Wyrombecki: someone can help with a difficult Polish name?

I've been searching for years and have come up with nothing. My grandparents, 1 aunt and 1 uncle came to America from Poland as well as my grandmothers brother and sister. My Grandfather was Victor Wyrombecki born about 1880 and I was told he came from Warsaw.

My grandmother was Rose Topa born Jan 6 1881 in Poland, she had a brother Frank and a sister Anna born 31 May 1885 all from Poland and I believe from Warsaw. They came to America between 1900-1915. I had an uncle Charles Wyrombecki and aunt Mary born in Poland. Mary Wyrombecki was born between 1909-1911 depending upon which document is believed.

When they arrived to America the name was changed to Verombeck. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

what records do you have so far?

Leon P Wyrombecki Mar 1922 Private

I found a WWII document on a leon..

I am sure I could find the ship record, unless you have already found that..

Most of the record finding is foot work, your limited online, unless you know of databases that
are from the areas that your family was from.

1900 census

Andrew Wyrombelski Mary Posen, Presque Isle, Michigan Nov 1843 Poland Ger White Head
View Record
Mary Wyrombelski Andrew Posen, Presque Isle, Michigan Jan 1862 Poland Ger White Wife
View Record
Frank Wyrombelski Andrew,
Mary Posen, Presque Isle, Michigan Dec 1879 Michigan White Son
View Record
Anthony Wyrombelski Andrew,
Mary Posen, Presque Isle, Michigan Apr 1882 Michigan White Son
View Record
Katie Wyrombelski Andrew,
Mary Posen, Presque Isle, Michigan Nov 1884 Michigan White Daughter
View Record
Proxida Wyrombelski Andrew,
Mary Posen, Presque Isle, Michigan Jun 1885 Michigan White Daughter
View Record
Victoria Wyrombelski Andrew,
Mary Posen, Presque Isle, Michigan Oct 1887 Michigan White Daughter
View Record
Alexander Wyrombelski Andrew,
Mary Posen, Presque Isle, Michigan Dec 1890 Michigan White Son
View Record
Stanaslana Wyrombelski Andrew,
Mary Posen, Presque Isle, Michigan Apr 1891 Michigan White Daughter
View Record
Mary Wyrombelski Andrew,
Mary Posen, Presque Isle, Michigan Jun 1893 Michigan White Daughter

New york passenger lists...if you have ancestry just type in Wyrom* and hit exact
and it will bring up all these options.. :)))

Jan Wyrombek 17 Nov 1909 abt 1871 Bremen Polish Main
View Record
Mariana Wyrombek 25 Feb 1913 abt 1894 Bremen Polish Prinz Friedrich Wilhelm
View Record
Franciszek Wyromber 15 Apr 1889 abt 1843 Liverpool, England and Queenstown, Ireland Russian Servia
View Record
Dornary Wyrombkewicz 29 Apr 1913 abt 1893 Rotterdam Nieuw Amsterdam
View Record
Sidor Wyromejczik 8 Jan 1913 abt 1895 Hamburg Russian

hope all this helps some, I can go fetch emm if you dont have the ancestry, just tell me
which ones you want. :)

and send me a email I will send emm back. :) best of luck and happy hunting ;)

WYROMBECKI or WYRĄBECKI: could have originated as a patronymic nick to identify the woodcutter's boy (son of Wyrębek) or as a toponmyic tag for someone hailing from the village of Wyrąb, Wyręba, Wyrębów or similar.

All I have for any records is my grandfathers Death certificate and my Grandmothers obituary. I do know the that Frank Topa settled in Broome county New York. I had no knowledge of Private leon Wyrombecki, I am wondering if he could possibly be related as this seems like a rare surname.

The problem I see is the different spellings of what appears to be the same surname in some databases. While researching members on my mothers side of the family I have seen given names and surnames misspelled as well as dates being wrong.

The other issue regarding passenger lists is many Polish people listed Russia as their homeland, and some even had Germany or Austria. I believe in many cases this may have been where the ship departed, though Poland was under Russian rule for many years.

Topa name sounds bit strange there is Polish name Tołpa and it's you say it exact same as Topa in English. I had a coleague with Tołpa name.

Why "even"? Poland was divided between Russia, Prussia (Germany) and Austro-Hungarian Empire (Austria) for 123 years.


It has nothing to do with point of departure but everything to do with what nation's passport they held.

TOPA: porbably from topić (to drown), so the drowner; or possibly a topo nick from places such as Topilec, Topiło or similar.

TO£PA: from Russian word "толпа" (cake of salt).

The Ellis Island website has passenger manifests for 2 persons that may be of interest to you.

1st you want to search for Anna Topa. Choose the 1 who arrived in 1914 from Wach. Her destination was 168 River St. Haverhill Mass. Her brother-in-law Wiktor Wyze???bek was listed as living there.

For the 2nd, use this spelling of the name: Wiktor Wizrembek

Wiktor arrived in 1910 from Wachy, and his destination was 211 River St, Haverhill, Mass His brother-in-law Jozef ?????? was listed as living there.

