Genealogy / Coats of arms of Polish cities [51]

Yes, but only on Pawian's rendition.


Yes, they were thinking hard how to represent the motto "nie kijem go, to pałką"; meaning - "inaczej, w inny sposób, ale z tym samym skutkiem". In English: If not (hit him) with a stick, then with a bludgeon"; or "in other way, but with the same effect".

So, they they came up with the key and with the sword, and hence with saints Peter and Paul.

[There is not a single seed of truth in it, but it sounds nicely, doesn't it?]

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


I have no idea what mental state of your ancestor was when he was making the T dropping decision:
+ he did it because he had no affiliation with the meaning of the name; he did not understand the name to start with; it felt foreign to it anyway.

+ he did it because he thought it would be easier to assimilate to the German culture; -itz sounds more German than -icz.
+ he did it because he felt ashamed of his possible Slavic association
+ he did it because he was just sloppy
+ he did it because ... of hundreds other reasons

Any real Pole can easily understands what T actually mean in the Dutkowicz. The surname Dutkowicz derives from one of the several words:
+ from a German personal name Dut(t), and this in turn from the personal names staring with Theud-
+ from the Polish name dutka, a handbag

The roots Dutka- and Duka- are really miles apart.

Dukowicz derives
+ from the verb dukać 'mówić niewyraźnie', to speak in a fuzzy way
+ from the dialectal "duk" meaning 'dziupla, dół' - a hollow in a tree, a bottom


^^
That's correct. The Polish word comes from "kuśnierz", a furrier. Kuśnierek is a diminutive of kuśnierz, like a little furrier, a son of furrier.

Life / Polish film and serial riddles [137]


Kutz, Sól ziemi czarnej. Pure deduction, never saw it. So many hateful comments on youtube.

Language / How to say, "let's go!" in Polish [16]

If Piotrek is a volleyball player I might cheer him "Asa, Piotrek, asa!", where "as" stands for "ace". And the cheers are most often rhymed - as entire schools try come with new original cheers for a class, a school or a town team.

I liked this one, which appeared in one banner in London Olympic: "Wio, Myszata!" - a private cheer of family of Iwona Matkowska, a wrestler in 48 kg category. All Poles know what "wio!" means; "myszata" might mean "a girl with mousie hair colour", or something. A private joke. The effect was comical. She loved it! :-)

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


The older spelling yet was "wikaryusz", as you can easily check now since many old documents have been scanned and digitized by google: books, heraldries, memoirs, annuals of Towarzystwo Przyjaciól Nauk (Society of Friends of Science), etc. One good example is "Liber Beneficiorum" Jan £askiego (1456-1531), edited by Jan £ukowski and published in 1881: archive.org/details/joannisdelascol00asgoog

One advice though: digitizing (optical character recognition) Polish text is often very crude so when searching through digitized plain text always compare the results with the original scanned material (PDF). In this particular context of "Liber Beneficiorum" the word "wikaryasz" appears only as a scanning error of the original "wikaryusz".

Genealogy / Coats of arms of Polish cities [51]


In Poznań there is the term "zielone śledzie" (green herrings). Originally in vinegar sauce, nowadays anything you want: salsa, tomato, etc. Basically: first fried, then marinated.

Travel / How quickly does the sun set in Poland? [12]

She may mean civil (or nautical, or astronomical) evening twilight = the time between sunset and "civil dusk"; that is when geometrical center of the sun reaches 6 degrees below horizon.

(There are three diffrerent measures: civil, nautical and astronomical)
The evening twilight depends on the date and lattitude of the observer. In the Arctic and Antarctic regions, twilight (if there is any) can last for several hours.

September 1, 2012
Toronto, Canada: Civil twilight ends at 2022 hours, sunset 1952; difference 30 minutes
Warsaw, Poland: Civil twilight ends at 1958 hours, sunset 1923; difference 35 minutes
See this page timeanddate.com/worldclock/sunrise.html
(select all columns)

Genealogy / Seeking relatives of Klepadlo family, originally from Brzeniny, Poland [9]


You are on a good track. The verb "klepać" means to clap, to strike. So it could lead to door knocking, as you said, and hence to the noun "kołatka". It could also mean "klepać kosę", to clap a scythe - the first stage of sharpening it. It could also derive from the Old Polish "klepadło", a kind of a fish net.

