[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Town

[Sandie]

>> Many, many thanks to everyone who replied to my inquiry.
>> I received the following message on the PBS roots web site (Poland Border
>> Surnames) and it fits in perfectly with our area of research.
>> First though I want to apologize for not having stated the correct church
>> that these records were located in. The record is in the GARLIAVA
> (GODLEWO) Lutheran Church. Virballis, Garliava, Gumbinnen, Kowno, Mariampole, are
> all in the same area and my cousin is finding records in all of these
> churches.
>>
>> The message received from Fred Hoffman is as follows: (I know the district
>> is different but the translator may have had a problem reading the records
>> (they are in Polish) as the pages are very dark from the microfilm.)
>>
>> The names "Jakiwiszk" and "Ryngwaldyczki" don't
>> sound at all Polish. I suspected they might be
>> Polonized versions of Lithuanian or Belarusian
>> names. So I wondered if searching in Poland, in
>> its modern borders, would be a waste of time.
>>
>> In such cases, the best place to look is the
>> massive 15-volume Polish-language gazetteer
>> _Slownik geograficzny Krolestwa Polskiego_,
>> published in the late 19th century. It does not
>> mention a "Ryngwaldyczki," but it does mention a
>> folwark (manorial farmstead) called Ryngwaldyszki
>> (Volume 10, p. 104). It was located in the county
>> of Maryampol, district of Aleksota, parish of
>> Godlewo. This area is now in Lithuania --
>> Maryampole is Marijampole, Godlewo is Garliava.
>> The Garliava area is just a little south of Kaunas
>> (Polish name Kowno).
>>
>> You can search the SGKP for specific names of
>> places at this site:
>>
>> http://www.dir.icm.edu.pl/dirop/index.php/Slownik_geograficzny/Tom_I/30
>>
>> Under "Wyszukiwanie," you can search for entry
>> names ("w haslach") or within the actual text of
>> entries (w tekscie). Text searches take longer,
>> but are still reasonably fast. Of course, you have
>> to spell the names correctly. A search for
>> "Ryngwaldyczki" comes up empty, but "Rynwaldyszki"
>> finds the place in question -- but you have to
>> type in the name with the slash-L, not plain L.
>> You can get around that by using "wild cards," ?
>> for any single character, * for any combination of
>> characters. Thus if you search the entry titles for
>> RYNGWA?D*, you get one match: Ryngwaldyszki. So
>> you can find many places if you search correctly,
>> but there is a bit of a learning curve involved.
>>
>> I couldn't find any entries mentioning Jakiwiszki
>> or this particular village Koscielna, but that may
>> just be because they were awfully small; or
>> perhaps "Jakiwiszki" has been misspelled and isn't
>> the correct name. Still, it may be correct. I
>> notice the compilers of the SGKP did not always
>> have much info on smaller villages in Lithuania.
>> Perhaps they just didn't have access to sources
>> for Lithuania as detailed as those for Polish
>> territory.
>>
>> Normally you could study maps of areas in
>> Lithuania at:
>>
>> http://www.maps.lt/redirect.asp?l=2
>>
>> For some reason, when I tried it just now, the
>> site was very slow to respond; usually it's much
>> quicker. I wasn't able to take a close look. But a
>> search for Garliava should put you very, very
>> close to the place you're looking for. I tried
>> Google maps and it showed Garliava and Aleksotas,
>> but I couldn't find any places with names
>> corresponding to Jakiwiszki (which would probably
>> be something like Jakiviskiai) and Ryngwaldyszki
>> (Ringvaldiskiai?). Perhaps the maps aren't
>> detailed enough. It's also quite possible these
>> places no longer exist, have been absorbed into
>> other communities, or have different names now.
>>
>> "Koscielna" is a Polish word meaning "of the
>> church," and a _koscielna wies_, literally "church
>> village," was usually a property owned by the
>> Church, as opposed to property owned by a local
>> noble or by the government or king. You would
>> expect Lithuanians to rename such a place, perhaps
>> with a Lithuanian word meaning much the same thing
>> (Lithuanian for "church" is _baz^nyc^ia_, using ^
>> to stand for the little v diacritical mark over
>> the Z and C). Or under Communist rule it might
>> have been given a completely different name, one
>> with no hint of a religious connection.
>> _Ryngwaldyszki_ is a Polish rendering of a
>> Lithuanian adaptation of a German name
>> (Ringwald) -- also a prime candidate for renaming.
>> So even if these places still exist as independent
>> communities, I'd expect them to have different
>> names. You may need the help of someone in the
>> area, a local historian or long-time resident, to
>> find out for sure.