Be sure to view both manifest pages for each of the persons above. On Wiktors other manifest page, he listed his nearest relative in country of origin as his wife Rosalya Wizrembek, in Wachy, Lomza

Haverhill Mass is where they immigrated too!! I think you found them and perhaps the REAL spelling of the name!!! Any other information would be priceless, I cannot thank you enough.

thats a given problem with old records and documents, I have found numerous decrepancies in
pretty much all my records found for my family..

not uncommon.


are you referring to the topa above? or the other records?

Here's another manifest to look at:

Jan Wyrembek- 1909, he was going to his brother Franciszek's residence in Haverhill, Mass.

I typed in this spelling of the surname at Google, and it showed 26,000 hits, maybe it's closer to the original spelling.

well the plot thickens, I found a Rozalia Wizembek ( Wizrembek without the R ) on the Prinz Friedrich Wilhelm June 22 1914 line number 2. The odd thing is it looks like she is going to Milwaukee and she is single. I wonder if she's my grandfathers sister, I also found the Anna Topa mentioned line number 11, here's another twist line number 10 Rozalia Mzus appears to also be going to the same address as Anna Topa, Haverhill Mass. I just have a real hard time reading the cursive writing.

My Grandmother's name was Razalia and they all are from Wach ( Topa, Wizembek, and Mzus) though it is mispelled on Wizembek's as Wark. I cannot make out the name written I can make out Wiktor Wyr and then at the end a K. I wish they hadn't written in cursive and it appears to be with a fountain pen which causes smudging and hard to define lines. My grandfather's manifest says Wachy but it is Wach also. It just seems too much of a coincidence that Topa ( my grandmother's maiden name), Wizembek missing the (R) and Wizrembek as well as Mzus all come from the same town Wach.

Mzus I believe has to be a misspelling, also they are all 18 and single which makes me wonder how accurate the data really is. The only baffling thing is I have seen on census reports that 1 aunt and 1 uncle were born in Poland and they came here also as children. I would assume they came with my grandmother after my Grandfather did in 1910. I can find zero record of them coming here. I have started going ship by ship but I am astounded at how many ships left Breman, Hamburg and Cuxhaven which is where I believe they would have departed, Breman being my first pick because all the others I have found left from Breman.

Various forms of the same family name should surprise no-one. Such discrepancies often resulted from either an Old World misspelling or a New World respelling. One should bear in mind that centuries ago, most people were illiterate, and even many of the priests and village scribes who knew how to read and write were semi-literate at best. Often they mainly knew their local dialect and wrote things down that way. Moreover, generations of manual recopying could also lead to discrepancies. For instance, a not fully rounded letter “o” might be taken for a “u”, and an “o” with too long a right-extending “tail” could be misatken for an “a”. Americans often mistake the handwritten barred "ł" for a "t". Also the American-stye lower-case handwritten "r" may resemble the lower-case handwritten "z" to some. Poles (except for the Russified ones) generally did not write the small "z" to resemble the numeral "3".

From the late 18th century up till 1918, Poland was under foreign rule and non-Polish office clerks and officials could easily have misspelled or distorted individual surnames. In America, on the other hand, Polish names were often deliberately respelled to facilitate pronunciation. Since the letters “j”, “w”, “ch”, “cz”, “sz” and others were pronounced differently in Polish and English adn the nasal vowels "ę" and "ą" do nto exist in the English alphabet, names such as Jabłoński, Nowak, Chomiński, Czajka and Szymański were respelled as Yablonski, Novak, Hominski, Chayka, and Shymanski. Those with the nasal vowels were sometimes changed from Bąkowski and Dębkowski to Bonkoski and Dembkoski. Incidentally, dropping the “w” from the “-kowski” ending got rid of the “cow”!

To determine whether the change took place in Poland or America, if available, check your immigrant ancestor’s original Old World documents (birth/baptismal or marriage certificates, passport, steamship-ticket stubs, ship’s manifest, etc.) to determine how the name was spelled before he set foot in America. US-generated documents such as job and school records, naturalization papers, death certificates, obituaries, etc. are not good for that purpose, because they show the post-arrival state of the name which may have been modified in America. If unavailable, perhaps the signatures, addresses or return addresses on surviving letters from the Old Country, which many immigrants saved, may be able to provide a clue. Having contacts with relatives in Poland is another way of clearing up the spelling.

I finally found my Grandmother's ship's manifest. She came here from Wach Russia VIA port of departure Liverpool England, port of arrival Boston Mass 12 July 1912. The spelling of the family name is Wyrembek. Her manifest has it Rosalia Wyrembck, but I found other family members from Wach and the only one who could read spelled it Wyrembek. The manifest says visiting Victor Wyrembck, which would be my grandfather her husband who's manifest says Wiktor Wizrembek.

Their two children born in Poland were also on the manifest as well as her father's name Frank Topa. One relative Jan has his name spelled Wirambek arrival 29 dec 1905 Haverhill Mass. from Wacha ( aka wach) Russia visitng Frank Wirambek. Then there's another Jan Wyrembek ( the one that could read ) arrived 17 Nov 1909 Haverhill Mass. and he is also visiting his brother Franciszek ( Frank ).

My nest task to find find any birth or marriage records in Wach Poland/Russia.

my great grand mother name
victoria topa

my grand mother
mary topa
born between 1912-1915

new york