[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Kwiatkowski - Bluemke

[Dave Neumann]

Hello Otto:

Thank you for your most interesting response. It was packed full of useful
tips, for which I am grateful.

My maternal grandfather, Franz August Heinrich Kwiatkowski, was born in
Neufahrwasser, Danzig on 11 May 1872. His parents were Joseph Kwiatkowski
and Maria (born Bork). In the 1890s he left for Saxony to find work. There
he met and married my grandmother, Hedwig Lina Bauer, in Werdau where the
Bauers lived. I never met my grandfather, as he died in 1928 - long before I
was born. The information I have about him, I got from my aunt, who gave me
the Familienstammbuch her parents had brought with them from Germany. The
Kwiatkowski family emigrated to Montreal, Canada, in 1912. I always knew my
grandmother as Grandma Blume, because my grandfather legally changed the
family name to Blume when he got his naturalization (citizenship) papers. I
never understood why he did this or why he chose Blume, and my aunt ahd no
explanation. Indeed, when my last living aunt gave me that priceless family
document in 1983, it was the first time I had heard that my mother's family
name was Kwiatkowski. From my grandparents' Familienstammbuch, I was able to
determine a lot of information, such as where and when my five aunts were
born, and about two baby boys who did not survive. This birth and baptism
information also told me where the family had lived in Germany, and that
they had moved quite frequently - from Werdau to Leipzig, to Magdeburg, to
Berlin, and from there to Montreal.

Franz Kwiatkowski considered himself German, and according to my aunt, he
was very active in the German club in Montreal. When I asked my aunt where
my grandfather's grave was, she told me there wasn't one to find.
Apparently, he asked to be cremated, and his buddies from the German club,
put his ashes in beer bottles, went out in a boat on Lac St Louis, and
floated them down the St Lawrence River. Perhaps he thought they would find
their way across the Atlantic to Europe.

Using the information in the Familienstammbuch, in 2006 I made a trip to
Germany to re-trace the movements of my mother's family, and I was able to
trace my grandmother's ancestry in Vogtland, Saxony, back to before 1500. 

I have just begun to work on my maternal grandfather's ancestry. Here's what
I know: He was Roman Catholic. At the time of his marriage to my grandmother
in 1900, his mother Maria Kwiatkowski (Bork), was still alive, but his
father, Joseph Kwiatkowski, had already passed away. My aunt told me that
her father had three siblings, two sisters (Ella and Johanna) and a brother
(Ziganke). I had never heard this name (Ziganke) before. This evening I went
on a website to examine maps of Danzig. I found Neufahrwasser, where my
grandfather was born, and at that time (1972) it was a growth area north of
Danzig proper. In looking over the maps I was startled to find another
district nearby called Zigankenberg. I wonder if there is any connection
between the name of this part of Danzig and the naming of their son? I do
not have any documentation of these siblings of my grandfather other than
what my aunt remembered hearing from her father. 

Last year I ordered a film from the LDS, but had no success finding any
evidence of the marriage of Joseph and Maria or of the births of my
grandfather and his siblings. It is obvious that an interesting challenge
lies ahead. I know that my grandfather had two skilled trades. In the
marriage record he is listed as a Schlosser. He was also a marble finisher,
as my aunt told me that that is what brought him to Canada. According to my
aunt, he was hired to work as a marble finisher during the construction of
some downtown Montreal office buildings. He arrived there in 1911, leaving
his wife and five daughters in Berlin, and after working for a year he told
his boss that he needed to go back to Germany. His boss said, "We need you
here; bring your family to Canada!" His boss then paid for their way over
and the family was reunited. My grandmother and her five daughters were very
active in the local German Lutheran church; my aunt told me that her father
was RC but not religious. He had no problem with the children being raised
as Lutherans.

-----Original Message-----
From: Otto [mailto:otto at schienke.com] 
Sent: Sunday, August 31, 2008 10:22 PM
To: GPV List
Cc: Dave Neumann
Subject: Re: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Kwiatkowski - Bluemke

Good evening Dave,

As you research the surname in Poland be mindful that since circa 1813  
and Russian domination of Poland all civil/church records were  
recorded in Polish until the Poles rebelled and Russia put down a  
heavy hand on Poland and then all records were recorded in Russian  
using the Cyrillic alphabet since 1866. +/-.  Cyrillic is an exercise  
in mental agility. My grandfather with the simple name of John  
Schienke became "Ivan Stodulski". . .  Now spell that out in Russian,   
I can almost hear the melancholy music in the background.  :D

The Poles use the Roman alphabet as do the Germans. Both countries  
adopted the Roman alphabet. In order for the Roman alphabet to fit the  
Polish speech patterns diacritical markings are used to shape the  
proper sounds and a few extra letters are flipped in creating about 28  
in count.

