[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] surnames ending in ski

[Jerry Frank]

Yes.  Both are pronounced "skee".



At 08:32 AM 04/04/2005, Michael & Maureen McHenry wrote:
>Jerry is SKY ending just a variant?
>
>                   MIKE
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: ger-poland-volhynia-bounces at eclipse.sggee.org
>[mailto:ger-poland-volhynia-bounces at eclipse.sggee.org] On Behalf Of
>Jerry Frank
>Sent: Monday, April 04, 2005 9:28 AM
>To: dalo at cheqnet.net; ger-poland-volhynia at eclipse.sggee.org
>Subject: Re: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] surnames ending in ski
>
>At 04:57 AM 04/04/2005, David Wade wrote:
> >Can anyone explain to me why it seems there are so many surnames from
>this
> >area that end in 'ski' or some variation of 'ski' (or is it my
>imagination)?
> >
> >Thank you,
> >Lois
>
>
>There are a variety of possibilities for this situation with respect to
>Germans in East-central Europe.  First, understand that the 'ski' suffix
>is
>equivalent to 'von' in German.  Like von, it can have two
>connotations.  One is nobility.  It implies that you are "from" a noble
>family.  The other is locational, implying that your are "from" a
>certain town.
>
>So how do peasant class people get such a name?  Several
>possibilities.  One might be that a noble family loses its fortune or
>the
>fortune gets spread thinly among the descendants so that they become the
>
>same level as peasant class people.  Another way was that a nobleman
>could
>grant the right for a peasant to use his surname, especially for some
>form
>of meritous service, perhaps in battle.
>
>Sometimes names evolved.  I have the surname Girschewski in my ancestry,
>
>German Lutheran for many years.  As best I can determine, the surname
>evolved out of the German name, Gersch.
>
>In other cases, ski was tacked on to the end of a German name that had
>been
>translated to Polish.  You can probably find some of those in the
>surnames
>equivalency list on the SGGEE website.
>
>Many of these Polish sounding names used by German ethnics (including my
>
>Girschewski) came out of the Kashubian region, mostly in western West
>Prussia but extending into eastern Pomerania.
>
>
>
>
>
>Jerry Frank - Calgary, Alberta
>FranklySpeaking at shaw.ca
>
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Jerry Frank - Calgary, Alberta
FranklySpeaking at shaw.ca