Genealogy / Looking for Redwanz, Redwanc, Radwanc, or Radwaniec surname [5]

Try:
Old Documents Archives
Archiwum Akt Dawnych
ul. Długa 7, 00-950 Warsaw, Poland
phone: (48-22) 831-5491>93
chagad@poczta.onet.pl; archiwa.gov.pl
(Before accepting root-tracing assignments, they indicate whether the required information is available and provide research-cost estimate.)

Genealogy / Looking for Redwanz, Redwanc, Radwanc, or Radwaniec surname [5]

Redwanz indeed looks to be a Germanised version of Radwaniec. There is only 1 Radwaniec now living in Poland (in Poznań or vicinity). But there are 6 people named Radwaniecki (probably a patronymcio nickanem meaning "son of Radwan"). It was probably dervied from the Radwan c-o-a which depicts a stylised religious banner. Its origin goes back to a mediaeval incident in which a Polsih force scattered after their standard-bearer fell in combat. One of the knigths galloped off to the nearest church, grabbed one of the parishes processional banners, returned to the fray, rallied his troops round the banner and carried the day.

USA, Canada / Any Polish people and food in Boston, MA? [16]

There's even a Polish newspaper called Polish Eagle being published in Boston.

Life / WHY ARE POLISH CALENDARS SKEWED? [42]

The very concept of a weekend is quite a recent one in hsitorical terms and probably does not go much beyond the 20th century. Since Saturday and Sunday were days off, the term weekend was coined. But calendars go way back to the Middle Ages. So there is no contradiction between the calendar's arrangement and the term weekend.

Jan 1, 10, 16:07 - Thread attached on merging:
Why do Polish calendars list Monday first?

The Sabbath or Seventh day has always been the last day of the week and Sunday sas always been the first. Anyone know why the wall calendars produced in today's Poland are arse-backwards and list Monday as the first day of the week? Is this a communist-era custom that has been continued for some reason? In America calendars always list Sunday first. What about the UK?

Language / Old Polish Vs New Polish [29]

Would any Anglista who knows Polish be able to say whether the 15th-century Polish poem cited here was more or less comprhensible to present-day native speakers than 15th-century English would be. In other words, has Polish ro English changed more?

I recall from college English the Chaucerian line (spelling unsure): Whan that Aprille with her shoures sote the drought of Marche had perced to the rote and bathed every veyn in swich liqueur, of which engendered is the flowre...

The prof incidentally was a Chaucerian expert and when he recited that verse, it evoked the harsh, guttural sounds of German. For instance, drought was not pronounced like Polish drałt, but like Polish drocht.

Food / Quick- What's the warm beer and wine called? [5]

Merged: WINIARSKI' STAG'S LEAP WINES

Anyone ever heard of (or sampled) Winiarski's Stag's Leap wines out of California. The Pol-A, winer has a most appropriate surname: Winiarski (meaning the wine-maker's son or helper).

Life / WHY ARE POLISH CALENDARS SKEWED? [42]

I can understand where no-one on this forum has ever seen a pre-commie Polish calendar but has no-one ever been to America and seen an American celndar as well?

No dumb Polak image intended, just a straightforward inquiry. Polish calendars used to have Sunday in first place, now it's in last. My question is when by whose hand and why that occurred.

Life / Bollywood in Poland [32]

I ran across this info on the net: Though Shah Rukh Khan is the craze among Polish youth, it was Ashutosh Gowariker's epic romance 'Jodhaa Akbar' that charmed cinegoers during a month-long Hindi film festival held across 12 places in Poland, a country that has a surprisingly large number of Bollywood fans...

I hadn't been aware of this development and wonder if the Forum's Polish youth contingent wouldn't mind commenting.

Food / pasztet recipe? [12]

Not too many years ago, rabbit hutches out in back of the shed were frequently encountered in Polish small towns and villages. The "króle" were raised both for meat and fur. Is this no longer the case?

Language / DOES POLISH LACK A WORD FOR STEPSISTER & STEPBROTHER? [15]

Przybranie (adopting, taking under one's roof) refers to stepparents. But stepbrother and stepsister has to do not with adoption or any legality but the relationship of unrelated chidren living under one roof to one another. I beleive there really is no one word in Polish conveying the full meaning of stepbrother/stepsister. Moreover, stepbrother/sister contains an emotive element of alienness, distance or even estrangement ,whereas przybrany ranges from neutral to positive.

Language / DOES POLISH LACK A WORD FOR STEPSISTER & STEPBROTHER? [15]

Is that the official term for it? The term przybrany and (jocosely) przyszywany is widely used, but would everyone know this is a stepbrother, the son of a woman or man my biological oarent has married?

My impression is that it is more general. Someone taken in (adopted officially or not) is called a przybrany syn, corka, etc.

Life / Who here watch "M Jak Milosc" or "Klan"? :D [7]

What about Plebania? Any fans out there?

Food / Why carp for Polish Christmas? [157]

A Blackman, Afro, Negro, Coloured Person, African American (seems every few years they wanna be called something else!) once told me that the secret of carp is after cleaning it to salt it and freeze it. Then rinse off the salt when it thaws, salt & pepper, dip in flour, roll in egg wash and cornmeal and fry. Never tried it that way, but since Afros are big carp lovers in America he might have had a point. If anyone on the forum tries this, please let us know, OK?

Genealogy / Wolochowicz [14]

It probably started out as a patronymic nickname meaning "son of the Vallachian" (Romanian highlander or shepherd). That probaly meant the original son was no longer perceived as a Vallachian by fellow-villagers but his father was. One sometimes hears Polish Americans say: "All 4 of my grandparents were Polish.' But he must therefore be Polish too in terms of blood, except that he no longer perceives hismelf that way.

