PolishOrigins(TM) Forum

Re: Can someone help with this surname?

Sophia — Tue Aug 04, 2020 11:58 am

Author: Sophia

Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2020 11:58 am

For what it's worth, you can do a search on Family Search using the asterisk as a wildcard. For example, in the First Names box, you can put Leo* and that will find Leopold, Leon, Leonard. For the surname, you can try H*cki or S*ski or whatever you think you see on the 1920 census. That might get you to a ship manifest or New York vital record that helps you figure out who this Leopold is.
Good luck,
Sophia

Re: Can someone help with this surname?

jmd75 — Tue Aug 04, 2020 9:11 am

Author: jmd75

Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2020 9:11 am

[quote="Sophia"][quote="jmd75"]Hoping someone can help me to identify the surname of a gentleman from Poland in this 1920 US Census. The man is on Line 97 - he is listed as my great-grandfather's cousin, first name is Leopold, and I have been trying to figure out the surname for the longest time so that I can find out more information about this man. I have thought the first letter was an A but the census taker's A's do not look like this for other entries - for instance the A in Anna a few lines up. I'm started to wonder if it could be a quickly written H? If anyone has any ideas and could share their opinions I would greatly appreciate it![/quote]

Hi,
I see how that first letter looks like an A, but I agree with you that it is not.
Take a look at all the entries in column 26, where the word "school" is written over and over. The capital S is written various ways. If you scroll down to the very last one .... it looks like the first letter of Leopold's surname.
I am guessing that the name begins "Sz...." and ends as either "....ski" or "....cki."
Trying not to let the H from the name beneath it interfere, it seems to leave you with one or two vowels in the middle.
Does it help?
Sophia[/quote]

That is interesting - my second great-grandmother's surname was Siejk. I have seen it also written as Szejk. He could have had a cousin with that last name except that, as you say, it looks like it ends in ski or cki. I think that whatever Leopold's name is it is badly misspelled.

Re: Can someone help with this surname?

Sophia — Tue Aug 04, 2020 8:15 am

Author: Sophia

Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2020 8:15 am

jmd75 wrote:

Hoping someone can help me to identify the surname of a gentleman from Poland in this 1920 US Census. The man is on Line 97 - he is listed as my great-grandfather's cousin, first name is Leopold, and I have been trying to figure out the surname for the longest time so that I can find out more information about this man. I have thought the first letter was an A but the census taker's A's do not look like this for other entries - for instance the A in Anna a few lines up. I'm started to wonder if it could be a quickly written H? If anyone has any ideas and could share their opinions I would greatly appreciate it!

Hi,
I see how that first letter looks like an A, but I agree with you that it is not.
Take a look at all the entries in column 26, where the word "school" is written over and over. The capital S is written various ways. If you scroll down to the very last one .... it looks like the first letter of Leopold's surname.
I am guessing that the name begins "Sz...." and ends as either "....ski" or "....cki."
Trying not to let the H from the name beneath it interfere, it seems to leave you with one or two vowels in the middle.
Does it help?
Sophia

Can someone help with this surname?

jmd75 — Tue Aug 04, 2020 7:47 am

Author: jmd75

Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2020 7:47 am

Hoping someone can help me to identify the surname of a gentleman from Poland in this 1920 US Census. The man is on Line 97 - he is listed as my great-grandfather's cousin, first name is Leopold, and I have been trying to figure out the surname for the longest time so that I can find out more information about this man. I have thought the first letter was an A but the census taker's A's do not look like this for other entries - for instance the A in Anna a few lines up. I'm started to wonder if it could be a quickly written H? If anyone has any ideas and could share their opinions I would greatly appreciate it!