Forum | PolishOrigins :: View topic - How accurate Moikrewni is?

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Magroski49
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Posted: Mon Jul 23, 2012 3:04 pm Post subject: How accurate Moikrewni is?

I have seen posts on this (and other) forums, where the Moikrewni website is mentioned as a source for the researcher knows how many people with a given surname can be found in Poland. I remember to have read somewhere that the Moikrewni information is based on the number of people who have a stationary telephone number and not on the whole amount of people carrying a given surname. And that seems to be true: there are only 68 Magrowski listed in Moikrewi, though the 1990 Census found in www.herby.com.pl, states this surname counted 110 souls.

I have attached a file showing the discrepancy of information between Moikrewni and GenPol (for the Magrowski families). It is by far more complicated than Moikrewni, but iff you want to compare your own surname, here is the path
- access http://www.genpol.com/
- under Strona Glowna menu, put your mouse on STARY GENPOL and then click on Skrypt Mapa Polski
- now go to www.herby.com.pl, click on Slownik Nazwisko, and type your surname in the blank field (use polish characters, if your surname has them). Click on Szukaj
- select and copy the names and numbers below Rozmieszczenie
- paste them in the blank field under Podaje dane in Skrypt Mapa Polski
- insert you surname in the field Generuje mapke, right below
- scroll down the screen and click on Pokaz mape

It seems this page has more options, but I cannot read them since I am not a native speaker.

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sheep17
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Posted: Mon Jul 23, 2012 4:46 pm Post subject:

Hi,
For me, Moikrewni is more accurate.
The number that is shown for my family name, Jerawski, on GenPol is 7, in the Gdansk area.
Moikrewni says 3 or less. In 2009 Zenon spoke to Pani Jerawska
while I was in Poland, and at that time there were only 2 people having my family name, in Tczew/Gdansk area, (my grandfather was born in Kowalki/Rypin)
The 7 that GenPol counts I first learned of in 1991, but that is obviously no longer true.
Leonore

Henryk
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Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2012 1:03 pm Post subject:

You must also search the female spelling: Magrowska, of which there are 58.

Slav
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Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2012 2:07 am Post subject: The source for the Moikrewni database

The moikrewni.pl website was merged with myheritage.pl at the beginning of 2010.
I have just received the following message from myheritage.pl support:

Quote:

The Map of Surnames at Moikrewni has not been updated for years. It was prepared based on the book by Kazimierz Rymut Nazwiska Polaków. Słownik historyczno-etymologiczny (Surnames of Polish People. Historical-Etymological Dictionary) published in 2001.
The map has not been updated since its creation. Mr Rymut passed away in 2006 at the age of 71.

So it seems that the Moikrewni database is quite reliable as of the year 2001.

Last edited by Slav on Wed Aug 01, 2012 8:33 am; edited 1 time in total

Zenon
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Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2012 4:37 am Post subject:

And the database compiled by professor Rymut was based on the official Polish State PESEL information which is the ultimate source of Polish citizens addresses in Poland. So it is very credible source of information, although slightly out of date (from 2001).

This database has nothing to do with any phone book.

You always have to remember about different endings in some (not all) Polish surnames:

- males surnames endings: -ski, -cki, for example Magrowski
- females surnames endings: -ska, -cki, for example Magrowska

If you want to have whole picture of this kind of surnames distribution you have to search for both, males and females, and sum them up.

Slav
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Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2012 5:21 am Post subject:

According to MoiKrewni there were 68 men going by the name Magrowski, and 58 women with the name Magrowska, which makes a total of 126 people, which sounds like a plausible increase from 110 souls according to the 1990 Census mentioned by Gilberto.

Gilberto, thanks for bringing up this issue! One should always question and verify sources of information.

Magroski49
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Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2012 5:50 am Post subject:

Thank you all who answered this topic. Though I was aware of male/female endings I didn't figure out that I should have searched for both forms when using Moikrewni, because GenPol was also based on Prof. Rymutz and provided the sum of both endings.

Henryk
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Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2012 12:25 pm Post subject:

Although the site provides data for the -ska ending, it seems to provide little data for other female endings, such as -owa, -ówna. Nowakowa shows just one, compared with over 200 000 Nowak. I presume the way PESL collected their data, the other endings were rarely used.

Slav
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Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2012 12:54 pm Post subject:

Henryk, as far as I know, the -owa and -ówna endings are extremely rarely used, if at all, as "official", registered surnames. The daughter of Mr Nowak might be referred to as Nowakówna in spoken language, but her ID will state Ms. Anna Nowak, for instance.

Henryk
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Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2012 11:57 am Post subject:

Thank you. This is curious. So the -ska and -cka are used in ID, but generally no others. I notice that the pre-1900 church vital records usually use the feminine endings,

Slav
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Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2012 12:04 pm Post subject:

Actually it would be interesting to investigate when where the feminine endings like -owa and -ówna dropped from official records. Church vital records may have been slower to undergo this "standardization" where a Nowakówna became Ms. Nowak.

jozefs
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Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2012 8:16 pm Post subject:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_name
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jozef

Magroski49
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Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2012 5:46 am Post subject:

Thanks Jozef for the link. It has clarified some doubts I had about female endings surnames.

Alex

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Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2012 2:25 pm Post subject:

It is interesting what you say about surname endings Zenon, my mother has said to me in the past that she remembers my father's family saying that the family name was longer when they moved from Poland but it was shortened to Skowron when they settled in France. Could it be the ski or ska would just have been left off, we are not sure how it exactly ended.

Slav
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Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2012 3:28 pm Post subject:

Alex wrote:

In the case of women, the longer form of the surname could have been Skowronowa - wife of Mr Skowron.
Or it could have been an entirely different surname, e.g. Skowronski for men and Skowronska for women.
Skowronski/Skowronska could have been shortened for the sake of convenience after they settled in France.
My distant relative, Stanislaw Nowodworski, did not return to Poland after the war and spend the rest of his life in Britain where he changed his name to Stanley Newcourt, a kind of a translated version of his Polish given and last name.

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