What an incredible wealth of knowledge Fred has to offer. It is not only impressive for its depth but also for the generosity with which it is shared. I'm envious. -----Original Message----- From: polandbordersurnames-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:polandbordersurnames-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Fred Hoffman Sent: Tuesday, 9 October 2007 12:51 AM To: polandbordersurnames@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [PBS] VAUCHGLANUS or VOUCHYLANUS Hi, John Windle <johnwindle@btinternet.com> wrote: > ... I am in my early stages of this > search and don't have much info to go on. I read > that back in 1882, a lot of > Russian/Polish refugees passed through Liverpool > on there way to Canada and > America and that some of them stayed and married > here. If I assume the > surname was VAICELIUNAS, is this likely to be a > Jewish name and I should > concentrate my search of the Jewish community > areas of that time. It would be unusual for a Jew to bear this name, or any of the similar names such as VAICILIUNAS or VAICIULIONIS. That's because of the name's origin. The endings -onis and -unas and -unis usually means "son of," and the Vaic- part comes from an ancient Slavic given name that shows up in Polish as Wojciech (which sounds kind of like "VOI-check"). This name was used first by ancient pagan Slavs, then by Slavic Christians once a Slav by this name was recognized as a saint by the Church (St. Wojciech, Bishop of Prague, martyred in 997, more often known in Western countries by the Germanic name Adalbert). Lithuanians adopted that name in the form Vaitiekus, and then shortened it to make nicknames such as Vaicius. Add a diminutive ending such as -elis and you have Vaicelis, and the son of Vaicelis would be Vaiceliunas. Or if the nickname was Vaiciulis, his son might be called Vaiciulionis. There are several Lithuanian surnames that sound similar and stated out meaning much the same thing, "son of little Vaitiekus" -- and these are the names that I think might match up with "Vouchylanus." I could be dead wrong about that -- please don't take my word on this as Gospel. But hearing and looking at the name "Vouchylanus," I'd say chances are decent it's a mangled form of a Lithuanian name, and something along the lines of VAICELIUNAS or VAICILIUNAS or VAICIULIONIS would be good phonetic matches. But these names would not usually be borne by Jews; they would tend to be associated with Lithuanian Christians. Of course, there were cases where Jews would try to assimilate by adopting a Christian-sounding name. So you can never say "never." But it would be unusual for a Jew to go by any of these names I mentioned, because Jews avoided names associated with ancient pagans or with Christian saints -- and Vaitiekus/Wojciech qualifies as both! I thought it might be worthwhile searching for this name in Avotaynu's Consolidated Jewish Surname Index [CJSI], a database of some 700,000 surnames, mostly Jewish, found in 42 different databases. The surnames are presented in Soundex order; for each surname, it identifies in which of the databases the name can be found, with a link to additional information about each database. CJSI is located at: http://www.avotaynu.com/csi/csi-home.html But when I tried searching for VAUCHGLANUS, VOUCHYLANUS, VAICELIUNAS, VAICILIUNAS, and VAICIULIONIS, there were very few plausible matches. There was a PECHIOLINAS listed in the All Lithuania database, but that's not a very close match. I also looked in Alexander Beider's _Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from the Russian Empire_, a pretty good source of info on surnames borne by Jews living within the territory of the Russian Empire, which included Lithuania (at that time). I found no name with a basic consonant pattern of V-CH-L-N-S (consonants tend to be more stable than vowels in names, so we focus on consonant patterns when looking for likely phonetic matches). So this tends to confirm what I said: unless the name has been mangled past all hope of recognition, I really don't think it's likely to be associated with Jews. It's far more likely to be associated with Lithuanian Christians, most likely Roman Catholics. Don't let this discourage you. The way to succeed in research is to keep asking "OK, could it be this? Could it be that?" It can be frustrating when the answer keeps coming up "No," but look at it this way -- with each no you're eliminating a path that does NOT lead where you need to go. Eliminate enough of the wrong paths, and sooner or later you're likely to find the right one. Good luck! Fred Hoffman Author, _Polish Surnames: Origins & Meanings_ ------------------------------- 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

