PLEN
Posts about Polish surnames and about Name Atlas.
What a surname on its own tells you: how many people bear it, where they are registered, how it is built, what it may come from and when it appears in old sources. And what it cannot say about your family.
A shared surname can be a trace of a shared ancestor, but often it is not. Why surnames arose many times over, what rarity and place change, and what actually confirms kinship.
Why is Jan Kowalski's sister called Kowalska, but Jan Nowak's sister simply Nowak? Adjective surnames, the old -owa and -ówna forms, surnames after marriage and the two PESEL lists.
The map on a surname page shows where its bearers are registered today. What that means, what it does not, why an empty voivodeship is not zero, and how to use the map as a hint.
How a single name and loose bynames became hereditary surnames. The nobility, townspeople and peasants, the fashion for -ski, civil registration, the law on changing a surname, and the PESEL register.
Why do people build family trees and ask where their surname comes from? A short history of Polish surnames, sources for finding ancestors and common questions.
From Confucius's family tree to parish registers and DNA: how people recorded their ancestors, and what science says about how closely we are all related.
Slavic names that were wishes, the saints who saved Stanisław and Wojciech, the law on naming children, changing a surname and the Ellis Island myth. Facts about where names come from.
How to check a Polish surname's origin step by step: what Name Atlas shows, from the number of bearers and the map to the meaning and old print, how to read it, and which sources to check next.
How to find Polish ancestors: from documents at home to Geneteka, szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl, civil registry offices and state archives. A step-by-step guide.
What does a Polish surname ending tell you? Where -ski, -wicz, -ak, -czyk and -uk come from, what -owa and -ówna mean, and how they help find ancestors.