Polish Gypsy Roots & Roma ancestors in their families

My grandmother comes from Grajewo and was godmother to many gypsy children... or so the family tales say. I'd be interested in knowing if there were gypsies in that area.

I was told that the last name Gil is common among Bergitka clan romani. If anyone has any information about the correlation between the two, please chime in. I found some info online but not much.

It mystifies me how so many people on here can spout what they probably think is wisdom about the Romanies, etc., when so many seem to know little or nothing about them from first-hand experience.

Gypsies commit crime (even violent crime)? Newsflash: so do other people.

Gypsies should assimilate? Newsflash: Gypsy ways of life are nothing if not old--predating the historical developments and the legislation that have made them more and more difficult. (It's not so much that the Gypsies won't change. It's that the world insists on changing around them.)

Gypsies Egyptians? Well, in Europe they often think so themselves, but there were words similar to 'tsigane' being applied to Gypsies in Asia Minor (Turkey, etc.) when the Gypsies were on their way into SE Europe. Pi-Rameses as the city of the Gypsies or the Romanies? Please! Pi-Rameses and the city of Pi-Rameses date to about 3,000 years ago--2,000 years before the emergence of the Copts, to whose name the names of Egypt and the Gypsies are related, and long, long before anyone was talking about Gypsies or Romanies. The name Rameses is Semitic, not Indo-European like 'Rom', 'Gypsy', etc. Anyway this sort of dilettante philology went out with the 19th century.

Why do people insist on seeing the Internet as an excuse to talk complete rubbish?

wooman

I heard that Gypsies never wash themselves, is that true?

:))

>^..^<

M-G (is not bothered by Gypsies as long as they don't bother to bother him)

all gypsies come from egipt(not india) in india they vbeen for about 200 years,and then they went to europe in 1600.
They was "made" by god for spreading the good newses,join people,showing other people how to love children and families,they all are good harted.

Yeah but ofcourse a part of them beheave badly(stilling or liying)
I am a polish gypsy and i notice that - poland,russia,germany and england is taking care of theyr gypsies. The most rest of europe countries treating bad them (romania,czech.rep,france,balkans).

my country in even hart time(comunist times)was treating uss very well so ... i am filling and doing very well,that is just like step kids,if u grown them up loving them they will be good in the future .. ,if you will kick them asses every day they will be like romanian gypsies..

yes they was gypsies in grajewo .. my darling

Oh please!

In german town centres we know Gypsies as using and ABUSING their little ones for stealing and begging. Mothers sitting with babies in especially windy corners to gather sympathies, meaning for them more money...

Sorry, I can't detect any love for their children at all!

Frd will hopefully tell us about the area behind the bus station in Zabrze, near the ZUS offices. Wow, I'd never seen as many gippos in one place. If you wanna fight, they'd likely be fair game.

Hmm there are actually worse places in Zabrze, although we don't have any shabby shanty towns around in Silesia - there are just those worse districts, in Zabrze particularly behind the prison.

How is Zaborze? Not infested with gippos? Do you have an area called Zander?

I only know people from these huge areas filled with blocks of flats, and from what I know the place would be rather dangerous for gypsies... few foreigners got beaten up there, lot's of "dresiarze" and so on... they tend to dwell in old delapidating tenements..

And I can't recall any area that is called "Zander" : o

A few foreigners got beaten up there is better. Few is mało and a few is kilka. Aha, they are not like the gippos in Ireland tho.

Hey folks, not everyone with olive skin and dark hair is gyspy/cygan/tigan. Keep in mind (Polish) slavs are originally from the steps of Asia not to mention Tatars (from Mongolia) who are settled and integrated into all parts of Eastern Europe including Poland, Ukraine, and Russia (thanks to Attila the Hun and the policy of killing all the men & boys and having first right to the women). I met a girl once and I asked her where she was from expecting her to say Southeast Asia but instead she said she was from the mountains in Poland. I said, "So your parents immigrated?" still thinking she was Southeast Asian by her features and she said, "No, my whole family is Polish." I love gypsy music and roma culture fascinates me but don't make such broad generalizations. Just because someone has dark features doesn't automatically equall gypsy...there are a myriad of ancestral possibilities...lots of wars...lots of rapping and pillaging in eastern europe.

and not every gypsy looks like gypsy.

So true. I was speaking with a friend the other day who had just picked up and started reading James Michener's novel "Poland." He said he had to put it down after a few chapters because each one described another era, another invasion, another round of raping, pillaging and murdering his Polish ancestors. It was just too depressing for him. It really make you think, though. I'm a 2nd-generation American who is of Carpatho-Rusyn, German and French-Canadian ancestry. But peak behind the curtains and who knows what kind of blood truly flows through my veins? Mongol? Nordic? African? Peel away a few layers of skin and we're all exactly the same underneath. We are all brothers and sisters. I hope we someday learn to act like it.

