[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Surname: Bonakoske

[Günther Böhm]

Am 28.08.2011 05:45, schrieb Otto:
> I was hinting at a possible Pomeranian spelling of 'Bonkoske'. It is an existent surname.
> The various spellings hint at possible different cultural based families beyond the spelling of the surname.
> 1. Did Bonkoske morph into the Bonkowski spelling?
> 2. Did Bonkowski morph into the Bonkoske spelling.
> 3. Are they two distinct separate families?

Hello Otto,
but you forgot the 'a' in BONAKOSKE which is a stressed vowel and not likely to fall by the wayside. Since the name is 
not existent in Poland, we shood look for it in Russia or the Ukraine. In Russian BONIAKOWSKI is spelled Боняковский. It 
is a possessive adjective and derives from Боняков [Boniakov] or Боняково [Boniakovo]. There are at least three villages 
in Russia named Boniakovo. They all seem to derive from a clan name *Боняк* [Boniak]. Boniak was the first Cuman 
[Russian: Polovtsi] Khan who defeated the Kievian Rus and settled north of the Danube estuary along the Black Sea coast, 
namely in *Bessarabia*
(see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuman , especially the map 
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Europe_mediterranean_1190_cropped.jpg ).

In my yesterday mail I wrote:

    "The slightly alienated spelling BONAKOWSKI appears 11 times in the Castle Garden immigration records
    (15 events in the Ancestral File, all from Akkerman, *Bessarabia* )."

Since in Russian and Ukrainian 'ia' takes just one character (я), a transcription BONAKOWSKI seems natural. And the 
American way of transcribing -OWSKI into -OSKE is notorious.

Have a nice and calm sunday,
Günther