Original poster: There are 446 people using "Klepadło" surname in Poland, but 0 "Klepadlo". So make sure that you use the correct spelling when searching Polish sources. That's KLEPAD£O: the second letter is a regular L, but the seventh one is £ - L with stroke, roughly pronounced as English W.

The biggest distribution of the Klepadło surname in Poland is in NE Poland: Counties Mońki (160), Białystok (87), Ełk (35) and Gryfino (29).

There are 37 villages and towns named Brzeziny in Poland. The one best matching the "Klepadło" distribution, is this: Village Brzeziny, Gmina Trzcianne, Mońki County, Podlaskie Voivodship .

Anna SUPIŃSKA (again, watch the spelling, this is N acute): the name SUPIŃSKI (male) and SUPIŃSKA (female) derives from the village Supienie, Gmina Filipów, Suwałki County, Podlaskie Voivodeship, NE Poland.

The combined Supiński/Supińska current name distribution is this: Total: 1319
Ełk County: 107
Mońki County: 58
Białystok(city+county): 144
£omża County: 53
Zambrów County: 47

So both names Klepadło and Supińska are again pointing to Mońki County as highly probable place of living of your ancestors. So Brzeziny, or any other village in its former parish Trzcianna would be a highly probable place of living for Franciszek and Anna.

There is an ongoing GENETEKA project, which combines efforts of hundreds of volunteers, who browse hundreds of parish books from various time periods and digitize them.

This shows that the surname KLEPAD£O appears in databases of three voivodships:
Mazowieckie (19 births, 7 deaths, 7 marriages), Warszawa (6, 0, 6), Podlaskie (58, 65, 18). Concentrating on Podlaskie you can see the following picture:

58 births between 1836-1848, surname Klepadło, village Trzcianne
65 death between 1831-1848, surname Klepadło, village Trzcianne
18 marriages between 1800-1848, surname Klepadło, village Trzcianne (1 Tykocin)

What it also tells us is this: the indexing from this area is highly incomplete, for whatever reason: missing parish books, or just work in progress. So there is no digitized record for marriage of Anna Supińska and Franciszek Klepadło, neither the digitized birth certificate of Leszek Benjamin Klepadlo, Brzeziny, 1937.

Currently village Brzeziny belongs to Laskowiec Parish (2 km away), which has been established sometime after 1958. I supposed that Brzeziny used to belong to Trzcianne Parish before that and and all the parish books are still there.

Parafia p.w. Św. Apostołów Piotra i Pawła (St. Appostles Peter and Paul Parish), Trzcianne

ulica 3 maja 33
19-104 Trzcianne

Telefon: (85) 738-50-08
Telefon/fax: (85) 738-50-94

E-mail: kancelaria@parafiatrzcianne.pl
Preview by PolishForums.com Close

News / Józef Szaniawski, - Tragic death of patriot from Poland [12]

That's only some generic insinuation by Polonius3.

Under the comments to that nasty article in "wPolityce" there are two following entries:

Filip Frąckowiak (80.239.242.***) 5 września, 1:57


(Well, here everything is already known: "the ruskis". I am asking politely to show respect to us and to seriousness of the situation in which we found ourselves now. I think I have the right to expect it from Jacek Karnowski)

Filip Frąckowiak-Szaniawski (80.239.242.***) 5 września, 2:04

Filip Frąckowiak, a journalist, is a son of Halina Frąckowiak and Józef Szaniawski.

News / Józef Szaniawski, - Tragic death of patriot from Poland [12]



- wPolityce.pl
You must be really mad, Polonius3, joining the idiots like those in "wPolityce". So find yourself the biggest possible mallet and ... you know what to do next.


