"Choroszucha" - Jewish family name?

Ok, so my mother recently got this family tree thing from a relative of hers in Poland, and it only tracks back to the family name "Choroszucha" from around the mid 1800's. My mother and her parents + grandparents are all from the town of Zabłudów (Białystok County, Podlaskie Voivodeship). Now, from what I've seen around the net so far, i'm convinced that this last name is jewish, but my mom claims her family line is entirely Polish, ethnically.

Any professional historians out there reading this?? Please, do cure this overwhelming curiosity of mine.

PLEASE! dzzzziiięęęękkkkiiiiii :D

CHOROSZUCHA: root-word chorost (Ruthenian for brush wood, Polish chrust); probably the fem. form of Choroszuch (possibly the kindlewood-gatherer); most live in NE Poland's Podlasie region around Białystok where Polish and Ruthenian (Belarussian) cultures have long intermingled. The bearer of the name is another story - Poles, Jews, Germans and others can bear Polish, Russian, Ukranian, German, Czech, Lithuanian and even French, Dutch, Scandinavian, Itlalian and other surnames which does not necessarily reflect their ethnicity.

Variant forms: Choroszczuch, Chroszuk et al.

This is a surname typical for Poles springing from eastern Poland.
Poles living in eastern Poland often have got surnames ending in -szczuk.
I dont find it souding Jewish.

This last name doesn't sound Jewish to me at all. From what I googled in RUnet it seems like the last name occurs in Belorussia, Poland, Ukraine and in Southern parts of Russia. Origins are "beautiful", "handsome". In modern Russian "chorosziy" is "good".

Btw ask your mother if she had any relatives in Grodno and its area or if she knows some relatives with a name Wikenty spelling may be different).

Memory book of NKVD atrocities contains Wikenty Choroszhucha as one of the victims...

There's a psychiatrist in Białystok with that name.

By 'Jewish' do you mean Hebrew or Yiddish? The name is obviously Slavicc alhouhg it could have been used by Jews. Many Jews had names such as Kowalski, Zieliński, Białasiewicz, Nowak, Skowroński, you name it!

The name can be either Polish, Belarusian, or Jewish. I have picked several examples from one online source, to demonstrate it. The name of the publication in Polish is:

Zaginieni 1939-1945
W świetle akt sądu grodzkiego w Białymstoku
tom II - powiat białostocki
bialystok.ap.gov.pl/teksty/zaginieni_cz_II.pdf
(also check some other interesting printed books here: bialystok.ap.gov.pl/wydawnictwa.html )

Lost 1939-1945
according to the files of the Magistrates' Court in Białystok
volume 2 - Białystok District

After scanning this document for "Choroszucha" I found the following three records:
Case 1: Stanisław Choroszucha - son of Jan i Marianna (de domo Sobolewski), b. 19.IV.1907, in Kamionka, gmina Zabudów, from 1931 lived in the village of Dąbrówka, gmina Wasilków. [Actually I suspect that there is a typo here: the village of Kamionka is part of gmina Zabłudów, not Zabudów. I checked it on the Google maps.]

In 1939 he was appointed to the first company, first team, 42 PP [42 Infantry Regiment] in Bialystok. The regiment was initially sent to Ostrołęka, then withdrawn into the vicinity of Nowogród. There, the Polish positions - fortified with the trenches - have been outflanked by the German army. The regiment had to withdraw in the open field for about 1.5 km. According to the testimony of a witness, Stanisław Choroszucha was the first who sprang up from the trenches but he was shot by a series of machine gun fire and died with the words "Jesus Maria" on his lips. The event took place on 13 September 1939 in the vicinity of Nowogród. The name is also spelled alternatively as "Horoszucha" in the files of the Court.

Sign. Zg. 6/1946 [4/283].
So here you go: the same gmina (commune) Zabłudów, as your mother's family, dying with "Jesus Maria". Probably a Catholic if the witness is to be trusted.

