[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Town

[Jerry Frank]

Sandie,

You can find Ryngwaldyczki on this map -

http://www.mapywig.org/m/German_maps/1870-1919/300K/Uebersichtskarte_von_Mitteleuropa_Kowno.jpg

This is a high resolution map with a long download.  You will find 
Kaunas / Kowno in the upper right.  Follow the main road south to 
Garliava / Godlewo.

You will find Ryngwaldyczki west of Kaunas about 9 km NNW of 
Godlewo.  Today it is known as Ringuadai.

As with Fred, I could not find the other two places mentioned.


Jerry Frank - Calgary, Alberta
FranklySpeaking at shaw.ca





At 07:59 PM 25/07/2007, Sandie wrote:
> >> 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.
>
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