Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]


That's what I thought too. The probability of Dambok being a corrupted form of "Dąbek" seems much higher than the chance of any possible material contacts between Cambodia and Poland in the past. "Moi Krewni" database reports the following number of those surnames in Poland, which seem close to "Dambok":

Dambok 22
Dambek 84
Dombek 1140
Dembek 1814
Dębek 2592
Dąbek 9459

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

Confused? :-)

Little Lady, your question has no sense, unless one remembers your little story from your earlier posts. I did not remember it, but I know how to use the search function. With so little data given (grandfather Platon, father Piotr - born or having been lived in Mława, the last name Teresko and no specific dates) there is very little we can help, but offer some vague suggestions.

One such suggestion is to extend your search, admitting similarly spelled names - Tereško. The grapheme š (s with caron), roughly pronounced "sh" in English, might have been dropped off during migration, leading to simple Teresko. Slovakian or Latvian Tereško would be transliterated to Polish as Tereszko. On the other hand, Belarusian or Ukrainian names of this sort would be transliterated following either Polish rules (Tereszko) or English one (Tereshko). So here you go: Teresko, Tereško, Tereszko and Tereshko may refer to the same surname.

The American white pages (whitepages.com) show: 70 Tereshko, 46 Teresko and 4 Tereszko surnames.
Polish database "Moi Krewni" shows only 12 Teresko people in Poland, but 215 Tereszko. They are either located close to the eastern Polish border with Belarus and Ukraine, or in some "recovered (former German) territories" - suggesting resettlement of Tereszkos from the East.

MyHeritage.com has quite a few pages devoted to Teresko/Tereško family trees.

Google shows many Tereško hits originating from Latvia, Lithuania, few from Czech Republic and Slovakia, and plenty Tereshko hits - from Belarus and Ukraine.

By reading some wikipedia entry, I have learned that Tereshko is also a diminutive form of the first name Terentiy: Terentiy (Tereshko) Makarovych Parkhomenko (1872-1910) (or as he was known Tereshko) was one of the most respected kobzars of the late 19th and early 20th century. He would be considered an Ukrainian today. This brought to my attention the wikipedia transliteration rules from Russian first names to English ones (similar rules must exist for Ukrainian and Belarusian names). Here is the one of interest:

Russian name: Терентий;
Transliteration: Terenty;
Conventional/Anglicized forms: Terentiy, Terence;
Diminutive forms: Tereshko
Origin: Latin (male Terentius, female Terentia)

This suggests that the origin of your last name, is in the Roman family name Terentius/Terentia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terentius_(gens)

This was followed by conversion to the first name Terentiy, diminution to one of these forms: Tereshko, Tereszko, Tereško and finally by making them back into the surnames.

A big number of Tereško Google hits originating from Latvia still puzzles me.

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

According to stankiewicz.e.pl/index.php?kat=44&sub=550 the following names: Sanetra, Sanetrnik, Sanetrznik, Salatera, Salatarski, Salaterski - are derived from the Polish word "saletra", a corrupted form of Latin "sal petrae" - saltpetre, rock salt.

[It is a common name of several nitrates, but it originally meant the Indian saltpetre, niter, potassium nitrate, KNO3. It is used in food industry (preservation of meat colour) and as fertilizer. It was also the main ingredient in production of black gunpowder (75%), alongside with sulphur (12%) and charcoal (13%). It appears as a mineral but mostly in hot dry locations (India, South America, North Africa ...), otherwise is quickly dissolves in water and then sometimes leeches out of soil and rocks in form of efflorescence - hence its name: the "the rock salt".

Apparently the Old Poland was an exporter of saltpetre, most probably extracted from soil containing high concentration of saltpetre. In that time (13th-15th c.) England was producing it from ammonia contained in soil from under the royal stables. It is also naturally occurring in caves due to ammonium producing bacteria. It must have been quite an expensive product before the modern day chemists invented other methods: production of ammonia directly from air or chemical reactions of KCl with more easily accessible NaNO3 (Chilean saltpetre)]

According to "Moi Krewni" database, there are 850 people in Poland with the name Sanetra. Most of them live in Żywiec - 313.

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

Repczynski vs. Repczyński. I am just making it up, but this seems to me like the obvious and logical explanation. The ending -NSKI contains three consonants in row, and this is hard to pronounce as it is. For this reason the consonant N become palatalized (softened) in pronunciation, and the spelling reflects it. Consequently, the actual ending is spelled as -ŃSKI. Any Pole in Poland would not hesitate for a moment that there must be "n-acute", rather than the regular "n" letter. Living abroad with -ŃSKI name is another matter though. :-)

Try for example look up the distribution of Repczyński in Poland, in database "Moi krewni". The map shows 145 persons of this name in Poland, with the biggest concentration in Wielkopolska (Great Poland) and its regional capital Poznań. Mind you, there must many more Repczyńskis there - just treat this database as a subset under construction.

Next, try the same experiment with Repczynski instead and you will come with nothing.

According to: stankiewicz.e.pl/index.php?kat=44&sub=778, the name Repczyński comes either from "rzepa" (turnip), or from "rap, rapa" - a dark-coloured horse. Some forms of it come from the name of Raphael, specifically from the German personal name Rap.

Jastrzębiec coat of arms - I have not realized how widespread it was: 1740 names all-together! ,
pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jastrzębiec_(herb_szlachecki)


They must have made a fortune on adoptions. :-)

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]


Thanks, pure luck and illumination. :-)


This we may never know. :-(

News / The spiritual heirs of the Polish Communist Party [91]

OK, I am glad you are willing to accept the logic of this piece of Polish law. The next two points to discuss would deal with implementation of such law.

1. Is the Polish judicially system fair or crooked, is it independent or corrupted, and therefore could it be trusted in cases like this?

