Thank you for discussing the "Walter" first name. Interestingly, my Shedlock/Siedlarczyk surnames have gone the route of evolution. However, it was good to see that first name "Walter," even though the family was originally Polish, was used "Laudislaw" [German], instead of the Polish version "Wladyslawa." I found the name in St Casimir Catholic Church Adena OH. Walter Shedlock was listed as Laudislaw Shedlock. The ancestors were Siedlarczyk from Krosnica Poland. I think I even have a Kubik in the distant cousin list of my Family history. Any relation to the Tony Kubick a third baseman of Yankee fame during the Mickey Mantle era. LOL Joanie Shedlock Wielgus artinakorte@verizon.net wrote: From: Fred Hoffman Date: 2007/05/05 Sat PM 05:50:04 CDT To: polandbordersurnames@rootsweb.com Subject: [PBS] Wladyslawa and Lottie Hi, Responding to someone's quotation from my book, Krzysiu wrote: > Wladyslawa certainly not Lottie This is the same problem we keep running into. No, Wladyslawa is not Lottie. There is NO true English equivalent of Wladyslawa. All I said in my book was that SOME Polish women named Wladyslawa chose to go by Lottie among English-speakers, based on a very slight phonetic similarity. It's not "correct," but it happened often enough to be worth noting. There were no rules to choosing a name. Immigrants could call themselves anything they wanted. More often than not, if there was an English equivalent to their Polish name, they went by it. If there was no true English equivalent, they often chose to go by a common English name that sounded a little like their Polish name. But if a Polish immigrant had always hated his or her name, there was nothing to stop him or her from choosing any old name that sounded good. Coming to a new country gave immigrants a chance for a fresh start, and sometimes they decided to drop everything that reminded them of their old lives -- even their names! Fred Hoffman I know of people who change their Polish sounding names. Le~wando~wski is now Smith. Quite a difference. Tina Kubik Korte ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to POLANDBORDERSURNAMES-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to POLANDBORDERSURNAMES-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message Take Care, Joan "Angels don't heal us. They help us to heal ourselves" from Ask Your Angels http://www.intouchmag.com/alma.html --------------------------------- Be a PS3 game guru. Get your game face on with the latest PS3 news and previews at Yahoo! Games.