Recently; Ed attended a concert by The Duquesne University Tamburitzans which stirred his heart and spirit in such a profound way that he has included this page on his website as an homage to his Croatian ancestors and countrymen whose lives and music so greatly influenced him as a young musician.

 

The arlija Story

by Ed Sarley

My grandfather Anton arlija was born in Jasenice, Croatia and worked the docks along the Dalmatian coast as a fisherman until he emigrated to The United States in 1911.

My father, Edward arlija was born in 1922 and married my mother Anne in 1950. Their marriage produced three more arlijas named Ed, Greg and Laura .

As an upwardly mobile salesman; my father was frustrated by his customers' difficulty in remembering and pronouncing his surname, as there are no English counterparts for the Croatian characters "" and "j" in the name

arlija (pronounced shar-lee-yah). So, in 1964; he arranged for the family surname to be legally changed to Sarley in an effort to assimilate their new American culture and render their last name pronounceable in English.

I was raised and educated as a U.S. citizen, but I have always been aware of my Croatian heritage through my grandfather, father and relatives who could still read, write, and speak Croatian.

To those noble souls who have gone before me; I dedicate this space, and I invite all those of Croatian ancestry to contact me and contribute to making this web page a definitive source of information about all things Croatian.