Poles apart
Monday 31 May 2021 - 2:59 pm
family, genealogy, Manchester, Poland, Spain
In 1978 my cousin Barbara married Paul who is half-Polish. Together they had two children with English first names. After that marriage failed he married a Karen (NOT a memetic Karen, though!), and had three children, only this time he afforded them Polish first names. One thing to remember is that he essentially spoke no Polish, having been born in the UK to an English mother and a Polish father.
My recent exploration of the Murray/Brookes/Kennedy family tree led me to investigate the Kiedrowski part. And it has been a fascinating dip into history. Though I can find nothing about the Ruiz de Gordoa/Quintana/Querejazu families of Spain, the Polish part of the family is all catered for - in shovel loads.
I pulled up 16 4th great grandparents with names like Brzeziński, Lipiński, Podlewski and Raduński - along with the more pronouncable Hapka and Rudnik! The Kiedrowski's ultimately hail from the little village of Kiedrowice - hence their name. Now Paul's offspring have a village to call their own!
It is not just the Polish who take their surnames from place names. It is a practice that is/was done in and around Manchester. Surnames such as Barlow, Bolton, Buxton, Clayton, Eccles, Godley and Oldham are all derived from the relevant towns and villages.
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