My grandmothers: Zbysheski and Simpsi.

Hello everyone,

My name is Maria and I was wondering if anyone could assist me in any information regarding the aforementioned surnames.
I realize you probably get a lot of these requests, so I thank you in advance for your time. :)

I've tried some of the helpful links I've seen regular board members post here, like:
polishroots.org
familysearch.org
rtrffoundation.org
nancy.polishsite.us
etc.
But I've yet to find any information about either surname.

When I do a search for my maternal grandmother, Marie Zbysheski, the only hits I get are of my own family in Pennsylvania, US.
When I do a search for my paternal grandmother, Anna Simpsi, I basically get no hits at all.. save one woman on facebook whom I 've contacted with no response as of yet.

Am I missing an alternate spelling, or a root word?
The closest I have come to Zbysheski is a suggestion it may derive from "Zbygniew", as in "the one who will have excess ("zbyt-") of anger ("gniew")".

Thank you again for taking the time to read my long, rambling post. :)

The usual from me:

JewishGen for name search and place search. plus other info.

Check: ellis island records. do a name search... if nothing exists it will bring up alternative spellings, which might help.

ancestry.com

genealogy.com

I'd like to help more, but my computer is in a bad state of repair, which means that I can't do an effective search for you.

try: (maria) zbyszewski

Hey.. you've at least given me a new search engine and a new spelling alternative, which is more than I had to go on 5 minutes ago haha.

Thank you! :)

maria,

If you are new to genealogy / family history.

When you do a search... only put in surname... see what you get... then add to it.

It's a big mistake to fill in all the boxes. :)

You might find results come up... such as: Russian, Austrian, German. This is because of Polish partition.

It's always worthwhile doing a wikipedia search of Polish history before researching Poland.

I apologize, if I'm stating the obvious.

also maryja or marja as those were the way to spell Mary way back then

zbyszeski but in case of a female make sure to search for zbyszeska.

it is also highly possible that the surname is actually spelled: Zbyszewski/a

also, this name may or may not have anything to do with the name Zbigniew.

Simpsi is almost definitely not a polish (slavic) name.

Unfortunately, I realized very early into my search that I wouldn't get a perfect match.. now, I am just happy if I get 3-4 consecutive letters in the surname! ;)

Good point on the partitions.. I hadn't taken them into consideration. I admittedly have little knowledge geographically on Poland. :/

Thank you for all of your suggestions, Wroclaw. They're very helpful. :)

And thank you for the alternate spellings, loco polaco!
I have so many more search options now. :)

I've also always wondered about the Simpsi surname, but didn't know how to bring it up with my grandmother. She is very proud of her 100% Polish heritage, and I didn't want to "question" her about its etymology, as it were.

It is very interesting that someone else shares this opinion!

Zbyszewski is common enough and probably originated as a nickname for the son of someone called Zbyszko (Zbigniew) or hailing from Zbyszewo.
The other misspelling is hard to even guess at. Perhaps it was Szymski, in which case it might have meant "son of Szymek" (Simon) or an inhabitant of Szymanów.