[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] -TOPSNIK- Howard Krushel

[Howard Krushel]

Good Morning Otto:
My goodness; "What's in a name, a rose by any other name would smell as
sweet" says Shakespeare; but you have elaborated an amazing amount of
information on this uncommon East Prussian name;and you are "bang-on" in
that, the early (1800) Topsnik was an "Unter Offizier", i.e. an NCO in the
Prussian Military; as well there is again, the suggestion that the origin
may have been from southern European regions rather than Poland. East
Prussia,  as you suggested, had a mix of many cultural groups from various
areas, which did in time generally become "Germanized". One too tends to
forget the fact that many of our ancestors spoke Plat Deutsch/Plaut
Dietsch(Low German) and that the names might have been written in that
idiom; in some names that is evident but in others it is not as noticeable.
Thank-you, for an enlightening piece of research,
Howard Krushel