Help with Nationality or History of the Last Name, SEKULA?

Question:

Help with Nationality or History of the Last Name, SEKULA?

What can you tell me about my maiden name?
My father was born in Croatia (Yugoslavia in late 1800's).
My cousin tells me it is Polish?
Please any help with this name would be Gold to me, any ideas?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Names don't have nationalities, people do. Names travel when people travel, so the name isn't tied so much to a country as people think.

If you know that your father came from Croatia, then that's the end of the argument with your cousin. Yes, there are people who emigrated from Poland who had the same surname. But that doesn't mean they were related...at least not within several generations.

In this case, of the people immigrating to the US with the name Sekula, 4 were Prussian/Polish, 4 were German, 2 were Austrian (or from one of the lands of the former empire of Austria-Hungary, which is probably your dad's family) and 1 was from Norway.

If your dad and/or grandparents came over after 1900 and were naturalized after 1906, then their Declarations of Intent and Naturalization petitions will settle all questions for you. They'll tell you where everyone was born, where everyone's parents were born, when they came to the US (including the name of the ship, the port of entry, the date they left and port they left, the date they arrived) and you'll find out every address they had after coming to the US and all family members who also came over. If you find out from those records that they claimed kinship with someone who declared they were Polish, then there might be more to the story. But never let anyone push you into assuming anything without having proof that it's really true.