PolishOrigins(TM) Forum

Re: Wieslowicz origin/meaning

wierbonics — Fri Apr 21, 2023 6:28 pm

Author: wierbonics

Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2023 6:28 pm

Thank you

Re: Wierbonics/Wisolowicz

Sophia — Fri Apr 21, 2023 6:10 pm

Author: Sophia

Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2023 6:10 pm

wierbonics wrote:

Holy cow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sophia - you are great! I don't know what to say. Thank you so much. This all seems to make perfect sense.
MikeP - thank you so much for the background on the surname. I find this especially interesting due to the fact that I'm a nature freak and love gardening as my father did.
I am just blown away by your perseverance and kindness.
You are all such excellent researchers!
This all makes me so excited.....so in my humble opinion, our name Wierbonics, was an evolution of misinterpreted handwriting of Wierzbowicz . That seems reasonable, right?

I.am.blown.away!!!

Hi Wierbonics,
I can hardly imagine the feeling you must have, finally knowing what your family's name originally was. I am so pleased to have contributed to that.
You have summed it up very well. Your current spelling, Wierbonics, came about because of misinterpreted handwriting. If you go back to the link I gave you for looking up Connecticut marriages and you do a search on Wierbonics, you will see a 1929 marriage where that form of the name was used, which fits in with what you wrote in your first post, where you said your surname was changed somewhere between 1920 and 1940.
I am still hoping that someone reading this thread will be able to make sense of the town that Felix came from.
Have a wonderful time sharing the Wierzbowicz info with your family!
Best regards,
Sophia

Wierbonics/Wisolowicz

wierbonics — Fri Apr 21, 2023 12:30 pm

Author: wierbonics

Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2023 12:30 pm

Holy cow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sophia - you are great! I don't know what to say. Thank you so much. This all seems to make perfect sense.
MikeP - thank you so much for the background on the surname. I find this especially interesting due to the fact that I'm a nature freak and love gardening as my father did.
I am just blown away by your perseverance and kindness.
You are all such excellent researchers!
This all makes me so excited.....so in my humble opinion, our name Wierbonics, was an evolution of misinterpreted handwriting of Wierzbowicz . That seems reasonable, right?

I.am.blown.away!!!

Re: Wieslowicz origin/meaning

Sophia — Fri Apr 21, 2023 5:20 am

Author: Sophia

Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2023 5:20 am

Hi All,
So much good information is being gathered here!
We now have a solid spelling of the surname, Wierzbowicz, and very nice info on the root of that name. Just to add, the name Felix would be Feliks in Polish, and your Sophie would be Zofia. You've got their date of marriage, as well as their census records for 1910 (good find!), 1920, 1930 and 1950.
One thing that still is a sticking point is Felix's place of origin. To that end, I have found a ship manifest for a Franciszek "Wersbowitz." It shows that his destination is his brother "F. Wierzbowicz" in Waterbury, CT. He is on line 8, here:
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-G165-9KP?i=656&cc=1368704
It gives Franciszek's last residence, but I cannot read what it says. Can anyone help?
There is also a brother-in-law, Teofil Sikpowitz, whose destination is also "F. Wierzbowicz" in Waterbury, here on line 22:
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-816G-VQ8?i=523&cc=1368704
Again, I cannot read his former residence. It may be less helpful, because as a brother-in-law he would not necessarily be from the same town as Felix.
Even more interesting is this:
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C95R-Z9QY?i=55&cc=1368704
It appears that Felix, Sophie and two of the kids visited Poland and returned in 1908, see lines 10-13. Note that this is a two-page manifest, so you need to advance to the next frame to see the info on the second page. What is the place name? Islotaki?
Just to add, I would definitely recommend following Dave's advice to get info from the church.
Best regards,
Sophia

Wierzbowicz origin/meaning

MikeP — Wed Apr 19, 2023 9:43 pm

Author: MikeP

Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2023 9:43 pm

Hi All,

Thank you Sophia! Good news! The surname Wierzbowicz is in William Hoffman's "Polish Surnames" book. Here are the details: Wierzb-{tree, plant, growing thing} from wierzba, wirzba (archaic spelling), wierba (dialect), meaning "willow"; Wierzbowicz (223). So as of 2002 there were 223 Polish citizens with this surname.

Mike

Re: Wieslowicz origin/meaning

Sophia — Wed Apr 19, 2023 4:54 pm

Author: Sophia

Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2023 4:54 pm

Here is an example of what Wierzbowicz looks like with fairly typical Polish handwriting. It is very common for the letter combination "rz" to be connected when handwritten, exactly as you see here. Sometimes non-Polish-speaking people mistake it for the letter "n" but it could be mistaken for "r".
Can you see how it would be possible to interpret "wicz" as "nics" and overall how it could look like Wierbonics?
This is just a snippet that I took from a birth record online.

If you would like to hear what it sounds like, go here:
https://translate.google.com/?sl=pl&tl=en&text=Wierzbowicz%20&op=translate
Click on the "listen" icon. The first time you click, it will say the name at regular speed. The second time you click, it will say it more slowly.

