Food / Stuffed eggs (Polish-style recipe) [17]

Merged: hot stuffed eggs in shells -- superb!

One of the nicest and most uniquely Polish dishes are hot stufed eggs in shells. Anybody out there ever try them?
You cut the nard-boiled eggsthrough, shell and all and carefully scoop out the contents, settinn aside the empty shell halves. Fry up some minced onion in butter, add the chopped whites and yolks, season with salt & pepper and chopped fresh dill. Then the reserved shells are stuffed with this mixture, sprinkled with bread crumbs and fried in butter (cut side down) until a golden brown crust forms. Enjoy with bread of choice!

Food / Stuffed eggs (Polish-style recipe) [17]

No, the shells are not eaten. The hot contents are scooped out. No, this dish does not cause flatulence (that's the high-class way of describing your "F" word!). And , to my knowledge, every Anglo, Yank or other foreigner who has sampled this treat has taken to it instantly.

Genealogy / Looking for Chrabaszewski Relatives in Poland [7]

The Chrabaszewski surname exists in Poland but is about to become extinct.

Genealogy / Looking for Chrabaszewski Relatives in Poland [7]

The name's original form was probably Chrabąszczewski.

Life / Polish clothing - Polish folk costumes [28]

Polish regional garb (folk attire) is worn nowadays mainly on ceremonial occasions or for tourist purposes. Religious processions and harvest-home events are among such occasions. Soemtimes you will find waitresses wearing stylised versions of folk attire or highlanders who pose for pictures or drive horse-drawn characters for the benefit of tourists.

Life / Polish clothing - Polish folk costumes [28]

What do you think -- would someone in a cowboy outfit in the NY subway evoke the same, greater or lesser sensation than a Góral or £owicz-clad bloke in the Warsaw metro?

Genealogy / searching for ancestors Wenerowicz [20]

33 of Poland's 35 Ziółtkowskis live in the northern Bydgoszcz and neighboring Baltic coastal Słupsk areas. Far more scattered are the main clusters of Poland's 30 Wenerowiczes: Warsaw (7), Konin (7), Gorzów (8) and Katowice (5).

Food / Seven Sisters Cake (Polish style cookin) [49]

Lost Polack -- you have piqued my curiosity. What island is it you live on?

Food / Healthy polish food? [98]

The Polish food of the 19th-century peasants who went to America was quite healthy:
-- whole-grain bread, high-fibre groats, root vegetables (beetroot, rutabaga, carrots, celeriac, etc.)
-- high-cholsterol foods such as meat, eggs, cream, cheese, butter, lard, etc. were consumed in moderation and people aet theri fill only on special occasions, and their negatvie effects were more than offset by hard physical labour

-- enough Vit. C in fruit, sauerkraut and vegetables to prevent scurvy.
Only after coming to America, the once-in-a-while dishes, esp. lots of meat, become a steady diet and high cholesterol and its consequences followed.
The same holds true for Italians. Heart atacks were rare in Italy thanks to the heart-healthy Mediterranean diet, but once in America the once mainly vegetable-based pasta sauces got loaded down with meat, and the Anglo steak fetish took hold and....

Language / Dziadzia / Babcia - help me with spelling/pronunciation [81]

In Polish-American speech it has been common to use non-standard Polish insertions in English speech.
Terms such as busia, babci, baci, dziadzi, dziadzia, and cioci, ciacia are widely used as in:
Cioci is coming round today. We're going by baci's this evening. My busia used to work in a cigar factory. Hi, Dziadzia!
Many of those that use these are totally unfamilair with Polish spelling and may write jaja, chacha, busha and bopchee.

Genealogy / Mikulski and Makarewicz surnames [3]

There are more than 4,000 people in Poland named Makarewicz. The name's ancestral strognhold is obviously the Podlasie region, notably the Białystok and Suwałki areas. The village of Krzywiec is located there (up till 1998 it was in Białystok voivodship).

Life / Why there is always around a horrible smell of sweat in Poland [188]

Wasn't it Queen Elizabeth I who said she took a bath once a month whether she neeed it or not?

Law / How to register a foreign Non-EU car in Poland? [25]

Would soemone having US number plates on a car really get stopped over that in Poland? Anybody had such experience?

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4501]

Jakiel (or Jakel) is one possible hypocoristic (endearing diminutive) form of such first names as Jakub or Joachim. The adjectival "-ski" ending may indicate patrimony, so Jakielski (Jakelski looks to be a misspelling or mistranscription from the Cyrillic)* would mean Jacobson. This does not mean the name is necessarily of ethnic Poilish origin, as the same principlel applies to Russian, Belarussian, Ukrainian and Slovak names.

* A semi-literate priest or village scribe (and such predominated back when) could have easily transcribed the Cyrillic Яакел as Jakel, forgetting that the Russian "e" palatalises (softens) the preceding consonant and should be transcribed into Polish as "ie".

Jakiel (or misspelt Jakel) could have arisen as the hypocoristic form of the first names Jakub or Joachim. The adjectival -ski ending could have indicated sonhood, so Jakielski would have meant "Jake's boy".

