Archive for April, 2010
Identifying the origin of surnames is not an exact science. One of the many sources of names is the natural world and other life forms, both plant and animal. However, it is not always clear why a particular name would have been chosen or, for that matter, where surnames which appear to derive from those of animals are simply cognates sharing a common etymological source.
In Poland, several surnames come from the names of birds, or at least appear to.
- Bocian bocian, or stork
- Czajkowski czajka, or lapwing
- Drozd drozd, or thrush
- Dudek dudek, or hoopoe
- Gołębiowski gołąb, or pigeon
- Jaskółski jaskółka, or swallow
- Kukuła kukułka, or cuckoo
- Orzeł orzeł, or eagle
- Ptak ptak, or bird
- Sikorski sikora, or titmouse
- Sokół sokół, or hawk
- Słowik słowik, or nightingale
- Wróblewski wróbel, or sparrow
- Żuraw żuraw, or crane
Most of these species of birth are big and noticeable, such as the stork and crane; or are perceived as fierce or brave, such as the eagle or falcon; or sing well, such as the thrush and the nightingale; or are a cause of delight, such as the swallow and titmouse; or are common, such as the pigeon and the sparrow. Many of the same birds also give rise to surnames in English, German and other European languages.
Dudek may be the odd bird out in the above list. The dudek is a delightful and distinctive bird. It rightfully appeared on a commemorative Polish 20 złotych coin issued in 2000. However, according to William F Hoffman’s Polish Surnames: Origins and Meanings, dudek may also mean a nincompoop (but what came first, the bird or the nincompoop?) and it is also possible that the surname may come from a diminutive of duda or bagpipes (Duda is a very common Polish name).
If you read Polish and would like to know more about the dudek, or simply to see some photographs of a hoopoe family, check out the dudki on Dr Przemysław Sujak’s page. Fortuitously, Dr Sujak’s own surname comes from the sójka, or jay.
What is today the Croatian coast was the site of much controversy in the early 20th century, as Italy sought at various dates and under various pretences to claim it as part of the Italian state.
It is true that Italians lived in some numbers around the Istrian peninsula and along the Croatian littoral and the Dalmatian coast to the Bay of Kotor towards Albania. However, with a few exceptions, these were isolated coastal pockets in an otherwise Slavic country. For example, the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s 1910 census statistics show Italians forming a significant component of the population in Rijeka and Zadar but nowhere in the surrounding hinterland. Moreover, it seems that among those counted as Italians were what were known locally as talijanaši, those urban and more bourgeois Croatians with Italian leanings but with clearly Slavic names and antecedents. Many Croatians in Istria and ports such as Rijeka and Zadar spoke Italian, of course, with varying degrees of fluency, so as to be able to communicate with their neighbours in these ethnically mixed regions. However, some Croats also aspired to Italian culture and/or saw the use of the Italian language as a route to social mobility and prosperity during the years of the long 19th century, during which Hungarian domination suppressed the Croatian language and education and favoured the Italians. These were the talijanaši.
Despite there being an Italian majority in only some of the larger towns of the western seaboard of Istria, from Koper round to Pula, all of the peninsula was awarded to Italy following the carve-up of Austro-Hungary after WW1 and the region did not become part of Yugoslavia till after WW2. The change of state control in Istria of course affected the demographics, as Croatians and Slovenians emigrated during the times of Italian control, while Italians left (en masse, in certain instances, as from Pula) when it became clear that Yugoslavia would govern the peninsula from 1947. Notwithstanding this, Istria is still an unusually diverse region of Europe, with a regional identity strong enough for a proportion of the population to describe themselves as Istrians first and foremost. And, of course, now that Yugoslavia and communism have been dismantled and Croatia’s candidacy for membership of the European Union, there is again a renewed Italian influence along the coast, with investment and property development.
Before 1899, a Lithuanian immigrant arriving in USA would customarily be recorded on the incoming passenger lists and immigration records as a Russian, or perhaps as a Pole, although of course a Lithuanian can usually confidently be identified by his or her name unless it has become garbled in the paperwork, or was previously polonised or russified. However, by the time that the Bureau of Immigration started counting Lithuanians separately in 1899, it is estimated that there were about 275,000 ethnic Lithuanians resident in USA.
Many of the earlier immigrants headed for the coalmines of eastern Pennsylvania, where they settled in towns such as Scranton in Lackawanna County, Hazleton and Wilkes-Barre in Luzerne County, and Pottsville and Shenandoah in Schuylkill County. Of course, later Lithuanian immigrants settled in great numbers in New York and the industrial cities such as Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit and Pittsburg, where they were employed as skilled workers in factories.
From 1899, when Lithuanians should appear in their own right in American immigration records, to the outbreak of WW1 in 1914, the number of recorded Lithuanians was 252,594. There was a striking imbalance between male and female migrants – 67% male against 33% female. Moreover, the immigrants were overwhelmingly young – some 90% were aged between 14 and 45 years of age. These two statistics in combination point to the typical pioneering Lithuanian immigrant being a young single male economic migrant.
The Lithuanian communities often formed their own Roman Catholic parishes in America and some data from a few of these parish records is now available online, together with cemetery records and extracts from newspapers, at the Lithuanian Global Genealogy Society’s website.
When turning research attention back to Lithuania, the critical point for a genealogist is to know, or to be able to find out, exactly where an immigrant ancestor came from in the homeland. This is because the vital records in Lithuania were created and maintained at the local parish level. This means that it is usually not enough to know that an ancestor came from, say, the Kovno (Kaunas) or the Wilna (Vilnius) gubernia, as this covers far too wide an area; indeed, it is unfortunately unlikely to be enough even to know which uezd (district) within a gubernia an ancestor came from, although of course this helps and will usually be sufficient to provide a starting point in Lithuania.
If you find yourself ready to take your family history research back to Lithuania, please feel free to contact Bluebird Research for advice and an assessment of the prospects and costs.