November, a month of memories and reflection
21. November 2024 22:09
Jurgów is a very old village. The first information about it dates back to 1546 - meaning that in 2024, it will be 478 years old. Assuming that one generation is 20-25 years, it is easy to calculate that Jurgów was founded at least 20 generations ago. Its history from a political perspective was very complicated. What was it like from a human perspective? There are probably as many opinions as there are people.
How many have wondered in what different places the people of Jurgów ended up? Poland and Slovakia are quite obvious. The United States probably won't surprise many because it was a fairly obvious direction for labor migration for many. However, less obvious are Denmark, England, Australia, or New Zealand. Many also perished in the war and post-war turmoil and are buried in Ukraine, Italy, or Belgium, and probably in many other places.
Nowadays, there are many different surnames in Jurgów, but not about them today. Today, about those that have remained, for example, only in nicknames. What are these surnames?
Let's assume it is the year 1860, what surnames are found in Jurgów? There are many that are also present today, such as Chowaniec, Gombos, Miśkowicz, Sołtys, Wojtas. The difference was that in documents, they were written "in Hungarian," so Gombos was written as Gombosz, and Soltys as Soltész. As for names, not only were they written in Hungarian, but also translated! So, we won't find Wojciech (eng. Adalbert), but instead, we have the name Béla. Similarly, there won't be Walenty (eng. Valentine), but Bálint. Add to this the handwritten script, and we can start searching for our ancestors in archival documents.
1869 census card
Jurgów's unexpected surnames in the 19th century
Nicknames in Jurgów are still doing quite well, but often it is not clear where they came from. With some surprise, I found that in the 1869 census of Jurgów, the surname: Marfiniak appears; the nickname "Marfiniok" functioned for many years, and I personally did not know where it came from. A similar story is with the nickname "Myndros," it also comes from a surname! In 1869, there were quite a few Mendros (hung. Mendrosz) in Jurgów. Another surname that has survived in Jurgów as a nickname is "Kałafut." It also comes from a surname. Last but not least is Skovira (Skowyra).
There were also surnames which, as far as I know, are not present in Jurgów at the moment, such as: Binek, Cikowski (still present in neighboring Brzegi), Dudek, Goryl, Hirschfeld, Höflich, Ivancsak, Karnafel.
At that time, Jurgów also had a hamlet that no longer exists today - it was: Solisko. The settlement still appears on the map from 1913. The buildings and a roadside cross are marked on it. Currently, the area of Solisko is just across the Slovak border. The most popular surname in Solisko was Brija/Bryja. In the vicinity of Solisko, there is still Brijov vÅ•ch (eng. Brija's hill). Other popular surnames in Solisko were: Silan, Mendros, Goryl, and a few others less numerous.
Map with marked habitat: Solisko
Girls from Jurgów arround 1945
In the 60s and 70s, Jan PluciÅ„ski dealt with the surnames in Jurgów. Posthumously, his work was published in 1986 in the book " Zagadnienie z kultury Podhala Spisza i Orawy" (eng. Issues of the culture of Podhale Spisz and Orawa) chapter: "Przezwiska i przydomki w Jurgowie na Spiszu " (eng. Surnames and Nicknames in Jurgów in Spisz), which also includes his work "DzieciÅ„stwo Spiszaka" (eng. Childhood of a Spisz's kid).
I hope that I have at least somewhat encouraged you to take a cursory interest in your family history, both the closer one to preserve it for future generations and the more distant one to rediscover it. Writing this text was prompted by the preliminary work on my family's history, which uncovered many interesting facts that I heard for the first time.
(LS)