Hello everyone: I've been working several sides of my family, but one of the family names of which I know practically nothing prior to 1880 are my Gawinskis (Gavinski today in Wisconsin). I went on Professor Rymut's site and typed into the search box, Gawinski, and I received the following information: "Gawinski - 14 - By: 1, Gd: 1, Kl: 3, Ka: 2, Ol: 1, Os: 3, Pl: 3." I do not speak, read or write Polish, but I interpret the information above as: Gawinski; 14 such souls registering for "social security" in 1990. One from Bydgoszcz. One from Gdansk. Three from Kl (?). Two from what I believe is Katowice. One from OL (?). Three from Os (?). Three from Plock, I believe. So, therein lies my problem. I've guessed at some of the abreviations, but those marked with a (?), I haven't the slightest idea what they are. By the way, my Gawinski came from Slesin, which I think is Bydgoszcz. There was one Gawinski family registered in Bydgoszcz in 1990. I wonder if this is good or bad news. My question: Does anyone know of a site that translates all of the regions of Poland from abreviation to name? I have found sites that list the names, however, when you come across an abreviation, how can you be certain that you know the region to which it refers? John

Hi, John Ruther <chicagojohn@comcast.net> wrote: > I've been working several sides of my family, > but one of the family names of which I know > practically nothing prior to 1880 are my > Gawinskis (Gavinski today in Wisconsin). > > I went on Professor Rymut's site and typed into > the search box, Gawinski, and I received the > following information: > "Gawinski - 14 - By: 1, Gd: 1, Kl: 3, Ka: 2, Ol: > 1, Os: 3, Pl: 3." > > I do not speak, read or write Polish, but I > interpret the information above as: Gawinski; 14 > such souls registering for "social security" in > 1990. That's close. They didn't register for the Polish equivalent of Social Security in 1990; they appeared in the 1990 database maintained by the Polish government agency that administers the social program that's comparable to our Social Security. It's kind of a minor point, but perhaps one worth mentioning. > One from Bydgoszcz. One from Gdansk. Three from > Kl (?). Two from what I believe is Katowice. One > from OL (?). Three from Os (?). Three from > Plock, I believe. > > So, therein lies my problem. I've guessed at > some of the abreviations, but those marked with > a (?), I haven't the slightest idea what they > are. OK, first, that data is worthless, because the name is not spelled right. It should be GAWINSKI with an accent over the N -- and the accent does make a difference. Go to the site at http://www.herby.com.pl/indexslo.html and do a search for GAWI?SKI. The ? is a wild card that stands for any one letter, and thus lets you get around the need to input that accented N (which is not so easy to do if you're not familiar with the process). When you click on "Szukaj," you'll get data for the only two surnames in the database that match the pattern GAWI_SKI: the version with plain N, and the version with accented N. You'll see there were 14 with plain N, 971 with accented N! > My question: Does anyone know of a site that > translates all of the regions of Poland from > abreviation to name? I have found sites that > list the names, however, when you come across an > abreviation, how can you be certain that you > know the region to which it refers? Secondly, to get a list of the abbreviations, on that page, notice the line in blue, a few lines below where you key in the name, that says "Tutaj znajduja sie objasnienia skrotow." Click on that, and you'll get a list of the abbreviations and the provinces they refer to. You still have to take the adjectival forms and get the normal forms, but it's not too hard to realize that _bydgoskie_ is Bydgoszcz province, _radomskie_ is Radom province, and so on. So the 14 you asked about were: Bydgoszcz province 1, Gdansk 1, Kalisz 3, Katowice 2, Olsztyn 1, Ostroleka 3, and Pila 3. But as I say, that data is not really what you want to look at. You want the data received when your search matches the spelling with accented N. > By the way, my Gawinski came from Slesin, which > I think is Bydgoszcz. There was one Gawinski > family registered in Bydgoszcz in 1990. I > wonder if this is good or bad news. Note that there were 58 Polish citizens named GAWINSKI with accented N living in Bydgoszcz province as of 1990. So it does make a difference. Actually, the real number of GAWINSKIs with plain N was probably less than 14. It's quite possible all of them had the accent -- it is standard for the N in -inski to be accented -- and the 14 were entries that were keyed in wrong. Or there may be few people in Poland who insist on spelling it with no accent, but that's definitely an unusual, non-standard spelling. If you show a Pole the name with the accented N and with plain N, he wouldn't hesitate to say the spelling with the accent is the right one. By the way, the 1990 data on the so-called "Rymut site" is not as accurate as the 2002 data -- and the color map -- you can get here: http://www.moikrewni.pl/mapa/kompletny/gawi%25C5%2584ski.html But note, that particular page only lists people with the masculine form of the name ending in -ski. To get the full picture, you also need to see the page for the feminine version ending in -ska: http://www.moikrewni.pl/mapa/kompletny/gawi%25C5%2584ska.html On the maps given on those sites, you can put your cursor over each county and it'll show you the name of that county. So this data (which also came from Prof. Rymut) is not only more accurate than the Herby site's data, it's also more detailed. It breaks name distribution down on the county level, not the province level. You can get more info on this subject, including a link to an article I wrote explaining more about the Herby database, here: http://www.fredhoff.com/polonicae.htm I hope this is some help. Fred Hoffman