Some comments to the above:

- another victim of a serial "suicider". ... peace to his soul. Let's hope that's the truth comes to light

- I could not say whether he slipped or fainted but I saw him falling down. This was shocking, so you idiots hit youseself in your heads [with heavy objects] and do not write such crap here


A RMF FM reporter has determined that there is probably no witness of the accident. The tourists who notified TOPR saw only the falling body of a man.

USA, Canada / Who is better informed, the expat or the Polonia crowd? [144]


And this is exactly for the language like yours that I do not buy or read "piśmidła" distributed for free in GTA by a hateful of North American "pismaki/buraki" of Polish extraction. Not only they are good for nothing but advertising food and real estate, not only they are boring and below any acceptable intelligence standard to be called a newspaper, but they also use the PROPAGANDA language from the old PRL times, which you supposedly hate so much. You are now one of them Polonius3 - a master of commie-like propaganda methods. Congratulations!

Just compare:

"It will be a great day for Poland and Polonia when Donald T. is led away in handcuffs" - Polonius3.
"Each provocateur or a madman who dares to raise a hand against the people's rule, be sure that that hand will be chopped off by the people's power." - Cyrankiewicz

"Solidarity leader Piotr Duda said on TVN24 on Saturday he would recommend to the trade union’s authorities to join an anti-government march in Warsaw on September 29. He said Solidarity would cooperate with all groups who want the current government to land in the trash bin of history. Its motto will be: 'Wake up, Poland!'" - Polonius3

"Be vigilant against the enemy of the nation!" - PRL propaganda

"There is a saying that every country has the kind of government it deserves. If that is true then Poles must like or at least tolerate the empty slogans of the bland, don't-rock-the-boat Tusk clique and all its hand-washes-hand connections and old-boy networks in the business, media and, in many cases, gangster underworld. - Polonius3

"Stonka ziemniaczana - pasiasty dywersant." ("Colorado potato beetle - a striped saboteur.") - PRL propaganda

"To the foaming-at-the-mouth critics of IV RP, do you really believe corruption and non-transparnet behind-the-scenes dealings should be ignored or swept under the rug. Or should they be tackled head on? PiS tried to do that by then it was too late." - Polonius3

"Wzmożona kontrola dźwignią społecznego zaufania" ("Increased public control - a lever for social trust") - propaganda PRL

Genealogy / German war memorial in the Upper Silesian village of Biestrzynnik (Biestrzinnik-Ringwalde) [18]

Check this page, findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=91094177 , posted by Paul Warzecha, on May 31, 2012. He claims that he is a distant relative of Josef Warzecha, listed on the memorial in Biestrzynnik.

The page links to photographs of the monument, as well as to a hand written list of all who died.
The monument contains three group of names
1. Ehrentaffel der im Weltkrieg 1914 - 1918, Gefallenen aus Biestrzynnik (Died in WWI)
2. Die Gefallenen vom Zweiten Weltkrieg 1939 - 1945 (Died in WWII)
3. Ermorde 1945 (civilians murdered by Russians in 1945)
Josef Warzecha is listed in group #2. No ranks, or other details are shown.

P.S. Looking back, I realized that you must a person, who posted the link I referred to, or at least are aware of the link. I apologize for redundancy of my message, but you were not very clear that you wanted some additional information about Josef Warzecha, other than the confirmation about him being listed on that monument.

USA, Canada / Who is better informed, the expat or the Polonia crowd? [144]


- From Wikipedia
That's Chicago Metropolitan Area, a.k.a. Chicagoland. Asides Chicago proper, it includes four major cities with over 100,000 population each and more than 20 towns with over 50,000 population each - some in Illinois, some in Indiana, and some in Wisconsin. The estimates vary, depending on the method of counting - either MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area), or CSA (Combined Statistical Area, which combines the metropolitan areas of Chicago, Michigan City (in Indiana), and Kankakee (in Illinois).

