John Naida wrote: > We were under the impression that Venesky was the Polish surname, but I > didn't know about the V in the Polish alphabet. John, The Polish alphabet has 32 letters - 23 of which also appear in the English alphabet. (Q, V, and X are the English characters not in the Polish alphabet.) Although many Polish letters make roughly the same sound as their English equivalent, some do not. Among those is the W. In Polish, it makes the same sound as the English V. The Polish letter Ł (an L with a slash through it) makes the English W sound. So, whatever spelling your grandmother's surname turns out to have, you can be assured that it will begin with a W and not a V when spelled in proper Polish. :-) You can see the Polish alphabet here: http://www.twardoch.com/download/polishhowto/intro.html BTW, have you looked into church records for a proper spelling for the surname? If your grandmother attended an ethnic Polish church, it's likely the priest would have spelled her name more accurately if he was also of Polish descent. I've found much more accurate spellings of surnames in baptismal records for children born to immigrants than I've seen in civil records. -Marie