[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] SCHWOCHOW/marlo50

[Paul Rakow]

    I missed Margaret's original posting, so I'm not sure whether
 Margaret is asking about a place name or a surname. 

     Anyway, Schwochow was a village in Hinterpommern (Eastern
 Pomerania) which was in Prussia/Germany, has been in Poland since WWII. 
 Schwochow was in Kreis Pyritz. I'm not sure of the present name. 

     You were right to suspect that the -ow ending is a good clue. 
 There are/were a lot of village names in Brandenburg and Pomerania
 ending in -ow. They are generally old slavic place names which stayed
 in use long after the area became mainly Germanised. Many Pomeranian
 family names come from these slavic place names (for example my own name
 Rakow). 

     The -ow in Pomeranian names like Schwochow was pronounced with a
 silent w, like the -ow in English "window" or "shadow". In Polish place
 names it would be pronounced more like -ov. 

        Paul Rakow (50% Pomeranian, 50% Volhynian) 
        rakow at ifh.de
     
> Subject: Re: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] SCHWOCHOW/marlo50
> 
> On Nov 9, 2007, at 9:58 AM, Marlo50 wrote:
> 
> > Otto, you helped Karla with her name.  Can you help me with mine?   
> > One name we have is Schwochow.  Is that German?  Is it Polish?   
> > Does the ending, "ow" give an area it would come from.  I
> > appreciate any help you can give us.  Margaret