I do not have any opinion here. I do not live in Poland. I hope there are reasonable assumptions that the system can be trusted, at least statistically. But I hear from time to time about some occasional awkwardness of the prosecutor's office, so - by extension - one could expect similar awkwardness in courts of justice. I would not expect deliberate wrong doing and bribery at this level, but people are people...

2. Does this law apply equally to everyone?

This question is politically loaded and it is hard to answer, unless many such cases are revised and compared within the period of 12 years or so - to cover various ruling parties. It is mind boggling, how many such cases there are - coming from the left, right and centre; from politicos, business and sport people and from starlets. For what I saw, not all plaintiffs were the winners. If you do not believe me try googling: przeprosiny sąd. Here comes the lot of answers, as they appear, unsorted: Wyszkowski-Wałęsa, Pitera-PiS, Wprost-Rywin, Polskapresse-Radwańska, Kobylański-Sikorski, PiS-Platforma, Rzeczpospolita-gays, Socha-Dowgiałło, Warot-Szymocha, Radio Zet-Kaczyński, Krasowski-Michnik, Lis-Ziobro, Czarnecki-Wałęsa, Sybilski-Doda...

Shall I go on? If you really care, go an analyze the cases and then truthfully and honestly answer the question: are the civil law and its courts impartial in Poland, or not?


Nothing. But more than likely this will never happen. After all, not all GW editors are stupid and they have some common sense, do you agree? :-) Besides, it is up to a court to decide, whether or not the case will be processed or thrown out of court ("Don't waste our time"). Frivolity could be one of the reasons for that, but I am just guessing here.

I am not going into the discussion whether such law is good for Poland or not. Nothing you or I can do here, DE. Apparently it works reasonably well, as described at the end of the Aligator's message #81.

The rest of my response will be in the next message, after appropriate time delay.


It may work sometimes, until one side looses patience or gets really mad. As an example, apparently Lech Wałęsa has had enough of this yapping around him, so he does not hesitate to start finger pointing at Rydzyk as the the source of his latest harassments.

You seem to be putting the writers and poets on the pedestal and expect them to behave normally, rationally and honestly, and being able to solve all their disputes in print? Well, I can supply you with many examples, describing how bad the artists' world can be - with typical authors' vices there: jealousy, corruption, denunciation and first of all - lust for fame. Here is an example of just one little, poisonous missive launched by one known novelist over 100 years ago.

This gentleman, who writes novels in English - popular and splendidly profitable, almost gave me a nervous attack. I felt, reading about him, such a slippery and distasteful thing raising up my throat. How come! So the creativity is also ready to join the "exodus" (...) Creative ability is the crown of the plant, the top of the tower, the heart of the nation's heart. And this flower, this peak and this heart he takes away from his nation and gives it to Anglo-Saxons, who do not even miss the proverbial bird's milk, because they just pay the higher price for it. One can hardly think about it - without shame (...) Not a single Polish teenager will ever shed an altruistic tear over the novels of Mr. Konrad Korzeniowski, nor she will ever undertake any noble decision because of him.

- Eliza Orzeszkowa, according to Michał Komar, Bestiariusz codzienny

So wrote Eliza Orzeszkowa in her article about J. Conrad. Well, Conrad did not respond to her, but he felt her accusations painfully, as he demonstrated later in his letter to Edward Garnett in Jan 20, 1900. And she was the main reason why the big portion of the next generations of Poles looked upon him as a traitor:

Conrad renounced his homeland, native language, even the name. And for anyone who puts these very issues on top of his moral code, Conrad is forever buried.

Writers and poets will do anything for fame. With fame comes an illusion of power and a sense of a mission. Mickiewicz the poet had become Mickiewicz the prophet at some time. Rymkiewicz the poet wants to become Rymkiewicz the bard, the righteous one.

Adam Szostkiewicz, a commentator of "Polityka",
pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Szostkiewicz
wrote this on his blog almost two years ago:
I own almost all the Rymkiewicz's books, both prose and verse. I value highly the ones that he wrote before becoming a bard. (...) If he wants to be the Kaczyński's bard - this is his right. And it is my right to complain here that I have lost my favourite Polish writer.

-Adam Szostkiewicz, Polityka,
szostkiewicz.blog.polityka.pl/2010/07/16/bic-innowiercow-czyli-wieszcz-rymkiewicz

So he is disappointed in Rymkiewicz the bard. I am disappointed in him as a poet of later years. I am really surprised, because all I used to read about him were mostly accolades: of his prose, his essays, his plays, his style, his penmanship, his poetry. But somehow all of this escapes me now after reading few of his poems, from the collection "Sunset at Milanówek", for which he received a literary award Nike in 2003 (whose sponsor is "Gazeta Wyborcza", by the way). I also read his (in)famous last year poem "Do Jarosława Kaczyńskiego".

All I saw was the verse-mongering of trivial "Częstochowa rhymes" - as they are called in Polish. I could go on in details, but I will only direct you to the definitions of such rhymes, and in particular to "exact rhymes" and "grammatical rhymes":

Częstochowa rhymes
pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rym_częstochowski

and various cases of banal poetry
czytowszystko.blogspot.ca/2010/02/poezja-rym-czestochowski.html

(both in Polish).

And here are some examples of the exact, grammatical rhymes taken from the Rymkiewicz's verses I mentioned: światu-bratu, umierać-wybierać, ciało-działo, patosu-losu, jedzą-powiedzą, żyją-myją, wyrywają-poznają, piszą-slyszą, kwiatki-zagadki, jedne-biedne, wapnieje-dnieje, urzeczawia-ustawia, gnije-pije. They are trivial, uninteresting, they should be avoided - as any young poet is usually being advised upon. The reason for it is that Polish, as an inflected language - in which word endings depend on a person, case, time, mode, etc. - has a lot of matching words that are in the same case, time, etc. Yet our "great poet" uses them in abundance: a verb matching another verb with the same person and time; a noun matching another noun with the same case, etc.

