Genealogy / Polish looks? [1410]

In my family,

Grandma had black hair and brown eyes.
Grandpa had Blond hair and blue eyes.
Mum has mid-brown hair and blue-grey eyes.
Auntie Jadwiga has blue-grey eyes and brownish red hair.
Uncle Janusz is balding and grey (originally light-mid brown hair) and blue eyes.
Auntie Irena has dark brown hair and blue eyes.
Auntie Basia has mid-brown hair and blue-grey eyes.

Cousins:
Krzysztof has dark brown hair and blue-green eyes.
£ukasz has brown hair and blue eyes.
Wioleta - Brown hair and brown eyes.
Asia (ah-sha) has mousey (blond-brown) hair and brown eyes.
Martyna - mousey hair and light-brown eyes.

I think my family is from all-over, but most live up in the Zachodnio Pomorskie & Pomorskie. Most of the women in my family are short-to-average, and the men are tall.

I didn't include me in the above (or my sister + dad), as I am half-Hungarian and Half-Polish. So, look-wise..I had pale blonde hair that turned to light-brown as I got older, and have greenish eyes.

I also don't look very Polish (more Hungarian). When I went to visit my family the-year-before-last, people couldn't place me, or as my Aunt said, they could place me as being different (in Dziwnow).

Language / Children's Songs in Polish [66]

Does anyone know the Krasnoludki song?

edit: Ok, nevermind - found it.

MY JESTEŚMY KRASNOLUDKI
muz./sł. tradycyjna

My jesteśmy krasnoludki,
Hopsa sa, hopsa sa,
Pod grzybkami nasze budki,
Hopsa, hopsa sa,
Jemy mrówki, żabkie łapki,
Oj tak tak, oj tak tak,
A na głowach krasne czapki,
To nasz, to nasz znak.

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

Marek derives from Mark. Means "dedicated to Mars".

Goralczyk - you'd need to break the name up. Goral and Czyk. Goral means someone from the mountains of southern Poland, from góral(e). Czyk means small.

Purzycki - from polishroots.org
Purzycki might come ultimately from a term purzyca, "thigh," but the immediate source would be a place name Purzyce or something like it. There is, for instance, a Purzyce-Trojany in Ciechanow province, and the surname probably referred to a family's coming from that or some other village with a similar name (there are probably others, too small to show up on my maps). As of 1990 there were 1,243 Poles named Purzycki, with the largest numbers in the provinces of Warsaw (227), Ciechanow (247), and Olsztyn (136). Probably quite a few of those took their name from that village I mentioned, but there are enough people by this name, in enough different parts of the country, to suggest more than one place gave rise to this surname. So the name means basically "person or family associated with, coming from, working at Purzyca or Purzyce."

This info may not be a lot of help pinpointing a particular area your ancestors came from, but that's generally true of most names. There are just too many different words, and places with similar names, to point unambiguously at a place of origin or clear-cut meaning. The origin of a place-derived surname usually is the most help if your research has established an area your ancestors came from, and if you find a village nearby with the right name. So if you learn where the Purzycki's lived in Poland before coming over, and you find a Purzyce or Purzyca nearby, that's probably the right place!

Zalewska or Zalewski
Polish: topographic name for someone who lived by a flood plain or a bay, Polish zalew, or a habitational name for someone from a place named with this word, in particular Zalew in Sieradz voivodeship or Zalewo in Olsztyn voivodeship. There has been considerable confusion with Zaleski.

For Dankowski, you'd need to break the name down to Dankow and ski. Dankow is a village (Dankow, Lubuskie, Poland.) and ski means "son of"... so the name is "son of Dankow".

Andrezywski might also be spelt without the y, and with an e instead. It might be made up the first name Andrez (or Andreas). ewski is a name-tag, meaning associated with name of place. ski is "son of" (initially a sign of nobility).

Off-Topic / What's your connection with Poland? Penpals. [574]

I'm half-Polish, so all of my mother's family is in Poland.

My mum taught me Polish when I was quite young, but a lot of the 'speaking' has been forgotten. I do still understand it well, when spoken to me or when I hear others speak it.

Genealogy / Polish looks? [1410]

Hi,

You definitely have Slavic features. My mother has a similar nose and lips to yours. Your eyes and hair are also Slavic.You also seem (to me) to have Central Asian features. The broad/high cheekbones. So perhaps you need to look around the central asian and slavic borders (e.g. Russia or far east Ukraine). A bit of the mix (features) reminds of me of a Hungarian man I met with slightly asian features, maybe distanly Mongolian or central Asian.

Do you have a natural tan? I know that a lot of Hungarians (maybe even the neighbouring countries) have that healthy tanned look.

--

I have a Hungarian face-shape and features. I look a lot more like my Dad, Aunt and Grandma (Hungarian-side). They originate from Pecs.

Genealogy / Kapushka name - what is the meaning? [17]

kapushka is a river in Russia, apparently.

ouzel.com/kamchatka/kapushka.htm

It's in the Kamchatka region.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamchatka_Peninsula

Genealogy / Kapushka name - what is the meaning? [17]

ok, also found that Kapushka/Kabuska/kabushka is a variant of babushka in Russian.
It can mean either grandmother or a females head-scarf.

Genealogy / Kapushka name - what is the meaning? [17]

For the record, it wasn't a guess. I looked the word up in google and was directed to a dictionary (in google-books). That book had the reference of "Kapushka/Kabuska/kabushka" being a variant of babushka and also head-scarves!

Genealogy / Kapushka name - what is the meaning? [17]

The book is...
Dictionary of American Regional English: I-O
By Frederic Gomes Cassidy, Joan Houston Hall
Contributor Frederic Gomes Cassidy
Edition: illustrated
Published by Harvard University Press, 1985
ISBN 0674205197, 9780674205192
927 pages

books.google.com.au/books?id=eEB0YFR2EowC&pg=PA188&lpg=PA188&dq=kapushka+%2B+dictionary&source=bl&ots=S7PyStgq45&sig=aK3u4H1lNkgVX4AVvc5FeQ3uCVw&hl=en&ei=4W8DSuz2LqT66gPqj7WHAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3

Let me know if the link doesn't work. It's on page 188 (it doesn't show the page number, but 187 and 189 are shown).

Genealogy / Kapushka name - what is the meaning? [17]

True, perhaps it does not have any meaning in modern Russian. Modern Slavic languages have grown from Old Church Slavonic or Old East Slavic. I'm sure many words have gone out of usage or the meaning/context has changed over time (all languages do this, English is a great example). This has been a really fascinating discussion, I think. :)