Best regards,
Sophia

Re: Wieslowicz origin/meaning

Sophia — Wed Apr 19, 2023 1:54 pm

Author: Sophia

Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2023 1:54 pm

Look at this!
FELIX WIERZBOWICZ SOPHIA FRANSEK 1901-10-23 WATERBURY

This is a line from the free online search engine for Connecticut marriages, here:
https://www.ctatatelibrarydata.org/marriage-records/

Sophia

Re: Wieslowicz origin/meaning

wierbonics — Wed Apr 19, 2023 1:12 pm

Author: wierbonics

Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2023 1:12 pm

Thanks jajan.
That’s why I’m here. “Wierbonics” has always vexed my family as to its origin. People comment on how unique it is and think it’s some type of tech company.

Everyone has been so friendly and helpful on this forum. It’s much appreciated!!

Re: Wieslowicz origin/meaning

dnowicki — Tue Apr 18, 2023 6:12 pm

Author: dnowicki

Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2023 6:12 pm

jajan wrote:

Hi All,

I have been reading along, because there is always something to be learned in these type of posts!

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GRV6-4KG?i=31&cc=1727033&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AMK25-WNS

What do you think of this for the 1910 census? Even worse spelling of the surname, but the rest seems to fit?

FYI Wierbonics - this one has been hard, even for those of us with a lot of experience searching.

jajan

Hi jajan.

Seems like a good fit to me plus their residence was in the same neighborhood as in the 2 censuses found by Sophia. In case All Saints doesn’t work for their marriage here is a link to the history of Polish Catholics in Waterbury and where they worshiped prior to the foundation of the Polish parish https://liturgicalcenter.org/media/parish_pdf/HRT/hrt-14.2.pdf

Dave

Re: Wieslowicz origin/meaning

jajan — Tue Apr 18, 2023 4:19 pm

Author: jajan

Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2023 4:19 pm

Hi All,

I have been reading along, because there is always something to be learned in these type of posts!

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GRV6-4KG?i=31&cc=1727033&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AMK25-WNS

What do you think of this for the 1910 census? Even worse spelling of the surname, but the rest seems to fit?

FYI Wierbonics - this one has been hard, even for those of us with a lot of experience searching.

jajan

Re: Wieslowicz origin/meaning

dnowicki — Tue Apr 18, 2023 3:57 pm

Author: dnowicki

Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2023 3:57 pm

Sophia wrote:

And here they are in 1920.
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9RJM-G9Y?i=27&cc=1488411&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AMCN5-917

Hi All,

St. Stanislaus and 5 other parishes in Waterbury were combined in 2017 to form a new parish of Todos los Santos (All Saints) so it would be a good bet that the records of St. Stanislaus are housed in the office of the new parish. If they are not housed there, the parish should be able to direct you to where they are held. Link: https://allsaintswtby.org/ You may or may not find Felix & Sophie’s marriage but you should find the B&B records of their children there. It would seem to be worth the effort to contact the parish.

Wishing you the best of luck,

Dave

Re: Wieslowicz origin/meaning

Sophia — Tue Apr 18, 2023 2:33 pm

Author: Sophia

Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2023 2:33 pm

And here they are in 1920.
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9RJM-G9Y?i=27&cc=1488411&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AMCN5-917

Re: Wieslowicz origin/meaning

Sophia — Tue Apr 18, 2023 2:14 pm

Author: Sophia

Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2023 2:14 pm

Here is the family in the 1930 census. As Dave had suggested, they appear to have been married about 1905, all kids born in the U.S. Interestingly, Felix here is shown as having come from Lithuania (so, also the Russian partition). This is suggesting an 1895 immigration date. Would be interesting to see earlier census years, to confirm these things.

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GRTP-22L?i=33&cc=1810731&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AXM52-QYC

Wislowicz/Wierbonics

wierbonics — Tue Apr 18, 2023 9:09 am

Author: wierbonics

Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2023 9:09 am

Incredible, Sophia! Thank you so much. I don't know how you found that so quickly. I was on familysearch yesterday and did not find this. I saw that there was a Felix Wierbonies listed on the 1950 Census of Waterbury, CT, which I thought was a misspelling of Wierbonics.
This Werzbizky seems like a potential ancestor but who really knows. As you say, it seems to make sense with the Russian birthplace and age which lines up with my grandfather's birth certificate.
I searched all the names given to me on this forum and nothing panned out.
You're really good at this. Thanks again.