It's not only that: Rymkiewicz's rhymes, which I quoted, are quite empty, they do not indicate any meaning by themselves, they are almost randomly chosen. One has a feeling that the author just drags and forces the remaining words of the line to match - with great difficulty - the rhymes he found first. Nothing spontaneous here.

The good example, how the rhymes can be used are these collected rhymes from the four stanzas of a certain poem, whose owner was so ashamed of its content later in life, but who was so proud of its form:

... A B A B
... dziejów-maszynistom-powieją-iskrom
... mrozu-trwali-rozum-Stalin
... lotne-konnicy-samotny-Carycyn
... columny-gradem-dumnym-Stalingradem

These are not the exact rhymes, neither they are the grammatical ones. And you can almost guess what this poem was about by examining its rhymes alone. Yes, you guessed it: Władysław Broniewski, "Słowo o Stalinie" (A word about Stalin)

You draw your own conclusion. I am not trying to denigrate Rymkiewicz. This is only my private opinion, which is not listened to anyway, and I am not an expert. But I have the right to my opinion (FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION, remember?) and my opinion is: his late poetry sucks. But I must add that some of his earlier poetry, the one without rhymes, is quite good.

I think Rymkiewicz should stay away from politics and happily enjoy the fruits of his hard work of younger days. Yet he wants to be a prophet. He divides people into good Poles and bad Poles, he creates crazy theories of a new Patriotic Religion. The greatness in one discipline does not give you a free pass to another one. You might be a great chemist but your relativity theory will still suck (we had one such case described on this forum). You might be a great poet but you might be stupid. Wait, wait - I found something along these lines, here you go:

If he only had more oil in the head! How limited this man has been; you could only talk to him about mice, witches, various eccentricities - and about poetry, and then it was the delight. The pure rage seizes me when I recall that one can be a great poet and a very stupid man at the same time. Annoying, but true. He was great and stupid- so wrote about Julian Tuwim his former friend Kazimierz Wierzyński.

I really do not know Ryczkiewicz's real motivations, but here are the thoughts of Jarosław Abramow Newerly from his "Granica Sokoła" where he tried to figure out what was the driving force behind the collaboration of many writers and poets, including Broniewski, with the ruling regime:

There is only one answer. Lust. A terrible lust for fame - without limits, inhuman. This lust devours us all - supported by author's hungry arrogance. We look for it as a kite looks forward for rain. We dry out without it. It is more important to us than the daily bread, and often - than our integrity. We are ready to lose our virtues - just to possess it. In life. In life still, of course. We are like children. We are great gluttons. Addicted.

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]

Indeed "???". But let me guess:

Gawroriski
Gawroński

Do these two words look similar to you? The accent above letter "n" in the second name, which converts "n" to "ń" (spelled "n-acute"), could have been mistaken by the dot in an "i" character, thus implying combination of two letters "ri", rather than the single "ń". Such mistake could have been even easier made with a handwritten script.

GAWROŃSKI : from "gawron" => a rook (in a sense of a black bird)

News / The spiritual heirs of the Polish Communist Party [91]


You are absolutely right.

When this discussion started some time ago I was about to congratulate you all here for the civility in here. Unfortunately, people take things too personally, and they soon get into each other nerves - regretting it later, perhaps. Evidently, the nature does not like emptiness and creates new irritants out of the blue, in place of the ones temporarily suspended.

The level of public discussion in Polish political life worries me very much. "Buraki" are everywhere, including politics. The amount of lawsuits for infringement on the personal rights is still growing. Who is next? Miller vs. Palikot? I understand that the common people are getting angry and impatient too, but the general display of lack of culture is still depressing. Wałęsa being once again harassed by screamers in "Bolek" masks, effigies of Donald Tusk, coffins with his image delivered to his office. Classy...

But at least "freedom of expression" works full blast, and people can do even stupider thinks - like running the Kaczyński's version of Kabuki Theatre in European Parliament in Brussels, with the main actors: Marta Kaczyńska; Jarosław Kaczyński (via video link) and Antoni Macierewicz alongside Prof. Wiesław Binienda and Dr. Kazimierz Nowaczyk, a civil engineer and physicist working in the USA.

[I am confident that if you sued me for the "kabuki" I would win,
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabuki

I just want to clarify one thing more.


Not under the Polish civil law. That was exactly described in the second part of my post #66. But let me try again.

Say, I am a bar owner. You run your local community paper. One day you assert in your paper that I hate Irish Catholic people. I summon you first to publicly apologize and optionally compensate me for your wrongdoing. You refuse. I sue you. Now the burden is on you to prove in court my Irish-Catholic-hating attitude.

Let say you failed to do so, for whatever reason: Maybe you just took it out of thin air, out of spite? Or maybe I was actually bad-mouthing the Irish Catholics one day, but you were so drunk that you pushed the wrong button on your tape recorder and erased everything?

You see, it does not matter whether you were actually right or wrong with your accusation, you just could not provide any proof for that. Therefore, your action would be considered unlawful, and they would kick your ass. Delicately.

Firstly, you would have to publicly apologize to me, very likely in your own newspaper and some others too. Secondly, the court could order you to pay some money to some charity. What's more, if my lawyer demonstrated in the court that in that period of time, when you had been spreading your lies about me, I had lost 50% of the business to my competitor, or that I have to move out of the district to avoid harassments - and therefore lose some money - you would have to pay some monetary compensation to me. Simple as that.

