* * * * * * * * * * G E N  D O B R Y ! * * * * * * * * * *

Volume 2, No. 4. 28 April 2001. Copyright (c) 2001, PolishRoots(tm), Inc.
Editor: William F. "Fred" Hoffman, E-mail: WFHoffman@prodigy.net

***************************************

CONTENTS

   Welcome
   The Ellis Island Website and Incorrect Names
   Letters to the Editor
   Upcoming Events
   Humor
   More Useful Web Addresses
   To be added to or removed from this mailing list...

***************************************

*** WELCOME! ***
to the latest issue of GEN DOBRY!, the e-zine of PolishRoots(tm). If you
missed previous issues, you can find them at the PolishRoots Website.

Thanks to all who've taken the time to send me comments, suggestions, and
contributions. If you have something to contribute, or just something to
say, please E-mail me at <WFHoffman@prodigy.net>.

Remember to visit PolishRoots.org, the Website that brings you _Gen
Dobry!_. Here's a site you might take a look at, listing lodges of the
Polish National Alliance:

     http://PolishRoots.org/pna_lodges.asp

Dr. Paul S. Valasek worked hard to put it together, and encourages you to
visit and search for information, or provide additional information if you
have it. Zapraszamy!

***************************************

*** THE ELLIS ISLAND WEBSITE AND INCORRECT NAMES ***

The big news recently, of course, has been the opening of the Ellis Island
Website at:

     http://www.ellisislandrecords.org

As anyone might have foretold who experienced the inauguration of the
LDS's Family History Library Website, at first it was terribly difficult
even accessing this site. This often happens, even in Cyberspace, when
millions of people try to crowd into the same place at once!

But as I read notes posted online, I see that more and more folks are
managing to get on the site and do some research. The heavy demand still
keeps some from connecting to the site, and those who do often find
themselves kicked off long before they're ready. But clearly things are
improving, and the FHL experience suggests the improvement will continue.
Remember, genealogists, of all people, have to appreciate the value of
patience!

I've seen a great many notes already from people who have been
disappointed because they could not find names listed that they expected
to find. There can be many reasons for this, of course. No doubt a big one
is misreading of names -- personal names and place names -- by workers who
processed the data at various points. This is shaping up as a major
problem, from what I see.

Comments posted on Genpol@man.torun.pl by professional researcher Mary
Popovich <busia@mindspring.com> point out a typical kind of error:

> One of the things that struck me was the fact that a number
> of the transcribers had difficulty distinguishing between
> the capital "L" and "S". For instance, they wrote "Losice"
> instead of "Sosice" (Croatia) and "Luwalki" instead of "Suwalki"
> (Poland). I also noted a couple places where they interpreted
> capital "J" as "F". Again, these were in place names.
>
> The implication for all researchers is that if you're looking on the
> Ellis Island online database for an ancestor whose surname begins
> with an "S" and you don't find him/her (using all the possible
> misspellings you can think of), then you might want to try
> entering the name using "L" instead of "S".

If you've had much practice trying to read documents of this sort, you can
cut the volunteers a little slack. It's a shame God Almighty had other
commitments and couldn't do this job, because He is surely the only one
who could decipher some of those scrawls without error. Coping with human
error is a frustrating but integral part of research, now and forever,
amen.

* Patterns in Misread Handwriting *

I've discussed mangled names before in _Gen Dobry!_ (Ellis Island, too,
for that matter), but the notes I've seen online make me think it might be
worthwhile to talk a little about why Eastern European names are mangled
so often. There are patterns observable in the errors. Awareness of them
won't help you in every case, but it may occasionally help you snatch
victory from the jaws of defeat.

(I know in connection with the Ellis Island site, some folks are already
sick of this subject! I hope you'll pardon me if I add my two cents, aimed
mainly at helping you deal with mangled names. They say "It is better to
light one candle than to curse the darkness" -- although I, myself, am
prone to curse the candle).

