Wojcik, Zielinski, Markiewicz - meaning of symbols found in surname crests/coat of arms

I have the 'ancient arms of WOJCIK' - with what appears to be a feudal knight's helmet and either a crowned eagle or chicken with spread wings holding something in its talons. Colors are red/white

I have the 'ancient arms for ZELINSKI' - again with a knight's helmet and a horseshoe with a cross on top of it and a black bird sitting on top of the cross. Colors are blue/white

I haven't been able to find a crest/coat of arms for MARKIEWICZ, but would appreciate the meanings of the symbols and what they are.

Thanks!

WÓJCIK: According to Polish armorial resources, no Wójcik ever achieved membership in a noble clan, hence no coat of arms accompanies this surname. If you have been led to believe otherwise, that could mean that:

1) Wójcik/Wojcik did enjoy gentry status in the armorial system of a neighbouring country;
2) Some Pole named Wójcik falsely claimed szlachta status (the lack of a Polish royal heraldic office authenticating noble rank was conducive to such deceptions):

3) A Wójcik coat of arms is being peddled by one of the online heraldry mills that come up with an armorial emblem for most everyone so as not to lose a customer.

ŻELIŃSKI: Noble bearers of the Żeliński surname belonged to the Ciołek clan whose armorial device depicts a red bullock/male calf on a white shield, the emblem being replicated in the crest (upper section) above the crowned knight's helmet.

MARKIEWICZ: A much-titled family whose szlachta members belonged to 10 different noble clans including Jastrzębiec, £abędź, Lubicz, Odrowąż and Ślepowron. There was even an own-name coat of arms.*

*Polish heraldry was largely based on clans, not on surnames. Own-name coats of arms are relatively uncommon. The Markiewicz heraldic emblem shows a white crowned eagle on the red upper half of the shield and three gold ears of grain on the white lower half. In the crest the same eagle is shown holding the three ears in sits beak.

For more information on the above, please contact me

Thank you Polonius,

I guess I can add my name to the masses that have been duped with regards to WOJCIK. I'll stay away from the surname websites.

Polish coat of arms and hereldery are influenced by the old pagan symbols of the sarmation tribes of Ukraine and south east poland. While the polish population is Slavic, the polish nobility held the belief that they were descendants of sarmations. Thus they Christianized much of these old pagan symbols of the sarmation occult. You should look up sarmations in poland or influence of sarmations on polish coat of arms. You will see the similarities are striking. Maybe in these sources you will find what you are looking for.

There's an academic at UAM in Poznan who published an interesting paper saying that some of them can be read by people familiar with Old Persian.

Nothing especially Christianised about the symbols though; they have no special significance in that religion.

Yes Jon357. Sarmations were closely related to Scythians and they spoke an indo-iranic language which was probably.loosely related to old.Persian They.probably had similar occult symbols as well.

The theory is actually about them being read as script. I think the paper's posted online somewhere. I'll try to dig it out. Nothing 'occult' though.

Please do find it and I thank you very much. I think maybe we could have been talking about slightly different things but it is still very interesting. The article I read talked about the sarmation tribes in poland and how their occult symbols influenced polish coat of arms. Maybe I'll find it and give its name to you.

Just in case you are interested this is the title
Sarmations avars and maygars in poland, Lithuania, Croatia Albania and Bulgaria.
I hope you are interested.

Since my name is Markiewicz I am very interested in the coat of arms of this name. Being from a Roman Catholic background I was surprised to see one of the sites selling coats of arms listing it as a Jewish name. Were there Jewish coats of arms in Catholic Poland back then . Just visited Krakow for the 1st time and was amazed at how gorgeous it is. My uncle was Henry Zygmunt who the national director of the Polish Arts League in America and other had leadership positions in other Polish American organizations. I love Polish history especially The Polish winged knights or hussars under Gen Sobieski that defeated the Turks in 1683 when the Turks had penetrated into Austria and surrounded Vienna. Marc

You should look up Countess Markiewicz the Irish patriot, you might find it interesting. Her name was Constance Gore-Booth, she was Anglo-Irish and married to a Polish count although his estates were in Ukraine.