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Decipher a Polish name please: ONUFISC or ORUFRISC ?

posts: 15

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Sep 18, 11, 13:41 #1

Hi

I am looking at a Polish marriage record from 1841 written in Latin. I am trying to decipher the groom's name. It looks like ONUFISC or ORUFRISC ?

Can anyone suggest what the name is and what the present day Polish version would be.

Photo of the record attached.

Thanks

Richard.

MyMomThreads: 9 Posts: 185 Joined: Aug 13, 11 ♂	Sep 18, 11, 13:57 #2
Onufry? don't know what the latin spelling is.

isthatu2Threads: 13 Posts: 5,225 Joined: Apr 3, 08 ♂	Sep 18, 11, 13:57 #3
Cant make out where exactly you mean from that photo,but some of that writing is old Cyrylic,or I'll eat my ushanka.

WroclawThreads: 77 Posts: 7,404 Joined: Apr 1, 06 ♂ [Moderator]	Edited by: Wroclaw Sep 18, 11, 14:10 #4
Onuphrius: is a saint's name. maybe written as Onufrius

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Sep 18, 11, 14:30 #5

Thanks everybody,

I think the suggestion of Onuphrius is the correct one. Not a name I have come across but Wikipedia explains it's a saint's name used by the Roman Catholic and Eastern Catholic Churches. The record comes from Bircza, near Przemysl, an area where the eastern catholic church was strong.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onuphrius

Sorry Isthatu2, I can assure you the record is of Polish names (words) written in Latin not Cyrylic.

So the name could be Onuphrius Czyzyk. I wonder what that name would be in Poland today.

Thanks.

Richard.

isthatu2Threads: 13 Posts: 5,225 Joined: Apr 3, 08 ♂	Sep 18, 11, 14:36 #6
No, no problems, glad you have your answer mate :) (the only reason I suggested it was I have paper documents and postcards from the late 19th/early 20th C that do have both Polish and old Russian on them,almost to an interchangeble level,and,anyone familiar even with modern non printed cyrylic knows its a bu**er to decipher for non natives ;) )

ZazulkaThreads: 4 Posts: 111 Joined: Aug 13, 11 ♀	Sep 18, 11, 14:40 #7
So the name could be Onuphrius Czyzyk. I wonder what that name would be in Poland today. Onufry Czyżyk

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Sep 18, 11, 18:39 #8

Thanks Zazulka and Isthatu2,

You learn something new everyday, certainly a name I have never come across before, but I see it gets plenty of hits on Google.

isthatu2 - I know what you mean. Apparently the villages in that part of Poland all seemed to have a Roman Catholic church for the Polish members of the village and then an Eastern Catholic or Greek Orthodox Church for the Ukranian members of the village.

I have found a few family lines that are split between the differant sets of church records.

Richard.

Polonius3Threads: 1,005 Posts: 4,833 Joined: Apr 11, 08 ♂	Sep 18, 11, 20:05 #9
It would be Onufry Czyżyk. A czyżyk is a siskin (small songbird). Yhe nelgish equiavletn of Onufry is Humprhey.

Polonius3Threads: 1,005 Posts: 4,833 Joined: Apr 11, 08 ♂	Sep 21, 11, 22:53 #10
Profuse apologies, but my typo-creating software kicked in unannounced. The final sentence of my previous reply should have read: The English equivalent of Onufry is Humphrey.

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Sep 23, 11, 16:23 #11

Thanks, Polonius.

On further study of the birth records, I have come across a number of names that are new to me. I presume they are in Latin. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Cajcharus
Cajitany
Jojajczyk?
Feitko

Not sure whether I am mis-reading the hand written names above or whether they are names I have never come across.

The following crop up regularly. I don't know whether there are modern equivalents.

Cunnegunda
Gasparus
Theela
Pelagia
Apolonia

Thanks, Richard.

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Sep 23, 11, 18:09 #12

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Cajcharus - Possibly Zachariusz, Zachary. Biblical name "Jahve remembers". English Zechariah, various variants, shortened forms: Zach, Zack, Zac

Cajitany - Cajetan, Kajetan (Latin meaning: from Caieta, now Gaeta) , popular amongst Armenian minority

Jojajczyk? - Does not look like a first name, could be a clan name (coat of arms), written in front of last name. The closest that comes to mind is Jasieńczyk. This could also be pseudo, or nome de guerre, such as Zagończyk (actual one from WWII).

Feitko - Possibly Fredko? That could be a Ukrainian name, short of Ferdinand (after Ferdinand I of Austria). One of my ancestors (Polish) was baptized Ferdynand, but family called him "Fredek", "Fredzio".

The following crop up regularly. I don't know whether there are modern equivalents.

Cunnegunda - Kunegunda - German origin. Several Polish princesses wore that name in middle ages. Polish modern equivalent is Kinga - it came from Hungarian Kinga, diminutive of Kunegunda.

Gasparus - Kacper, Kasper, Kaspar, Gaspar. Kacper is still in use in Poland.

Theela - ?? There is no "Th" in Polish, but this could signify a Greek origin. In Greek-Orthodoxy there are names starting with "Theo" (From Theos - God), such as Theodore (Polish Teodor), Theophile (Polish Teofil), etc.

Pelagia - Pelagia, rarely used nowadays

Apolonia - Female form of Apoloniusz. Other forms: Apolinaria, Apolla, Apollina, Polonia. Diminutive forms: Pola, Lonia, etc.
Known: Pola Negri (born Apolonia Chałupiec), actress

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Sep 23, 11, 18:58 #13

Thanks Boletus for the speedy and very informative reply. This has helped to clear up quite a few grey areas I had.

I've just re-checked the photos of the records, as follows:

Feitko - big blob of ink but it looks like Fedko rather than Feitko so could well be your suggestion of Fredko or Ferdinand.

Jojajczyk - Taking another look at this, It suddenly hit me that the name is Josephus. They used a f for the first s and the jc is actually p.
Jofephus written long hand looks like Jojajczk - believe me.

While re-checking those, I came across Paraisba or Para_ska as a female name. Any suggestions.

Thanks Richard.

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Sep 23, 11, 19:43 #14

Feitko - big blob of ink but it looks like Fedko rather than Feitko so could well be your suggestion of Fredko or Ferdinand.

On the second thought, if it is actually Fedko (without R) and not Fredko, than it could stem from Fiodor (Russian: Фёдор), Fyodor (Like in F. Dostoyevsky). In all my amateurish, non-professional consideration, here we come again to this "TH" sound, which actually can be approximated by "F" in Slavic. So Fiodor would be a distorted "Theodore". I checked: Polish wikipedia actually redirects Fiodor to Theodor.

Paraska is actually a known, although quite archaic, Ukrainian first name. Nowadays one probably would find more Paraska surnames than the first names. But I remember it from some old story, book or comedy - as a stereotypical Ukrainian village woman. I also found this on internet: <<I heared to last name Paraska came from Hungarian word Paraszt, on Hungarian means villager.>> (sic)

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Sep 23, 11, 20:16 #15

Thanks once again Boletus.

I have two parallel records, one for Feitko (Fedko) Fedun married to Marianna in 1818 at house No 5 in the village, and then Theodore (Teodor in Polish) Fedun married to Maria who died in 1831 at house No 5 in the village. It looks like these could be the same people and Fedko could be a diminutive form of Teodor.

I came across this web site which has proved useful.

http://polandpoland.com/common_polish_names.html

I'll incorporate the information you supplied and update my records.

Thanks,

Richard.

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