Misread handwriting is, of course, a frustrating problem, one hard to
solve. Unless and until some of the more obvious errors are corrected, the
only practical approach, as Mary suggested, is to try to visualize likely
errors and take them into account. This requires experience,
unfortunately. Until you've studied a certain number of old records and
seen capital S's that looked like L's, the possibility of S being misread
as L is not one likely to occur to you. Along the same lines, if you've
dealt with Polish records for a while, you'll realize almost immediately
that "Luwalki" is suspicious, but "Suwalki" will come to mind. If you
don't have that kind of experience, you need to keep your eyes and ears
open -- and talk to others who do have experience and will help you learn
from their mistakes!

Similarly, capital F, capital J, and capital T are letters than can easily
be confused with each other, and even with capital S and L. If only those
officials who filled out documents had been hired for their penmanship!...
(Come to think of it, what were they hired for?)

For those dealing with Polish ancestors, an obvious source of peril is the
Polish l with a slash or crossbar, which I render online as l~. If you've
seen Polish handwritten records, you know how easily that letter can be
mistaken for a t. Even in Poland we see cases where someone made that
error, and Marszal~ek became Marszatek. If Poles could make that mistake,
we can hardly fault Americans for doing the same.

If Germans were involved in drawing up the original passenger lists -- and
they often were -- a whole new range of errors opened up when Americans
tried to read the lists. You've probably seen cases where the Germans used
a form of s that looks almost like an f. There's the infamous German
eszet, a letter that looks kind of like our uppercase B but should be
treated like a double-s. The German script h looks like someone started to
make an h, but halfway through the down stroke changed his mind and went
with a j. Less well known but thoroughly baffling is a German tendency to
form the letter p in a way that looks a lot like our y.

In theory, Germans knew these letters in their native script could be
misread, and attempted to use forms less likely to confound Americans. In
practice, even the most scrupulous Prussian might absentmindedly slip into
using the forms he'd known since childhood, and thus hand an immigration
official a list every bit as legible as an EKG.

These potential pitfalls deal with the mechanics of handwriting. With a
little experience, you can come to recognize situations where they might
come into play. A little tougher to deal with are mistakes that occurred
when Polish spelling rules collided with those of Germans or Americans.

* Polish Spelling Rules *

There are certain letter combinations that are simply not normal in
Polish. The phonetic tendencies and preferences of the Polish language
make these combinations unlikely in native Polish names spelled correctly.
Of course we can say off the top that you shouldn't see the letters q, x,
or v in Polish names; they're just not used. If you see a V, for instance,
it's either a mistake, a sloppy W, or an example of phonetic substitution
-- Polish W sounds like English V, so somewhere along the line it got
switched (but probably not by Poles or Germans, to whom that switch would
be counterintuitive).

Three other tendencies worth mentioning are the equivalence of H and CH in
Polish; the interchangeability of I, J, and Y in Polish; and Poles'
aversion to double letters.

In Polish H and CH are pronounced the same -- a little more guttural than
English H, but not as harsh as German CH in "Bach." A century ago, before
literacy became widespread in Poland, the awareness of the "proper" way to
spell names wasn't as strong as it is now, so names were often spelled the
way they sounded. For this reason, Chojnacki could just as easily be
spelled Hojnacki, because they are both pronounced the same. In modern
Poland, what with greater literacy and a tendency to normalize names to
standard forms, Chojnacki is far more common than Hojnacki (as of 1990,
24,744 Chojnackis, compared to 374 Hojnackis). Records from over a century
ago, however, could easily have either spelling.

The letters I, J, and Y are clearly defined in modern Polish. The vowel I
represents a sound much like "ee" in "feet," and is also used after
consonants to indicate that they're softened or palatalized, like the
combination "ni" in English "onion." Y is a vowel, representing a short i
somewhat like that in "ship." J, on the other hand, is a consonant, the
sound of "y" in English "yacht." In modern spelling they're not confused.
But in older records they were often used almost interchangeably. The name
"Maria" may show up as "Marja," "Marya," or "Maryja."

It's very rare to see I or Y used as a consonant -- unlike Americans,
Poles would almost never spell JANOWSKI as YANOWSKI or IANOWSKI-- but they
might use Y instead of I as a vowel. In other words, even though Polish
spelling rules today say it's never -sky, always -ski, you do see -sky in
some older records. To take another example, the surname FABIANOWICZ may
appear as FABIYANOWICZ, FABIJANOWICZ, FABYANOWICZ, or FABJANOWICZ. By
older Polish spelling standards those spellings were all legit.

