Help needed about my Polish surname, Dobbert.

One man's mix is another's pedigree:-)

It would only make sense that it is Polish, it is what I was told! I was never told I was Wendish/Silesian/Kashub but I got the idea I might be Wendish out of nowhere and wanted to see if my Polish roots seem more Wendish. It appears they seem Polish though, especially Doberski. I am going to call this case closed, i'm Polish. Of course no one is ever 100% certain of anything, but it would only make sense.

To add on to this when I took a DNA test I have a lot of Polish blood, even though these aren't always 100% accurate, it sheds more light on my Polishness.

You do realise that the history of Poland stretches back for over 1000 years, with many occupations and invasions in that time?

Even the concept of "Polishness" didn't really exist for a long time - people were attached to their local areas much more than the concept of nationhood and nationality.


Pretty meaningless, as "Polish" blood can easily be Lemko/etc.

Well, then no one person can really call themselves Polish. Not even those who inhabit Poland, in that case. But as my Parents and Grandparents have always told me to be proud to be Polish I cannot let them down, it would be hard to, I love the Polish culture and i'm proud I am Polish.

From what you say, localities are much more important, so it would be crucial to find out what part of Poland Doberski originates. But I am certain it is NOT Lemko. :P

Exactly. Very few Poles can trace a clear unbroken linage of Poles back to the founding of the Polish state, and indeed, the variety of surnames in Poland prove this.

As for being proud to be Polish, what have you done for Poland? Being proud of a nationality is rather silly unless you contribute to it, in my opinion.


Seems to be Pila, but I suspect the name has been changed somewhere along the line, possibly upon emigration to the US.

I found that my Doberski ancestors changed their name to Dobbert in the late 1800s in Germany. Then they arrived in the U.S. and kept it that way. Thank you for the information on where the surname originates, and therefore likely where my ancestors lived.

Also, what have you done for Poland? Just wondering.

The Doberski name may not mean very much if there are only a few in modern day Poland - it's always possible that they took a last name when required to do so. That would hint at Jewish blood (as I recall, they often didn't have surnames) and simply took the word for "good" and added ski to make it sound Polish at some point.

As for what I've done - quite a lot of volunteer work and I still do it. Nothing to shout about, but still.

And what is your last name? Could be Jewish too. You see, no one is certain about everything That is why I just go with what I was told, which is I am Polish, and my Doberski ancestors claimed they were as well so it is enough for me to consider myself Polish.

Could be. Couldn't care less.


It's rather strange to be proud of something so...uncertain, isn't it?

what do you mean uncertain? In their records my Doberski ancestors claimed they were Polish, and it is what I was always told. I couldn't be more certain. And how certain are you? What makes you so certain that you are Polish that doesn't make me certain that I am? Please explain. o.0

I don't know who made you the judge of who is Polish and who isn't. Prove YOU are Polish.

Actually, I actually think the Jewish theory has some merit. They did tend to take geographical place names as their last names - I forget the what and why, but I know they often didn't have last names. So - as a result - you often saw Jewish people with geographical place names. There is a "Dobra" town in what used to be Germany (Daber) - which, combined with the lack of "Doberski" names in Poland (only a handful exist) sounds very much as if the name was invented at some point.

Their records are pretty much meaningless - people had little connection to even ethnic groups then. If they spoke Polish (or something assumed to be Polish), then they would have been recorded as Polish.

For me, the lack of people with the "Doberski" name in Poland despite the "ski" ending implying nobility is a clear pointer that the name is not all that you think it is. It may have been corrupted from something else at some point, or simply invented when required.

Do your ancestors, to your knowledge, all have the name "Doberski"? If so, then they can't have been Polish - as females would have been Doberska according to the rules of Polish.

Not to my knowledge. You still haven't proved to me that you yourself are Polish. And just because the surname is more uncommon does not mean it is not Polish. How common is your surname?

A £60 Ryan air ticket did.

I don't think delphiandomine is all that popular as I can see from his threads, so I won't take anything he says too seriously.

Actually, it's quite strange for a Polish name to have only a handful of examples in Poland, especially one ending in ski. That's what makes me think that it was invented, thus showing a potential Jewish link. It's certainly worthy of more investigation.

Prove to me you are Polish.

What for? I'm not the one making unverified claims to being Polish.

I think you should investigate the Jewish angle further - we used to have a poster on here that also discovered that she possibly may have had Jewish roots despite her family being adamant that she was Polish. It's not uncommon - plenty of them did it for whatever reason.

If Records that say that they are Polish isn't verifying it, then what would verify that they were? Tell me so I can know what to look for.

You were born in the US? Then you are an American, not a Pole. Why on earth are you guys so obsessed with your heritage anyway? Only Americans do this "I am [Insert country where my ancestors came from 20 generations ago here]-American" thing. Does that prove anything?

"American" is a nationality, not an ethnicity (except of you mean Native, not European, American):-)

Actually my Polish roots are only a few generations away, Americans like to know our roots because we were not the indigenous people to this land so we go by what our ancestors were. To answer your question.

Still an unusual concept. I'm from Oz and even though Europeans weren't indigenous there either, we still don't claim to be "Polish-German-Prussian-French-Dutch-British-Australian".


After 230+ years it's safe to say that 'American' has become an ethnicity as well.

Not only isn't it "safe" to say, it's downright false as well!! The single "ethnicity" throughout the Americas is the Asian-derived Siberian immigrants known formerly as "Indians"LOL

Quote (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_group)

"Ethnicity or ethnic group is a socially defined category of people who identify with each other based on a shared social experience or ancestry. Membership of an ethnic group tends to be associated with shared cultural heritage, ancestry, history, homeland, language (dialect) or ideology, and with symbolic systems such as religion, mythology and ritual, cuisine, dressing style, physical appearance, etc."

Nothing of this is true for Americans? Interesting. Does that mean that you have no culture, no homeland and no history? :)

A BORROWED culture, an APPRENDED history....from Europe, later from the Pacific Rim! Our aboriginal culture we hopelessly and ruthlessly eliminated!!

I'd prefer if we stayed on topic about the surname. It saddens me that people like delphiandomine come with negative views. I understand it may be Jewish, though he doesn't have to be rude about it. How about you, theother? I thought you were a nice guy at first, you had helped me at the beginning of the thread. Can we all get along? I don't like arguing with others.

Also, does anyone know about the surname Dobrowski? I found it in my line.

What was the "aboriginal culture" of Poland then, if this is necessary to establish an ethnicity?


Have you checked the usual suspects yet? I mean the LDS database?

familysearch.org/search/record/results#count=20&query=%2B surname%3ADobrowski

Can we please stay on topic?

Sorry, posted this before you edited.

As far as I know, the original inhabitants of Poland were "racially" Lecithic ethnic populations, later intermarrying with their Germanic neighbors while at the same time retaining their original homogeneously "Slavic" vs. "Germanic", "Baltic", "Uralic" or "Latin" ur-culture:-)

So there is no Polish ethnicity?