The BEST Guide to POLAND
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Posts by Nickidewbear  

Joined: 17 Sep 2009 / Female ♀
Last Post: 10 Sep 2023
Threads: Total: 23 / Live: 2 / Archived: 21
Posts: Total: 609 / Live: 282 / Archived: 327
From: United States, Baltimore
Speaks Polish?: I do not speak Polish; but I understand some basics about Polish pronounciation and transliteration.
Interests: Genealogy (My dad's paternal granddad was a Jewish-Polish Russian who immigrated to Pennsylvania.), history, and other interests

Displayed posts: 284 / page 6 of 10
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Nickidewbear   
31 Jan 2014
Genealogy / Was my moms family (Kowalsky) Russian or Polish? [35]

I'm not sure about that one. I know that it is definitely Jewish, though. By the way, you mentioned "Friedman" and "Manischewitz"? Are you related to Geraldo Rivera's mom or Milton Friedman (both with roots in Dołginow) or the famous Manischewitzes?
Nickidewbear   
31 Jan 2014
Genealogy / Was my moms family (Kowalsky) Russian or Polish? [35]

No. "C" in Polish is "ts" or "tz". So, if your name was "Kac" or "Szomermicwot", let's say, then you might have a case. "Kac" is "Kohen Cedek" and "Szomermicwot" is "shomer mitzvot" ("keeper of mitzvot").
Nickidewbear   
31 Jan 2014
Genealogy / Do I look Polish? (my picture) [375]

Are you trying to say that she would get stared in Poland for looking foreign? Please...

By the really observant and Non-Polish ethnics, yes.
Nickidewbear   
30 Jan 2014
Genealogy / Do I look Polish? (my picture) [375]

It depends. If someone as observant as I can be notices a dark-skinned "White" who doesn't look Polish, then he or she may not be able to pass. Even I couldn't have fooled my former friend who noticed that I'm Jewish had I wanted to do so, e.g..
Nickidewbear   
30 Jan 2014
Genealogy / Was my moms family (Kowalsky) Russian or Polish? [35]

They're still ethnically Jewish. Also, "Kowal" and "Manischewitz" are Polish Jewish in contrast to "Koval" and "Manischevitz", which are Russian Jewish.
Nickidewbear   
30 Jan 2014
Genealogy / Do I look Polish? (my picture) [375]

It is important, though, because certain ethnicities ("races") do have certain looks. Something didn't look White or Polish-Lithuanian about my granddad. That's because he was a Poylisher Litvak and Ungarish Yid. Also, one of my former friends told me that I look Jewish, which I didn't figure at all until I found out that I'm a Levit descended from even kohanim.
Nickidewbear   
30 Jan 2014
Genealogy / Do I look Polish? (my picture) [375]

Ah. Well, if any of them have the last names or variants of the surnames Czernecki, Andrulewicz, Uszinsky, Foczko, and Morgiewicz, and possibly Daniłowicz (since Daniłowicz is definitely common), know that:

- Andrulewicz" is exclusively Ashkenazi Jewish (It's a variant of a name that was made up at Stakliskes, Lithuania.). In fact, here's a picture of cousin of mine, Susan Lorraine Kopanski Duane (whose mother was an Androlewicz. May she rest in peace.) from St. Louis, Missouri.

- image2.findagrave.com/photos/2014/22/81435289_139049 3503.jpg
- [So is "Foczko" and "Focko" (It was made up in Warszawa, Radom, and £ódż.). The Foskos of Kentucky and Tennessee are, as far as I know, not ours, by the way (Their "Fosko" comes from "Fusco".).

- If the Czerneckis, Morgiewiczes, and Danilowiczes are all part of the Lipsk, Krasne, etc. group, they're ours.
- My Uszinsky (Ushinsky) branch snuck into Saros megye in Hungary from the Russian Empire.

So, their grandparents and great-grandparents definitely came off of the boat and spoke Slavic languages (at least if they were assimilated and/or Crypto Jews).
Nickidewbear   
30 Jan 2014
Genealogy / Do I look Polish? (my picture) [375]

Your Polish friends would know better than I would. But they themselves may not actually even be Polish. Given that you're "missing a lot of family records" and you have friends with possibly-dubious Polish origins, you may only look Polish but not be so. I know this because I have family who are light-haired and/or light-eyed Jews who have Diasporan roots in Poland, and they were able to pass for Slavic for years (Some of them would also wring my neck because I found out who we are.). Also, I would not be surprised if you ran into some of my family (probably distant, but my dad and his family, my uncle and his children, and my grandmother as well as some cousins live in Maryland, and some live right in the Baltimore area-and I say "his family" because my dad's made pretty clear that his wife's are more daughters to him than my sister and I are.).
Nickidewbear   
29 Jan 2014
Genealogy / I have Jewish DNA, but only know of Polish ancestry . [120]

being a Jew is it a race or to have Jewish religion I think it is just a religion.

