavlini and Dejani were regarded as being part of the župa (a subunit of the dominion of a particular Lord) of Zilje. It is important to point out that these tax registers only list individuals who were subjects of the Lord for whom the register was created. There were other individuals, along with their families, living in Zilje at this time.
The 1674 Urbarium names the following individuals residing in these villages and subjects to the dominion:
Ivan and Peter Dejan – likely living in Dejani
Tome, Ivan and Jure Muretič – likely living in Muretičevo selo
Jure, Mate and Tome Adlešič
Mihael and Jakob Jaketič
Jure Krbavec
Tome, Miko and Marko Starešinič
Ivan and Jure Horvat
Tome Balkovec (miller)
Ive and Jakob Cvetašič (millers) – likely living in Cvetaševo selo
If we look at Birth and Marriage Registers (matične knjige) kept by the Catholic Church in the late 17th century, we find surnames missing from this Urbarium, suggesting these families were subject of a Lord whose Urbarium has not be found, or they were free men and women. The following is a list of men mentioned in these earliest Birth Registers:
Jure Vučič, 1679 (Balkovec-Vuki?)
Peter Čemas, 1680
Jure Čadonič, 1680
The 1690 Urbarium names the following individuals residing in these villages and subjects to the dominion:
Miko, Pere, Mikula, Ive and Jurica Čadonič
Marko Balkovec (blacksmith)
Jurica, Grge, Jure, Pavel, Peter, Ivanec, Mikula, Martin and Mihael Balkovec
Jure (miller) and Miha Cvetaš – likely living in Cvetaševo selo
Lovro Markuš
Jure Klampfer
Ive, Jure and Miko Adlešič
Jurko and Ivan Dejan – likely living in Dejani
Miko Pavličič (miller and župan?) – likely living in Pavlini
Birth and Marriage Registers of the mid-18th century begin to show new surnames:
Matija Grgač, 1748
Ive Žalec, 1749
Stanislav Brožič, 1750
Matija Barič, 1755
Matija Vranešič, 1774
At the end of the 18th century, there were 27 households in Zilje. By 1820, we can identify 38 individual households existing in Zilje. Some of these households, and the houses themselves, have since vanished. Others have been since created, usually as delniki, i.e. by partitions of a pre-existing household into two (or more) households.
Click on one of the three maps below to navigate to families of Gornje Zilje, families of Srednje Zilje or families of Dolnje Zilje.