News / The spiritual heirs of the Polish Communist Party [91]

The following appeared today in "Gazeta Polska", # 13, March 28, 2012, gazetapolska.pl/16434-oswiadczenie-jaroslawa-marka-rymkiewicza

Declaration by Jaroslaw Marek Rymkiewicz

In the statement which I gave in "Gazeta Polska" (in article "Memory as the cross - it will not disappear" on August 11, 2010) I formulated untrue, offensive allegations and suggestions against "Gazeta Wyborcza" - and thus its publisher Agora SA, based in Warsaw. I admit that there is no factual basis for such statement and it could expose the Agora SA to adverse consequences in the course of its publishing activities - in particular the loss of its good name, credibility, reputation and confidence necessary to conduct such activities.

I apologize to Agora SA, publisher of "Gazeta Wyborcza" for the distribution of that statement - hurting its reputation and credibility in public perception.

I am filing this declaration as a result of the lost lawsuit.

The composition of the Court of Appeal:
Irena Piotrowska, Chairwoman
Aldona Wapińska, Judge rapporteur
Lidia Sularzycka, Member of the bench

News / The spiritual heirs of the Polish Communist Party [91]


You are so proud how freedom of expression works so beautifully in The Land of Freedom. But yet people win there their defamation suits, even though:


/wiki/United_States_defamation_law

Now, here is something quite fresh from USA: Rush Limbaugh contra Sandra Fluke controversy,
/wiki/Rush_Limbaugh_-_Sandra_Fluke_controversy
which started on February 29, 2012.


Apparently, he stands protected by the freedom of speech. But he will apparently pay a lot for his big mouth: he has already lost quite a lot of advertisements. But here is something more, she is suing him of the defamation:



litigationandtrial.com/2012/03/articles/attorney/defamation-2/sandra-fluke-limbaugh-defamation

News / The spiritual heirs of the Polish Communist Party [91]

"Nikt mnie nie przekona, że białe jest białe i czarne jest czarne" - J. Kaczyński
Translation: You seem to be confused, DE.


If the matter is brought to the civil action, the civil court neither prosecutes nor convicts anyone. In this particular case (an action for infringement of personal rights) the court delivers a judgment adjudicating a possible reparation for the violation of personal rights or awards amount of money for a social purpose (Art. 448 Civil Code). Once again, we are not talking here about criminal law and about punishment for a crime, but about civil law and judgment on reparation.

infor.pl/dziennik-ustaw,rok,1964,nr,16,poz,93,ujednolicony,ustawa-kodeks-cywilny.html (Art 23, 24 and 448)

Recall the concept of personal rights. They are made up not only of your good name and dignity, but also your health, freedom and inviolability of your home. If the Polish Police beat you up and lock you in the basement they not only violate the criminal law, but they also infringe on your personal rights. You obviously understand why the injured parties (not the victims of crime - this would be matter of criminal law) are demanding such enormous compensations (not convictions) from the police when they make mistake and harm them?

Rymkiewicz was NOT accused of slander from the Art 212 of Criminal Code (Penal Code), although such action could have been considered. He was sued in a civil court. He was not prosecuted of any crime in a penal court. He was sued in the civil court for the infringement of personal rights, according to the Articles 23 and 24 of Civil Law. NOT the Art. 212 of Penal Code! See the difference?

So Rymkiewicz was not penalized by anyone. Penalizing is a declaration of some act as a criminal offence. Alternatively, it is tightening of some penalty. Penalty, do you understand it? The judgment then is about penalty, not reparation. In atonement, on the other hand, nothing is being penalized, but the court rules (IT DOES NOT CONDEMN) whether or not personal rights have been violated, and if yes - whether or not there are important reasons to order some compensation for the damages suffered. Or to order some payment for a charity. Here nobody was being prosecuted, nobody was punished. So once again: prosecution => criminal trial => conviction => penalty. None of this here.

==============

More details follow, if you need more explanation:

According to the position of the Supreme Court's offensive speech against a third party violates their personal rights and can not be tolerated, especially when expressed in public.

The personal rights, including the honour, dignity, state of feelings or good name are under protection of civil law. However, this does not mean that such person will win a case initiated by them, although he has much easier task due to the will of the legislature, which has introduced the presumption of illegality, and also the principle that the defendant, taken to court for infringement of personal rights, is required to demonstrate the existence of circumstances justifying this action, thus excluding the unlawfulness.

Examples of circumstances that could justify his action could be:

+ An action in the public interest (although it should be remembered that speaking untruth can not be considered an action in the public interest),
+ An action in defence of the defendant rights,
+ A dissemination of truthful information in public interest (He who acts in the name of public interest and disseminates accurate information, is not responsible for the violation of personal rights of others).

However, acting under the influence of emotions is not the circumstance excluding unlawfulness.

Any act contrary to legal standards, and even the law and order or the principles of social coexistence should be regarded as unlawful.
A person whose personal interests were infringed or only threatened by an unlawful act, are entitled to both non-pecuniary and pecuniary claims, namely:

+ Defendant is to cease and desist from the offensive action
+ Defendant is to take all possible means deemed to remove the effects of his violations of protection of plaintiff's personal rights,
+ Defendant is to pay a monetary compensation or an appropriate payment to the designated charity.

A court deciding the case has to determined first:
+ Has the defendant ever violated the plaintiff's personal interests and what specific interests have been infringed, or at least threatened, then:
+ Was the defendant's opinion, about the plaintiff, true; was his conduct unlawful and whether his opinion was offensive from point of view of the average man (and not just from the standpoint of the plaintiff).

"Whether in a particular case we can speak of an infringement of personal rights, can not be decided on subjective feelings of the victim, because the decisive factor here is the reaction of the society. Also, this definition requires concretizations, of what kind of reaction one would expect fromfair, reasonable thinking people." (a claim the Supreme Court judgment of 15 September 2005, ref. Act II, CK 82/2005).