Chicago-Naperville-Joliet, IL-IN-WI MSA 9,461,105 (2010 census)
Chicago-Naperville- Joliet, IL-IN-WI CSA 9,686,021 (2010 census)
In such defined Chicago Metropolitan Area the estimate of 1.5 millions of Polish ancestry makes sense. However, my numbers (2007 census) referred to Chicago proper area, with total population of 2,851,268, and Polish population being the fifth largest group of 179,868 (6.3%) - after African American, Latinos, Irish and German. The source you quoted gives slightly different, and obviously manipulated numbers:


- from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poles_in_Chicago
What do they mean by "German Americans and Irish Americans combined slightly surpassed"? This is nothing but spoofing the data. Even by their own numbers Germans (199,689 - 7.3%) and Irish (199,294 - 6.7%) each exceeds number of Poles (182,064 - 6.3% (not 7.3%, calculate it yourself)) in Chicago proper.

I do not understand a need for engineering the statistics: It is clear that, according to their numbers from 2000 census, we have this:
3. Germans 7.3%, 199,789
4. Irish 6.7%, 199, 264
5. Polish 6.3% 182,064
The data I posted in #89, were taken from 2007, and were different - in this order: 3. Irish, 4. German, 5. Polish

USA, Canada / Who is better informed, the expat or the Polonia crowd? [144]


Not even close.
Chicago, ancestry (2007 survey):
African American: 37% => (1,054,469)
Spanish or Latino: 23% => (741,330)
Irish: (201,836)
German: (200,392)
Polish: (179,868)
Italian: (96,599)
English: (60,307)
...
Total: (2,851,268)

Life / Polish film and serial riddles [137]


For small pictures: Just copy the image to your local disk. Optionally scale it down. Name it whatever you want it. Use the PF feature "attach file(s)". For large images you may need to use services of "Image Shack" or similar.

One of the most terrifying scenes in "Quo Vadis" was the martyrdom of Christians in the amphitheater.
- From the school notebooks

Language / What do you say in a doctors surgery to ask "Who is next in line?" [19]

Przychodzi baba do lekarza ...
An old woman comes to a hospital, and sees a long queue of patients there. She pushes in front of everybody else and says to the doctor: "I will die in one minute". And the doctor says: "Could not you just wait another five minutes?

Life / Polish film and serial riddles [137]

Maksym Krzywonos, Krivonos. One German source said that he was of Scottish origin. In this case his real name may well have been not a nickname based on his crooked or broken nose, but a translation of his Scottish family name Cameron - this in turn possibly deriving from Gaelic cam ("crooked", "bent") and sròn ("nose"). [Both interpretations are not unique]

USA, Canada / Who is better informed, the expat or the Polonia crowd? [144]

With all due respect, Ziemowit, I profoundly disagree. This is a gross oversimplification. Here you will find a very rich source on various dialects in Poland: gwarypolskie.uw.edu.pl . Malopolska dialect as a whole is described there as being linguistically very diverse. This particular page [/url]discusses common features for this region and shows various boundaries of selected major phonetic and morphological phenomena in Malopolska:


gwarypolskie.uw.edu.pl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=502&Itemid=110

gwarypolskie.uw.edu.pl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=442&Itemid=43 - A Podhale jargon (sub-dialect) is one of the Małopolska mountain belt dialects, which also includes: Spisz dialect on the east and Orawa plus south Żywiec, west of Podhale. Podhale dialect is internally diverse, due to the extent of the land (about 50 places).This particular page list 16 different dialectal features, specific to Podhale region. Stress on the first syllable is just one of them.


Absolutely not true. You forgot about all other influences: German, Rusyn, Hungarian and Walachian colonization.

There are records of the early German settlements, dating back to the beginning of thirteenth century. One is known as a transumpt from 1251 of the privilege from 1234 given by Prince Henryk the Bearded to Teodor Cedro from the Gryfita family, governor of Krakow, allowing him to settle German colonists "in silva circa fluvios Ostrowsko, Dunaiecz et Dunaiecz niger, Rogoźnik, Lipietnicza, Salt , Ratainicha, Nedelsc, Stradom, quantum est de sylva ipsius, Dantes eciam his forces pactis et condicionibus his uti, quibus Theutonici Sleser ses in Sylvis locati utuntur ". ie, the prince of allow for settling of the German colonists (Teutonic Silesians) in the woods near the river Ostrowsko, Dunajec, Czarny Dunajec, Rogoźnik - righ tributary of Czarny Dunajec, Lepietnica - left tributary of Czarny Dunajec and Słona, Ratajnica, Niedzielsko i Stradomka on Beskid.

pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podhale
From the times of the Gryfita family comes village Rogoźnik, mentioned in a document from 1237. Teodor Cedro, having no children, donated all his estates to Cistercian monks and built for them a church and a monastery at Ludżmierz (5 km west of today's Nowy Targ). They continued establishing new villages on the basis of the Magdeburg Law: Długopole (1327), Krauszów (before 1333), Ludźmierz (1333), Szaflary (1338) and Waksmund and Nowy Targ (around 1287), and later Kolkuszowa. Such activity was made easier for them by a general privilege obtained from King Władyslaw £okietek in 1308, which allowed them establishment of new villages without asking the King for permission first.

At the same time the settlement activity was carried by Śreniawita family, in the Dunajec valley, east of Waksmund. Their representatives, Lasockis, established Dębno (1335), Ostrowsko (before 1338), Harklowa and £opuszna (second half of XIV c.). Consequently the Dunajec valley has been settled in XIII and XIV c. on the W-E line Długopole-Waksmund-Maniowy (Czorsztyn) (about 40 km) and Szaflary, south of Nowy Targ.

The villages were settled on the basis of the German law. It was based on a contract between an organizer of the settlement action (zasadźca) and the owner of the land. The agreement, called the location privilege, stipulated the rights and obligations of the colonists. The land within a certain area, which they had to exploit by cutting down forests and draining swamps, became the hereditary property of its users. The settlers received personal freedom and the right to self-governance, headed by the mayor - usually "zasadźca". Duties for the owner In the land were clearly identified and could not be arbitrarily increased by the owner of the land. They were usually in form of rent payments and other small tributes. During the time needed to clear the land and settle down the settlers were exempt from all fees and charges. It was a period of so-called "wolnizna" ("wolny" - free), and it only applied to the areas where were no previous settlements. The "wolnizna" period was usually 20 years.

Typically, the settlers received one "łan" (łac. laneus, cs. lán, German. Lahn lub Hube - 25 ha in Lesser Poland) and "zasadźca", the hereditary mayor - several to dozens of "łanów" best located. In addition, the mayor had the right to a run tavern, mill, fish ponds, set beehives in the woods, and had hunting and fishing right. He also had the right to settle his own serfs and craftsmen on his own land. In addition, he was entitled to 1/6 of rent collected. "Zasadźcas" were people from various foreign states: Germany, Silesia, the Netherlands, as well as the native nobility and wealthier peasants. For the settlement the German settlers were used. Many names of Podhale villages witness to German colonization of Podhale: Harklowa, Szaflary, Krauszów, Waksmund.

spzaruski.republika.pl/region/Podhale.html#początki_osadnictwa

Regarding Wallachian influence, check, for example, this source: genealogia.okiem.pl/wolosi_slowa.htm
Derivatives of "Wallachian" word in mountain belt dialects:
Wałach, Wołoch, Wałaszyn - (primary meaning) high mountain shepherd, a man tending to sheep. Helpers of the head shepherd - baca, were also called "wałachs". Polish Górale (highlanders) used to call "wałachs" those among themselves who lived in mountain meadows and tended to sheep.

Secondary meaning: Wałach is an inhabitant of mountain region around Cieszyn.

Wałach in the sense of a junior shepherd, has been replaced by Hungarian "juhas" in XII century. Still the term "wałaszek" survives in Podwik village, Podhale.

There are many other words and expressions in Podhale region, involving "wałach":
wałaska, wałaska gromada, wałasznik, wałaśnik, zwyczaje wałaskie, wałaska kasza, taniec wałaski, trąba wałaska, strój wałaski, koszula wałaska, portki wałaskie or wałaszczaki (wałoszczoki), koszula wałaska, burka wałaska, burnus wałaski, wojewoda wałaski (wajda), osadnictwo na prawie wołoskim (settlements based on Wallachian Law (rule)) , etc.

