This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: janjer7 Surnames: Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.wisniewski/191.2.1.1.1.1.1/mb.ashx Message Board Post: Sorry it has taken so long to answer. I lost internet service for almost a week. I haven't heard anything about my ancestors being Jewish. But I will not be surprised if I do because I have read that if a person has Polish ancestry they are very likely to have Jewish ancestry. The earliest records I have accessed are the Catholic church records in the later part of 1700, thanks to the LDS Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. I did have the impression that a number of Jews became Christian in the early 1800s but was unaware that there was a movement called the "Haskala". Did they really convert or were they in church records because the government records were collected through the churches? The church records in some parishes even noted if a man had done his military service. That information was requested by the government. I can see where marrying a Christian separated the Jew from his family and unintentionally the new family lost their traditions. I am i! nterested in learning more about Haskala. My cousin was told a direct ancestor in his father's line was believed to be Jewish and took his wife's surname to inherit land. His name was Bartholomew Calczjak (other spellings are possible). His wife was Agnes Jaskowna on one record. They married in the late 1700s in the parish of Gorczye, Znin, Posen. Their surname was recorded Jacek or Jacki. Their son Karl, born in 1802 and lived in Dochanowo, Bydgoszcz, Posen used Jacek. Do you think this could be correct? The 1880 census is difficult to read in that the census takers were absolutely unfamiliar with Polish names. Jacob Trok on the 1880 census, was a son of Adalbert and Franciska Durecki Trok and brother of Antonina Trok Wisniewski. If you note the 1900 census takers they were not Polish-Americans either, so the spellings are very far off. Jacob Trok and his second wife, Anastasia nee Wargin had children, Klemens, Wladislaus(Ladislaus), Heronium (becomes either Jerome or Harry in the U.S.), Louis, Victor, William, Isadore, Edmund, Kasimir and Sylvester -- not in that order. These were all names popular among the Polish immigrants. Anastasia was listed as Anna on the 1920 Census for the family in Chicago. The descendants of Jacob Trok and his brother, Anton Trok use the name Trock. This makes research harder since those families whose name was Trock when they immigrated come from Sweden. Victor and Antonina Trok Wisniewski were using Wisniewski in church records in La Salle and in all records in Washington County, IL. Government records in La Salle looked as if the recorders gave up trying to understand the immigrants' accents. I have frequently seen witz or wicz used intead of ski by record keepers who are familiar with those endings. Washington County did have Russian Poles who used witz and wicz all the time. I am related to almost all of the early Wallochs in La Salle/Peru. I trace them back to Martin & Regina (nee Kleczkowska) Waloch of Tlukom & Czajcze (Wissek Parish) in the mid to late 1700s. Over the years the records throughout the Wisitz area had many variations of the spelling of their surname. The surname became Walloch & Wallock in the U.S. Another Walloch researcher, Daryl Tesar told me the Waloch family came from Pomerania in the early 1700s after being forced out by land disputes. Daryl Tesar has done extensive research on the surname and seems to have identified three unrelated Waloch families in the Wirsitz district. She actually found a Walloch recorded as Wacholz. Bobkiewitz became Bobkiewicz and they immigrated from the Sroda District of Posen and became well known in La Salle. Shirkirka was actually Siekierka and all of the Siekierkas in La Salle County, Illinois immigrated from the Wirsitz district, having descended from Stanislaus Siekierka of Tlukum, who was born in 1789 in Wissek. Some are related to my ancestors. Jacoshinsky was a very bad spelling of Jagodzinski, another family from the Wirsitz district. Shaunesey was among the Irish wave of immigrants, who came to work the mines and build the railroads and canals around La Salle. The Irish immigrants came to La Salle before the Polish immigrants. The German immigrants were already well established in La Salle and I believe that's what the other names in your list represented. But that doesn't say the names aren't also Jewish in origin. I wish the immigrants did record about their origins but so many were illiterate and what time and energy they had was used for surviving. Since assimilation often meant survival to our ancestors, they did not encourage talking about their past. Also parents often died too young to pass on family history, So much is lost to us. That's why I appreciate the bits and pieces you have added and your questioning of the origins of surnames. Research is showing that if we could go back far enough we are all related. Have you ever seen the the books edited by William F. Hoffman of the Polish Genealogy Society of America. He has done a wonderful job of noting the origins of familiar Polish-American first names and surnames. He claims it is impossible to list all the names since earlier attempts and his sources comprised sets of books numbering in the dozens. He mentioned that the Jews came to the German lands in the Middle Ages and moved east to Poland to escape persecution. Therefore many Polish names are of Jewish origin. One of his notes suggests that Waloch could be a derivitive of Walenty. Among his sources he lists: Alexander Bieder, A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from the Kingdom of poland; Rabbi Shmuel Gorr, Jewish Personal Name; B. Kaganoff, A Dictionary of Jewish Names and Their History. I do find the origins of names fascinating.Time for me to stop. Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board.