Hi, Fred is a serious expert/specialist in this amazing realm of Eastern European names. His books and articles are loaded with tons of interesting, important and very useful information. And, as you have seen, he is an extremely articulate writer. Serious researchers and beginners alike owe it to themselves to have his material available for study and reference. Your work and time spent will be richer for it. Gerald Cierpilowski Lock Haven, PA On Oct 9, 2007, at 7:50 AM, Andy wrote: > What an incredible wealth of knowledge Fred has to offer. It is not > only > impressive for its depth but also for the generosity with which it is > shared. > > I'm envious. > > > -----Original Message----- > From: polandbordersurnames-bounces@rootsweb.com > [mailto:polandbordersurnames-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of > Fred Hoffman > Sent: Tuesday, 9 October 2007 12:51 AM > To: polandbordersurnames@rootsweb.com > Subject: Re: [PBS] VAUCHGLANUS or VOUCHYLANUS > > Hi, > > John Windle <johnwindle@btinternet.com> wrote: > >> ... I am in my early stages of this >> search and don't have much info to go on. I read >> that back in 1882, a lot of >> Russian/Polish refugees passed through Liverpool >> on there way to Canada and >> America and that some of them stayed and married >> here. If I assume the >> surname was VAICELIUNAS, is this likely to be a >> Jewish name and I should >> concentrate my search of the Jewish community >> areas of that time. > > It would be unusual for a Jew to bear this name, > or any of the similar names such as VAICILIUNAS or > VAICIULIONIS. That's because of the name's origin. > The endings -onis and -unas and -unis usually > means "son of," and the Vaic- part comes from an > ancient Slavic given name that shows up in Polish > as Wojciech (which sounds kind of like > "VOI-check"). This name was used first by ancient > pagan Slavs, then by Slavic Christians once a Slav > by this name was recognized as a saint by the > Church (St. Wojciech, Bishop of Prague, martyred > in 997, more often known in Western countries by > the Germanic name Adalbert). Lithuanians adopted > that name in the form Vaitiekus, and then > shortened it to make nicknames such as Vaicius. > Add a diminutive ending such as -elis and you have > Vaicelis, and the son of Vaicelis would be > Vaiceliunas. Or if the nickname was Vaiciulis, his > son might be called Vaiciulionis. There are > several Lithuanian surnames that sound similar and > stated out meaning much the same thing, "son of > little Vaitiekus" -- and these are the names that > I think might match up with "Vouchylanus." > > I could be dead wrong about that -- please don't > take my word on this as Gospel. But hearing and > looking at the name "Vouchylanus," I'd say chances > are decent it's a mangled form of a Lithuanian > name, and something along the lines of VAICELIUNAS > or VAICILIUNAS or VAICIULIONIS would be good > phonetic matches. But these names would not > usually be borne by Jews; they would tend to be > associated with Lithuanian Christians. Of course, > there were cases where Jews would try to > assimilate by adopting a Christian-sounding name. > So you can never say "never." But it would be > unusual for a Jew to go by any of these names I > mentioned, because Jews avoided names associated > with ancient pagans or with Christian saints -- > and Vaitiekus/Wojciech qualifies as both! > > I thought it might be worthwhile searching for > this name in Avotaynu's Consolidated Jewish > Surname Index [CJSI], a database of some 700,000 > surnames, mostly Jewish, found in 42 different > databases. The surnames are presented in Soundex > order; for each surname, it identifies in which of > the databases the name can be found, with a link > to additional information about each database. > CJSI is located at: > > http://www.avotaynu.com/csi/csi-home.html > > But when I tried searching for VAUCHGLANUS, > VOUCHYLANUS, VAICELIUNAS, VAICILIUNAS, and > VAICIULIONIS, there were very few plausible > matches. There was a PECHIOLINAS listed in the All > Lithuania database, but that's not a very close > match. > > I also looked in Alexander Beider's _Dictionary of > Jewish Surnames from the Russian Empire_, a pretty > good source of info on surnames borne by Jews > living within the territory of the Russian Empire, > which included Lithuania (at that time). I found > no name with a basic consonant pattern of > V-CH-L-N-S (consonants tend to be more stable than > vowels in names, so we focus on consonant patterns > when looking for likely phonetic matches). > > So this tends to confirm what I said: unless the > name has been mangled past all hope of > recognition, I really don't think it's likely to > be associated with Jews. It's far more likely to > be associated with Lithuanian Christians, most > likely Roman Catholics. > > Don't let this discourage you. The way to succeed > in research is to keep asking "OK, could it be > this? Could it be that?" It can be frustrating > when the answer keeps coming up "No," but look at > it this way -- with each no you're eliminating a > path that does NOT lead where you need to go. > Eliminate enough of the wrong paths, and sooner or > later you're likely to find the right one. > > Good luck! > > Fred Hoffman > Author, _Polish Surnames: Origins & Meanings_ > > > ------------------------------- > 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

Hi, I just wanted to thank Andy and Gerald for the kind words they said about me in recent notes. There are those who will tell you I don't know what I'm talking about and should keep my mouth shut. I don't happen to agree with them; but life would be boring if we all agreed on everything. Let's just say I'm interested in the language, culture, and history of central and eastern Europe, and over the years I've learned some things. I enjoy sharing what I've learned with others. If what I say helps you, great! If not, well at least I tried -- I'd rather try and fail than sit back and do nothing. Plus, if you try, once in a while you succeed.... Fred Hoffman