Geographical names of Walachian origin, cover entire Carpathian belt and Balkans. See here: pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazwy_geograficzne_pochodzenia_wo%C5%82oskiego
Here are few familiar examples:
from bjêska - a mountain meadow, come various mountain ranges: Beskid, Beskidy, Beskidek, Beskidnik (Wetlina, Bieszczad, Bieszczady, Byskid, Byskyd
from chica - hair, beard and chicera - bearded mountain, come names of mountain peaks: Kiczera, Kiczora, Kyczera, Kiczerka, Kiczura, Kiczurka, Keczar, Kieczera, Kikula
from coliba - a hut comes koleba or koliba - a shepherd hut
from grui - a hill, a peak comes Podhalian "groń", an elevated shore of a river or stream. Also "grań" means ridge of a mountain top or a crag: Groń, Gronik, Hruń, Hron

from istep - a settlement, istŭba - a tent, old Ruthenian istobka - bathroom: Istebna (Poland), Istebné (Slovakia - Orava)
from izvor - a spring: Zwor (Stuposiany), Zwur, Zworzec (Dwernik), Zwir, Wirski (Wołosate), Zwory (Lutowiska), Na Zworcach (Sianki), Zverovka (Slovakia - Orava)
from măgura - a stand alone massif, also from Old Slavic maguła "mogiła" - a grave: Magura, Magurka, Magurki, Maguryczne, Magurzec, Maguryczny

from repede - rapid (here: about the current of a river): Rzepedź
from sălaş - a shelter: Szałas, Sałasz, Sałasziszcze, Sałaszisna/Sałaszczisna (Dwerniczek), Sałasyszcze (Krywe), Sałaszyce/Szałaszyszcze (Stuposiany, Szalasziszcze (Wołosate), Szałasisko

Native vocabulary of Podhale dialects
A major characteristics of Podhale dialects is presence of native words, which do not exist in any other Polish dialect.
They are: ciupaga (hatchet), wyzdajać (invent, prepare), złóbcoki (a musical instrument similar to fiddle), nomowiać (to advice to marriage), kumoterki (a decorative sled), pytac (an older man whose role is to invite guests for a wedding) and more. There many words specific to Zakopane - both native and borrowed. In Podhale dialect there are many words that do not exist beyond the mountains: piarg (a rock mound), perć ( mountain path), siklawa (mountain waterfalli), as well as activities related to shepherding and mountain lifestyle: bacówka (shepherd's shelter), bryndza (specific sheep cheeses), koliba (shelter), watra (shepherd's campfire), zawaterniok (a log to to maintain fire), dutki (money), dziedzina (village), moskol (cake made with boiled potatoes and flour), serdok (sleevless sheepskin jacket), styrmać sie (climb, climb up) and many other words.

In some cases, the Podhale vocabulary is more accurate than the corresponding nationwide language. Examples: siano (= hey from the first cut) vs. potrow (= hey from the second cut); watra (= campfire inside a shelter) vs. ogiyń (= fire, campfire in the field).

There are many borrowings from other languages: German: hamry (= forges); Hungarian: baca (= head shepherd), juhas (junior shepherd); Slovakian: frajier (= a lover), hore (= up, upside), héboj (= come), pościel (= a bed); Wallachian: watra, bryndza.

News / Who controls Gazeta Wyborcza?? [216]

Who controls Gazeta Wyborcza??


You are so naive. Antoni Macierewicz, of course.
Any time he comes up with any new Smoleńsk revelation, GW responds. So who pushes the buttons?

News / Kaczyński presents alternative to PO thievery [26]


That's right. The term is TEFLON. :-)

Now, here are some fragments of the Tomasz Lis blog: Między mielonym a mielonką, which I translated for you:

Listening to the voices of the opposition and the anti-Tusk journalism, it's easy to conclude that there exists a panacea on our "non-existing state". If the state does not exist under the rules of Tusk, then the state will reappear after Tusk disappears. If such diagnosis is correct, then Tusk indeed needs to chased out. However there is no indication that chasing Tusk out is a means to a goal for the opposition and its allies, including Rydzyk and Duda. No, it is the goal in itself. The only one; self-subsisting.

