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Posts by Jstoz  

Joined: 20 Aug 2014 / Male ♂
Last Post: 20 Aug 2014
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Posts: 1
From: Australia, Perth
Speaks Polish?: No
Interests: Family history

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Jstoz   
20 Aug 2014
Language / -ski/-ska, -scy/ski, -wicz - Polish surnames help [185]

Thank you to those who contribute to this thread. You provide many clues and answers to people who are searching to better understand their family background and heritage. My surname is Sieniszkiewicz (Šiniškevièius - Lithuanian; Cинюшкевичь - Russian) and for most of my life I thought both of my parents were Polish because they told me so and had Polish papers. They immigrated to Australia after WW11 as refugees after being interned in Germany during the war as forced laborers on farms near Einbeck. In 2004 I used Australian Immigration information to track my parent's history as both had passed away before I was able to get very much information from them. I verified through the Latvian Archives that my Father was born in 1899 in Libawa (now Liepaja) Latvia of parents who had moved from Ramygala, Lithuania. His family travelled to St Petersburg later where he attended school for 4 years and later trained to became a locksmith. My older brother and sister states that my father told them that he was recruited into the Russian Army during WW1. I assume/believe he was also caught up in the Russian Revolution in 1917 but not sure of what side he was on! His documents state that he was 'evacuated' from St Petersburg in 1919. Historians state that many 'foreigners' were told to 'evacuate'/leave Russia under threat of death or transportation to gulags. There is then a 13 year gap in his history until the records show he married my mother (Stanislawa Wieremiejcrykr), in Mscibow, Poland (now Mscibrava, Belarus) in 1932. This gap indicates to me that his family may well have ended up in the gulags (worse case), or returned to Ramygala (best case) but I may never know. Why he ended up in Mscibow is also a mystery but I suspect he was looking for work. In 2005 in retracing my family's footsteps, I found my Aunt still living in Jaralowka, near Mcibrava, Belarus (annexed from Poland after WW11) and in 2007 I found a second cousin on my father's side living in Vilnius. He had no memories of my father or any information on the '13 year gap'.

So, if this background does not belong to this thread, my apologies, but I am very much interested in the origination of our surname and I have seen by this thread how complex the history over centuries has resulted in names such as Sieniszkiewicz and Wieremiejcryk. If anyone has any information relating to these particular names I would be very grateful. I guess I am the son of Sieniszk? But if that is a first name, town, area or an item such a farmer or hat, I do not know. Thanks.