Help with Polish Surnames and Variants Klepacki and Blasczyk

I'm trying to find my paternal grandparent's ancestors and am running into difficulties due to the various ways in which these surnames can be spelled.

At this point, I'm trying to find variants of Klepacki and Blasczyk. When my father was alive, he had 'nicknames' for us kids, ending with his pronunciation "Klepadwa" or "Klapachai" Our family name now - is Klepacki. ("Klee-pack-e") The pronunciation we have for Blasczyk is ("Bois-chek").

My Grandmother, Stanislawa Blasczyk has one reference to her passage to New York in 1904 - as being from Gostkow. My Grandfather, Siegmund Klepacki lists his homeland only as Poland. No city. The only other thing I know about him is that he was a Cossack and that he was born in 1878.

What I'm trying to find out is : - the variances in spelling of both last surnames, is there a 'concentration' of either of these two names, common to any specific area and does any sort of listing exist as to registers of Cossacks in the mid to late 1800's, and what might the meanings of these two surnames be?

If anyone can help, you'll have our undying gratitude. Grandad died in 1938. Grandma in 1977 - the aunts/uncles are all long gone. My cousins have told me that when they were little the 'grownups' would always speak in Polish when talking about their parents and lives in Europe, so that they wouldn't be able to understand. Yes, there's probably some 'bad stuff' - but I still hate that so much of our heritage seems to be irrevocably lost.

Thanks again, Jen Dobry!

Nancy Klepacki aka Nannerlh60

btw - this is a really intersting site - I'm enjoying it immensely.

The first one looks ok, the 2nd must have had the spelling modified. Orginally it probably was Błaszczyk.

Błaszczyk => with l-slash (ł glyph) - pronounced in Polish as English "w", and two digraphs: "sz" (roughly sounding as English "sh") and "cz" (English "ch"). Your American spelling replaces "ł" by regular "l" and skips the character "z" in the digraph "sz". To check the pronunciation of this name you can use one of the two programs:

A. translate.google.com or
B. ivona.com.

When using A select Polish=>English translation, type Błaszczyk in the left field. You should see "Blaszczyk" in the right field. Press the speaker icons in each field and you will hear the difference between Polish and American pronunciations. They sound quite close, because the program A sneakily copies the rules of the Polish sounds into its "right field". Compare it with result of "ivona.com" (program B) and you will hear significant differences.

There is an unpleasant bug in the text-to-speech feature of the program A: it sometimes skips the sound "B" in the Polish (left field) version of "Błaszczyk".

Klepacki => this spelling is correct, the pronunciations in the program A are quite similar to each other, but the program B produces different sounds (American pron. is similar to what you have described in your post)

Siegmund => this is a German version of Latin "Sigismund" or Polish "Zygmunt". He could have been given any of the three versions, depending where he was born and what religion he was born into. Try the sounds of "Zygmunt" using both programs.

Stanisława => with l-slash (ł glyph). Program A incorrectly assumes that it is a male name "Stanisław" and translates it as "Stanislaus". Try it for sounds.

Gostków => with o-acute - pronounced in Polish the same as "u", in English as in "boot". Try the programs A and B for the sounds.

There are two villages of this name in Poland. In addition there is also "Stary Gostków" (Old G.) and "Nowy Gostków" (New G.). See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gostków

The surname "Błaszczyk" corresponds quite well with the place name "Gostków". See for example the map of Poland with geographical distribution of the name "Błaszczyk", moikrewni.pl/mapa/kompletny/b%25C5%2582aszczyk.html. The page is in Polish, but the text under the map says:

+ In Poland there are 26 045 people named Błaszczyk.
+ They live in 358 different counties and cities. Most of them, exactly 1749, are registered in £ódź .
+ Other counties / cities with particularly high numbers of people of this surname are Zgierz (832), Warszawa(789), Ostrów Wielkopolski (538), city of Wroclaw (484), Częstochowa (478), Jarocin (382), city of Poznań (368), £ęczyca (333) and Bełchatów (330).

Typically Polish surname with '-czuk', '-czak', '-o' are of Ukrainian origin and as such are regionally specific to certain areas of Poland. This is not to say that someone with such a name could not be from another area of Poland, only that they tend to be more confined to those regions. For example, Kaszub family names tend to be found near the border with Germany, same with typically Silesian last names. Ukrainian-style names will more typically be found near the Przemyśł region, perhaps less common in Gdańsk or neighboring areas, etc..

To the OP, I want to also point out that many ethnic Poles were moved from the now Belarus & Ukrainian areas to other areas of Poland when the border shifts were done. So, you might find current family elsewhere but if you are looking for your family's town of origin, that can make things a bit more difficult.