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]


As Polonius said ... and then some more:

The surname Milostan is of Old Slavic origin, and therefore this surname could also come from several Slavic languages. In Serbo-Croatian it means merciful or dear, pleasant, graceful. In Slovenian the name "milosten" means kind, merciful. The Polish version is spelled with L-slash, Miłostan.

Moi Krewni database, moikrewni.pl/mapa/kompletny/mi%25C5%2582ostan.html, reports 50 Miłostan surnames - mostly in city of Poznań and in Wielkopolskie Province.

This thread, of Wielkopolskie Towarzystwo Genealogiczne GNIAZDO, "Miłostan - poszukuje przodków", ww.wtg-gniazdo.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1235&start=0:, reports on several Miłostan persons currently living in Poland and abroad. One of its messages refers to the book mentioned below.

Here is an excerpt from ebook "Wiadomości historyczne o mieście Kłecku, zebrał X. Józef Dydyński, Dziekan foralny i Proboszcz Kłecki (Na dochód ochronki w Gnieżnie.); Gniezno, Drukiem J.B. Langiego, 1858." Digitized by Google, (from The New York Public Library 544623B Astor , Lenox and Tilden Foundation R 1950 L), page 67,

books.google.ca/books?id=ysIaAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

The corresponding English title would be: "Historical news about town of Kłecko", collected by Father Józef Dydyński, Branch Dean and Parson of Kłecko Parish, (For benefits of orphanage in Gniezno)"; Gniezno, printed by J.B. Lange, 1858. Pages 67, 68.

The text below refers to village Kamieniec, gmina (municipality) Kłecko, district Gniezno, voivodship Wielkopolkie, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamieniec,_Gmina_Kłecko

>> §. 12th. Branch church in Kamieniec
Village Kamieniec, going back to 13th c., is a part of Klecko parish. According to the privilege issued in Gniezno in "die Marci Evangelistae" year 1271, Kamieniec (formerly also known as Kameneczewo, Kamieneczno), owned by Bolesław the Pious, Duke of Gniezno, was donated by the same prince in perpetuity to the brothers Jakób, Wojciech and Andrzej Miłostan - as a reward "for faithful and very useful services".

According to one tradition of Miłostan family, still living in Kamieniec, these brothers - referred to by the privilege as "caretakers of royal land" (ministeriales terrestres) - hid Prince Bolesław in their estate during the war, and thus saved his life. Another local legend says that one of these brothers offered his own horse to Prince Bolesław, whose horse was slaughtered under him in a battlefield, and this way he saved the prince's life.

The Gniezno privilege has been confirmed by Polish kings, beginning with Zygmunt III (1623), up to Sanisław August (1767). The latter confirmation bears the Great Royal Seal and is personally signed by the King. This document is still in possession of Miłostan family in Kamieniec; they keep it as their dear ancestral legacy.

So the first lords and heirs of Kamieniec, after Prince Bolesław first, were the Miłostans, who paid for the donation privilege 60 silver "grzywnas" (30 Polish pounds) to the prince's treasury. Then due to branching of the family the village was being slowly subdivided and some of it fell into hands of others.

The church records of year 1735 state that Kamieniec was "bona regalia", inhabited by the caretakers of royal land (ministeriales terrestres), who have been given privilege by Prince Bolesław to become the free citizens in the likeness of the townspeople, settled according to the German law and observing their own laws (*). During Polish rules of Wielkopolska, Kamieniec was called a town and its citizens - "szlachta kamieniecka" (Kamieniec's nobility) because - according to the donation privilege - they had the same rights and privileges of all other Polish nobility. They did not pay any taxes, with the exception of certain amount of oats for the royal horses.

(*) The privilege document actually says: "*** omnimoda libertate et jurisdictione, qua omnes nobiles in nostra Polonia perfruuntur.", which means in English: "with complete freedom and jurisdiction, by which all the nobles of our Poland enjoy" <<

End of translated quote

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]


First, take a look at this map: /mapa/kompletny/roszak.html

As you see from this map, there are 6305 Roszaks in Poland, and they are all over the place - with their bigger concentration in the West-Central Poland. In this case, there is no way you can pin-point a one single ancestral village of Roszaks from this map.

Reliance of the service "Moi krewni"? Very inaccurate, since it is based on voluntarily declaration of users. You join, you declare yourself or your ancestry and their database grows by one or several new names. Their database severely under-represents some surnames.

Using my own name as an example: "Moi krewni" reports 4,300 surnames like mine, all over the country - with their biggest concentration at Gniezno, Żnin, Poznań and Włocławek. Other databases, which are based on the latest census, estimate the total number of people sharing my surname in Poland at 8,000, more or less. You see, 50% inaccuracy. Besides, the historical data places majority of our ancestors at south-east, and south-north (covering today's Podkarpacie but also expanding to Ukraine and Lithuania) - not the central-west.

So much for the reliability of their service. It works well for some names (Śledziewski is a good example here. See the thread of this exact name), it does not work for the other ones.

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]


Burdze village >> gmina (municipality) Bojanów >> powiat (district) stalowolski (Stalowa Wola) >> województwo (voivodship) Podkarpackie (Subkarpathian), 54 km north of regional capital Rzeszów.

Language / -ski/-ska, -scy/ski, -wicz - Polish surnames help [185]


Yes, you definitely spell it wrong. Pronunciation-wise, English digraphs "CH" and "SH" are roughly comparable to Polish "CZ" and "SZ".

