Town names / Family Name Ksiazko

[ksiazko]

Hello I'm new here. Im trying to find out the names of the town where my father and his family came from. My father passed away last year and no one in the family who is old enough will give me any information. Im just trying to connect with my family roots.

the towns or areas that my father said he lived sound like the following. Kinkski, Glankotol, Surupilly Yerenyerbo. He mentioned that they lived on the border of germany and considered themselves as much German as Polish. he also mentioned Elk town, and talked about picking mushrooms and wild deer were in the forest. but details about all the above are very confusing as on my birth certificate the place of his birth says Suwalki. but on his death certificate it says Bialystok 

Im also trying to find genealogy lines with the name Ksiazko. this is my maiden name. Would love to know the origin of this name. and where i come from. I have no photos of my grandmother and would love to make connections or anything that anyone can help me with and i have been searching for 15 years without any success. 
Grandparents names were Julian Ksiazko and Carolyn Forba



thank you.
Caroline Jones (Ksiazko)

[Jaga]

Caroline,

I can try to help you a bit. Last name "Ksiazko" may come from "Książka" that means a book, but I did not hear too many last names sounding like that. I would opt for "książę" that means a prince or of the prince.

Referring to the location where your family comes. Bialystok is in Northeastern Poland, close to Russia, Belarus and Baltic rather that to physical Germany, but there was an isolated region of Prussia nearby, that belonged to the Teutonic Knights in the past, with a main city Elbląg, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elbl%C4%85g
called Elbig

Probably this was the region your father talked about

Names of the towns Kinkski, Glankotol, Surupilly Yerenyerbo - sound Belarussian, but their original names were slightly different.

[kaima]

Adding to Jaga's suggestions and information, I presume you have tried a soundex search at Ancestry . com
www.ancestry.co.uk/boards/

where you try various phonetic spellings - as far as your imagination can take you - and search for the various spellings. The 'soundex' comes in where it searches for similar sounding names, and suggests alternate spellings that may have been used by your families or others with similar names. It makes a good starting point.

Then whatever those results turn up you can try the most favorable at other sites, perhaps the Ellis Island one-step search. Even if your vamily came in through Baltimore or another port, searching the New York Ellis Island data base may give you an indication of villages & locations names similar to yours came from.

For Ellis Island the simplest search appears to be through

www.jewishgen.org/databases/eidb/ellisgold.html?

Good luck. And drop by to let us know if any of htis helps; better yet come back and join in the conversations or start your own!

Kai