As for double letters such as SS or TT, they are common in German and
English, but pretty rare in Polish. As a rule Poles only write a letter
twice if you actually pronounce it twice. So a spelling like LISS or SASS
is evidence of a foreign influence on spelling, usually German. The
"proper" Polish spellings would be LIS and SAS. If you find them spelled
the other way in Polish records, it's probably because there was a strong
German influence in the area, and it affected the way names were recorded.
In German LAS and LASS are pronounced differently -- the German
pronunciation of LAS sounds like our word "laws." Germans pronounce LASS
much as Poles pronounce LAS (like the way we pronounce "loss"). So under
German influence the right way to spell the Polish name LAS, phonetically
speaking, would be LASS.

Here's a list of a few other combinations of letters seldom seen in
Polish; there may be many more, but these came to mind right away:

     di - usually either dy- or dzi-
     ge - should be gie- (except in names of non-Polish origin)
     ke - should be kie- (except in names of non-Polish origin)
     ri - should be rzy-
     ti - should be ci- or ty-

The combinations czi-, rzi-, and szi- are also incorrect:

     czi - usually ci- or czy-
     rzi - usually rzy-
     szi - usually either si- or szy-

Does this mean one never sees the combination Di-, for instance, in
Polish? No, it does occur, especially in names originally borrowed from
other languages. But Poles just don't like to say "dee." They tend to turn
it into dy- (like the English word "dip" without the p) or into dzi- (much
like "jeep" without the p). Every language has some sounds that come
naturally to its speakers and some that don't. In Polish they jam together
the guttural CH, the "zh" sound spelled RZ, the nasal A~ sounding like
"on," the "sh" sound spelled SZ, and the "ch" sound spelled CZ, in the
word and name CHRZA~SZCZ. Even on acid, an English-speaker would never
combine those sounds. Poles do it in their sleep. But the combination RZI
makes them scratch their heads and ask "Co to jest?"

The essential point here is that a Pole would not normally write the name
Czyz*yk as "Czizyk." But a non-Pole might! Non-Poles seemed to feel they
were doing well just to get the "Cz" right -- anything after that,
anything goes.

Thus if you've consulted an "expert" -- say, some balding, bespectacled
Kraut who thinks he knows a lot about Polish names and has written a book
on the subject -- he may have told you you're wrong if you spell the name
Czizyk; it's Czyz*yk (using z* for the dotted z). "Thank God for geniuses
like him," you think, and you jump onto the Ellis Island site and go
searching for Czyz*yk. It's not there. On a whim, you look for Czizyk, and
there it is! A few experiences like this might shake your faith in
"experts" (Which, to be honest, is not all bad. As an alleged "expert"
myself, I have no illusions about expert infallibility!)

If everybody on the planet knew the rules and followed them religiously,
the experts would be right most of the time. But while that situation may
prevail on any number of inhabited planets in the galaxy, it does not
prevail on this one. If the form you've come up with from your research is
not spelled correctly by Polish standards, try to look for the "wrong"
ones as well as the "right" ones. Yes, Czy- is right and Czi- is wrong --
but if you don't find Czy-, sneak a peek at Czi-!

* Polglish *

I recently saw a list of some changes Polish-American researchers had
documented in their original surnames after arrival in America. Usually
these changes fit into one of four categories:

   1) keeping the old name with minor changes due to phonetic spelling
   2) taking a new name that's a translation of the old one
   3) taking a new name with a familiar sound
   4) taking a new name, period

In category 1, the name's pronunciation did not change drastically, but
the Polish spellings was modified to fit English phonetics -- turned into
"Polglish," you might say. Here are a few examples, giving first the
Polish spelling, an English phonetic approximation of the Polish
pronunciation, and the actual spelling of the name as it ended up in
America. As always, I use the tilde to represent Polish diacritical marks,
but z* for the dotted z:

     Dzie~giel [JENG-yell]-> Jingle
     Dziedzic [JED-jeets] -> Jeddick
     Je~druszek [yen-DROOSH-eck] -> Endrusick
     Ro~g [rook] -> Rook
     Sa~dej [SON-day] -> Sunday

I think it's especially cute how Sa~dej turned into an English word that
sounds very similar, Sunday! Note that in each case, however much the
spelling might have changed, the pronunciation is reasonably consistent. A
great many name changes fit into this category. If you learn a bit about
Polish pronunciation, then get in the habit of saying names out loud, you
have a real shot at recognizing these.

