PolishOrigins(TM) Forum

Re: Looking for Sophia Lupa (b. 1883 in Chorzelow) records

dnowicki — Sat Jun 29, 2013 1:53 pm

Author: dnowicki

Posted: Sat Jun 29, 2013 1:53 pm

Darlene,
Not only is it possible that the Catholic Church used Latin for church records but for centuries it was the usual language used in records. Remember that Latin was the language used for Mass and the Sacraments until after the Second Vatican Council in the mid 1960s. In the records the first names were written in their Latin form and only the surnames were written in the vernacular. Other words in the records were also usually in Latin. There are several formats used in the record books. The older format was to enter the record in paragraph form. In such records the text is usually in Latin sentences. In the columnar format the headings of the columns were in Latin sometimes with a Polish or in the USA an English translation under the Latin. In this format the first names were usually in Latin along with dates (e.g. 14 Martii Anno 1870 means March 14, 1870). Other words would also be in Latin although the format did not require too much other information. In the paragraph form of records the quality of the Latin text varied with the linguistic skill level of the individual priest.
As far as the relationship between the formal name entered in the record and the common name used in everyday life is concerned, diminutives were and are commonly used in place of the formal name. A good example that comes to mind is President Kennedy. His formal name, of course, was John F. Kennedy but he was often referred to as Jack Kennedy. Polish is very fond of diminutives so Jan may have been Janek or Jasiek or Janusz to his family and friends or Antonina may have been called Nina or Tosia by her family.
I would say that it would be more common to reverse the names of a second son so that if one was Joseph the second may be Michael Joseph, but obviously this was not always the case. Also, sometimes names were recycled within a family. If a son named Jan (John or Joannes in Latin) died in infancy it was not uncommon for a child born after the death of the earlier son to also be called Jan/John.
A side note on the name Michael...both the English and the Latin versions of this name are the same---Michael. The variations in the ending you found as Michaelis is due to the fact that Latin, unlike English, is an inflected language where the use of nouns, adjectives, pronouns, etc. in Latin are indicted not by position in a sentence but by changes in endings (six in the singular and six in the plural, although one case (Vocative) is the same as the Nominative except for some names of the second declension. An example that most people may recognize would be the famous line from Shakespeare "Et tu, Brute?" ("And you, Brutus?"). Brutus is the Nominative which is used to indicate the subject of a verb and Brute is the Vocative or the case of direct address. The remnants of declensions in English are found in pronouns. For example, He (subject), his (to show possession) and him (direct object). The reason that Michael is the same in English and in Latin is that it is biblical name (Hebrew) and thus is not native to either Latin or to English.
When I gave a lecture on Latin Church Records to several different genealogical societies in the past few years I put together a list of Latin first names with their English and their Polish versions which was a hand out for the participants. It is not exhaustive, but includes names I've seen in records. If you believe that it would be helpful to you, please send me a private message with your email address and I would be happy to send it to you as an email attachment.

Dave

Re: Looking for Sophia Lupa (b. 1883 in Chorzelow) records

dpmiller12 — Sat Jun 29, 2013 12:06 pm

Author: dpmiller12

Posted: Sat Jun 29, 2013 12:06 pm

Thanks for the great info. I have been struggling with the various spellings. The spellings were taken from baptism records. Is it possible the Roman Catholic Church used the Latin spellings? I have also heard it was not unusual for the baptismal name to be different from the common name. For example, my great uncle was baptized as Joseph Michael but his legal name was Jan. (His brother was named Joseph, just to add to the confusion). That example is accurate because they emigrated to Detroit and I have living relatives who verified that unusual fact. (No, they were not half brothers).
Darlene

Re: Looking for Sophia Lupa (b. 1883 in Chorzelow) records

dnowicki — Sat Jun 29, 2013 11:18 am

Author: dnowicki

Posted: Sat Jun 29, 2013 11:18 am

When you search for more information keep in mind that the forms of the names you have listed are in Latin and that the individuals were known by the Polish versions of those names in Poland and by either or both the Polish and English versions in the U.S. The equivalents are: Josephus=Jozef and Joseph, Michael (Michaelis is the genitive singular and means "of Michael")=Michal, Sophia=Zofia and Sophie, Antonina (Antoninae is also the genitive and means "of Antonina")=Antonina (Polish) and Antoinette (English), Valentinus=Walenty and Valentine, Carolina=Karolina and Carolina/Caroline, Nicolaus=Mikolaj and Nicholas and Genovefa=Genowefa and Genevieve.
Knowing the equivalents should make it easier to recognize the names in the vernacular.
Best of success in your research.

Dave

Looking for Sophia Lupa (b. 1883 in Chorzelow) records

dpmiller12 — Sat Jun 29, 2013 10:00 am

Author: dpmiller12

Posted: Sat Jun 29, 2013 10:00 am

My grandfather is Josef Lupa, born in Chorzelow in 1899. He had a brother, Joseph MIichael (Jan) born in 1891. Both emigrated to the US (1920 and 1910).
They had a sister, Sophia, born in 1883. She stayed in Poland.
Parents of Josef, Jan and Sophia were Michaelis Lupa (b. 1855) and Antoninae Pietryka (b. 1863).
Sophia married Valentinus Witek and had a daughter, Carolina, born in 1902.
Carolina married Nicolaus Mleczkowski and had a daughter named Genovefa Sophia (1929-1948).
I am looking for records to confirm the information I have about Sophia and her descendants. I am most interested in what happened to Genovefa. I believe they stayed in the Chorzelow area.