Family name Morwitch (Anglicised)

G'day from sunny Australia. I have been trying to ascertain my family's former name for several years, and I'm hoping somebody here can assist me.

4 brothers left Kracow between 1839 and 1849 - Samuel, Abraham, Henry and Lyons (in order of birth). I am certain of the Kracow origins of only one sibling - Samuel. It was written on his gravestone in Sydney Australia by his younger brother Henry. Their family name in England became Morwitch. The brothers all migrated to Australia in 1854, still using the name Morwitch.

I know this is a long shot, but can anybody guide me to any resources that may help me identify the family name when they were in Kracow ?

I would greatly appreciate any help you can offer.
Best regards,
Scott

Start with this spelling Morwa, Morwic, Morwicz or Morwitz – root word morwa (mulberry).

Cpt. Moonlight


Oh, look, I just found something for you - plus about two pages of responses from useful suckers..


familytreeforum.com/showthread.php/78813-Family-MORWITCH

MORWITZ: No-one using the Morwicz surname in Poland at present, one person in Kraków signs himself Morwitz. Origin uncertain. Possibły a patronymic for the son of someone nicknamed Morwa (mulberry). Or the son of someone named Moryc or Mor for short. Could be Yiddish.

ShortHairThug and Polonius3 - Thank you very much for the information.
Boletus, that was me a while ago. I had no success running down the leads kindly given to me in that forum.
I may have to resort to searching passenger lists by first names, and hope that I find them together on a ship or some other stroke of luck.

Really appreciate the guidance from you all - thank you.
Scott

I knew it, I was a bit sardonic in my last post.

I think it is only fair to disclose all information you have before asking people to get involved in any investigative work on your behalf. You did not do it. You kept it secret - either by design or by ignorance - even though the other forum provided you with quite a lot of useful findings. But not disclosing those facts you demonstrated an attitude that I consider antisocial. People are willing to help, but their time does not come for free, so you should take care of informing them about all alleys already explored - before they start wasting their time on those.

Having said that, I am still willing to give you a little help. The task of reverse engineering of the origin of Morwitch name is quite daunting for several reasons. Others have already given you some examples of possible names of Jews living in Kraków, Krakau - a part of Austro-Hungarian Empire at those times. The original root of Jewish surnames - quite a late invention, forced by administrative authorities - could come from many sources (check it in wikipedia), such as geographical names, professions or standard Jewish first names. I am by no means an expert in these matters but my hunch is that your family name could originate from one of many forms of MAER-, MAIR-, MAJR-, MEIR-, MEIR-, MAR- etc. Spellings are different but they all mean the same. The surname could be formed by adding any form of ending of the type "son of": -ICZ, -ITCH, -ITZ, -ETZ. Hence MAJROWICZ, MAREWICZ, MEIROWICZ, MEIROWITZ for example. But this is just a huge guess here.

I have no time to do other investigative work for you, but you obviously have such time and a motivation. So I suggest the following. Go to the "Consolidate Jewish surname index", avotaynu.com/csi/csi-home.htm type one of possible candidates for the original name, such as MORWITZ and then wait for the response. You will be given pages and pages of candidates, such as those I have shown above, with soundex code and database name. You have to learn what those database names actually mean. I guess "P" could stand for Poland, but I never read any "help" for that search engine, so this is only my guess.

Having collected all that information, you would need to start an elimination process, to narrow down possible candidates, reject names from Italy, etc.

At the bottom of the web page shown above there are dozens of links you may find more useful or specific in your search. For example, there is a link to "Jewish record indexing - Poland".

Good luck.

Aaah Boletus, your sardonicism was not missed I assure you :-)
If I was to list all the information that has not lead to a positive result, I might publish a book. Incidentally all of which was given freely in the spirit of assistance, as I have assisted others looking for things in my fields of knowledge.....

I believe you may have mistaken me - I did not ask for somebody to do the work for me. I asked if anybody could point me to a resource where I could do the work for myself - as I have done with other leads I was kindly given.

Thank you very much for the tips on name structure in you last post. They will help in my search, I am sure.
Scott

This might be a bit late but I have located Sophia's maiden name - the marriage was in Otago NZ 1864

Otago Daily Times , Issue 718, 6 April 1864,
MARRIED, At the residence of H. E. Nathan, Esq., North East Valley, on 23rd March, by the Kevd. D. Isaacs, Henry Morwitch, of Tokomairiro, late of Ballarat, Victoria, to Sophia, fourth daughter of the late Lewis Lazarus, Esq., London, England.

On 12 Oct 1863, Henry MORWITCH dissolved his watch and jewelry partnership with C JACOBS - known as "MORWITCH & JACOBS" in Dunedin

On 7 Apr 1864, Henry MORWITCH announced his new hotel ' The Great Britain Hotel' was completed and open for business. He intended t kepp the very best liquors. He was still advertising for a competant watchmaker in 1864 as well - 'H. MORWITCH & Co". Henry was granted a hawkers Licence in 1863 in NZ as well

in 22 May 1860, The Victorian Police Gazette had a notice that Lyon (Lyons) MORWITCH forged and uttered a cheque to John McLEAN in Fulham, London in October 1859..a description : aged 30, 5 foot 6" tall, sallow complexion, medium build, dark curly hair, dark whiskers, no moustache, a Polish jew travels as a hawker

So from that we can assume Lyons arrived in Australia after Oct 1859

Some details for Sophia LAZARUS who married Henry MORWITCH 1864 in New Zealand :

1841
Household Members:
Name Age
Lewis Lazarus 40 Clothier
Ellen Lazarus 25
Elizabeth Lazarus 13
Joseph Lazarus 5
Rebecca Lazarus 4
Jacob Lazarus 2
Sophia Lazarus 5 Mo
address 107 Houndsditch Rd st Botolph Aldersgate London Middlesex

the family may have gone to New York in 1851

1861
Household Members:
Name Age
Lewis Lazarus 61 a Clothier, born st Martin in the Fields
Alsey Lazarus 48 b Poplar, London
Jacob Lazarus 22 b Aldgate, London
Abraham Lazarus 17 "
Isaac Lazarus 15 "
Henry Lazarus 13 "
Rebecca Lazarus 23 "
Sophia Lazarus 20 "
Sarah Thompson 19 " Servant

Lewis LAZARUS died late 12 Feb 1863 in London -: he left a Will - formerly of St Botolph, but late of 165 City Rd- probate to his widow, Alsey LAZARUS - it was re-sworn Nov 1864 - effects under 2000 quid

Alsey LAZARUS died 30 Nov 1863, late of 165 City Rd and probate was granted to her spinster daughter, Rebecca - effects under 100 quid

Cheers
Jocelyn

My extended family tree has turned up Lyons Morwitch, daughter Nelly. This family belongs to my son in law and Lyons appears to be his gr grandfather. Info I have is that he was born in Krakow Poland around 1840. Was a jewelry hawker near Ballarat for some time. Wife's name Walsh.