This website was created to put together information not only about our Polish ancestors but also about the culture from which they came. When my cousin Heidi told me that she and her family would be traveling to Poland in the fall of 2014, I wanted to put together a document for her with this information, but it occurred to me that other members of my family might want the information too. Hence the website. This is the summation of all that I know about both the Zarnoch and Pinsinski families, but that does not mean I have stopped looking and trying to push back further into the past.
One of the greatest challenges of tracking our Polish relatives in the US is their names. Their Polish names stay consistent, but are rarely used on any documentation in the US. When Walter Zarnoch drown in 1926, the papers call him Waldo and Walter; they name his son Benny as Bronislaw, Bruno and Benjamin. His daughter Mildred is sometimes called Mary; her 3rd grade report card has her name was Marya Zarnoch, the 1912 passenger manifest lists her as Maryanna Zarnoch, church records sometimes have Mary and sometimes Mildred, and census records read Mildred. Robert Louis is often called Frank (until he was 18 he believed that was his real name), but Benny is listed as Robert in the 1940 Federal Census! Vinn's first name, it turns out, isn't Vincent (that's his middle name), it's Ignace! Like the Zarnochs, the Pinsinskis have Polish names and American names. While there is no evidence to suggest Zarnoch was ever changed from anything, Pinsinski was certainly not the name our family bore in Poland! Joe and Stella's headstone has the last name spelled Piusinski, and ship manifests as Piłuszynski (both give this spelling, despite traveling 2 weeks apart, so this is probably the original name). And their sons Vinn and Henry used the surname Purnie! Below is a short list of the surnames in our family with their meanings (if known).
Of course it's not just a person's names that are difficult to track down, because when our family left Poland it was part of Russia, the names or towns and counties have been redistricted several times. Town names in Poland are often repeated, there are multiple towns named Biała, so figuring out which one was in the old Płocki county (which might not necessarily be in the modern one) requires a bit of leg work. There is a link to a map with the towns I believe are the correct locations of where our family came from (red).
Surnames in Poland
Surnames did not become common place until after the 13th century in Europe. Nobility often had them, but peasant folk did not, instead they were referred to as "John the Butcher" or "John the son of William" or maybe as "John the Black." This way of referring to individuals gave rise to the patterns of surname adoption. Name etymologists give 4 classifications to European surname origins: 1. a given name (e.g. Adamicz meaning "son of Adam"), 2. occupational name (e.g. Krawiec meaning "the tailor"), 3. location name (e.g. Dabrowski meaning "from the oak grove"), and 4. nickname or ornamental name (e.g. Wysocki meaning "the tall"). In Poland only nobility had surnames, mostly based on location names. This remained true until the 17th century when the peasantry began using surnames as well (it is possible they used them earlier, but most documentation from pre-1600 is only concerned with Polish nobility). Sometimes you will see women's names ending with -ska instead of -ski. That is because surnames are like adjectives and must agree in number and GENDER with the noun they modify. In Polish, because it uses a case system, last names will also decline!
Meaning of Our Surnames
Zarnoch - according to Val, Zarnoch means "seed" in Polish.
Kołimaga - is the feminine form of Kołimaga, meaning ???
Gwara - comes from the Polish root word "gwar" meaning "murmur of voices"; it could also come from "gwara" which means "dialect," "talkative person," or "jargon." It is pronounced: G'VAH-rah.
Lis - is the Polish word for "fox" and would be a nickname for a cunning or clever person.
Medźwiecka - is the feminine form of Medźwiecki, meaning "a person from the town/place of Medźweidź (which means "bear" in Old Polish)."
Pinsinski - is an Americanization of Piusiński, meaning ??? The infix & suffix combination of "-iń+ski" is common in Polish, meaning "one from the place of").
Witkowska - is the feminine form of Witkowski, meaning ???
Kozstowna - is the feminine form of Kosztowny, meaning "costly," "expensive," "valuable."
Goliat - meaning ???
Lawendowska - is the feminine form of Lawendowski, which comes from the old Polish word "lewanda" meaning "lavender." The location of the names origin is thought to have started in a town once known as "lewandow" which was in the Warszawa voivodeship.
Szulecka - is the feminine form of Szulecki, meaning ???
Mielczarek - the ending -ek is a diminutive, the name means "little maltser/brewer" (as an affectionate name) or it could mean "son of a maltser/brewer." It is pronounced: m'yell-CHAW-reck.
Lichocka - is the feminine form of Lichocki, meaning ???
Tyrajska - is the feminine form of Tyrajski, meaning ???
Pleban - meaning ???
Skowrońska - is the feminine form of Skowroński, meaning "dweller at the sign of the lark" or "one with the qualities of a lark."
Kozanecka - is the feminine form of Kozanecki, meaning ???
Dylewska - is the feminine form of Dylewski, meaning "a person from the town Dylew(o)." Dylewo comes from the personal name Dyl which is borrowed from German and means "board" or "pole/rod."
Moderacka - is the feminine form of Moderacki, meaning ???
Karpińska - is the feminine form of Karpiński, ultimately coming from the Ancient Greek word "karpos" meaning "fruit." The name entered Northern Europe in the 12th century by the returning Crusaders who had been stationed in Greece.
Jałownów - meaning ???
Mieczkoska - is the feminine form of Mieczkoski, meaning ???