[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Spelling Changes - "ski"

[Gary Warner]

Eduardo,

I do not speak German or Polish, but in managing the master Pedigree 
Database for SGGEE, I would say that you are lucky that your name was 
not even more significantly Polonized.    Evidently neither your 
ancestors, nor their Polish neighbors were able to relate your 
surname to an equivalent Polish surname.    If they had, then your 
surname while in Poland might have been changed as some of the 
following surnames changed.   Everyone needs to be on the lookout for 
how a German name might be changed while in Poland.

Koenig became Krol (both names mean King)
Schwarz became Czarnecki (both names mean black)
Kirschbaum became Wisniewski (both names mean cherry tree)

There are also other changes that occur in names, simply because 
there was no standard way of spelling until the late 1800s.   For 
instance, one of my surnames is Duerr (that MAY be the correct 
spelling).    I have also seen it spelled as follows:

Duerr or Dyr or Dyrr or Duhr or Deren or Dicer or Doehr or Doerr or 
Dirr or Dohr or Duehr or Der or Dehr.    The rule should be in your 
research that if a name sounds like your surname, it may well be your surname.

See our list of alternate surnames at 
http://www.sggee.org/AlternateSurnamesDatabase.pdf

You are perhaps lucky that your surname did not become Komarski, as 
the Poles would then have had a good belly laugh, since your family 
would then have been the family of mosquitos or gnats!

A Polish friend, who was born in Poland, does not know why surnames 
end in ski (male) or ska (female)

Gary Warner


At 08:44 AM 04/20/06, Eduardo Kommers wrote:
>Helle everyone!
>
>Was it comun the german families put "ski" in the end of their surnames in
>those times?
>I found my Kommers spelled Komminski.
>
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Ger-Poland-Volhynia Mailing List hosted by
>Society for German Genealogy in Eastern Europe http://www.sggee.org
>Mailing list info at http://www.sggee.org/listserv