Posts by sabrej

sabrej

3 Oct 2007

Genealogy / Polish name? Hunzah Swantek (Swiatek?) [9]

I've looked through all the naturalization records on ancestry, but can't find his. I was hoping to find it, so I could get a ship name from it, and find him that way, but no luck so far.

I even printed up all the names of the male passengers about the same age from Poland on all the ships from 1885-1887(that's a LOT), and read through them to my grandpa, hoping one might strike a memory.

My grandpa is very old, and nothing sounded familiar to him, but he was sure that the name he heard several times as a child might be connected somehow.

But, we're from Oklahoma, so we may have ruined the name in translation, but he remembered it as Hunza Swantek.
But I haven't been able to find any records under that name either. I'm not even sure if the name is Polish.

sabrej

3 Oct 2007

Genealogy / Polish name? Hunzah Swantek (Swiatek?) [9]

I've been researching my gg grandfather, who came from Poland to the US sometime around 1886-1887.

Unfortunately, there's some mystery as to his name. When he arrived here, he changed his name to John B Smith. Nobody in the family knows who he was before, and he never discussed it. He was born 12-24-1869, maybe in Lodz or Warsaw? Family story is that he was from Warsaw, where his family owned a mill of some sort.

His obituary said he was baptized and confirmed in the Roman Catholic Church in Poland, which would be great, since churches usually keep records of those things, but without knowing the exact area he was in or his name.....:(

My grandpa says he remembers the family teasing John B about Hunzah Swantek or Unza Swiantec, although my spelling is probably awful.
Maybe this was just a joke, or maybe it has some significance.
Wondering if anyone can tell me if this sounds like a Polish name, and maybe if it's male or female?
I think I may have hit a brick wall here, but I keep hoping!