[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Milewski - some questions

[Otto]

Afternoon (my time) Rose-Marie and Irene,

Mee'lev'ski - with emphasis on the second syllable.
I found no Milewski in the old Lutheran cemetery here in Cleveland but  
there are two 'Meel' buried here.

My first cousin, Otto Albert Roll b. 1908 (x), his mother was Anna  
Schienke,  married a Helen Milewski as a second wife, his first wife  
had died.  All I have on Helen is that she was born in Neffs, Ohio in  
1913.  Question of her maiden name being a Polish translation of a  
German name never came up in all of the years I knew her. A surname  
has biological significance for about 200 years, after that it becomes  
a clothes hook to hang history on.

Names are only 'indicators' of what 'may' have been in the past. So we  
think. Genetic testing 'may/may not' give some semblance of immediate  
ethnicity but it ends there.  As it steps back in time we fall into a  
large breeding group. White, Black and Yellow are basic groupings and  
one does not need testing or names to prove it out. The Nazis found  
that 25% of the Poles fell within their 'blonde Nordic breed' group  
parameters and relocated many of them to Germany and 'Germanized' them  
to seed their dogma. This may have been a larger percentage of  
qualified specimen than the Nazi administration had among themselves.  
Comical, No?

Poles, as any other national group are of mixed ethnicity. Especially  
after the "Russian Ethnic Shuffle' that ended 1989.
The social wall between ethnic Poles and ethnic Germans is  
specifically, first, Religious, and second, Political. Otherwise there  
is little genetic difference.

I have no problem at all in using an old family surname alias,  
'Stodulski', especially in Poland, 'Stodulski-Schienke', where it  
opens doors and brings forth smiles. Both are honorable surnames.
We are what we become.

On Dec 18, 2008, at 1:44 PM, Irene König wrote:

> F&RM Haddad schrieb am 17.12.2008 18:41 Uhr:
>>
>> I have a pair of ancestors - Peter Sell and Anna Milewski who were
>> married in Mlawa, Poland, Mar. 1854.
>
>
> Hi Rose-Marie,
>
> I have been going through your other postings but did not see how you
> are connected to this couple. Have we been in touch before? I am a
> granddaughter of Emil SELL from Solodyri / Volhynia who was a grandson
> of Peter SELL and Anna MILEWSKI.
>
> As for Milewski being a polonization of a German name (or not), I must
> confess that I do not care about it. My father's name was KOPETZKY, my
> grandmother's name was BONKOWSKI, so why wouldn't my gg-grandmother's
> name be MILEWSKI ;-)? Probably with no German equivalent.
>
> Irene Koenig



. . .   Otto
          " The Zen moment..." wk. of March 23, 2008-
               ________________________________
                 "Each of us. . . A bundle of possibilities."