Here is a popularity list of Luczewski-like names, according to google (A) and MoiKrewni (B) (*):
Luczewski - 14,500(A), 48(B)
£uczewski - 73,600(A), 12(B)
Kluczewski - 200,000(A), 597(B)

Luszewski - 1,450(A), 14(B)
£uszewski - 29,600(A), 0(B)
Kluszewski - 130,000(A), 30(B)

Those are male versions of the name. The female versions end with -ska, not with -ski. Try something like this in google:
"Anna Kluczewska" Australia ==> 706 results, here you go.

======
(*)
Google: world-wide, multiple reference to the same person very likely
MoiKrewni, Polish database based on voluntary declarations, very incomplete, refers only to Poland, sometimes separately to Germany and Switzerland. See moikrewni.pl/mapa/

Life / Jerzy Kosinski - Polish author and liar [127]


Good book "Z głowy", I enjoyed it immensely and I recommend it. But I do not know if there is its English version published yet. It is a series of autobiographical stories, most of them funny - from PRL, USA and Republic of Poland. Głowacki is a play writer, and some of his plays were well received in USA. He is kind of minor celebrity there, but since he has nothing to do with pop culture, his popularity is/was quite limited.

Oh, I missed this:
Apparently two years ago he wrote a black humour book "Good night, Dżerzi" about Jerzy Kosiński. As he promised in the book "Z głowy" (in a fragment I translated above) Głowacki does not judge Dżerzi. The Rzeczpospolita article, presents an extensive review of that book.

Decades ago in Warsaw Janusz Glowacki Common Theatre saw a production of " War and Peace " . He remembered the words of Napoleon , who by leaving a free life Pierre Bezuchowowi , said: " For you it a lot , for me that's the case ." This question runs through the latest book Glowacki , the most outstanding of his achievements .

There are all the things we value him : ironic distance , penetrating , well- camouflaged sensitivity . " Good night , Dżerzi " is also a self-reflexive prose . Glowacki is a playwright przymierzający to write the script for Kosinski . He knows that this is his last chance to make a career . Wziętemu literary agent explains with disarming candor : " It was my very close friend , because the few times I met him in my life ."

Life / Jerzy Kosinski - Polish author and liar [127]


Yes, and this is what Polish Wikipedia says (my translation):
According to the opinion expressed in the magazine Village Voice in 1982, the book "Being there" was a plagiarism of the Polish novel "Career of Nicodemus Dyzma" by Tadeusz Dołęga-Mostowicz, unknown to the Western readers at that time. On the other hand, it should be noted that the psychological portraits of the main characters are quite different. Chauncey Gardiner is a simple, limited man who allowed himself to be passively carried by the circumstances. Dyzma, on the other hand, quickly develops the features of a cynical manipulator, actively creating the events and instrumentally treating people around him.

I have no personal opinion on the subject here, since I only read "Kariera Nikodema Dyzmy", long time ago.

Life / Jerzy Kosinski - Polish author and liar [127]

Janusz Głowacki, januszglowacki.com, who knew Kosiński in New York, wrote several pages about him in the autobiographical novel "Z głowy" (Of the head, a play word on his surname.) Here are few excerpts from the book, which I translated for you from its Polish edition.

When New York magazine "Village Voice" has prepared a great article that destroyed Kosinski, accusing him of series of lies, mainly about the fact that he had not written his books, and that this little exercise had been carried for him by hired editors and translators, Kosinski played back again according to the system, which he knew better than anyone else, and which has worked so flawlessly until then. He asked the journalists, who were conducting an act of - what is now called in Poland - investigative journalism, whether he could meet with them in company of a psychologist who studied the behaviour of Holocaust victims in stressful situations.

================
You may want to compare it to the official wikipedia article, which much tougher on Kosiński than Głowacki.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerzy_Kosinski

Genealogy / SKI...SKY...ZKI...Polish surname endings [38]

My two cents:

In Finnish language the word "koski" means rapids, white water. Koski is quite a popular Finnish surname. Names of many Finnish towns and villages end with the -koski suffix. Some examples: Kirveskoski, Loffkoski, Saakoski, Kaartilankoski, Kuusankoski, Enonkoski, Kannonkoski, Äänekoski.

“KOSKI” refutes the popular notion that all names ending in SKI are Polish.

Genealogy / Ignaz Sledziewski info? [10]

According to "Moi Krewni" (My Family) database there are 673 persons named Śledziewski in Poland and only five of the name Sledziewski.
The name 'Śledziewski' most frequently appears in the following regions.
1. Zambrów (105)
2. Warszawa (88)
3. Mińsk Mazowiecki (61)
4. Węgrów (40)
5. Maków Mazowiecki (31)
6. Ostrów Mazowiecka (27)
7. city of £omża (17)
8. Wołomin (17)
9. city of Ostrołęka (17)
10. £omża (16)
Most of those regions are part of the historical Masovia and Podlachia provinces. Today £omża and Zambrów belong to Podlaskie Voivodship, while the remaining regions are part of Masovian Voivodship. The biggest rivers of this area are Biebrza and Narew, which flow West and - after joining with the river Bug - flow into Vistula downstream of Warsaw. This is how the regions around £omża and Zambrów have communicated since middle ages with the Baltic Sea. Corn (rye) and lumber were transported downstream, fish upstream - specifically Baltic herring, "śledż" in Polish.

The £omża and Zambrów regions were historically settled by lesser or parochial gentry, including the Śledziewskis family. They originally shared the same settlement - in this case the village of Śledzie (herrings) (today in the municipality and the district of Zambrów), only to disperse around with time. The Śledziewskis share the Zagroba (a.k.a. Zagłoba) coat of arms with 59 other families.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Śledzie,_Podlaskie_Voivodeship
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zambrów
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/£omża
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podlaskie_Voivodeship
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zagłoba_coat_of_arms

One of the very good sources of the old records of Śledziewski family is these site (in Polish): Katalog Szlachty (Catalogue of Nobility), katalogszlachty.com

You can search for the name "Śledziewski", or just go to this address:

The search returns 32 combined indices that reference one or more Śledziewski surnames. To get the details, klick on each index, then search and copy individual records that relate to various Śledziewskis or Śledziewskas (females).

