Genealogy /
Poland Heraldry and Nobility in names/families [59]
A great thread - thanks. In reality, our nobility had probably as many titles as its equivalents elsewhere. We can look into the subject in a greater depth. For the time being, I recommend the following Polish heraldry sites:
gajl.wielcy.pl
ebuw.uw.edu.pl/dlibra/publication?id=49
pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herb_szlachecki_(lista_herb%C3%B3w)
Legend has it that my family's genesis goes back to the early 1300's, and that we are descended from Tatars. I'll probably never know for sure though.The Polish nobility was very different to the rest of Europe. Norman Davies gives an excellent account of this in his work "God's Playground". Cheers.
Why wouldn't you know? If you try to dig into the subject, do some serious research, you should succeed in finding out. So the Polish nobility was allegedly "very different to the rest of Europe"? Why? - "Very different" - wow. Concerning Norman Davies, I would advise some caution with his opinions. Not because he is allegedly a "Polonophile." Actually, from my viewpoiont, he is at times Polonophobic. ( I noticed that, sometimes, when somebody likes another nation, he at the same time has a dislike towards it. Strange how the human mind works.) For example, in "Rising 44" he skips mentioning the Polish last names, uses only the first letters of them, on the grounds they're too difficult for the British public to read, or something of this sort. And he quotes a stupid, racist opinion of Dickens on the Polish language as a justification for it. Norman Davies is Welsh and, if I remember it right, in "Isles" he complains about the discrimination by the English against the Welsh language. So when he says the Polish nobility was "very different" from the nobles elsewhere, I advise not to take his word for it.