In category 2, translations, the Polish meaning of the name was preserved
by using an English name that meant much the same thing. Here are some
examples:

     Andrzejewski -> Andrews
     Janczyk -> Johnson
     Mielnik -> Miller
     Piotrowicz -> Peters or Peterson
     Tkacz -> Weaver

In each case the English version means practically the same thing as the
Polish. This allowed immigrants to "fit in" among Americans better without
sacrificing all continuity of meaning with their ancestral names. Here,
too, some knowledge of Polish may help you make a connection, although
it's harder than with the changes in category 1.

Category 3 consists of American names chosen by Polish immigrants because
they sounded just a little similar. It would be hard to get used to being
called by a totally different name, after all. If the new name has a sound
or two in common with the old, it might be easier to get used to. Thus a
Krawczyn~ski might go by Krauss in America (not realizing Krauss is
actually a German name). A Wojciechowicz might go by Voight (also German).
A Kanapicki could end up as Kane. A Bolesl~awski might even end up as
Williams through the rather tenuous phonetic similarity between the Polish
nickname Boles~, for Bolesl~aw, and the English nickname Bill for William.
Far-fetched? Yes -- but it happened.

These changes are hard to deal with because the similarity between the two
names can be so slight. Usually there's no way to make a connection based
on the name alone. You need some other info.

Category 4 is the toughest, because in these cases the immigrant said "To
hell with the Old World, this is a new one. I'm going by a whole new
name!" Choosing a new name might help psychologically because it cut all
ties with the old life, and thus aided the immigrant in his resolve never
to look back. If the authorities were looking for him back home, he might
think a totally different name would make him harder to find. Or he might
just hear an American name he liked the sound of.

In some cases a change may have been imposed on him. If he had trouble
finding a job, but finally got one, maybe his boss said, "I don't know how
to pronounce Kramarzewski, let alone spell it. If you want to work for me
your name is Casey. Ya got it?" What could "Casey" do but shrug and say
"OK, boss"?

With name changes in category 4, no amount of insight or expertise helps.
These changes were made almost by whim sometimes, and Sherlock Holmes
himself couldn't deduce the original form. Oh, once you've made the
connection, you may be able to backtrack and see some logic to it. But if
all you have is the American name, and you need to get to the Polish name
-- well, all I can say is, good luck!

* Conclusion *

My point is that there can be a jillion reasons why the name you're
looking for doesn't match up with the ones in the Ellis Island database,
or any other source, for that matter. Misread names are one factor you
have to deal with. But a lot of researchers discover that their immigrant
ancestors changed their names -- or had them changed by others -- while
they were in the process of getting settled in the New World. Tracing the
family back, you may find the Americanized version of the name is fairly
consistent up to a year or two after immigration; then suddenly wham! it's
different, more like the original Polish version. And while some changes
certainly could take place between your ancestors' departure from their
ancestral village and their arrival at Ellis Island, the really radical
changes usually took place at some point after entry into the U. S.

As for place names, many of the same problems apply. Granted, a boss might
tell a Wojciechowicz "Hey, your name's Jones now, or you're fired" -- but
no boss ever came up to a Wojciechowicz and said, "Hey, I'm going to fire
you if you keep saying you're from Woodge [L~o~dz~]!" There was no
particular intent or pressure to change place names. But most names of
places in eastern Europe sound pretty foreign to English-speakers. With
the best will in the world, and every intention of recording data
accurately, even a conscientious official or clerk could get a name wrong.
There was too much potential for error. And once an error was made, it
tended to stick.