The vital records are quite sad actually; a lot of children have died in birth or did not survive their first birthday. Many were born in the village of Śledzie and Nagórki, municipality of Zambrów, parish Zambrów.

The records are of various type:

Males born in Zambrów Parish: (1885-1886), (1883-1884), (1881-1883), etc...
Males born in Puchały Parish (1884-1885)
Males born in Piątnica Parish (1881-1884)
Males born in Szumowo Parish (1880-1887), Letter P-Z
Biograms - S bis
Biograms - M bis
Births, set 3
Nobility of Augustów Voivodship in the first half of the 19th c. Letter K
Nobility of Augustów Voivodship in the first half of the 19th c. Letter S
Modzelewski
Krajewski
Zaremba/Zaręba
Konopka
Noble males of the military age living in Zambrów municipality 1872-1874

The Biograms are particularly rich with Śledziewski names - both females and males. There must be 200 or so names to examine.

Good luck

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4500]


Rare as it seems to be, there are appearances of the surname Szczombrowski in contemporary Poland. For example, the data base "MoiKrewni", which is not in any way complete, shows 30 such surnames: some in North-West territories, some in Silesia and Lower Silesia - suggesting immigration from the East.

There is indeed some connection with "Kresy" (Eastern Borderlands) since five such persons (Maria, Emilia, Janina, Józefa, Karol) are listed as being murdered on April 2, 1944 in the village Dydiatyn - gmina (municipality) Kąkolniki - powiat (county, district) Rohatyn.

Source: records compiled on the basis of the book Stanisław Jastrzębski "Ludobójstwo ludności polskiej przez OUN-UPA w województwie stanisławowskim w latach 1939-1946" (The genocide of the Polish population by the OUN-UPA in the province Stanislawow, in the years 1939-1946.

One Szczombrowski is also listed in "Poczet szlachty galicyjskiej i bukowińskiej" (Records of Galician and Bukovina nobility) under the following entry:
[Surname: Szczombrowski; Nickname: Londyk; Coat of arms: Sas; Given name: Szczepan; Nobility recognized by: Halicki Sąd grodzki (Halicz's Magistrate Court); Year: 1782]

Szczombrowski is also listed among families belonging to the coat of arms "Sas", genealogia.okiem.pl/glossary/glossary.php?word=sas

Googling (Szczombrowski nazwisko), where "nazwisko" stands for "surname", forces the selection of Polish records with these two words used. And there are quite a lot such combinations - 12, 3000 of them. They come from Facebook, Pipl profiles, lists of candidates for local administration positions and for membership of Polish parliament, judicial records, university lists, high school lists, real estate ads, sport events, professional lists and ads, etc.

But google does not show geographical names "Szczombrów" or "Szczombrowo", indeed. Could it be that the "Szczombrowski" surname was created from a cluster of two words "Z Czombrowa", "Z Cząbrowa" (of Czombrów, of Czombrowo, of Cząbrów, etc.), as in "the knight Ziemowit of Czombrów"? In such a case the root of the surname Szczombrowski could be one of the two:

cząber, cząbr, czomber => a thyme
cąber, comber => a sheep's back, lumbar part of ox's meat

Googling "z Czombrowa" brings such interesting entries as "Archives of Karpowicz family from Czombrów", "a book 'Letters from Czombrów' by Maria Karpowiczowa", or "Czombrów - epoka Pana Tadeusza" (Czombrów - The era of Pan Tadeusz), see: multipanorama.pl/main.php?muid=11&mid=678&kid=0&oid=0&cid=85dfb 71c85ac53

Genealogy / Help with Polish Surnames and Variants Klepacki and Blasczyk [15]


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).

History / Anyone know the name, if true... .... Polish Royal heir [40]

I am not that serious about that entire thread :-)
I agree that the ball is in the OP's court. But I did not feel like working today, so I played a bit around on the names. These things are plausible enough.

Yes, you go claim your mountain, girl - unless your family has already sold it. :-)

History / Anyone know the name, if true... .... Polish Royal heir [40]


Let me run these risky speculations :-) ==>
The OP's "Grotchec" could be as well a name of a village, or a castle Grodziec (German: Gräditz or Grodzietz, Czech: Hradec, Old Polish: Grodziecz, Grodez, Grodecz, Grodzecz, Grodzeycz). It all comes from the old word "grodza, grodze, grodz", which means an embankment, or a palisade. From there also comes "grodzisko" - a stronghold, and also "gród" - a stronghold, a settlement, a town.

There are eight villages "Grodziec" in Poland, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grodziec - all across Poland, three hills and one town district of that name. There is also one castle in Lower Silesia and one small castle (a manor) - in Silesia. This is the one that might be of interest here:

A village and a small castle Grodziec (Cz. Hradec, Ger: Grodzietz), gmina (municipality) Jasienica, powiat (district, county) Bielsko, Silesian Voivodship (Province).

It was also a part of Principality of Bielsko - first as a lower rank principality (Fürstentum), then as a Duchy (Herzogtum Bielitz), created by Austrian Queen Maria Theresa in 1752 and 1754, correspondingly. The principality was owned by six Sułkowskis from 1752 to 1848. Their residence was the Castle in Bielsko (now Bielsko-Biała), a.k.a. Castle of Dukes of Cieszyn, a.k.a. Sułkowskis' Castle. Today it hosts Bielsko-Biała Museum, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bielsko-Bia%C5%82a_Museum_and_Castle.