Contrary to what many write, Donald Tusk is not made of teflon. Aleksander Kwasniewski is right when he says that "Tusk's charm has faded". The premier is not in the control of the state apparatus, he is not able to determine the priorities and to convince the public to them, and the number of failures and omissions of the current team is growing. However, a single parliamentary debate is enough for Tusk's shares to raise, rather than to drop to the bottom. Why? Because the viewers, the voters, are finding with their own eyes and ears that there is something much worse than our state - it's the opposition.

...
Our opposition wants to condemn Tusk to exile. However it is not able to decide on what charges. Is it for the incompetence, clumsiness, carelessness, irresponsibility, or for the suppression of civil liberties, freedom of expression, the rights of the opposition and a dangerous alliance with Putin and Merkel at the same time. It is about time to decide on the charges: because either we have Tusk the tyran, or the state does not work. Either there is no pilot flying our airplane, or we have the kidnapper and usurper flying with us. Either, or.

Language / Nominative (Mianownik) vs Accusative (Biernik)? [17]


Good advice. When in doubt, statistics wins.
"Nasi chłopcy szczelą gola." Szczelą: 8780 google entries. Strzelą: 185,000.

News / Kaczyński presents alternative to PO thievery [26]

"We need to draw lessons from the experiences of 2005-2007. This is why whatever we are going to propose to Poles I would call the IV Republic minus Ziobro" - Adam Hofman

Life / Polish vs British vs American - Clash of cultures [390]


And just to put it into some perspective - compare it to Toronto subway system. Twenty years ago there were only two lines here: Bloor (green) and Spadina-University (yellow).

• 
  Toronto subway system
  

News / THE ARMY OF POLAND - THE REALITY [395]

I am not expert on strategic military issues, but perhaps you wish to read this expose by Polish four-star general Mieczysław Cieniuch, Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces, in Military Technology Magazine:

miltechmag.com/2012/09/mspo-recent-and-future-developments-in.html

Check also this thread about MSPO-2012 (Międzynarodowy Salon Przemysłu Obronnego) - Internatonal Exhibition of Defence Industry, in Kielce, Poland. You will find there a bunch of official materials from various exhibitors (400 or so), but also some photographs taken by individuals visiting the place. Today is the first day of the exhibition, so there will be more photographs coming.

militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?217041-MSPO-2012-Military-industry-exhibition

Genealogy / Is there a website where you check which Polish family names are popular in which region [6]

We have been using such site for a long time in PF, particularly in the thread "The meaning of your Polish last name" (3021 posts so far).

It is based on the same engine as many other sites elsewhere: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, etc. You have to watch one thing: it does not recognize that -SKI and -SKA are the same names, so you have to test it twice to get totat statistics. It is also very sensitive to diacritic signs, so make sure to put them wherever needed.

Edited:
I believe that data collection in Poland is based on PESEL numbers; in Germany of phone lines.

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

There is some correlation between Chosiński surname and those two villages. Today they belong to two different administrative provinces, yet they are only 19 km appart:

Retkowo, (municipality) Gmina Szubin, Nakło County, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, 33 km SE of Bydgoszcz.
Srebrna Góra, Gmina Wapno, Wągrowiec County, Greater Poland Voivodship, 55 km SE of Bydgoszcz.

The biggest concentration of people named Chosiński (male) and Chosińska (female) is in Wągrowiec County - 14 and 22, correspondingly (out of total 95).
See the red areas in those two maps: moikrewni.pl/mapa/kompletny/chosi%25C5%2584ski.html, moikrewni.pl/mapa/kompletny/chosi%25C5%2584ska.html. That's Wągrowiec County. Coincidence? [Move your pointer around and the county names will show up. Summaries are shown at the bottom and in in right lower corner]

The Poznan Project database has 22 exact matches for marriages of grooms Chosiński or brides Chosińska between the years 1834-1874 (scanned 1800-1950), from various catholic parishes, including Srebrnagóra (alternate spelling of Srebrna Góra). I'll just post the exact matches from Srebrnagóra and Wągrowiec.

