He was born in the eastern, Syrmian part of the Slavonian Military Frontier (where the Slavonian-Petrovaradinian Military Infantry Regiment was established later, in 1747), in a family of Serbian descent.
Bobota, Croatia, a village near Trpinja, Vukovar-Syrmia County, Croatia
They regularly attacked their western neighbour, the Hungarian vassal Stefan Dragutin's Syrmian Kingdom, in Mačva, an area previously under the sovereignty of Elizabeth of Hungary.
Dobanovci stretches southeast to Surčin and to the north in the direction of the settlements of Grmovac and Ugrinovci, forming one almost continuing ring-shaped built-up urban area in eastern Syrmia (Dobanovci-Surčin-Bežanija-Bežanijska Kosa-Plavi Horizonti-Altina-Zemun Polje-Busije-Ugrinovci-Grmovac).
Similar dialectal features are seen today among population of Gradište near Županja (in western Syrmia) and around town of Našice in central eastern Slavonia (both in northeastern Croatia).
After the victory against the Ottomans at the Battle of Vienna in 1683, the Emperor Leopold I granted the castle, significant properties and the title of the Duke of Syrmia to Livio Odescalchi, nephew of Pope Innocent XI and a member of the powerful Italian aristocratic Odescalchi family, which would own the castle for the next two centuries.
Ivankovo, Croatia, a municipality in Vukovar-Syrmia County of Slavonia, Croatia
Ostrovo, Croatia, a village near Markušica, Vukovar-Syrmia County, Croatia
After the April war of 1941 when Germany and its allies occupied and partitioned the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, entire Syrmia region (including the left bank of the Sava) became part of the Independent State of Croatia where they set the Ustaše regime.