Hmmm.....the name ending sounds like an ethnic German name. Especially with first names like Gustav and Freiderich. But it could be Kashubian, too. I am not an expert.
But in that area of Poland, there were a lot of Kashubian (West Slavic peoples) and pre-WWII, the western Kashubes became mixed with Germanic peoples and converted to Lutheranism. In the eastern areas of Pommerania, they kept their Slavic identify and Catholic religion.
Both were probaby equally a mixture of Slavic and Germanic, but those in the western areas were expelled as ethnic Germans, and those in the eastern areas are now still in Poland and their identity is Slavic.
I am half Polish and half ethnic German and found that while the Lutheran church has most of the ethnic German records, at times, the Catholic church maintained them, too if no Lutheran church was available.
You might go to a site called PolandBorderSurnames for more information, or to the Mormon genealogy pages. They will list the microfilms and churches that kept records in that area.
Good luck...PS....alternate spellings could be Wandtke or Wantke.
German names ending in -ke originated as adapatations of Slavonic-Pomeranian and/or Polish words in -ka. Often the proof of that is that in German a name such as Lipke has no meaning whilst the original lipka meant little linden tree.
The same hiolds tru efor -au ending German place-names. Zittau is meaningless but Żytawa (from which it was derived) could be translated as Ryeville, Ryeshire, Ryeton, etc.
Even Pomerania reinforces that lingusitic process. German Pommern is a mere translation which has no innate meaning, but Pomorze (the Polish original) means the region "along the sea".
Getting back to Wandke, that name exists in Poland. Other versions include Wandka, Wądka, Wendka, Wędka et al. Incidentally, a name's lingusitic origin is not the same as the nationality of its current bearers. There are many people in Poland named Szulc and Schultz who would be insulted if you called them German, although the name originally meant village mayor (Polish: sołtys). And there are numerous Kowalskis and Nowaks in German who do not feel Polish in the least.
I`m also searching for my ancestors named Wandke. My Wandke’s lived, or as I recently found out, are living for at least 200 years in the Lodz Voivodeship, Poland. I assume that they originally migrated from Pomerania and I am almost sure that they came from Poznan (Poland) to their last station in the region of Belchatow (Poland). This has taken place in the 18th century or in the first 10 years of the 19th century I guess. But for this I have no evidence up to now. I do not think they have settled near Belchatow before the 18th century.
My earliest Wandke is Ferdinand who was born in 1814/5 and was married to Anna Karoline Schliefke/Sliwka. They had (maybe at least?) two sons, Friedrich and Johann Gottlieb/ Jan Bogumil. One part of the Wandke family migrated during World War II “back” to Germany, but I unfortunately have no contact with them.
Descendants of this two sons carry the names: Anna, Apolonia, August, Eduard, Gustav, Ewa, Ferdinand, Friedrich, Johann (=Jan), Julius, Olga, Paulina, Rudolf... @ all Wandke researchers: Please contact me if you have any information to share concerning this surname. sDOTpacakATwebDOTde You may also write in German or Polish. For those of you who understand German. Here you can find a possible meaning for this surname (Wanke, Wandke, Wantke, Wandtke). The ending –ke is here shortly explained too.
wiki-de.genealogy.net/Schlesisches_Namenbuch/076 It is said that Wandke with its all variations is a slavic short form of Iwan that again is Johann or Jan. The author of this book was searching in Central Poland for information about Germans who have settled there since many decades, therefore one can assume the correctness of this meaning. But it might be not the only one. I do not know.
Wandke or ... probably is slavic or polish coz pomeranians are classify as lechites tribes with polish tribes like whole group(See wikipedia). Pomeranians spoke dialects of polish languages they used many the same words as poles did. You can say that you are polish german mixed but have slavic polish pomeranian surname the same name like pochanke or hanke...
Your grandfather Gustav Wandke was born 1857 in Arnswalde, Pommern, and NOT in Choszczno (the Polish name of the town used after WW2). If you google for Arnswalde and Wandke, you'll find plenty of hits.