My last name is Wajda, which means "leader of gypsies". Does this mean I am gypsy?

RAKKY

Good post. Genetics show that there is so little differenes between people of all the "races" that it almost makes the term race obsolete. What looks like differences on the surface, skin color, curly or straight hair, are miniscule. We share most of our DNA and are one family.

Hi all . Im a Romany traveller in england. Its interesting how many people write things about us who have no idea . Romany are all over europe have been in england for 500 years .we are clean respectful people AND we have never started a war .600.000 killed germans. Doesnt get mentioned much does it . It was once an offence punishable by death just to be a 'gypsy'

Respectful? You call approaching people with a baby in one arm and the other hand out for money respectful? How about marrying off your daughters when they are under age? There isnt much nice to say about your culture of your people. Beggers and thieves who contribute nothing and take what they can, ruin the countryside and cause misery!

Now can you travel somewhere else? If after 500 years you still havent integrated, its about time you moved on.

Do you want me to post links about what your kind have done in the UK? Because the visions of lovey painted caravans is long gone.

In 1510, any Romani found in Switzerland were ordered to be put to death, with similar rules established in England in 1554, and Denmark in 1589, whereas Portugal began deportations of Romanies to its colonies in 1538.[

You see we still have the same opinion now as we did 500 years ago :D

their oldest settled place in the world in istanbul "sulukule" was just destroyed a year ago or two and there were big fights.

Romas/Romans/Gypsies/Cingenes are one of best music-dance tv shows here.

youtubetc.com/musicvideo.php?vid=775351e7d ( watch and have fun;)

For more roman dances, search "roman havasi" or "roman havalari". Their girls are natural dancers in born.

You proved my point .the worlds biggest thieves arnt roma and there are plenty of other beggers around . Of all the people brutelly murdered ousted from there land familys torn apart .dont think it was us do you. Get the bigger picture .

Aren't they? I am a proof the Cyganie (the roma people) are the biggest thieves in the world. You don't deserve to be called as a nation by a capital letter.

My story in Poland: i was a child about 9 years old and one day i have answered ( I should not while my parents were away - in this case, they were away for about one hour only) the door to a heavily pregnant young roma girl (in Poland born and rised) and her ugly looking roma grandma or mother - these two roman (both Polish raised and probably the old one born in Poland as well!!!) have robbed me- a child and my parents house while i was offering them some food -a piece of ham about 1kilo. They still robbed our family of everything, including cloths, food -I really mean everything, everything what was available at the moment in the house.

It was about 2 weeks to the Christmas and most of the things or food were bought for the incoming season.
The romans were known for robbing usually a home while the parents were absent (they spied on the houses) or a poor houses with people who were always open to help others in need.

That's why everyone, even today, hates Cyganie-the roma people in Poland and from what I know, in every neighbouring to Poland other countries.
You - the roma people should be ashmed of your crimes in Poland!

Jan 1, 10, 17:15 - Thread attached on merging:
Gypsy Heritage from Poland

I believe that my ancestors were Polish Gypsy, immigrating to the U.S. through Austria-Hungary in the 1880s. Like most immigrating Eastern Europeans, they went to industrial pockets in the U.S. and worked industrial labor jobs. My ancestors worked in the coal mines south of Pittsburgh, Pa. and I believe that there were a lot of Polish Gypsies who settled in that area. Does anyone else share this heritage? Does the name Kallop sound Polish, or is it a Hungarian name? Thank you ---

My family came from Poland, our family name was 'Polkest' but I have never found another one with this name, has anyone here ever come across it?

I am afraid i don,t know very much about the Gypsy culture , but i have started to take an interest due to the fact my Russian lady is half Gypsy... I have yet to find out her full story , but she did tell me that her fathers family cut off contact with him because he married outside the Gypsy culture... Are the Polish and Russian Gypsy populations likely to originate from the same area...?

Gypsies came from india.

Lol I'd love to see Wildrover's wife. She must be smoking. SOme gypsy girls do look fine!

Dont hurry by saying 'We'. Its you and your kind of people who have this opinion about fellow human beings. Remorseless... without any compassion...thinking that the world only has you.

Ring Ring... the world of the free is awaken. And the world will soon be so integrated...SO INTEGRATED.... that those who are left behind will be the lonely people who will be the subject of shame to the future generation! Because the future generation will know how much you guyz wanted to stop them to be there!...The United Human Race!

And half black?

no...not that i have noticed... and Brutalbutcher..there is a picture of her on the forum somewhere...In my Russian woman in Poland thread...

Not many, in earlier Polish republics Gypsies due to their lifestyle were somewhat pariahs and even today both groups are alien to each other, i'd say having Roma roots is exceptionally rare in Poland.

Also, it is a part of their culture to not intermarry with the "gajo".