Page 117 - Upland Families, Elites and Communities

A Dynasty of Mayors and a Member of Parliament

At this point, the concentration of the family’s place of residence and in-
terests in the village of Tomaj, a process that was evident through the sec-
ondhalfoftheseventeenth century,cametocompletion.Atthesametime,
two of the three parallel family branches disappear from the records and
all the members of the Černe family from 1700 onwards were descendants
of Marko, the(probably) first tobe a mayorinTomaj,ashe ismentioned
in documents dating between 1696 and 1700. In the fifth generation, we
only have two Černe fathers giving birth to children, that is, the already
well-known Andrej and his brother Tomaž. They may be considered as the
initiators of two parallel branches of the Černe family.
Andrej, after marrying Katarina, had his first registered legitimate child
in 1700 and the last one in 1723 (šak, žat, mkk 3 and 4). In 1715, at the
birth of Marija, the baby girl was registered as daughter of Andreae Zerne
decaniTomaiensis, that is, ‘of the mayor in Tomaj Andrej Černe,’ at that time
aged 42 (šak, žat, mkk 4, 92). Evidently, his sins of youth and spoiling
family harmony did not prevent him from reaching the position of may-
or, like his father was before him. Tomaž was the only other Černe of this
generation having children and was Marko’s son as well, the one we met
as mayor of the youth abbey in 1700. His children were born between 1703
and 1725 (žak, mkk3 and mkk4). The third and oldest son of Marko who
reached adulthood and married with Ana, that is, Štefan, who started a
trial against his brother, did not have children. His acrimony towards An-
drej, apart from behaviour, can therefore also be explained by the fact that
Štefan could not be the one who would have continued the lineage.
After Andrej, mentioned as a mayor in 1715, it was the turn of his
younger brother Tomaž to hold the position of mayor in Tomaj, of which
there are several mentions in the period 1723–1739 (ast, atta, 202.1, 29,
36, 41, 42), although it is not clear whether he remained in office for all
these years without interruption.
While in office, Tomaž had to face the problem of a trial against the
Tomaj youth abbey, just as he had in 1700, but in reversed roles, since back
then he was the mayor of the youngsters, while now he was the real may-
or. And,just ashis father Marko, mayorin1700, had todeal withtwo sons
among the leaders of the abbey, Tomaž was confronted by the fact that in
1726 his nephew Ivan Černe, son of Andrej, was appointed mayor of the
youngsters. The following year, in 1727, two boys from the nearby village of
Dobravlje, passing through Tomaj in the late evening, were chased by some
local youths, pelted with stones and finally beaten. One managed to reach
home although wounded in his head, while the other, after being ‘thrown

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