Family Name Iwanowski

Jenka	Dec 2, 09, 14:18 / #
Hi all! My grandmother is Polish but can't remember her family history too well. She can't remember Poland too well either, as she was taken by the Russians in WWII when she was just 14. She was born and raised in Łomża, and I get the impression that they were fairly well-off, as her father was an army officer. That's more or less all the geneological information I can get from her, so if anyone knows anything about this surname, it would be of great interest to me! Getting to know my roots and all that... :-) Dzięki Jen

tadozThreads: - Posts: 30 Joined: Oct 25, 09	Dec 2, 09, 17:11 / #
You will need dig a little deeper in terms of relevant information if you want to get any amount of in depth information about your grandmothers ancestry (and you own). Łomża at that time in history was taken over by Russians and anyone with any level of education or military rank was ether killed and/or their families moved east (large proportion to Kazakhstan), the lucky ones have managed to getaway to India, than Persia (Iran) next to Africa and that mostly UK, Australia, Canada and the USA. You may be able to get more relevant information if you had your great grandfathers details in hand...

Polonius3Threads: 1,005 Posts: 4,833 Joined: Apr 11, 08	Dec 3, 09, 16:17 / #
Iwan is the Russo-Ruthenian equivalent of Jan (John). Iwanowski may have been a patronymic nick but more likely than not it originated as a toponymic one from some palce called Iwanów, Iwanowo, Iwanowa or the like (roughly translatable of Jonhston or Ivanville). Typical patronymic nicks would include Iwański, Iwańczyk, Iwańczuk and Iwanowicz.