Lesko is the name of a town in Poland. The "les" root could have also been derived from las~les (forest) or the first name Lech/Leszek.

Ryczek is the diminutive form of ryk (roar, bellow, low -- the loud sound made by different animals). I could have origianted as a nickname for someone known to emit such sounds or toponymically to identify someone as an inhabitant of Rycza, Ryczka, Ryczki, Ryczów etc. ropughly translatable as Roarville, Lowton, etc.

The KOTKOWICZ surname may have evolved as follows. When someone nicknamed Kotek (kitten) for whatever reason fathered a son, fellow-villagers would have instinctively referred to the offspring as Kotkowicz or Kotkiewicz. The father might have been nicknamed Kotek because he had something about him that reminded people of a young cat or because he hailed from some such locality as Kotki, Kotkowo or Kotków (Kittenville, Kittenton, Catshire).

Witowski

It may have been butchered or changed from Witkowski, but Witowski is also a bona fide surname used in today's Poland. Mateńkowski is also known and can be found in official registries, however its sole surviving bearer (a female) has died.

Szczerbacki from szczerbaty (gap-toothed like Madonna who can eat spaghetti without opening her mouth!) or a toponymic nick for someone from such places as Szczebaków, (szczerbin or Szczerbowo (Gapville).


Probably from szczerbaty (gap-toothed) or toponymically from the locality of Szczerby or Szczerbowo (Gapville).

The szczerb- (shcherb-) root is common to different Slavonic tongues. There are surnames and place-names incorproating it in all those countries.


It could have also come from the hypocoristic form of Konstanty -- Kostek. Incidentally, that is the root of Kościuszko's name which means "little Connie".

Szymkowiak, Ignasiak

Both surnames are the most common in western Poland's Wielkopolska region. The largest Szymkowiak concentration is in the Poznań area and Ignasiak -- in and around Kalisz. Both names are also well-represented in the region's surrounding areas such as Piła, Leszno and Konin.


Nobody in Poland currently uses the Muławka surname, but there are several hundred people named Mulawka. Their major concentrations are in southern Poland including the Tarnobrzeg and Katowice areas. The mulawka (aka malawka) is a fresh-water fish that buries itself in muddy lake bottoms (from the word muł = muck, mud) when startled. Possibly a folk name for the tench (lin). It is not inconceivable that the word/name also exists in neighbouring Slavonic countries such as Ukraine and Slovakia.


The basic root is koza (goat), of which one spin-off is koziarz (goatherd). The adjectival Koziarski nickname probably originated to indicate the goatherd's son.


Wikarski - the vicar's son
Piechiowiak - the foot-soldier's son or the bloke from (the village of) Piechów
Kurkowski - the guy from Kurków (Spigotville, Tapton)

Sowiński, Dolniak

Both are probably of toponymic (place-name) origin. There are several localities called Sowin (Owlville, Owlton. Owlboro, etc.), so Sowiński would mean "the bloke from Owlshire".

There are many paiors of localities, eg Brzeziny Górne and Brzeziny Dolne (Upper Birchville and Lower Birchville). Dolniak would be used for someone hailing from the latter.


Indeed, this is a stumper. The closest word to Czyczyn is czyczucha meaning either a type of silver-handled sword or a sterlet (Acipenser ruthenus), a fish of the sturgeon family.

Among toponyms within today's truncated Poland the only thing that even comes close is Czyczkowy. Unless it was originally Czyżyny which would have produced the Czyżyn surname and it got misspelled somewhere along the line


Possibly from the marud- root which has generated such words as marudzić (to dawdle, grumble, pester) and maruda (a dawdler, grumbler, ne'er-do-well). In final position voiced consonants are devoiced so Marud and Marut would be pronounced identically. If someone's name had been Marud, he would pronounce if MAH-root and the semi-literate village scribe would write it down as Marut.


Probably it was Truszczyński. Possibly from truś/trusz - rabbit, coward, scaredy cat
or truszczelina - a tree species (eolutea).
Ideal toponymic source: Truszczyny in Masuria.


The vast majority of -owski surnames arose as toponymic nicknames, in this case probably from Wadów or Wadowo (Faultville, Flawton?) and Mirów or Mirowo (Peaceboro?) respectively.


Krajewo --at least a dozen such places in Poland, hence Krajewski = the bloke from Krajewo.
AS to what Krajewo means...well, the root "kraj" may mean country as in foreign country or edge, rim, border. So if we were to hazard a guess it could have meant something like Counryville, but even more likely Edgerton, Edgeville, Rimburg, etc

USA, Canada / Polish Community in Atlanta? [8]

Atlanta is not a strongly Polish part of America, but some glimmers of Polishness can be found even there including:
· Polish Club of Atlanta at 3661 Southpoint Court
· Polish Restaurant at 3425 Medlock Bridge Rd. in Norcross, GA
· Polish Sunday Mass at 2PM at St Marguerite D'Youville Catholic Church
85 Gloster Road NW, Lawrenceville, Georgia 30044
· People trying to get together to cultivate Polish projects, etc.: /cities/us/ga/atlanta/

Language / Perfective vs Imperfective - grammar [150]

-- Adding a prefix (eg prze-) to an imperfective verb such as czytać in the present tense gives it a future meaning. There are no separate future endings in this case.

