Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2016 7:23 pm
Post subject: Chwatek origins
Hello, if you know of any information about this last name, or its origins or locations, please let me know. I would like to know where in Poland this surname comes from and any information in regards to it. thank you
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Elzbieta PorteneuvePO Top Contributor
Joined: 09 Nov 2012
Replies: 3098
Location: Paris, FranceBack to top |
Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2016 8:34 am
Post subject: Re: Chwatek origins
jccz wrote: | Chwatek, Kwiatek or Chvatek |
Many Kwiatek in today Poland (kwiat, kwiatek=flower):
https://nazwiska-polskie.pl/Kwiatek
No Chwatek, but few Chwat - the suffix -ek is used to indicate "little", kwiat=flower, kwiatek=little flower.
Etymology according to http://www.stankiewicze.com/index.php?kat=44&sub=532 is: Chwat - 1578 od chwat ‘zuch, junak’. At this stage google translate is of no help. Polish word "zuch" is used to say brave about young child, also you can name scouts "zuchy".
https://nazwiska-polskie.pl/Chwat
Chvatek is not Polish (no letter V in Polish, V is used for foreign names such as Jules Verne).
Best,
Elzbieta
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HenrykPO Top Contributor
Joined: 05 Dec 2008
Replies: 313
Location: London ON, CanadaBack to top |
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Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2016 9:21 pm
Post subject:
Thank you Elzbieta, thank you Henryk. I am very happy to see your replies. I will continue to look into these places, do you have any idea of how I could start checking provincial records to see if any of these names are a match to my family line? with Polish ancestry, is it typical for last names to be shared by people in multiple locations? or can a last name be shared by many families with no relation? thank you very very much for your time and help.
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Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2016 12:33 pm
Post subject:
jccz wrote: | Thank you Elzbieta, thank you Henryk. I am very happy to see your replies. I will continue to look into these places, do you have any idea of how I could start checking provincial records to see if any of these names are a match to my family line? with Polish ancestry, is it typical for last names to be shared by people in multiple locations? or can a last name be shared by many families with no relation? thank you very very much for your time and help. |
Just as in most places including the U.S., names can be shared with many unrelated people or very specific to a family. It really depends on the origin of the name. I have a very unique name (even in Poland) and almost everyone with my surname is from the same little village. But this is because I have a very rare name which is an unusual diminutive of a common name (Michnal from the Polish Michal or in English Michael). If your name is Smith in English or Kowalski in Polish, the origin of the name is derived from profession and most people with that name are not closely related.
As for where you should begin...in my experience, the best place to start is at home. If you are from the US and your ancestor immigrated here from Poland, I would learn as much as you can about other relatives of his that came here from Poland....look at census records that may indicate the year he immigrated and may indicate alternative spellings of his/her name. Once you have some of this basic info, one can look up ship manifests that may indicate the name of the town he came from or perhaps WWI and WWII draft registrations that sometimes indicate the name of the town. Death records also occasionally have the specific birthplace listed. I'd be happy to give you a hand if you're new to this. Feel free to email me if you'd like some guidance and I will be happy to do a little digging myself. Zen (from PolishOrigins will vouch for me). My trip to Poland is also featured on the Blog tab if you're interested in how I did it. Cheers, Dave [email protected]
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Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2016 8:04 am
Post subject: Genealogy By Place Name
Dave is giving some good advice here. Assuming that your name somehow ties back to your ancestral village is not a good idea. In my own case, it would have been a very bad assumption that would probably have caused me to waste a lot of time chasing down numerous false leads. Even in the old days, people could and did move. Family name spellings change over time. Just because your last name is, say, Jedwabny doesn't mean your family was from Jedwabny. Also, many towns in Poland have the same name. How are you going to narrow down which is the right one?
As Dave points out, you're probably better off learning as much as you can about your family as it arrived and after it arrived in your current country. Track down immigration records, birth records, marriage records, death records, military draft registrations, etc. Those are the documents that are likely to give you some answers. This is not always easy or quick, but nobody said it would be easy or quick.
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