If that's the case, then

- The Bible is quite useless.
- The Holocaust would not have happened, or else we all would have converted. Even then, since some of us did convert both nominally and genuinely, we weren't spared Anti Semitism.

- There would be no J1, J2, Q and E3b markers.
Nickidewbear   
28 Jan 2014
Genealogy / I have Jewish DNA, but only know of Polish ancestry . [120]

The Y markers for Jews are Q, J1, J2, and E3b markers. Some Ashkenazi Levites have the R1a1a1 marker, though. The mtDNA markers include J and K markers. So, Jewish DNA does exist. Also, Jews are an ethnic group. See Deuteronomy 32:8-10. It was assimilationits and Anti Messianics who came up with the "Jewishness is religious and not ethnic".
Nickidewbear   
28 Jan 2014
Genealogy / I have Jewish DNA, but only know of Polish ancestry . [120]

Ashkenazim are descended from the Ancient Israelites. Also, I know what my family is like. You're only proving to me why ignoring you was a good idea, and I suggest that you read Proverbs 17:27-28.
Nickidewbear   
28 Jan 2014
Genealogy / I have Jewish DNA, but only know of Polish ancestry . [120]

A "Pole" with Jewish DNA may not actually be a Pole. Thus was my case. I'm an Ashkenazi Jew with roots in Poland, but a Pole? Nope. By the way, my dad's atDNA results are now updated and showing Middle Eastern atDNA. So, there you go.
Nickidewbear   
2 Jan 2014
Language / Should I learn Polish or she learn English? [83]

Is it because it sounds like Yiddish or Hebrew? Doesn't "jak się masz" ("How are you"?), e.g., sound like "yaq shemash" ("יק שמש", "Magic [of the] Sun")?
Nickidewbear   
11 Dec 2013
USA, Canada / Why do you guys think that so much Polonia is fake? [51]

imagination. Those who thinks so don`t have imagination

But is it really fake? My answer as to why so much of Polonia is "fake" (really, seen as fake) is because Polish culture was one of the more Philosemitic cultures, so the world of course had to brand it as "fake".
Nickidewbear   
10 Dec 2013
Language / Should I learn Polish or she learn English? [83]

Would it be best for her to go to night classes for instance or for me to try and teach her?

Your teaching her may work best. Lingual immersion with a native speaker teaching helps. As for me, Rosetta Stone has helped me immensely learn Hebrew because of that, and it prepared me for my Hebrew 101 class (in which my professor is a sabrit-צברית)-so I'm blessed!
Nickidewbear   
12 Apr 2013
Love / My Polish wife's family hate me. Maybe it is because I'm black. Advice needed. [87]

im on vacation here in poland with my family and my wife's family don't seems to be happy about it .

Are they Poles or Jews? As an Ashkenazi Jew with a granddad whose dad was born in Poland, I can sadly tell you that Ashkenazim have particularly resented Blacks for a long time. We even have a pretty-nasty word for Blacks in Yiddish. The common Pole didn't know much about Blacks back then, but the common Torah- and Talmud-knowledgeable Jew (Crypto or Openly-Jewish Jew) knew well about Blacks. In fact, Numbers 12 lists the first Jewish animosity towards Blacks--that's how far back Jews have bafflingly resented Blacks.
Nickidewbear   
10 Apr 2013
Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

TRUDNIAK: possibly patronymic tag for the son of someone nicknamed Trudny (difficult, hard to get along with)..

So, what does Tudnyakov mean? Is it a combination of "Trudny" and "Yakov" per chance? PS They were Trudnyak(ov)s from Odesa who sadly were murdered in the Shoah.
Nickidewbear   
25 Mar 2013
Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

Thanks for the advice!

You're welcome.

You mean the results weren't what you wanted.

This is exactly why I put you on my ignore (or, in your case, I should call it "ignorance") list (and I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt by calling it "ignorance"). AncestryDNA is a good starter test, but people who had taken it before my dad warned about problems that I should've believed them on before his results came back. For example, AncestryDNA links my dad's third cousin Kevin as his 5th-8th cousin with low (< 50%) confidence; and AncestryDNA counted Greece and "Belgarus" (whatever that is) as Eastern Europe. Use the AncestryDNA test as a starter test & stick with using the paper trail.
Nickidewbear   
25 Mar 2013
Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

Just avoid the AncestryDNA tests. They even admit that they're still in BETA, autosomal markers could change over time, and their results aren't always accurate (I learned by reading reviews and having Dad take a test. Ancestry.com is good for the paper trail, but not DNA--or at least autosomal DNA, especially since they consider Southeastern--Balkanic--Europe and Greece--Mediterranean--Europe a part of Eastern--Slavic, Magyar, and Ruso--Europe.).