-- The future can also be formed with będę, będzie, etc. in which case the imperfective infitive czytać or past participial form czytał/czytała (depending on the speaker's gender) is used. Będę/będzie may not be used with perfective verbs.

-- There is a difference in meaning between przeczytam: very definite and determined: I WILL read a given book,. article, etc., whilst będę czytał/czytała (dependign on the speaker's gender) is more vague and indefinite (I will be reading, I'm going to read) and suggests some unspecified time in the future.

Genealogy / Dreja and Lama surnames [9]

Th Dreja surname may have arisen from:
*a the coat-of-arms by that name
* the German word drei (three)
* the locality of Dryja in the Konin area
* a short form of German Andrew -- Andreas.
There are 453 Drejas in Poland, of whom 313 in the Katowice area, the name's apparent ancestral nest.

Food / Fermented Oatmeal Soup from Poland - Recipe? [67]

KESELITSA is not a Polish spelling. Presumably it is derived from kisiel (pronounced: KEy-shell) -- a potato-starch gel, pudding or thick soup) and would have to spelt something like kisielica? It must be a highly local concoction. Has anyone seen the word in print?

Genealogy / Last Name Information - Lewandowski [16]

Actually there were four lines of noble Lewnadowskis, each entitled to use a different coat of arms. One of them called Dołęga has got have arrows on it. The crowned knight's helmet is a typical emblem found in teh crest (upper section) of most Polish coats of arms.

USA, Canada / I WANT TO LEARN TO SPEAK POLISH IN TORONTO ?? ANY SUGGESTIONS [13]

Take a tram to Rącze Wały (Roncevalles Ave) and hang out at the local shops, bars and restaurants.

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4501]

The closest now sued in Poland is Truszczyński.

Genealogy / Surname Krzyszczuk [35]

That's not much to go on. Both the name's -uk ending and the fact that the largest concentration is in eastern Poland's Zamość area indicate that this is an eastern (Ruthenian-influenced) surname. If it was changed to Krzczuk in America, his fellow-Americans must have had quite a time dealing with that tongue-numbing, multi-consonantal mouthful.

Genealogy / Surname Krzyszczuk [35]

Krzczuk is monosyllabic in Polish and pronounced more or less like: KSHCHOOK. Probably every third American who heard it would reply with "Gesundheit" (Bless you).

Food / Types of CHEESE in Poland [150]

I don't believe so. At least not traditonal Polish recipes.

News / Dalai Lama says: "POLAND HAS RETAINED ITS SPIRIT" [77]

I simply asked for a comment whilst withholding any remarks of my own.. Judging by some of the things about Poland we see on this forum...well, you know what I mean.

At all anniversary assemblies, ceremonies, presentations, etc. there is plenty of diplomatic courtesy, high-sounding slogans, etc.

USA, Canada / Are there any Polish persons living in Louisiana? [17]

Chicago Al's
Home of great hot dogs and Polish sausage
670 Oneal Ln
Baton Rouge, LA 70816
(225) 275-1966

Language / Ukrainian language similar to Polish? [236]

Pies uciekł do lasu, a kot do miasta.
Stol z powylamywanymi nogami stal w Szczebrzeszynie, gdzie znany chrzaszcz brzmi w trzcinie.
Co sadisz o boskiej Julii, klejnocie ukrainskiej sceny politycznej?
Dlaczego mnie juz nie kochasz?
On zarabia 10 złotych na godzine w sklepie.
Sasiadka mojej synowej splonela zywcem w samochodzie.
Lwow, Luck, Kamieniec Podolski i Zytomierz wiecznie polskie!

Genealogy / Wolochowicz [14]

Although Wołochowicz is not a typical Jewish name, it cannot be said that no Jew ever used it. Most any Slavonic surname has been used by Jews at one time or another. There were the readily identifiable Jewish names such as Szapiro and Margolis, Yiddish ones such as Goldberg and Apfelbaum (pronounced Apfelbojm in Yiddish), and there were countless typically Polish, Russian, etc. surnames used by people of Jewish descent. At times a Kirschman or Goldstein found it expedient to pass himself of as Wiśniewski or Złotkiewicz. As different armies steamrollered their way across Poland, a Górski may have decided to be known as Berg and vice-versa.

On into the 19th century, Jewish naming practices drove the partitioning powers up the wall! (Serves ‘em right!!!) Many Jews were known by temporary patronymic nicknames in that they were not passed on as surnames to future generations. Eg – Kagan Jankielewicz meant "Kagan son of Jankiel". But when Kagan married and sired a son called Baruch, the latter would have been known as Baruch Kaganowicz. Naturally this threw the "Ordnung muß sein" Krauts into a tailspin and confused their record-keeping, so the Prussian partition authorities forced everybody to legally register a normal pass-downable surname.