All of which is true, as well, of those who filled out immigration
records, those who indexed them, and the volunteers who did the data entry
for the Ellis Island site.

Personally, I'm inclined to say let's make the best of things and learn
whatever we can that may help us work around the errors. I know some of
you feel otherwise, and if you'd like to put your opinion into an e-mail
and send it to me, you're welcome to do so.

But frankly, folks, from the e-mails I get asking about names, you, too,
are capable of occasional errors in spelling. Those who live in glass
houses, etc. I don't want to name names, but... well, as a high-school
teacher of mine once said, "I don't like making idle threats, but I will
if I have to!"

***************************************

*** LETTERS TO THE EDITOR ***

Subject: Website of interest to Poles
Susan Wietnik @czjadyku@aol.com

Thank you for devoting your time in publishing _Gen Dobry!_ ...I look
forward to it each month, and you have shared numerous tidbits that have
aided me in my genealogical quest.

When you have a spare moment (ha ha), check out Polish Righteous at:

      http://www3.sympatico.ca/kpk-quebec/righteous/index.htm

What a great compilation, although horrific for us Poles...but still a
good resource!

-----

Subject: Article on _gospodarz_ and other terms for farmer
From: Leonard Jakubczak <jakubczl@csr.nih.gov>

I enjoyed your article in the newest (today's) _Gen Dobry!_, and learned
some socio-linguistics of "gospodarz". It's important to point out, as you
did, that a word's meaning varies with the historical/social context.

-----

Subject: Article on _gospodarz_ and other terms for farmer
From: "David Zincavage" <jdz@inr.net>

Some of this historical stuff isn't quite so cut-and-dried as your _Gen
Dobry!_ article puts it. In the southwestern Suvalkija region of
Lithuania, for instance, because of the region's history of colonization,
there was always a very large class of free land-owning peasants,
sarcastically termed _bajorai_ by the actual gentry. I believe the same
situation existed in some parts of Belarus and Podlasie.

80% of the former gentry estate was declassed in the era of the
Partitions, and the typical petty gentry family by default inevitably sunk
to official _gospodarz_ status. If you were not among the minority
confirming nobility with the occupation, you wound up a _gospodarz_,
assuming you were a 30+ mo~rg land-owner. It is not terribly unusual to
find the same persons receiving the _urodzony_ honorific on one record and
being referred to as _gospodarz_ or _rolnik_ on others.

[Editor: I have every reason to believe you're right. If the article
seemed cut-and-dried, it's because _Gen Dobry!_ lacks the space for
discussing this or any subject in detail. All I can do is give people
general insights, and let them fill in the blanks as those insights are
confirmed or modified by their own research. Your note will help them do
so. Thanks!]

-----

Subject: e-mail address for IRO, superseded in 1951 by OHCHR-UNOG
From: Edward Potereiko <epotereiko2@hotmail.com>

[Editor: in the last issue we printed a request from Mr. Eduardo Gomez
<szumyckyj@yahoo.com> for help finding the e-mail address of the
International Refugee Organization or its depository of records. Mr.
Potereiko answered him and forwarded me a copy. I'm printing it partly to
brag about how our readers help each other, and partly to repeat info that
might benefit other readers.]

Dear Mr. Eduardo Gomez,

I read your request in _Gen Dobry!_. I located these two sites for you by
doing a search at http://Copernic.com, a search engine (free, which you
download and install in your computer). I typed in International Relief
Organization and searched the Web - US. I came up with numerous hits which
yielded your desired information.

Your IRO no longer exists. It was replaced by the United Nations High
Commissioner on Human Rights Jan 51/52.

     http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/decade/decad053.htm

The above site will give you a little historical background. The following
address is of the home page of the current organization. It gives mission,
mailing and e-mail address and phone number.

     http://www.unhchr.ch/

IRO was replaced by:

     OHCHR-UNOG
     8-14 Avenue de la Paix
     1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
     Telephone Number (41-22) 917-9000
     Fax Number (41-22) 917-9016

***************************************

*** UPCOMING EVENTS ***

September 12-15, 2001

THE 2001 FGS/QUAD CITIES CONFERENCE

"A Conference for the Nation's Genealogists"

