I've heard and taught the story of Juan Vucetich's contribution to fingerprint history, but didn't realize until reading this recent article that he was born in Croatia as Ivan Vucetic.
https://www.total-croatia-news.com/life ... ngerprints
Juan Vucetich the European?
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RedFive
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Juan Vucetich the European?
Red 5 standing by.....
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Ernie Hamm
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Re: Juan Vucetich the European?
There is also this article, "Dr.Juan Vucetich: His Contribution to the Science of Fingerprints", Carey L. Chapman, Journal of Forensic Identification, 42/1992.
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Ernie Hamm
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Re: Juan Vucetich the European?
There is more: This subject was the subject of a CLPEX discussion in "The Detail" back in 2002 when 'introduced' by Michele Triplett. Following that information, the following was published in Minutiae (a publication of Lightning Powder Company/Armor Forensics) in two issues:
Minutiae 75 Spring 2003 (Publication of Lightning Powder Company/Armor Forensics
Historical – In Search of Ivan
Michele Triplett (King County Sheriff’s Office, Seattle, Washington) posted an inquiry in October 2002 at www.clpex.com. Michele was reading Henry Lee’s “Advances in Fingerprint Technology” and was curious about the use of “Ivan Vucetich” in the first chapter, written by John Berry. She had always seen the individual referred to as “Juan Vucetich” as an early pioneer in fingerprint identification.
There was a spirited discussion on the chat board about the reasons for the use of “Ivan” instead of “Juan”. It was generally believed that the name conversion came about as a result of his emigration to Argentina from Croatia in 1884. It may have been an accepted practice to ‘nationalize’ an individual’s name or perhaps a typographical error of sorts when an official interpreted a cursive writing of “Ivan” as “Juan” in which the first two letters would be misread.
A check with the original author, John Berry, did not resolve his use of “Ivan”. John could not recall the source of the information and reason for using “Ivan Vucetich”. A review of reference material on “Juan Vucetich” always mentioned his emigration, but never addressed another name. At attempt was made to obtain information from official sources in Argentina about policies and procedures in place that would have resulted in a name change, but we were unsuccessful in receiving an answer.
In the continuing search for “Ivan”, additional Internet searches were performed through Google™ on “Juan Vucetich”, but the results were the usual sources of information that had not provided an explanation in the past. A search was then made on “Ivan Vucetich”, but this time the name was placed in quotes to make it more specific. The first leading response was “no results” and then the search engine suggested an alternative spelling, “Vucetic”, and dumped a lot of information. Most of the responses derived their information out of Croatia. It seems that Ivan Vucetic was born on Hvar, an island in the Dalmantia region of Croatia and is the “inventor of fingerprint identification” (a BOLD assertion!). So, this native son of Croatia was a famous person and his notoriety claimed by his birth land, Croatia. Oddly, there is no mention on the sites that this individual left Croatia and actually found fame in Argentina as Juan Vucetich! So, the chapter attributed to John Berry in Henry Lee’s book, “Advances in Fingerprint Technology”, had it partly right. There was a variation in the first name, but also in the last name. By the way, in case you are delving into other historical figures, Johannes Purkinje is referred to as Juan Purkinje in Argentine sites I visited in search of Ivan. There must be something about the changing of names to suit the nationality, even when the individual had not emigrated, as I am sure Purkinje never did.
Thank you, Michele, for an interesting diversion.
And a follow-up item:
Minutiae 76 Summer 2003 (Publication of Lightning Powder Company/Armor Forensics
We also received some messages as a result of the article, In Search of Ivan, about name variations, including one from Mike Carrick, President emeritus of Lightning Powder Company. It seems as if many Croatian names ending in “c” had an “h” added for pronunciation purposes, “c” sounding “ch”. Kay Pownall, Port Townsend (WA) Police Department, noted a first name adaptation (Ivan vs. Juan) in the name of a relative, “Yeka” is “Helen”. This is nice to know information if you are doing background checks on individuals and might have hidden information under a name variation.
A little historical diversion.
Minutiae 75 Spring 2003 (Publication of Lightning Powder Company/Armor Forensics
Historical – In Search of Ivan
Michele Triplett (King County Sheriff’s Office, Seattle, Washington) posted an inquiry in October 2002 at www.clpex.com. Michele was reading Henry Lee’s “Advances in Fingerprint Technology” and was curious about the use of “Ivan Vucetich” in the first chapter, written by John Berry. She had always seen the individual referred to as “Juan Vucetich” as an early pioneer in fingerprint identification.
There was a spirited discussion on the chat board about the reasons for the use of “Ivan” instead of “Juan”. It was generally believed that the name conversion came about as a result of his emigration to Argentina from Croatia in 1884. It may have been an accepted practice to ‘nationalize’ an individual’s name or perhaps a typographical error of sorts when an official interpreted a cursive writing of “Ivan” as “Juan” in which the first two letters would be misread.
A check with the original author, John Berry, did not resolve his use of “Ivan”. John could not recall the source of the information and reason for using “Ivan Vucetich”. A review of reference material on “Juan Vucetich” always mentioned his emigration, but never addressed another name. At attempt was made to obtain information from official sources in Argentina about policies and procedures in place that would have resulted in a name change, but we were unsuccessful in receiving an answer.
In the continuing search for “Ivan”, additional Internet searches were performed through Google™ on “Juan Vucetich”, but the results were the usual sources of information that had not provided an explanation in the past. A search was then made on “Ivan Vucetich”, but this time the name was placed in quotes to make it more specific. The first leading response was “no results” and then the search engine suggested an alternative spelling, “Vucetic”, and dumped a lot of information. Most of the responses derived their information out of Croatia. It seems that Ivan Vucetic was born on Hvar, an island in the Dalmantia region of Croatia and is the “inventor of fingerprint identification” (a BOLD assertion!). So, this native son of Croatia was a famous person and his notoriety claimed by his birth land, Croatia. Oddly, there is no mention on the sites that this individual left Croatia and actually found fame in Argentina as Juan Vucetich! So, the chapter attributed to John Berry in Henry Lee’s book, “Advances in Fingerprint Technology”, had it partly right. There was a variation in the first name, but also in the last name. By the way, in case you are delving into other historical figures, Johannes Purkinje is referred to as Juan Purkinje in Argentine sites I visited in search of Ivan. There must be something about the changing of names to suit the nationality, even when the individual had not emigrated, as I am sure Purkinje never did.
Thank you, Michele, for an interesting diversion.
And a follow-up item:
Minutiae 76 Summer 2003 (Publication of Lightning Powder Company/Armor Forensics
We also received some messages as a result of the article, In Search of Ivan, about name variations, including one from Mike Carrick, President emeritus of Lightning Powder Company. It seems as if many Croatian names ending in “c” had an “h” added for pronunciation purposes, “c” sounding “ch”. Kay Pownall, Port Townsend (WA) Police Department, noted a first name adaptation (Ivan vs. Juan) in the name of a relative, “Yeka” is “Helen”. This is nice to know information if you are doing background checks on individuals and might have hidden information under a name variation.
A little historical diversion.
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Oneal5723
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Re: Juan Vucetich the European?
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