Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2014 9:43 am
Post subject: looking for Kwasnieski relatives
[/img]http://image1.findagrave.com/photos/2008/187/28082443_121538202523.jpg[img]
This is my great grandfather and grandmothers grave marker located in Riverhead NY.
I'm interested in knowing about my family history and would like to know if we still have distant relatives still living in Poland.
My grandfather was brought to the US as a child of about 4 by my great grandfather around 1908(?).[/img]
| Description: |
|
| Filesize: |
43.91 KB |
| Viewed: |
11488 Time(s) |

|
|
|
|
Elzbieta PorteneuvePO Top Contributor
Joined: 09 Nov 2012
Replies: 3098
Location: Paris, FranceBack to top |
Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2014 10:12 am
Post subject: Re: looking for Kwasnieski relatives
| j kwasnieski wrote: |
This is my great grandfather and grandmothers grave marker located in Riverhead NY.
I'm interested in knowing about my family history and would like to know if we still have distant relatives still living in Poland.
My grandfather was brought to the US as a child of about 4 by my great grandfather around 1908(?). |
Hi,
The etymology of the name is from "kwas" = acid.
The name in Polish writes with a diacritic mark over "s", and have a second letter "w" before -ski, Kwaśniewski (for men) and Kwaśniewska (for women).
The Polish language have declensions, and a number of names have feminine and masculine versions. If your great grandma had her grave in Poland, it would be Maryanna (double n) or Marianna (modern orthography) Kwaśniewska.
The distribution of the name in today's Poland:
http://www.moikrewni.pl/mapa/kompletny/kwa%25C5%259Bniewski.html
4799 persons with the name Kwaśniewski (men)
and
http://www.moikrewni.pl/mapa/kompletny/kwa%25C5%259Bniewska.html
5096 persons with the name Kwaśniewska (women)
Please note there is no single Kwaśnieski or Kwaśnieska (without second "w").
I wish you chance to find more,
Best,
Elzbieta
|
|
|
PolishLibrarianPO Top Contributor
Joined: 28 Aug 2010
Replies: 323
Back to top |
Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2014 1:05 pm
Post subject:
Hi JK~ Is your grandfather named Kazimierz? Found on Ancestry.com as well as Ellis Island: Marianna Kwasniewski (age 46) who sailed on the S.S. Bremen from Bremen on June 19, 1909 and arrived at Ellis Island on June 30, 1909 with her son Kazmierz (age 4 ½) [X by both their names on the manifest indicates they were detained, probably until someone could come to meet them]. They came from Strzalkowo* Russia, of Polish ethnicity. Nearest relative left behind – sister (aunt) can't read her name or surname of Strzalkowo, Kalisch [Kalisz]. They were going to husband/father Walenty Kwasniewski at 71 N. 6th St. Brooklyn, NY. She was 5 ft. 2 in. tall & Kazmierz was 2 ft. tall; they both had fair complexion, blonde hair, brown eyes. They were both born in ?Skaspki?, Russia [on the town name SKA is quite clear, the next 2 or 3 letters are not, the ending is KI – looking at the other writing in this column, my best guess to the missing letters was SP – I've attached the image for others to deciper]
*Strzalkowo = Strzałkowo (pronounced approx. Strzawkovo) east of Poznan, a little west of Konin, and north of Kalisz.
Others here can advise you as to the birth village name, and, if it is near Poznan, how to search the Poznan records for other relatives. Good luck. ~PL
| Description: |
|
| Filesize: |
3.63 KB |
| Viewed: |
18103 Time(s) |

|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2014 1:54 pm
Post subject:
J and PL
I read sister's name as Stanislawa Wadaj. I think the place's name could have been mishearded. What about Skarbki, in powiat turecki, about 30 miles away?
Gilberto
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2014 2:05 pm
Post subject:
Wow..Thanks for the fast reply
If Kazimierz is polish for Charles then this is the best lead that I have had so far. I know that my grandfather was one of twelve children if that helps. I believe that most were left in Poland.
And my father says that his aunt was called "Wadja" or something like that.
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2014 2:25 pm
Post subject:
J,
The numbers circled in red (below, attached) indicate Kazimierz applied for a citizenship.
see http://www.jewishgen.org/InfoFiles/Manifests/occ/
Gilberto
| Description: |
|
| Filesize: |
37.01 KB |
| Viewed: |
11488 Time(s) |