The RiverCenter, Davenport, Iowa

For more info:
   Our email: fgs-office@fgs.org
   Our website: http://www.fgs.org

Register Online at:
   http://www.fgs.org/2001Conf/fgs-2001.htm

=====

October 5 - 7, 2001

FEDERATION OF EAST EUROPEAN FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETIES
-- INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION 2001 --

Ramada Inn South Airport
6401 South 13th Street
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Conference details, as they become available, will be posted at:

   http://feefhs.org/conf/01mil/01mil-hp.html

or by return mail from:

FEEFHS, PO Box 510898, Salt Lake City, UT 84151-0898

=====

October 6, 2001

MASS-CONN-ECTION II

Plans are being finalized for a second Mass-Conn-ection II after the
success of the inaugural event last year. Like the first one, this
conference is being sponsored jointly by the Polish Genealogical Societies
of Massachusetts and of Connecticut/the Northeast. At this point the plan
is to hold this Conference in New Britain, Connecticut on October 6. More
information will follow as details are confirmed, but it's not too early
to mark your calendar. Conferences on Polish genealogy are not often held
in New England, so if you live in the area, this is one you want to
attend! You can learn more by e-mailing PGS-CT/NE at: pgsne2@aol.com.

***************************************

*** HUMOR ***

When I was younger I hated going to weddings. It seemed that all of my
aunts and the grandmotherly types used to come up to me, poking me in the
ribs and cackling, "You're next."

They stopped that after I started doing the same thing to them at funerals.

Written by James Boyce of Geneva, Switzerland
<jim-Marta.Boyce@wanadoo.fr>. Previously published by Julia M. Case and
Myra Vanderpool Gormley, CG, Missing Links, Vol. 6, No. 14, 4 April 2001.
RootsWeb: http://www.rootsweb.com/

***************************************

*** MORE USEFUL WEB ADDRESSES ***

http://www.ugkc.lviv.ua/
     Egon Wojciulewicz<egon@eswo.org> posted a note on
PolandBorderSurnames-L@rootsweb.com about this site, which provides
information on the Greek Catholic Church.

http://www.genealogienetz.de/gene/misc/translation.html
     Debbie Greenlee <daveg@AIRMAIL.NET> posted a note on
Genpol@man.torun.pl about this, saying it was the new site for
translations done by volunteers, formerly at
http://www.toledolink.com/pl/translations.html. I checked out the old
site, and it still seems to be working as well. But I suspect this new
address is a good one to note down.

http://www.charm.net/~thollow/HistorykPress/source.html
     Tom Hollowak <thollow@charm.net>, owner of Historyk Press, sent us a
note on this site, which announces Historyk's newest publication: a CD-ROM
with names, addresses, and occupations of Polonians living in Baltimore
City during the years 1870-1894, 1899-1903, and 1905-1917. It's $10.95,
but note, it is "only for Microsoft Windows 95/98 NT version 4.0."

http://tel.portal.pl/asp/szukaj_a.asp
     Asia Plazewska <asiaplazewska@poczta.wp.pl> posted a note to
PolandBorderSurnames-D-request@rootsweb.com, saying that this is a link to
the Polish white pages. "There are only phone numbers from Warszawa and
Poznan. There is only Polish version available so short explanation. It is
necessary to fill in places with red dot using polish spelling with
diacritical signs: nazwisko  = surname; miejscowosc = city."

[Editor's note: What with recent Polish privacy laws, I'm surprised such a
site is available. I think the key is it's only for _abonenci_,
subscribers, and thus presumably limited to those who choose to be listed,
and thus voluntarily give up their right to privacy. In any case, it might
be worth a look.]

***************************************

YOU MAY REPRINT articles from GEN DOBRY!, PROVIDED: (1) the reprint is used for non-commercial, educational purposes; and (2) the following
notice appears at the end of the article: Written by [author's name,
e-mail address, and URL, if given]. Previously published by GEN DOBRY!,
Vol. 2, No. 4, 28 April 2001. PolishRoots(tm): http://PolishRoots.org/.

***************************************

Copyright 2001, PolishRoots(tm), Inc. All rights reserved.