Grodziec is located about 18 km west of Bielsko-Biała, a capital of Bielsko district.

The Grodziec castle is currently privately owned, and undergoes renovation. In XII c. there was a wooden stronghold ("grodzisko") there, owned by a knight named Świętosz, from the village Świętoszówka nearby. In XIV c. a masonry castle stood there, owned by Pełka. In XVI c. the land around Grodziec was given by Casimir II, a Duke of Cieszyn, to a knight of Radwan coat of arms. It is unclear whether his family name Grodecki came from the Grodziec, or the other way around.

In 1542-1580 a new castle was built by Maciej Grodecki, Castellan of Cieszyn, and his son Henryk. The Grodeckis were a known clan: three Grodeckis became starosts of Cieszyn and several others became clerics, including one archbishop and one famous cartographer, In 1650, after the death of the last of the Grodecki clan, the castle was owned by Marklowski family (Wieniawa coat of Arms), then by Jan Dama from Biedrzydowice, Karol Jerzy Sobek, Henryk Ferdinand Larisch, and then again by Marklowskis clan.

In the centuries that followed its ownership was changing many times. In 1927 it was owned by dr. Ernest Habicht, a friend of Józef Piłsudski, and an avid collector of ancient objects and books. During the WWII, after a German field hospital was established there, the collections of dr. Habicht have been devastated. After the war the castle hosted the Experimental Institute of Animal Husbandry from Puławy.

History / Anyone know the name, if true... .... Polish Royal heir [40]


Yes! And coincidently, Leszczyńskis Family used to own Rydzyna residence, later bought by one Sułkowski, who established Sułkowski Ordynat there and a younger line of Sułkowskis.

History / Anyone know the name, if true... .... Polish Royal heir [40]


There was actually one more: Stanisław August Poniatowski (1732-1798) - the last King and Grand Duke of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth(1764-95), who was forced to abdicate on November 25, 1795 - after the final, Third Partition of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.


Yes, you better dig for right spelling, otherwise you waste our and your time. For example, your "Swikoskie" (which is absolutely impossible spelling in Polish), could actually be "Sujkowski" (alternative Polish spelling "Sójkowski"), or even "Sułkowski" since they all sound kind of similar in English (though distinctly different in Polish), and which you can easily check using translate.google.com.

Of the three possibilities only the Sułkowski surname could be of any importance and relation to your "royal" story.

There was indeed an aristocratic Sułkowski family, which came into significance after the romance of Elżbieta Szalewska, a wife of Stanisław Sułkowski, with Polish King Augustus II the Strong(1670-1733). She bore him an illegitimate son, her husband gave him his surname, and that's how the history of Sułkowskis developed - from obscured nobles from Mazovia to Dukes (Austrian "Herzog") and Princes (Austrian "Fürst") of Bielsko (Cieszyn Silesia or Těšín Silesia or Teschen Silesia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bielsko, formerly Austria, now Poland) and Rydzyna (formerly Prussia, now Wielkopolska, Poland, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rydzyna).

Cherchez la femme!

Descendants of both lines are known to be living in Austria, Germany, Hungary and North America.

There is a long article in wikipedia about Sułkowskis Family: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sułkowski_family.

If my guess is incorrect, then at least we get some entertaining story out of this thread. :-)

Life / a funny poem in Polish (not mine) [11]

Gumishu, since you challenged me directly (in another thread): "boletus, how do you find the works of fellow poet wilk from Ireland ??? :)" I am answering it here, in the proper thread of yours. I am sorry, but I must disappoint you: My sense of humour is sort of old fashioned, and I do not believe that colloquialisms and vulgarisms make poetry. But those things are acceptable, providing that you serve them as chilli, a little bit at a time, to improve taste. Otherwise you bungle everything. But that's only my private opinion.

Here is an example of one of the classics, in the same category- more or less - as Wilk's poetry, but much gentler. The translation is mine.

JULIAN TUWIM

Postcard from the history of mankind

They met during fete in front of the Kino
A local IDIOTA with a resident CRETINO.
Oh local IDIOTA - said CRETINO groovy
Do you want to go with me to see a hit movie?

The local CRETINA replied: with great pleasure
For I love you so much, my IDIOTO treasure.
So resident CRETINO smiled into her eyes
And went to the movies with his IDIOTA prize.

Full hour was spent on sweet body touching
So happy was local CRETINA with clutching.
At last she so whispered - IDIOTO adoring
- This movie, I feel it is getting quite boring.

So they went for a steak, for Melba, for VINO
Resident IDIOTA with local CRETINO.
Then they readily entered the sensuous arena
The local IDIOTO with resident CRETINA.

In this way they'll produce a son or a daughter:
CRETINO, CRETINA, IDIOTO, IDIOTA
In order to meet in front of the KINO
A future IDIOTA with a future CRETINO.

Life / Why are Poles always so miserable? Why do they never smile? [512]


Yes, did you notice these crazy people talking to themselves in streetcars? They all grow some sort of strange tumour behind their ears. They sometimes seemingly address me but when I respond back they give me such a surprised look. And then they talk more and smile. But not at me. Strange.

Food / Pierogi recipe and filling from my grandmother [179]

Or cross-stitched Battle of Grunwald, as shown here:
needleprint.blogspot.com/2012/02/we-can-do-bigger-stitchers-of.html

Food / Pierogi recipe and filling from my grandmother [179]


Well, I know that there are pierogi (Somosa, Raviolli, etc.) machine manufacturers in North America. The machines are of various sizes: from family affair, to small restaurant use, to big production facility of frozen stuff.

When I said "assembly line" for hand-made pierogi it was a shortcut. I'd rather imagine a bunch of ladies standing around a big table in plastic caps and forming pierogi by hand. I saw such picture somewhere on TV.