SKARBITZKI (Skarbietzky or Skarbitzky) from Dobrzetz/Breslau emigrated to the US in 1861

I'm looking for information on the surnames of a pair of ancestors who emigrated to the US in 1861 - Anton and Maria SKARBITZKI (also written Skarbietzky or Skarbitzky), from Dobrzetz / Breslau. I realize the anglicized Skarbitzki is probably Skarbiecki or perhaps even Skarbinski.

Maria's maiden name is listed in a couple of places as Starry or Stari, and in another place as Yntz. I know Stary means old in Polish so I'm curious about the significance of it as a last name. They were married in about 1860.

If you haven't seen it already, your ancestors are in the LDS database:

familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FDBJ-PGX
familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVTW-GVW9
familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N7G6-WY9

Thanks @TheOther. I have lots of info on them after they got to the US, but nothing from before - just the ship record when they came over and some other info indicating they came from Dobrzec / Breslau.

It's germanised name of the city of Wrocław.

Have you found their naturalization records? For pre-1906 naturalizations, the state archive of the state where the naturalization occurred should hold the record.


No, Breslau was the name of the city at the time when Skarbitzki's ancestors lived in the Kingdom of Prussia.

I have the petition for naturalization from Ancestry.com - they just say he renounces his allegiance to the Emperor of Germany. Would there be more records held at the State Archive with more information?

Re: the name of the town, on their ship record from 1861 it says Dobrzetz (which is now Dobrzec) but then in 1874 a birth record for a son lists it as Breslau, which was also the name of the region Dobrzetz is in.

Probably not, but it could be worth a try. Some pre-1906 records hold a wealth of information; including physical descriptions and birth dates.


I'm not surprised. Dobrzetz was not only a small town, but also the name for a so-called "Gutsbezirk" (a rural district) that was part of the larger Regierungsbezirk Breslau.

gov.genealogy.net/item/show/object_321408

Were your ancestors catholic? Then try to contact either the state archive in Wroclaw or the church that is now in charge of Dobrzec. If the church books survived the war, you should be able to find their marriage record and through that their birth records. If your ancestors were protestant, check the EZA in Berlin. Again: if the church books survived the war, you might be lucky to find the entries.

List of available church books:
ezab.de/kirchenbuecher/kirchenbuch-suche.php

There is no Dobrzec in the vicinity of Wrocław (formerly Breslau) as of today. There is Dobrzeń in the direction of Oleślica (Oels), but its German name was Gutwohne. German sources name Dobrzetz in Kreis Gross Wartenberg (Syców), so this Dobrzetz can't be in Kreis Breslau.

So what is the location of Dobrzetz today?

Good question! My current guess is here
google.com/maps/place/Dobrzec,+Poland/@51.4219794,17.4084463,11z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x470555207f505021:0x0d11be06da96c7d5
just Northwest of Międzybórz (old Neumittelwalde), judging by comparing old maps like this one
gross-wartenberg.de/wikigw/index.php/Dobrzetz
and this more recent one with google maps.
i.ebayimg.com/t/Breslau-Wroc-aw-Zabrze-Opole-1939-Leuna-Autokarte-Reichsautobahn-Brzeg-Bytom-/00/s/MTI3NlgxNTg4/z/y5EAAOSwbdpWWLjO/$_57.JPG

The information I found indicated that at least in 1900, Kreis Gross Wartenberg was administratively within the greater *district* of Breslau at that time (presumably Kreis Breslau was also), so it would make sense for them to put Breslau down as their origin (also probably easier for Americans to spell than Dobrzetz!)

gemeindeverzeichnis.de/gem1900/gem1900.htm?schlesien/gross-wartenberg.htm

You are right. I excluded that Dobrzec at first because it is now is now in the Wielkopolskie province (voivodship). Since the border between Dolnoślaskie and Wielkopolskie closely follows the pre-1939 Polish-German border, I thought the village was not on the historic territory of Silesia. But it was, and it must have been "transferred" from Schlesien (Germany) to Greater Poland province (Poland) on the decision of the Versailles Treaty in 1918. There were minor corrections to the border between the historic Niederschlesien and Poland and your map from the 1918-1939 interwar period indeed shows that Dobrzec was on the Polish side then, while presumably it was on the German side before the First World War.


This is a very interesting remark that he renounces his allegiance to the German Emperor. Could you perhaps show the full text of this petition?

Skarbicki (or Skarbiecki) can be associated with the Polish word 'skarb' which means 'treasure', or 'skarbiec' which means 'place for keeping the treasure'. If it is sometimes written as Skarbietzky', I am for 'Skarbiecki' and not 'Skarbicki', but you should use the German transcription of this surname (with 'tz' and 'y'). 'Stary' can be used as a surname as in, for example, Maria Stary. 'Yntz' is rather bizzare.

From looking at a few of them, the renunciation text is standard boilerplate for naturalizations around that time (at least in New York).
It reads: "I, [name] do declare on oath, that it is bona fide my Intention to become a Citizen of the United States, and to renounce forever all allegiance to any foreign Prince, Potentate, State or Sovereignty whatever, and particularly to the [] of whom I am a subject."

So that immigrants from London would renounce their allegiance to the "King of England", whereas immigrants from Germany might enter "Emperor of Germany". It does seem odd from a modern point of view.

Thanks for the info on the last names! I agree Yntz is bizarre, so far 2 out of 3 documents I've found mentioning her maiden name say Starry or Stari but one very clearly says "Yntz", that one may remain a mystery!