Wolkowski/Wolk

Wendy, If you have his date of arrival or other information that would help find the ship manifest, we could figure out his Yiddish / Hebrew names. That would help.

OK, I just found his burial record. His Hebrew name was Zev ben Israel. According to the 1910 census, he came here in 1880, but the 1920 and 1930 both say it was 1879. That's all I've been able to find so far. His native language is listed alternatively as Hebrew and Yiddish on different documents.

He settled in Pittsburgh, married Rachel Rosenthal who was born in PA to Russian parents, then moved his family to New York for a while, then back to Pittsburgh, where he is buried. Apparently he lived in East Liverpool, Ohio with his daughter Flora and her family for a period of timeafter he was widowed, according to the 1940 census.

I found the last name with both spellings on the Przrosl project here, and I'm assuming that's us, but am not certain.

The surname I think comes from "wolf" and there are lots of families with surnames derived from that from all over Lithuania, so we really need to trace where he came from. Usually you can find it on military, naturalization, ship manifest, or passport applications or even death certificates.

Volk and Vilk are "wolf" but Wolkovskiy means from the town of Volkovtsy in Lida. And Volkovyskiy is from the town of Volkovysk (district center in Grodno Gubernia).

So Wolk could really be either due to a patronymic since Volko (Wolf) was a common given name or it could be from a town of which there are a number. Such as Vilkomir near Kaunas. So this is a hard name to pin down.

Thanks for the info, Hatte. The one thing I do know for sure is that he was born in Suwalki, so it's only a question now of exactly which town. All I know beyond this is that it was a very small one.

I suppose it's possible his parents came from elsewhere, but I know nothing at all about them.

How can I find those other documents you've mentioned online? I'm a member of Ancestry.com, and they haven't shown up for him, although I've found similar ones for other relatives there, so I'm a bit puzzled about this. I'm only just starting to learn where else to look for information.

We have pretty good data for Suwalki. What was the approximate date of his birth? Now we know his Hebrew names and that suggests his and his father's Yiddish names too (Wolf son of Israel probably). So I'll start looking for all possible names that could be Wolk or shortened to Wolk in Suwalki on Jewish Gen.

1879 Marriage in Przerosl of

WILKOWSKI Berko Wolf son of Abram and Wisza daughter of Berko
WIERZBOŁOWSKA Nachama daughter of Wolf and Szejna Rywa daughter of Izrael

He could have been born in 1862, but notice that his father's name was Abram. They had several children documented in Przerosl:

Szmaja in 1880
Basha in 1882, died 1884

Shmaye is a male name.

There are many WOŁOWICZ, in Przerosl some named Srol (Israel) but I didn't see named Wolf or Ze'ev. And the Srol was too young to be the father of someone born in 1862.

Vilkaviskis is a town in Suwalki where the name WOŁOWICZ comes from, so that would be a likely origin of the WOŁOWICZ family.

http://data.jewishgen.org/wconnect/wc.dll?jg~jgsys~community~-2620625

http://www.thejewishchronicle.net/view/full_story/19075332/article-...

Interesting...

I can't find it again at the moment, of course, but I came across a searchable database that turned up a listing of linguistically-related names that showed one male child Wolf born in 1862 anywhere in Suwalki whose *mother's* last name was Wolkowska, and whose father's given name was Izrael, last name completely different, something like Mielekowsky, if memory serves. I wonder if that could actually be my man, with a name change to the easier name at Ellis Island?

Thanks for the Jewish Chronicle link. I saw the article a couple of days after it came out and wrote to the author, but he never bothered to reply. That is definitely the right folks, though.

I think I've also located a relative in another branch of the family who might know more as well now since those remaining in my branch don't seem to remember anything.

This can be seriously addictive <g>.

Remember that surnames arrived late and that it was the Russian and Polish custom and still is to record patronymics (father's name) so a birth, marriage or death (vital record) would have the father's name often -- and the forms of the suffixes of the patronymics differed depending upon whether the person was male or female.

Lejbowna -- daughter of Leib (spelled Lejb)
Lejbowicz (Polish records) -- son of Leib

So often people had multiple surnames in the early days of surnames, maybe one from the town they were from another source, perhaps a patronymic.

