[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] POBANZ

[Lanzaro, Lawrence R Mr CIV USA IMCOM]

I have several documents (NYC Marriage & Death certs) of my German
ancestors who immigrated to New York in the 1880's. Their surnames were
LEIER and NOWASKY. But on some of the documents (dated from 1903 to
1919) their surnames are written as POBANZ, or POPONZ, or POBONTZ, or
PROPANZ, or POPONCE (hard to tell with some of the handwriting). In most
cases, these are female, but there are a few males. In all cases the
spouse is deceased. Does anyone on the list have any idea what this
means?

Larry Lanzaro