SLONSKI - Looking for my Polish grandfather

[Moved from]: Slonsky/Slonski - research about my surname, ancestors

Slonsky

Should I go with Slon = Elephant or Slon = Sun???
Which one makes more sense and do you have any idea where the name came from?
Thank you,
Kristin

Neither, since there’s no elephants in Poland except the ones in zoos you can rule it out, "Slon" for "Sun", not plausible either. Most likely explanation is that your surname is misspelled and should have been "Słomski" or "Slomski" – in which case it would have been taken from a place name, meaning (from Słomin) there are two such places in Poland, one is located in Płock County, Mazovia or "Słomin" near Warsaw. There are 1445 with the surname "Słomski" and only 4 going by the name of "Slomski" in Poland, btw there’s none with the surmane of "Slonski" or "Słonski".

Edit: Interesting, there are 490 going by "Słoński", I have no explanation for this one, could it be?

Got it: Słoński or Sloński – dating back to 1386. Topo from the place name Słone, Słońsko (quite a few of those in Poland). Looks like you have some research to do, which was the original spelling.

S£OMSKI: root-word słoma (straw); topo nick from some locality starting with słom-.

Yes, indeed, especially in view of its popularity. Except that linguistically Woźniak is a closer derivative from woźny than woźnica. Incidentally there are at least 3,500 people named Woźnicki and more than 4,000 using the Woźniczak surnames which would be the ideal patronymics from woźnica. Besides, this was only a thumb-nail sketch, not a full-blown analysis.

ATTENTION MODERATOR: Kindly correct WO-NAIK to WO-NIAK in the heading of the original post. Many dzięks!

Hello there!
Thank you for telling me more about my last name, Slonsky.
I'm glad I can rule out both Elephant and Sun.
I've done some research trying to find Slonsky in Poland and all I get is Slonsky Radio.
In the process of researching Slonsky Radio, I learned that the language used on Slonsky Radio is Silesian.
I know that Wikipedia is far from accurate, but could you look at this link for me?
wikipedia.org/wiki/Silesian_language
Specifically, this line "There is also the risk of losing the characteristic Silesian pronunciation - there is not one method of writing ů ([o]) - the word Ślůnsk can be written as Ślonsk, Ślónsk, Ślunsk and even Śląsk (although there are no phonemic nasal vowels in Silesian)."

If the ski is a toponymic, then can Slonsky mean 'from Silesia'?
Silesian: Ślůnsko godka
I'm planning a europe trip and am considering a stop in Poland, hopefully in area where I descend from. Any thoughts?
Thank you!

If it is indeed Śląski than yes it means from Silesia, although today the term used for Silesian is Ślązak. Here's the map where people with this surname live in Poland today.

Hi all, I'm trying to build my family tree and am hoping someone here has some information about how to find information around my deceased grandfather. He was born around 1900s in Poland and as an adult, worked in the judicial system as a judge. The story goes that when Poland was invaded by the nazis, my grandfather was placed in a concentration camp, but he was able to use his contacts as a judge to escape. He did this by denouncing his own country and joining the nazi forces as an officer. After he got out, he fled with his family and caught a refugee boat to Australia where he remained and died in Queensland in the 1980s. He was a wanted man in Poland for being a traitor and he never returned for fear of being killed by the Polish authorities. He was also a pilot before the war started.

I heard that he changed his name after he became a traitor and so maybe this is why the records go dead when searching for anything around war times.Here are the details I have based on his records in Australia -

Jan (John) (Johann) Slonski

married to - Janina Sobolewska

had 4 children -

SLONSKI Jerzy
SLONSKI Malgorzata
SLONSKI Teresa
SLONSKI Zygmunt

This maybe his marriage record but I am not 100% certain.
familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VN5R-5DF

Any ideas, contacts, websites around this information that could help me dig deeper would help greatly.

Thanks.

It is necessary to look and search deeper in the Polish national and local archives in the specific towns/cities where your grandfather resided before WWII (including parishes archives, baptism certificates, etc.). IPN archives might also be helpful here if the Polish Home Army known as "AK" was trying to identify and find him during or after the war.

It will take at least 2-3 months of investigation in Poland in public and private institutions to find any government/public records or documents about your grandfather, but it i s possible and this is something which can be done.