Srebrnagóra, 1853, Jacobus Knoch (28), Catharina Chosinska (19)
Srebrnagóra, 1860, Andreas Chosinski (28), Marianna Horka (30)
Srebrnagóra, 1861, Andreas Sobecki (22), Francisca Chosinska (19)
Srebrnagóra, 1864, Telesphorus Radaj (23), Antonina Chosinska (20)
Srebrnagóra, 1865, Franciscus Chosinski (27), Marianna Szaskowska (20)
Srebrnagóra, 1867, Andreas Chosinski (36), Margaretha Ryback (45), Additional information: viduus/vidua
Srebrnagóra, 1873, Michael Crzech (24), Helena Chosinska (26)
Wągrowiec [Wongrowitz], 1859, Thomas Chosinski (29), Marianna Rexmer (31)
There are also approximate matches listing Choysińska , Chozińska, Chocińska alias Choczyńska, Chozinski, etc. You can get it from this page: poznan-project.psnc.pl/search.php

Just select the date period and use the simple surname search in the right upper corner.

There are five exact matches for Hosiński? and Hosińska/Hosinska in Gostyń and Kletno parishes. Inexact matches involve Hoziński, Hozińska, Hasiński, Hasińska. Most of them from catholic parish in Gostyń, none of them from Srebrnagóra.


Domanski, Domański - since 1436, from village names Domanin, Domanice (several in Poland); directly from the given name Doman (= Damian). In Old Polish it was known as Damijan since 1178, Demijan 1405, Doman 1250. It derives from from Latin nickname Damianus. It came to Latin from Greek, and to there from Egyptian goddess Damia.

There is a bunch of related surnames, having the same root, ranging from Doman, Domanek, Domanczuk, Domanicz, Domańczyk, Domanowicz, to Domańszczyński, etc.

The surname Domański (with N acute) is quite popular in Poland: 10944 + 11336 (Domańska). It is fairly well distributed all over the country, but the biggest concentration is east of Warsaw, in Podlasie historical region.

Domanski/Domanska - only 15/14 persons of this name. A little acute sign and such a difference! :-)

Domansky - 0 people of this name in contemporary Poland; this is according to "Moi Krewni" database.

News / Kaczyński presents alternative to PO thievery [26]


"I'd rather see Mr. Kaczynski playing with a calculator than with matches" - Tusk

News / Who controls Gazeta Wyborcza?? [216]

Few days ago there were rumours of some ties of Gazeta Polska Codziennie (GPC) to PiS via:
- Geranium (majority stakes in Forum SA, which is a GPC publisher);
- Srebrna company - associated with the Lech Kaczynski Institute, owning 149 shares in Geranium;
- Jacek Cieślikowski - Geranium president, a Warsaw councillor and assistant of J. Kaczyński;
- Janina Goss - in Srebrna board of directors, a friend of Kaczyński, now a chairman of Forum SA in place of Tomasz Sakiewicz.
I did not check the sources, but this info is still available via Google.

News / Kaczyński presents alternative to PO thievery [26]


Yes, and as I always stress - it really does not matter what system is in place; what matters is the proper implementation and not the frequent changes. Out of interest - the first reform took place in II Republic in 1932 and it was introduced by minister Janusz Jędrzejewicz (future prime minister):

The structure: basic education with 3 options: 4 years | 6 qualifying to gymnasium | 7 + gymnasium 4 (small matura) + general lyceum 2 | vocational lyceum 2 | pedagogical lyceum 3 (big matura)
How many revolutions we have had since then?

History / Was PRL Poland? [37]

Plenty of Poles who were spared the PRL loos, and who today constitute the proud "creme of the creme" of Buffalo and Chicago emigration, must surely remember S£AWOJKI

pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C5%82awojka
or even worse - they came to America well before Polish state tried to enforce some hygiene standards on peasantry. This unusual name for the outhouse, the type of facility encountered in all parts of the world, was adopted in the interwar period from the name of the Prime Minister Felicjan Sławoj Składkowski, who was the initiator of health improvement and hygiene awareness of Polish peasantry.

To each his own Polonius3, long tradition!