Re: Wieslowicz origin/meaning

Sophia — Tue Apr 18, 2023 8:34 am

Author: Sophia

Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2023 8:34 am

Hi Wierbonics,
For a ship manifest, consider this one:
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J6RB-S6X
Click on the image of the manifest, to enlarge it.
He is indexed as "Felix Werzbizky" and you will see him on line 62. He is arriving in the port of New York on the ship Dania, on the 23rd of January, 1892, from Suwalk, Russia (that would be in Russian Poland, today's place name is Suwałki) and he is 21 years old which would fit with the age you expect him to be.
It may not be your Felix, but it's worth holding on to this.
Best regards,
Sophia

Wierbonics

wierbonics — Mon Apr 17, 2023 1:41 pm

Author: wierbonics

Posted: Mon Apr 17, 2023 1:41 pm

Oops. That last li e was supposed to be

Wierbonics

wierbonics — Mon Apr 17, 2023 1:39 pm

Author: wierbonics

Posted: Mon Apr 17, 2023 1:39 pm

Thank you all for your thoughts and feedback. Perhaps I’ll look into Ancestry.com

You all generated such great leads and ideas Thank you so much. If I find anything further, I’ll be sure to forward to the forum.????????????

Re: Wieslowicz origin/meaning

Sophia — Sun Apr 16, 2023 8:54 am

Author: Sophia

Posted: Sun Apr 16, 2023 8:54 am

Hi Wierbonics and all who are contributing here,
I have a different thought in mind this morning. Perhaps Wiesłowicz is the mis-representation of the name. There are several surnames beginning with "Wierb..." (although none that would meet the 100+ individuals cut-off that Mike mentioned, as an inclusion criterion for the Hoffmann book).
I looked at
http://www.herby.com.pl/indexslo.html (usually referred to as Professor Rymut's index) which compiled the number of people using a surname, based on the 1990 census in Poland. Here are a few names beginning with "Wierb..."
Wierba, Wierbicki, Wierbiel, Wierbik, and Wierbiłowicz, among others.
Also, very interestingly, there is one person who used the surname WIERBANEK.
I realize that one person is not a very convincing statistic. Someone with the surname O'Connor could have moved to Poland in the 1980s and ended up in Rymut's index and that does not make O'Connor a Polish name. Still.... it does open the question of whether the Wierbonics name used by your family is actually the authentic name (maybe with some small spelling adjustment of its ending) and Wiesłowicz was someone's mis-reading of the name from a handwritten record.
Best regards,
Sophia

P.S. Having only one Wierbanek show up in Rymut's index may be a sign that the family is originally from another European country, and Wierbanek was a way of using Polish spelling to represent the sound of the name. Maybe something like Vrbanek?

Wieslowicz origin/meaning

MikeP — Fri Apr 14, 2023 10:18 pm

Author: MikeP

Posted: Fri Apr 14, 2023 10:18 pm

Hi,

I checked the William Hoffman book "Polish Surnames" for Wieslowicz and Wisłowicz. Unfortunately, there are no entries for these surnames. The Hoffman book only includes surnames borne by 100+ Polish citizens. Yes, these are very rare surnames. The book lists several surnames that can come from the root Wisł. They are Wisełka, Wisła, Wiślak, Wisłowski and Wizła. The book also states that the root is related to the Vistula River (Wisła). The Wisłowski surname is more common than Wisłowicz.

Mike

Re: Wieslowicz origin/meaning

dnowicki — Fri Apr 14, 2023 9:21 am

Author: dnowicki

Posted: Fri Apr 14, 2023 9:21 am

BarbOslo wrote:

Hello both,
Totally agree with Sofia. Ship manifest, naturalization document and marriage record. It can bring us further in the search.
-Barb

Hi All,

The first posted doc is a birth registration by the midwife. Based on her surname it is difficult to determine whether or not she spoke Polish. The spellings of the place names are phonetic. The mother was from Tarnów (or a village in that area). Since Henry is the 7th of the couples seven children (at that time) it is almost certain that the couple married in the United States. The Polish Parish in Waterbury was St. Stanislaus, which was founded in 1914 so it is unlikely that they married in that Parish however, it could prove helpful to obtain a baptismal certificate. Perhaps the Polish speaking Parish priest recorded information about the place of origin of the parents. Saint Stanislaus Parish is closed and merged with other Catholic churches in Waterbury. The church building was sold and now houses a Pentecostal Church. It may be necessary to contact the Archdiocese of Hartford to determine where the records from the former Saint Stanislaus Parish are housed. Given the age of the father it is unlikely that there is any World War I draft registration for him since he aged out for all 3 registrations. If the couple was having children on the 2-year plan and Henry was their seventh child it is likely that they were married in the early 1900s—likely somewhere on CN..

It is much more difficult to determine the place of origin of the father based on phonetics and location but an off the wall possibility would be the village of Trawno, which at the time was located in powiat konski of the Kingdom of Poland (Królestwo Polskie) aka Russian Poland, which was on the other bank of the Wisla from Galicia (Austrian Poland. The village today is in woj. Świętokrzyskie. The place fits the bill but whether the guess is correct or not is another story.

It appears that all the stars have to align in order to work out the father’s place of origin. But if this is the age of Aquarius then the Stars May align. It seems that it will take a stroke of luck to determine the places of origin with certitude and to locate the birth records of Felix and Sophie. At least as long dead Romans would say, “Sic mihi videtur” (So it seems to me.)

Since the first asparagus spears of the season are calling out to be harvested that’s all I have to say for today. Now is the time for a young man to head out to his garden.

Wishing you success,

Dave