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Post by jimpres on Dec 28, 2005 11:46:29 GMT -7
Rabbit,
Rymut's study of 2002 is more recent then Hoffman's of 1990. But you should look at both. Some telephone books are on line now. You will have to check. I would look for the Elblag directory first since most of your names are concentrated there.
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nancy
European
Posts: 2,144
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Post by nancy on Dec 28, 2005 12:48:34 GMT -7
Those online telephone directories seem to come and go quickly. There was one that worked a couple of months ago, then was taken down. I'm not sure exactly what is available right now. The privacy laws are strict. Regarding the surname search, I looked today at www.herby.com.pl/herby/ I think this is still the 1990 information - Żydanowicz had 67 people and Szarejko had 924. The distibution of names is given according to the old (pre-1999) provinces, so all of those folks n the old Elblaskie might actually now be in towns other than Elblag. From Hoffman's book (Polish Surnames: Origins and Meanings, second revised edition, 1998): There is no entry specifically for Żydanowicz , I think because Hoffman limited his book to names with at least a certain number of occurrances (100) and this name may not have made the cut. However, he says that the root of names that start with Żyd derive from żyd = jew, or the root of common toponyms; another possibility is zydel (no dot on the z) which means stool. The suffix - owicz is a patrynomic, meaning "son of." For Szarejko , the entry indicates Szar is from szary, meaning grey or ashen (Rymut); although there are some other words that might have been the source of some of the names, like szarak for hare. Regarding the ending of -ejko or -ko, Hoffman says: "Poland's history has been extraordinarily closely tied to that of its neighbors, and that fact reflects in the many non-Polish surnames ones hears among Poles. Often suffixes are what tip you off that these names are not originally Polish. Surnames ending in the suffixes listed below usually began in, or were filtered through, some other linguistic milieu, even if their pronounciation and spelling have been polonized. ... -enko: Ukrainian, -ko Ukrainian or Russian, but is also often Polish." It seems that the origin of our names can be complicated and not always straight forward!
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Post by Jaga on Dec 28, 2005 20:41:38 GMT -7
Dee,
***he offers a trace of the origin, derivation and meaning of surnames***
guys,
I can offer you this much for free. In some cases my father can help me out, he is a retired professor of history with some genealogy experience
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Post by Rabbit on Dec 28, 2005 21:33:07 GMT -7
Jim ..... Thanks for the reply, but how can I access the online telephone directories?
Nancy ......
.. "It seems that the origin of our names can be complicated and not always straight forward!"
You can say that again!! But thanks for passing on Hoffman's information.
and Jaga.... If you have anything more on this, would appreciate it.
Dee
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