I recently was looking at ship's records for my ancestors arrival in America. My grandfather was from Rypin, in Central Poland. I've known that for quite some time.
But, on the ship's records, his brother's last residence is listed as what looks like in handwritten records as "Knewegvizet," Russia. Of course at that time, Rypin was also listed as being in Russia. (Congress Poland). This place of origin is written twice, and I tried to see if I have "w" mixed up with "m" or with written together "i and v" It looks like it is "Knewegvizet."
This does not look Polish, German or anything I know of. I attempted to google it, went also to the villlages of origin on the Jewish genealogy website and nothing.
The time period is 1907.
Anyone have any ideas what this place could be, or did some clerk just have no idea how to spell where he really came from?
"Knewegvizet"... This does not look polish, does not sound polish either. But i'm not sure, in Poland there are many places that even poles would think, after hearing the name, are not in poland. Sounds a little german, so if it's in poland i would look in south west, were the german influence was very high.
Then again if it's just a mistake made by a clerk that didn't know how to write it, it can be anything and anywhere.
Thanks.....it was a long shot to see if anyone knew of this strange name. I took the ending part and googled it and I get a Hungarian folk song. But, I really believe the brothers would have lived fairly close together and Rypin is no where near the Hungarian border.
One of those mysteries of genealogy. He is an offshoot, though so I am on to my direct line. :-)
Gniewkowice 50°17' 17°55' E M U G Poland 190.2 miles SW of Warszawa 52°15' 21°0' Gniewkowiec 52°55' 18°09' E M U G Poland 128.1 miles WNW of Warszawa 52°15' 21°0'
go to JewishGen.org. This is where I found these areas
It's been awhile, but I am sure that you are correct GrandeSande. Another fellow genealogists told me recently......
In looking at my map of Powiat Sochaczow, I saw that Ilow was shown as a principal town indicated by a solid dot enclosed by a circle. I looked for other principal towns with the same designation and found Glusk in the far northeastern corner of the Powiat near the south bank of the Wisla River. This is a short distance SW of Nowy Dwor.
2 km NW of Glusk is the village of Gniewniewice. It is easy to see how someone transcribing this name in a ship's manifest would spell it in this unrecognizable way.... Knewegoizet without too much stretching of changed letters and sound.
When I have more time, I will check the records available for Nowy Dwor.
I have found that many Americans are at a complete loss to correctly decipher the fancy 19th-century Old World script found in the hand-written documents of the day. If it is technicaly feasible to post a facsimile of the actual entry you have found on this forum (you know -- all that hi-tech scanning-shmanning stuff!), I'm sure someone will be able to unravel the mystery.
That sure is the truth Polonius3! However, in this case, I believe the person taking the notes for the manifest just badly botched the location and misspelled it. Thankfully, the transcriber did write down the other larger places nearby. Looks like Sochaczow and the district of Warsaw. Gniewniewice was a Hollander community on the Vistuala near Nowy Dwor, so it makes sense given their ethnic background.
Polonius3, I no longer have direct access to the document as my ancestry.com subscription expired. I did print a copy before my subscription expired, but not the best quality. I uploaded what I have to photobucket so you can look at it if you wish. It is entry #11.
I have located my Polish ancestors in Gniezno (my Mom is Polish). But my Dad's family are ethnic German and Kashubian German people also born in Poland.
I knew my grandfather was born in Rypin, Poland and I traced his family further back to the Lipno area. But this ship manifest is from my grandfather's brother and the place he lists his father (my great grandfather) represents the last known place the family resided.
This kind of surprised me as it is not that far away, but not in the Lipno, or Rypin area.
My grandfather's sister, sometime after this was, I believe, taken by Russians and died. So this might be useful for me to know where her last residence was, in case I can learn more of what happened.