Case 2: Wacław Choroszucha - son of Wincenty and Aleksandra (née Zdanowicz), a Pole, b. 30.X. 1910 in Kamionka, gm. Zabłudów, living in Białystok. He was arrested on 18.II.1944 by German authorities and jailed in Białystok, then taken to a camp in Germany (probably to KL Gross-Rosen in Lower Silesia). There is no further information about his fate. After due proceeding he was recognized as deceased and his date of death was adopted as 31.XII.1946.

Sygn. Zg. 450/1948 [4/3053].
Again: a Pole, and the same gmina Zabłudów

Case 3: Cyrla Turek née Choroszucha, daughter of Moszek and Fejga (née Rubinsztejn), b. 12.II.1915 in Tykocin, lived in Tykocin. On 24.VIII.1941 the German soldiers were segregating Jewish Tykocin population on the basis of verifiable documents. Youth were immediately marched into the woods and shot. Two days later the remaining groups were shot - among them Cyrla Turek.

Sign. ZG. 3/1947 [4/435].
She and both of her parents were Jews. Her parents' first names clearly say so Moszek and Fejga Choruszucha

Try googling "Choroszucha Białystok". Many, many results.

I am Jewish. On my mother's side, I am a Choroszucha a. My grandfather family is from Tikushin, a small town by Bialystock. There were many Jewish families, not even related to each other with that last name. I met in recent years a non Jewish person with the same last name from her father side. it is still possible we all started from a common ancestry or from a common place.

214 people in Poland, most in and around Białystok.

moikrewni.pl/mapa/kompletny/choroszucha.html

CHOROSZCZUCHA: derived from Ukrainina chorost (kindling, twigs, firerood) -- in Polish chrust; a choroszczuch would be used to describe a male gathering firewood in the forest (usually the poorest of the poor) and choroszczcha would be a female gathrerer or the choroszczuch's wife.

Your interpretation is not correct. The word that you meant is chVorost (хворост), it's of Russian origin and that's indeed firewood (in Ukrainian it's chmyz - хмиз).

The word Choroszczucha derives from Russian choroshiy (хороший) - good, although the word choroszchucha (хорошуха) literally means 'pretty (woman)'.

Makes sense. Can хорошуха also mean a kind, nice woman as well? Is the word widely known and used in Russian or dialectal and/or archaic? Also, could хорошуха be the equivalent of what the Jews call a siksa?

Rather a pretty, beautiful girl. Yes, the word is archaic. It may still be in use in some distant regions but in Moscow or SP.


It cannot. The word migrated to Russian language as 'chiksa' (чикса). It means just 'a gal' but as it's mostly a criminal slang (Jews made a good portion of criminals in the SU and spread their language among other prisoners which later turned into the only Soviet criminal language - феня) so it's not to be used in a polite society.

Many dzienks, spasibo & diakuju!
BTW, since I've got you on the line, what is the difference between spasibo and błagodariu?

Bud' laska!


Not much. The former is more of a day-to-day speech and the latter is more of a lofty language, somewhat old-fashioned but sounds nobly.

Am I correct in assuming that blagodariu is normally used with an obejct (eg blagodariu wam), whilst spasibo stands alone.
NB, ja oczeń liubliu russkij jazyk, no k sożaleniu u menia sposobnosti niet sliszkom czasto goworit'.
Jeszczo odin wopros: Wy russkij ili ukrainskij?

I am Jewish and a Choroszucha on my mother's side. She, like her parents and grandparents were from the area of Bialystock. It was a popular Jewish last name and likewise, there are many non Jewish people from that area with that last name, but we do not know the origin of the Jewish versus the non Jewish Polish people with that last name. May be all started from the same village regardless of religious, may be there were cross religious marriages. But this last name (even if "does not sound Jewish" to those who wrote like that) is very much a Jewish last name too and I am proud to be one of this "tribe". People do not necessarily "look Jewish" or carry last names that "sounds Jewish". We are all just "people", "good people".

@Polania
Hey, I know that I am kind of late to accomedate this conversation but my surname is also Choroszucha. I was even born in Białystok, where it seems to originate. Since then I've been living in Germany.

Over the last few days I found some free time and just started to search after my ancestors/relatives, as I think it's very interesting to get to know the history of your family. :)

Choroszczucha sounds better in Polish.