[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Kwiatkowski - Bluemke

[Otto]

Good evening Dave,

As you research the surname in Poland be mindful that since circa 1813  
and Russian domination of Poland all civil/church records were  
recorded in Polish until the Poles rebelled and Russia put down a  
heavy hand on Poland and then all records were recorded in Russian  
using the Cyrillic alphabet since 1866. +/-.  Cyrillic is an exercise  
in mental agility. My grandfather with the simple name of John  
Schienke became "Ivan Stodulski". . .  Now spell that out in Russian,   
I can almost hear the melancholy music in the background.  :D

The Poles use the Roman alphabet as do the Germans. Both countries  
adopted the Roman alphabet. In order for the Roman alphabet to fit the  
Polish speech patterns diacritical markings are used to shape the  
proper sounds and a few extra letters are flipped in creating about 28  
in count.

German uses a few diacritical markings, specifically umlauts, seeing  
the German language is spoken in the throat as to were the English  
language has shifted to the front of the mouth to the tongue tip. In  
German language cases where the trailing vowel has to be pronounced at  
the tip of the tongue, the leading vowel becomes an 'umlaut' with the  
two diacritical marks above it indicating the speaker must bring the  
sounding of it out of his throat and halfway up his tongue so the  
trailing vowel will be sounded on the front of the tongue/lips.

Language is about sound.
Parish ministers in recording birth,  marriage, and death records  
altered spellings of names to make the German names sound out properly  
when saying them in Polish. At times they translated the German names  
into Polish equivalents such as your Kwiat-kow-ski. Polish is laden  
with suffix endings as to who this 'Kwiat' is.  Kwiatkow means 'of  
Kwiat' (The -k- is from the diminutive suffix -ek or -ko) and 'ski'  
from the estate of.  The suuffix 'ski' is not the Polish substitute  
for the Baltic flat-land German 'ke' suffix, which is a diminutive  
meaning 'little' as in the case of 'Blüm-ke', little Blüm or simply  
son of Blüm or Blum.

Some families willingly, unwillingly, or unknowingly, in an attempt to  
modernize the sound of their surname have dropped the 'ke' suffix and  
trashed a whole armful of history at the same time.

Gary is correct. Become familiar with the various spellings of the  
surname.  Each spelling is peculiar to a point in history as it passes  
through what we call time. Each spelling is a historical take-out, a  
particular point in time regarding the history of your ancestors.  
Spelling changes usually mark some large event in their history.

You ask, "Was Bluem-ke originally Blüm-ke?"
A very good possibility.  Then the question, Why the 'e'?  Some could  
be attributed to dropping the use of diacritical markings altogether  
and simply flipping in a trailing 'e' to get the sound out of the  
throat.  Much of it could be due to the rascal of the past we called  
the 'mechanical typewriter'.  It had no umlaut keys necessitating the  
use of a trailing 'e' to indicate the leading vowel was an umlaut.

In researching the 'Kwiatkowski' surname I would consider all of the  
following 'correct' until you prove out through research and  
developing a 'paper trail' if any or all of them are kin.
Kwiatkowski, Bluemke, Blümke, Blumke, Blum, and Bloom. By all means  
this is not an exhaustive list. You may add to it as you do your  
research.

In fact an E-letter just arrived in which Maureen has just added some  
more variations to Blumke.
My family had a relative who simply changed it to 'Bloom' for the  
Americans who have a compulsion to pronounce everything on the tip of  
the tongue.

My own surname and the old spelling of it which I still use, "Sch'ie'n- 
ke, is harnessed with a diphthong and Baltic suffix.  If Schien is Old  
Prussian the meaning is still vague, if Schien is similar to the East  
Prussian Platt or Dutch of the 1500's (my first finding of the use of  
the surname in Danzig) its meaning is 'shins' or the English meaning  
'Longshanks" similar to an uncle with the German Platt surname of  
'Krahn' or crane. (stork-legs)  So... add a 'ke' suffix and I am the  
son of Long-shanks. This has a ring of validity to it in a way seeing  
there are kin that stand at 6'7".

As my surname passed through 500 years the spelling showed signs of  
language change and adaption to it and also the effects of translation  
to other languages.  The 'ie' diphthong creates the greatest problem  
in translation. Examples, I begin with the oldest example: Schienke,  
Schiencke, Schinke, Schänke, Schenke, Schönke, Schoenke, Schoencke,  
Schonke, Schünke, Schuenke, Schunke, Stodulski. Maureen just signed  
off in her E-letter with another variation of the spelling,  
'Schoenky', with a 'y' to round off the 'ke' suffix (properly sounded  
as 'keh' with a short 'e') but only in the American way of sounding it  
out. Some of those are Shinky and Shinkey. These are most of the  
variations of the surname... but not all.  :D

All spellings are correct when they are used legally by the holder of  
them, but do they lead to immediate kin and history of the soon  
forgotten past? A paper trail is the only proof.


On Aug 31, 2008, at 12:02 PM, Dave Neumann wrote:
> Gary: Was Bluemke originally Blümke?
> Dave
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. . .   Otto
          " The Zen moment..." wk. of March 23, 2008-
               ________________________________
                 "Each of us. . . A bundle of possibilities."