Did your grandparents come over together? If not, when did your grandfather come over? I don't know much about Cossack geneology and how that would work but that might help someone else.

No, theirs was an arranged marriage. He came over in 1906 and I believe she came over in 1904. At that time, they were both living in Jersey City, NJ. Siegmund apparently had a brother named "Charles" - he signed documents as next of kin. Other than that, I don't know anything else. I'm trying to find both her and his parents/siblings. When she came over, she was accompanied by Bronislawa Blasczyzk - but aside from the ship manifest, there is no other mention of her that I can find.

THANKS TO ALL OF YOU - YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW MUCH THIS INFORMATION MEANS TO ME.

ellisisland.org/shipping/FormatTripPass.asp?sship=Normannia&BN=P00283-4&lineshipid=624&shipid=

I found a 4 y o on the Ellis Island records with your Grandmother's name. But the information is all different. However, if that's her, there are 3 others with her family name who you might be interested in.

Thanks so much for that - my Stanislawa was 16 when she arrived, though. I truly appreciate the info, though.

ellisisland.org/search/matchMore.asp?LNM=BLASZCZYK&PLNM=BLASZCZYK&firs t_kind=1&last_kind=0&RF=92&kind=exact&offset=50&dwpdone=1

there's also Stanisalwa Blaszczyk (misspelled Stanisława Błaszczyk) from Wlodawek (probably misspelled Włocławek or Włodawa). You may want to check this up ;)

Thanks again -

I've been to the Ellis Island archives, GenForum, Ancestry.Com, RootsWeb and the LDS Church in the US sites.
What's driving me insane is that I think I may have found a possible brother for my grandfather, and all of the children in 'his' family - bear - for the most part, the same family names as my iine, during the same time period. I now have a headache. LOL!

Genealogy isn't a quick hobby, that's for sure. lol I wish you luck. Because there is no privacy in the US and you are searching in the US, I know if you keep looking, you will find them. It's impossible not to find someone in the US.

Here's a question: Do you know what church they attended in NJ? Try contacting them? Try searching NJ Polonia Newspaper archives? polishroots.org/ Try this site, it gives links to quite a few places to search in the US for someone who's Polish. Also, did you create a public family tree yet? That way, if someone else is searching, they'll see it and contact you.

Hi: I was looking for "Klepacki" as my grandfather Peter [Petro] immigrated to Canada in 1910 with his wife Julia [Juskevich --unsure of correct spelling]. He was a twin [twin was Frank] part of the 2nd marriage of his father whose name I don't know. Total children 15-18. Other younger brothers and sisters were Marion [m/f?], Michael , Lorraine who lived in Livonia, NY. Apparently some of his stepsisters were twins. I think Frank went to the U.S. And yes, from what I know at least one brother was a Cossack. Peter/Frank were born March 17, 1878 [I think that's the correct year]. Peter died March 17, 1941.

SOmewhere on the web I discovered that Klepacki is the "habitational name for someone from Klepacze in Bialystok voivodeship and is the occupational name form a smith, from kepacz "smith", a variant of klepac 'to hammer'. place of origin=Bohemia.

I would love to hear more to see if we are indeed somehow connected.

My grandfather was Charles Klepacky. I don't know a lot about him, but he died in 1968 and lived in Bridgeport, CT. He had many brothers and sisters, and they spelled their name Klepacki. Steven and Rose we're 2 siblings, I think. I will ask my mom.

Hi I have been searching for my maternal Grandfather but we think we have the surname wrong, the name we have is Dominic/Dominik Kutnik but someone once told my mum his surname was pronounced more like Courtney any ideas out there? Unitl we get his name right we can't trace him. He was a solider in Blairgowrie in 1940. Many thanks in advance

I am Dolores Jawidzik, wife of John Jawidzik whose mother was Emma Klepacki, daughter of Kazmir Klepacki. I accidently came upon this site and have no knowledge of how to use it properly. Hopefully I will be able to contact you. Over the past years I have been attempting to create a family tree for my husband's family but kind of got lost in the process. However, I do have knowledge of the entire Klepacki family and would be more than happy to share with you all that I have. Although the Cazmir Kepacki family was very close and shared Sunday meals my husband as well as the other family members never new that Cazmir had any siblings. During my research I found each of the siblings you mentioned. Ironically they all lived in the same town - Jersey City. I do believe your grandfather moved to Pennsyvania - I will check that - I also think they had seven or eight children. I will set myself to make copies of all the information and try to prepare for you the information that I have. You can contact me at deej625@hotmail.com or my husbank John at retiredteamster194@outlook.com. I will be anxious to hear from you......Dolores Jawidzik