Wolfowna - daugther of Wolf
Wolfowicz (Polish form) son of Wolf

-ska was often the indicator of "from the town of" although if I remember correctly in some of the Slavic languages, there were patronymics with -ska.

http://userweb.ccomm.com/sfpayer/DB/Slavic-Rusyn%20Items.htm I liked this article although it was not specifically about the derivation of Jewish surnames, but of Slavic surnames.

I'm reading Arthur Kurzweil's book "From Generation to Generation", and apparently it was also fairly common for people to take their mothers' names, for various reasons, including that some religious Jewish marriages were not recognized by the state, so the child was assigned the matronymic. We shall see...

BTW, I can't access that article. Is there another link perhaps?

Yes, I have numerous examples of people in my family taking their mother's name. Itel Margolis married a rabbi Eliezer Hanoch Heinich Prozner One branch of her offspring went by the surname Itelson.

And my great grandfather took my great grandmother's name which he apparently resented his whole life. One of his relatives also went by that surname and his son changed his surname back to what my great grandfather claimed was his originally surname.

According to Beider and others, the names that end in -s and -n are derived from female given names - like a patronymic but formed from the mother's name. I have to go look at the exact details.

I'll check the link.

Not sure what happened, but here's a nice paper on Jewish surnames by Beider: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;sour...

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;sour...

Does this work?

No, I can't get to that website any longer.

Thanks, Hatte. It is Beider whom Kurzweil quotes. I hope to have a chance to read more of what he has written. I never dreamed the question of names was so complex and rich.

This question of Wolf/William is driving me crazy. I've just turned up a whole branch of the family I never knew existed, in the person of the granddaughter of a man who turns out to have been his brother, so I'm hoping she will be able to shed some more light on the subject, as she is just enough older than I am that she actually remembers him herself.

I have two of Beider's books - the one on surnames in the Russian Empire and the one on given names in the Russian Empire. They're invaluable, although I don't agree with his etymologies 100% and just because he hasn't observed a name used in a particular location, doesn't mean you won't find it there. He has done an enormous service to Jewish history, social studies, and genealogy.

I'm always willing to look names up for people.

Our ancestors picked English names, often before setting out for America and in many instance (but not all) certain names in Yiddish corresponded to certain names in English.

Mordechai - Max/Marx for instance.

Betsalel/Tsalko/Calko (Polish spelling) - Charles

Leib - Lawrence, Leo, Larry, Leon

Hirsh - Harry

But this is not a hard and fast rule. Also remember that our ancestors had two or more given names, so just because one name shows up in a record, that does not mean that there was not another name, which migh show up in other records. And then there were the nicknames, which often did show up in records, or not.

Wolf (Vulf) is Wilk in Lithuanian I believe also and I seek Wilk type surnames with given name Wolf. I haven't thought about this. Is it because Wolf is an ancestral name and the surname is derived from a patronymic and the child is named for some X grandfather? Or was it a nickname for some whose name had Wolf in it?

Animal names were very common in medieval German Christian culture and many of our given names represent that time, when Jews borrowed names from their Christian counterparts. Such as Ber, Leib, Wolf, Feige (bird). Later, the Hebrew name given matched the Yiddish name and they had double names such as Judah Leib, Zvi Hirsh, Dov Ber, Zev Wolf. Judah the tribe has the symbol Lion.

Also, I understand that Levites used the name Leib as a given name often as a custom.

To do Jewish genealogy, you really have to study names a lot. It took me awhile to start understanding this, and I have a PhD in linguistics and know a lot of languages, so pick up on linguistic patterns fairly quickly.

I've worked heavily on the Wolkowska family from Suwalki and also on some related famiies from Suwalki including Goldfarb and Katz.

Following

I am fascinated with this discussion because my grandfather who was one of five brothers was from the town of Volkavisk. Later on they went to Vilna and then the US.

Not all of the brothers got out one was captured and lost his wife and children in the holocaust but he survived I read that this town had an early name that meant wolf’s howl. I’m curious about life there and photos.

Our family name had alternate spelling and I was told that it meant “across the bridge.”one of the spellings was SAMOSCHZIANSKI, Also spelled with a T in front of it.

My grandpa’s wife’s last name was GRODZINSKY or GRODZENSKY.

I remember my great uncle Reuben speaking About VOLKAVISK with great fondness and bittersweetness it was my impression that it was not a large place and that everyone knew each other does anyone know the population of this town in the late 1800s early 1900s?

Thanks

One typo I made in the previous comment is that I referred to my grandfather but what I meant was my great grandfather and my great grandfather’s wife