Nicifor Ninkovic - on the trail of his “Autobiography ” and other historical sources

Abstract

?My Autobiography? by Nicifor Ninkovic, barber to Prince Milos, is one of the most widely read Serbian memoirs. There were five reprints from 1976 to 2016. Our only information on his life can be gathered from that work. He was born in the Syrmian village of Dobrinci in 1788. He crossed over to insurgent Serbia in 1807. In the winter of 1812-1813 he moved through Wallachia and went to Constantinople. He returned to Serbia in 1819. He was personal barber to Prince Milos from 1822 to 1826. Then he served as a scribe in the Rudnik District Magistrate in 1828-1829. He left Serbia again in 1831 and spent ten years roaming around Turkey. He finally came back to Serbia in late 1841 or early 1842. This paper focuses on the unknown sources from the Archive of Serbia and the Historical Archive of Belgrade related to Nicifor Ninkovic, which include his requests to Prince Milos dated April 28/May 10, 1819, April 24/May 6, 1825, and April 14/26, 1826, in which he asks for the ruler?s mercy or employment, also a letter to Prince Milos?s secretary Nikola Nikolajevic dated October 13/25, 1820, in which he recommends himself for the post of the Prince?s barber. The registers of births, marriages and deaths of Belgrade Cathedral contain information on the date of his marriage to Hristina from Zemun (April 30/May 12, 1822), the birth and death of his daughter Draginja (March 16/28, 1827 - March 18/30, 1834), and the death of his wife Hristina (January 5/17, 1835). We put forth a new argument that Nicifor Ninkovic died in Belgrade, and not in Pozarevac, as has been held so far.