The initial name emergence took palce many centureis ago. The name Wołochowicz was first recorded in 1465 in the eastern borderlands of the old Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth but it probably had existed much before then. It eventually became a surname passed down from one generation to the next. If the surname is your only link to Romania, then chances are you've got but a fraction of a drop of Vallalchian blood in your veins. Incidentally I've got relatives in Scranton, PA named Wołoszyn, which means the same thing as Wołochowski.

Language / Ukrainian language similar to Polish? [236]

Priwit Nobody!
Why not give us a few basic greetings and phrases in Ukrainian for the benefit of thsoe interested, possibly capitalising the accented syllables.
I myself know very little:
(Polish transcription) SZCZO poroBLAjesz?
DUżo DObro
Do poBAczenia
ja TEbe koCHAju (or) lubLU
DJAkuju
Win MAje boHAto SYniw (not sure of this one).
Brat nie howoRIT po ukraINśki.

Genealogy / Wolochowicz [14]

Although Wołochowicz is not a typical Jewish name, it cannot be said that no Jew ever used it. Most any Slavonic surname has been used by Jews at one time or another. There were the readily identifiable Jewish names such as Szapiro and Margolis, Yiddish ones such as Goldberg and Apfelbaum (pronounced Apfelbojm in Yiddish), and there were countless typically Polish, Russian, etc. surnames used by people of Jewish descent. At times a Kirschman or Goldstein found it expedient to pass himself of as Wiśniewski or Złotkiewicz. As different armies steamrollered their way across Poland, a Górski may have decided to be known as Berg and vice-versa.

On into the 19th century, Jewish naming practices drove the partitioning powers up the wall! (Serves ‘em right!!!) Many Jews were known by temporary patronymic nicknames in that they were not passed on as surnames to future generations. Eg – Kagan Jankielewicz meant "Kagan son of Jankiel". But when Kagan married and sired a son called Baruch, the latter would have been known as Baruch Kaganowicz. Naturally this threw the "Ordnung muß sein" Krauts into a tailspin and confused their record-keeping, so the Prussian partition authorities forced everybody to legally register a normal pass-downable surname.

Language / Ukrainian language similar to Polish? [236]

Pies uciekł do lasu, a kot do miasta.
Stol z powylamywanymi nogami stal w Szczebrzeszynie, gdzie znany chrzaszcz brzmi w trzcinie.
Co sadisz o boskiej Julii, klejnocie ukrainskiej sceny politycznej?
Dlaczego mnie juz nie kochasz?
On zarabia 10 złotych na godzine w sklepie.
Sasiadka mojej synowej splonela zywcem w samochodzie.
Lwow, Luck, Kamieniec Podolski i Zytomierz wiecznie polskie!

Food / Types of CHEESE in Poland [150]

I don't believe so. At least not traditonal Polish recipes.

USA, Canada / I WANT TO LEARN TO SPEAK POLISH IN TORONTO ?? ANY SUGGESTIONS [13]

Take a tram to Rącze Wały (Roncevalles Ave) and hang out at the local shops, bars and restaurants.

Genealogy / Dreja and Lama surnames [9]

Th Dreja surname may have arisen from:
*a the coat-of-arms by that name
* the German word drei (three)
* the locality of Dryja in the Konin area
* a short form of German Andrew -- Andreas.
There are 453 Drejas in Poland, of whom 313 in the Katowice area, the name's apparent ancestral nest.

Language / Perfective vs Imperfective - grammar [150]

-- Adding a prefix (eg prze-) to an imperfective verb such as czytać in the present tense gives it a future meaning. There are no separate future endings in this case.

-- The future can also be formed with będę, będzie, etc. in which case the imperfective infitive czytać or past participial form czytał/czytała (depending on the speaker's gender) is used. Będę/będzie may not be used with perfective verbs.

-- There is a difference in meaning between przeczytam: very definite and determined: I WILL read a given book,. article, etc., whilst będę czytał/czytała (dependign on the speaker's gender) is more vague and indefinite (I will be reading, I'm going to read) and suggests some unspecified time in the future.

Genealogy / Mikulski and Makarewicz surnames [3]

There are more than 4,000 people in Poland named Makarewicz. The name's ancestral strognhold is obviously the Podlasie region, notably the Białystok and Suwałki areas. The village of Krzywiec is located there (up till 1998 it was in Białystok voivodship).

Genealogy / searching for ancestors Wenerowicz [20]

33 of Poland's 35 Ziółtkowskis live in the northern Bydgoszcz and neighboring Baltic coastal Słupsk areas. Far more scattered are the main clusters of Poland's 30 Wenerowiczes: Warsaw (7), Konin (7), Gorzów (8) and Katowice (5).

Life / Polish clothing - Polish folk costumes [28]

What do you think -- would someone in a cowboy outfit in the NY subway evoke the same, greater or lesser sensation than a Góral or £owicz-clad bloke in the Warsaw metro?

Life / Polish clothing - Polish folk costumes [28]

Polish regional garb (folk attire) is worn nowadays mainly on ceremonial occasions or for tourist purposes. Religious processions and harvest-home events are among such occasions. Soemtimes you will find waitresses wearing stylised versions of folk attire or highlanders who pose for pictures or drive horse-drawn characters for the benefit of tourists.

Genealogy / Looking for Chrabaszewski Relatives in Poland [7]

The name's original form was probably Chrabąszczewski.

Genealogy / Looking for Chrabaszewski Relatives in Poland [7]

The Chrabaszewski surname exists in Poland but is about to become extinct.