RELIC on "Voice of America"
Several months ago, RELIC was contacted by a researcher from "Voice of America" (VOA) who was curious about a neighborhood in southern Manassas that had street names reminiscent of the former Yugoslavia. They included Sarajevo Court and Bosna [sic] Court, as well as Tito Court and Broz Court.
We researched land records and determined that those streets are located in Cedar Crest Estates, which was dedicated in 1985 by KJTL Corporation. A man named Karlo Milic signed as president of the company. Not surprisingly, streets in the neighborhood include Karlo Street and Milic Street. We explained to the researcher that it is common practice in the United States for the developer to pick the names of their streets.
Other possible ethnic names within the neighborhood include Niki, Caspian, Bernard, Janja, Frank, and Tomislav, some of which are names of members of Mr. Milic’s family.
In early November, the researcher, Dino Jahic, a multimedia journalist, visited Central Library with cameraman Milan Nesic to interview RELIC’s Don Wilson for a piece that VOA was planning. It would tell the story of the Bosnian family’s contribution to Manassas life. They also interviewed the late Mr. Milic’s son Tomislav, who lives Bealeton, Virginia.
We have received word that a nine-minute video has been produced in Bosnian for transmission to VOA viewers in the Balkans. The text and photo version of the story is available online here.
The video version also available online here. There you can see “Bibliotekar Don Vilson” and hear him dubbed into Bosnian.