German uses a few diacritical markings, specifically umlauts, seeing  
the German language is spoken in the throat as to were the English  
language has shifted to the front of the mouth to the tongue tip. In  
German language cases where the trailing vowel has to be pronounced at  
the tip of the tongue, the leading vowel becomes an 'umlaut' with the  
two diacritical marks above it indicating the speaker must bring the  
sounding of it out of his throat and halfway up his tongue so the  
trailing vowel will be sounded on the front of the tongue/lips.

Language is about sound.
Parish ministers in recording birth,  marriage, and death records  
altered spellings of names to make the German names sound out properly  
when saying them in Polish. At times they translated the German names  
into Polish equivalents such as your Kwiat-kow-ski. Polish is laden  
with suffix endings as to who this 'Kwiat' is.  Kwiatkow means 'of  
Kwiat' (The -k- is from the diminutive suffix -ek or -ko) and 'ski'  
from the estate of.  The suuffix 'ski' is not the Polish substitute  
for the Baltic flat-land German 'ke' suffix, which is a diminutive  
meaning 'little' as in the case of 'Blüm-ke', little Blüm or simply  
son of Blüm or Blum.

Some families willingly, unwillingly, or unknowingly, in an attempt to  
modernize the sound of their surname have dropped the 'ke' suffix and  
trashed a whole armful of history at the same time.

Gary is correct. Become familiar with the various spellings of the  
surname.  Each spelling is peculiar to a point in history as it passes  
through what we call time. Each spelling is a historical take-out, a  
particular point in time regarding the history of your ancestors.  
Spelling changes usually mark some large event in their history.

You ask, "Was Bluem-ke originally Blüm-ke?"
A very good possibility.  Then the question, Why the 'e'?  Some could  
be attributed to dropping the use of diacritical markings altogether  
and simply flipping in a trailing 'e' to get the sound out of the  
throat.  Much of it could be due to the rascal of the past we called  
the 'mechanical typewriter'.  It had no umlaut keys necessitating the  
use of a trailing 'e' to indicate the leading vowel was an umlaut.

In researching the 'Kwiatkowski' surname I would consider all of the  
following 'correct' until you prove out through research and  
developing a 'paper trail' if any or all of them are kin.
Kwiatkowski, Bluemke, Blümke, Blumke, Blum, and Bloom. By all means  
this is not an exhaustive list. You may add to it as you do your  
research.

In fact an E-letter just arrived in which Maureen has just added some  
more variations to Blumke.
My family had a relative who simply changed it to 'Bloom' for the  
Americans who have a compulsion to pronounce everything on the tip of  
the tongue.

My own surname and the old spelling of it which I still use, "Sch'ie'n- 
ke, is harnessed with a diphthong and Baltic suffix.  If Schien is Old  
Prussian the meaning is still vague, if Schien is similar to the East  
Prussian Platt or Dutch of the 1500's (my first finding of the use of  
the surname in Danzig) its meaning is 'shins' or the English meaning  
'Longshanks" similar to an uncle with the German Platt surname of  
'Krahn' or crane. (stork-legs)  So... add a 'ke' suffix and I am the  
son of Long-shanks. This has a ring of validity to it in a way seeing  
there are kin that stand at 6'7".

As my surname passed through 500 years the spelling showed signs of  
language change and adaption to it and also the effects of translation  
to other languages.  The 'ie' diphthong creates the greatest problem  
in translation. Examples, I begin with the oldest example: Schienke,  
Schiencke, Schinke, Schänke, Schenke, Schönke, Schoenke, Schoencke,  
Schonke, Schünke, Schuenke, Schunke, Stodulski. Maureen just signed  
off in her E-letter with another variation of the spelling,  
'Schoenky', with a 'y' to round off the 'ke' suffix (properly sounded  
as 'keh' with a short 'e') but only in the American way of sounding it  
out. Some of those are Shinky and Shinkey. These are most of the  
variations of the surname... but not all.  :D

All spellings are correct when they are used legally by the holder of  
them, but do they lead to immediate kin and history of the soon  
forgotten past? A paper trail is the only proof.