Thanks for this information. I will try searching thru the IPN.

Dear halcyon5,

My name is Barbara and I live in Warsaw, Poland. My family name is Sobolewska.
I had an aunt Janina Sobolewska - sister of my father, who married Jan Słoński before WWII in Vilnus. Jan was a lawyer.

I know that he was a pilot, that he was in a camp during WWII, and that they went to Australia on a refugee ship. They had four children.

I do not know much more about this family. Nevertheless, I know that we had a family in Australia, with whom I never had any contact.

I was recently looking for some information about the Sobolewski and Słoński family on internet and I found your message.

Perhaps we are looking for the same family?

It would be very interesting for me to get to know what happened to my aunt and her family. I will be happy to share details about Sobolewski family that remained in Poland.

best regards,
Barbara

Hello!

Oh my goodness!! Hello, my name is Cally, I think I may be related to one or perhaps both of you. My father is Jerzy Slonski, he has changed his name to George, and his mother and father were Jan and Janina Slonicz-Slonski (once they moved to Australia they dropped the Slonicz) My Aunts are Aunty Margaret and Teresa. It would be exciting to realise my grandmother Janina had a brother who survived and maybe had children, as to my knowledge the family just thought they didn't survive the war.

I have been trying to find some records for Janina's address in Vilnia/Vilno but so far no luck, just her date of birth she registered here in Australia. I would love to get in touch and hopefully share the information we have. I have been looking for a while.

Cheers,
Cally

@barbara2017
Hello,
An extra note regarding my earlier comments, I recently spoke to my father (Jerzy) who was quite excited to realise he may have a cousin from his mum's side.

He says the details you describe sound like his mother and father, his birth certificate says his parents were from Vilnus Lithuania and my Aunty Margaret said they were from Vilnus.

I don't have too much information as both Janina and Jan unfortunately died when I was a baby, but they did live until I think their 70's.

Dad mentioned that Janina was part of her local Polish club and would perform piano, teach Polska dancing and and that she was a soprano Opera singer as well.

It was hard for them in many ways as for other refugees I'm sure, emotional and physical pain and also Jan and his brother and sister were not allowed to practice Law, economics or Medicine as they did in Europe, and were given basic jobs, I think clerical and hospital assistant jobs. But their children are doing well, both Aunty Margaret and my Dad became teachers and had families, as did Teresa

They didn't say much about what had happened in their lives before the war so we only have bits and pieces, will be very interesting to put them together

Take care,
Cally

I am looking for info about Jozef Slonski born in Lwow March 13, 1916. Served in 5th Kresowa Infantry during WWII and was part of the allies in Great Britain. Also served in Italy. I seems he had a brother as well but don't know much about him.

Hi, as you can see my grandfather's name was Johann or Jan Slonski. His middle name was Jozef. I know his brothers were called Franciszek and Stanislav. His father was called Antoni (but maybe something else as well, there seems to be many different versions of first and last names, eg Torek is apparently another version of Antoni?) who married Stefa Rudiger. Both Antoni and Johann served in wars but don't have exact details. Not sure if any of those names match up with your family names, but worth a try!

Hello @Barbara2017 I would love to get in contact with you as it looks like we are definitely related. I wish I got back to this forum sooner :( My email is fiftymill@gmail Please email me anytime.

Hi @Cally I am your cousin. Email me! fiftymill@gmail

Alex

Hey Alex, its great to hear from you, I sent you an email under kalifli@hotmail. Hope you and family are well!
Cally

I have a marriage certificate for my great grandparents: Maximilianus (Maksymilian) Słonski and Maria Płoskonka. Married in 1899, Mszana Dolna. If this sounds right to anyone, I would love to hear from you. Bernard (dot) Brennan (at) gmail (dot) com.

hi there, thanks for getting in touch, it very well might be our relatives, (to my knowledge Slonski is not a common surname) but unfortunately we don't have much information going back through the family tree, other than that our great grandfather was Antoni Slonski, (born in Lithuania, considered Polish, fought for Russia in russo-Japanese war in 1905) who married Stefania von Rudiger. So Maksymilian and Maria may have been his (great?) grandparents? Antoni was an army general as far as I know. cheers