|
|
|
|
Elzbieta PorteneuvePO Top Contributor
Joined: 09 Nov 2012
Replies: 3098
Location: Paris, FranceBack to top |
Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2014 2:49 pm
Post subject:
| Magroski49 wrote: | J and PL
I read sister's name as Stanislawa Wadaj. I think the place's name could have been mishearded. What about Skarbki, in powiat turecki, about 30 miles away?
Gilberto |
JK, PL, and Gilberto,
Yes it's Skarbki.
The small jpeg attached by PL reads Skarpki ("p" non "b"), but I could find it's the same.
http://dir.icm.edu.pl/Slownik_geograficzny/Tom_X/649
Item Skarbki: w XVI wies Szkarpky powiat Koniński, gmina Władysławów, parafia Rusocice, odleglosc od Konina 20 wiorst
- in XVI the village name was Szkarpky; the parish in Rusocice
I also found a strange old inventory about selling land or villages, from XVI
http://teki.bkpan.poznan.pl/search.php?section=2&single=1&fileno=1&page=7737
The item 5107 (Nr. 1392) 1522 lists Skarpki (and nearby villages)
Wiki about Rusocice and with list of all nearby villages:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russocice
There is circa 60 km between Strzałkowo and Russocice or Skarbki.
Best,
Elzbieta
|
|
|
Elzbieta PorteneuvePO Top Contributor
Joined: 09 Nov 2012
Replies: 3098
Location: Paris, FranceBack to top |
Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2014 3:13 pm
Post subject:
| j kwasnieski wrote: |
If Kazimierz is polish for Charles then this is the best lead that I have had so far.
And my father says that his aunt was called "Wadja" or something like that. |
Charles in English or French is Karol in Polish.
There is no name for Kazimierz in English.
Polish Wiki is making a great effort to keep this table
http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odpowiedniki_imion_w_r%C3%B3%C5%BCnych_j%C4%99zykach
When you do not have any correspondance, you try to substitute - it could be thay found that Kazimierz is not so distant of Karol, then Charles.
Best,
Elzbieta
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2014 3:21 pm
Post subject:
Elzbieta,
What surname do you read? It seems there is no Wadaj in Rymut's.
Gilberto
| Description: |
|
| Filesize: |
10.26 KB |
| Viewed: |
18065 Time(s) |

|
|
|
|
Elzbieta PorteneuvePO Top Contributor
Joined: 09 Nov 2012
Replies: 3098
Location: Paris, FranceBack to top |
Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2014 5:38 pm
Post subject:
| Magroski49 wrote: | Elzbieta,
What surname do you read? It seems there is no Wadaj in Rymut's.
Gilberto |
Glberto,
It would be rather with "y" at the end as I see it. Or maybe s.
Still, I do not have any idea.
JK said more or less "Wadja"
Trying a kind of combinatory with moikrewni does not help. Wada or Woda are meaningful words, but still no idea.
Eventually I looked up http://www.stankiewicze.com/index.php?kat=44&sub=555 with hundreds of names. No idea either.
Sorry, I do not have any proposal.
But I do agree with you that we shall have a name, with etymology.
Best,
Elzbieta
|
|
|
dnowickiPO Top Contributor
Joined: 28 Dec 2011
Replies: 2950
Location: Michigan City, IndianaBack to top |
Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2014 8:23 pm
Post subject:
Elzbieta, Gilberto, etc.,
For Polish immigrants to the USA and their children in the late 19th and early 20th centuries the English names they used may or may not correspond to the literal meaning of their Polish first names. Names like Jan, Andrzej, Piotr, Maryanna, Katarzyna, etc. usually were translated into the English version of those names---John, Andrew, Peter, Maryanne/Mary, Catherine, etc. Other names like Kazimierz, Tadeusz, Walenty, Wojciech, etc. do actually have an English equivalent. The proper English form is often the stem or the Nominative singular of the Latin version of those names---Casimir (from Casimirus), Thaddeus (Latin Nominative rather than the stem), Valentine (from Valentinus), Adalbert (from Adalbertus), etc. But the real difficulty comes because individuals used English names which strictly speaking are English first names which have nothing to do with either the Polish or the Latin forms of those first names. One of my maternal grandmother's cousins whose first name was Kazimierz did call himself Charles and my grandmother's youngest brother whose name was also Kazimierz called himself Casey. Wojciech is an even more confusing case. Some men did call themselves Adalbert (the correct English Version of Adalbertus) but some called themselves Albert (not the proper English version) and for some reason which I cannot understand, even more called themselves "George". So basically, the English name an individual used may or may not have anything to do with the actual meaning of their Polish first name. This happened with individuals whose first name actually had a legitimate English version and even more so with individuals whose Polish first name had no English version. Stanislaw was known as Stanley, Stanislawa as Stella, Wladyslaw as Walter, Bronislawa as Bertha or as Bernice, Bronislaw as Barney, etc. So often using the English name an immigrant used to try to determine their Polish first name and vice versa can produce more problems than solutions.
Dave
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2014 8:58 pm
Post subject:
Thanks all.
I have learned more here in 1 day than I did searching for a year on ancestry.com
I guess from here I need to search old polish (census) records to find his brothers and sisters names.
It was a great gift to see pictures of the ship that my grandfather sailed on to get here. Thanks
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2014 6:01 am
Post subject:
| j kwasnieski wrote: | Thanks all.
I have learned more here in 1 day than I did searching for a year on ancestry.com
I guess from here I need to search old polish (census) records to find his brothers and sisters names.
It was a great gift to see pictures of the ship that my grandfather sailed on to get here. Thanks |
J,
So far, Russocice and Strzalkowo records have not been uploaded (at least the years you would need to search for) in http://szukajwarchiwach.pl/
Gilberto
|
|
|
|
|
|