[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Kaminski ethnicity

[Gary Warner]

Mike,

I think that Steinke is the German name and Kaminski is the Polish 
name.   I will be the first to agree, however, that it is not always 
apparent which name is of which language.

Stein in my German dictionary has a meaning of precious stone.

Kamien in my Polish dictionary has a meaning also of precious stone.

While this equivalency is pretty clear, not all alternate names are so clear.

Gary


At 08:48 AM 2/18/2007, Mike  McHenry wrote:
>My German dictionary says the stem Kamin means fireplace. I don't see
>anything like it in the polish one.
>
>                                         Mike
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: ger-poland-volhynia-bounces at eclipse.sggee.org
>[mailto:ger-poland-volhynia-bounces at eclipse.sggee.org] On Behalf Of Gary
>Warner
>Sent: Sunday, February 18, 2007 2:47 AM
>To: Hal and Jan Kamm; ger-poland-volhynia at eclipse.sggee.org
>Subject: Re: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Kaminski ethnicity
>
>Hal,
>
>Welcome to our mail list.   I hope you get as much from it as the rest of
>us.
>
>I am by no means an expert on the subject(s) you raise, but perhaps
>my two cents will start the ball rolling and elicit some more
>discussion from the experts on this list.
>
>You would appear to be on the correct mail list, because the rest of
>us are equally confused by our ancestry, at least the part about
>knowing what to call our ancestors.   I trust I am not stating
>something incorrectly when I say that the rest of the people on this
>list are all related to Germans who lived in Poland or Volhynia
>(essentially the western part of the Ukraine).   Your Kaminski name
>would seem to indicate that you also are German, since according to
>Oskar Kossmann's "Die Deutschen in Polen", printed in 1978, Kaminski
>is the Polish version of the name Koberstein.   This may not be the
>absolutely correct German version of the name, however, since some
>people also think that Steinke is an alternate to
>Kaminski.   Evidently the root of the word Kaminski has some
>equivalence to the German word Stein or Steinke.  Only some detailed
>research by you will enlighten you further about who your ancestors
>really were.   To answer your question about name changes, the answer
>is yes, they did change, but not necessarily for everyone.   It seems
>that they changed when there was an equivalent name in the language
>used where they lived (like Schwarz becoming Czarnecki, since one
>name means black in German ,and the other means black in
>Polish).   Names also changed when the name was difficult to say in
>the language where our ancestors lived, much like they did when our
>ancestors came to North America.
>
>My grandparents were born in Poland and later moved to Volhynia where
>they were married and where their first child was born.    Both of my
>grandparents were definitely descended from Germans, but they were
>born in an area that is today Poland but was owned by Russia at the
>time.    So, in the 1900s, when Poland again resumed its own national
>identity, my grandparents were Germans who could claim that they were
>also Poles and Russians.
>
>May I suggest that you give SGGEE a one year trial membership to see
>what you can discover in our databases, and especially you should
>submit at least your pedigree, if not additionally data on your
>cousins who are also likely German to see if we can link your data to
>any of the names in our databases.
>
>Guessing at a correct place name is not possible without more data
>than you have supplied, but yes, there is a Rypin that is often
>mentioned in the databases that we have.
>
>Gary Warner
>SGGEE
>
>At 02:25 PM 2/17/2007, Hal and Jan Kamm wrote:
> >This is my first post on this list.
> >
> >I am a grandson of Arthur Kaminski, who arrived in US in 1907 listed
> >as Russian nationality, but German ethnicity. The ship manifest noted
> >Ripen as the town of origin. I cannot find a town named Ripen, but
> >there is one called Rypin in Kujawsko-Pomorskie, Poland.
> >
> >I am confused about the German ethnicity versus Russian/Polish
> >nationality. I had heard stories years ago about the family working
> >as millers of grain across northern Europe. Would names be changed
> >temporarily, during one generation or less, depending on where they
> >were living?
> >
> >Any help would be appreciated.
> >Thanks
> >
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>
>
>
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