[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Germans and Poland

[Otto]

Also play with translation of surnames from German to Polish, Polish  
to German.
It may unveil insight.
Spellings of surnames had a tendency to become "eingedeutschdt"...  
Germanized, even if an actual translation did not occur.

As an example:
I oft come across the surname in research 'Molzahn'. (past friends of  
my past parents)
Translated to English="Mol-tooth"?  Every Canadian is familiar with  
Molson's Ale.
I find the Molsens coming into the Danzig area in the early 1500's as  
Scottish traders.  It did not take long for the surname to become  
"eingedeutschdt" i.e. [Molzahn], because Scot traders weren't  
welcomed with open arms, mattered not the ethnicity of the unwelcome  
wagon. The Scot name in turn, "Mol", uses the suffix "sen"[scand] or  
"son"[anglo], an indication of Scandinavian past. "Molsen", the son  
of Mol. (researching the meaning of 'Mol' is another adventure)  
Changing the spelling did not change the persons bearing the name,  
they were "ethnisized" by cross-breeding with the German people of  
their parishes down through time.

Spelling variations of the name and a quick check in year 2000 Poland  
for evidence of a surname use by the spellings-
Ci-cew-ski -   (Tsee-tsev'skee) ? none
Ci-sew-ski -   (Tsee-sev'skee) ? some
Zieschewski - (Tsi-shev'skee) ~
Zischewski -  (Tsee-shev'skee) *
Ciszewski -  (Tsee-shev'skee) !* most! prolific.
Cieszewski -  (Tsi-shev'skee) ! lots
Try googling for them-

It boils down to this:
Love has no difficulty hurdling the hedge-rows of ethnicity. A kiss  
has no accent.
The real challenge was the high brick wall of religious persuasion,  
but even there, love prevailed.
In speaking with an individual from a long line of Polish nobility  
(1100 c.e.>) some years ago, I was made aware that every so often in  
his pedigree there were breaks in the lineage. . . informing me some  
of his forefathers were wiser than the rest; they lived their life  
out with a beautiful woman in preference to a noble one.

On Apr 25, 2007, at 11:41 AM, LEN GOLKE wrote:
This question is also about the German/Polish ancestry.  My mother's  
maiden name was Cicewski


. . .   Otto

             " The Zen moment..." wk. of April 1, 2007-
              ________________________________
              "Like fishing. . . always beyond the surface."