Thread: Help with Last name ... family origin.

My last name that I was born with was Zarodnansky.

I am trying to find out the origin of this name. I really want to know where I am from ... or rather where in this world my family/culture is.

A bit of a backstory, since anyone reading this would be like "it was your last name you should know this."

I was given up at 5 years of age. Simple as that. I have the name on my birth certificate, and my last name was Zarodnansky. Now 30 plus years later I am trying to trace some sort of history/roots.

Here in the states there are only 10 registered Zarodnasky's in NJ and 2 in CT. (I was born in Trenton, NJ). I have tried doing searches but I am coming up with very little information other than it is Russian/Belorussian. Again, just not sure. And short of trying to contact people in NJ with this name and declaring myself some long lost relative, and them thinking I have completely lost my mind. I thought to try here. (the 2 people I knew names of that I was raised by the first 5 years of my life have passed away more than 10 years ago - so I am at a dead end so to speak. )

Can anyone help me please?

I know odd request ... but here is to hoping with the use of the world wide web.

Looks more like Polish or Czech to me.

This last name's stem looks slavic (it's connected with birth somehow ) but the very name is unusual for Russian. I googled some possible cyrillic transliterations of this name (Зароднянский?) and found NO ONE LINK.

Though there were a few people from Czechia and Slovakia with this name (they use latin-based alphabet).

Otherwise it may be a very unusual way of transliteration.

It sounds Polish - But it looks like it got misspelled or had the spelling deliberately changed, like most European names in the US. I think the name would be spelled with an "i" at the end in Poland.

People in that part of Europe moved around a lot for various reasons, and the borders have been changed many times.. So all of the countries in the region have minorities from neighbouring countries.. So the origin of the name doesn't reveal much.. But it sounds like your living relatives would be in the US anyway, and not in Europe...

However if you really want to get to the bottom of this, I'd recommend you to ask in a Polish forum too. If the name is Czech / Slovakian as some people thought, then the Poles would probably be able to spot that, since they are a neighbour of the Czech republic.

Thank you for the help! =)

While tracing my father's side of the family I found my Grandfather's trip from Ukraine and my Grandmother's from Belarus to the USA on this site:

http://ellisisland.org/


It's free. It was actually a lot of work (the names they have listed do not match their real names so searching was very hard to do) to find each of their journey's but from one of them I was able to get my great Grandfather's name. They also have city and country of origin. All of it is handwritten though.

Good luck,

Scott

Originally Posted by fortheether

While tracing my father's side of the family I found my Grandfather's trip from Ukraine and my Grandmother's from Belarus to the USA on this site:

http://ellisisland.org/


It's free. It was actually a lot of work (the names they have listed do not match their real names so searching was very hard to do) to find each of their journey's but from one of them I was able to get my great Grandfather's name. They also have city and country of origin. All of it is handwritten though.

Good luck,

Scott

Scott, our family also found my grandfather's ship information for Ellis years ago. HOWEVER... as for my Nana, whom I have spoken about, the one from Austria... she was wealthy enough that she went 1st class when she came here and did not have to get off at Ellis so there are no records for her and her mom! We found this out when we had to get a passport for her many years ago and needed to prove when she came into the US and went searching for he records via Ellis. Nana kept saying over and over that she did not go to Ellis and of course my dad thought she was crazy. Turns out she was right!

Originally Posted by http://www.ellisisland.org/genealogy/ellis_island_history.asp

First and second class passengers who arrived in New York Harbor were not required to undergo the inspection process at Ellis Island. Instead, these passengers underwent a cursory inspection aboard ship; the theory being that if a person could afford to purchase a first or second class ticket, they were less likely to become a public charge in America due to medical or legal reasons. The Federal government felt that these more affluent passengers would not end up in institutions, hospitals or become a burden to the state. However, first and second class passengers were sent to Ellis Island for further inspection if they were sick or had legal problems.

Another good resourse for those looking into their past is the Mormon Family History Center. They even have "live" people there to assist you.

They also helped with the scanning and database of approximately two million records from more than 500 towns and villages from Poland and have these available on microfilm at the History Centers. All of these records are 100 years or older.

So upon a suggestion from an acquaintance at my ballroom studio I decided to facebook the people with this last name.

General consensus is name seemingly originates either in Czechoslovakia or Russia. 2 people are definitely related to me and so my great aunt/uncle is theirs as well. And supposedly the name is from a province by name of Zarodna in Czechoslovakia. But doing searches of "old" and "new" nothing in Czechoslovakia or Slovakia. Nothing in Poland either. HOWEVER there is a town in Russia that the name has always been called Zarudnya. (so the spelling of this can feesablely be changed depending on Cyrillic letters over to Latin letters??)

So basically I am in touch with 1. Zarodnansky in Bratislava, Slovakia (which is nice, because to have a connection there will help right?) He has been corresponding back and forth with me on FB. Turns out our coloring is the same. Same completion, same hair and both of us green eyes. lol Also he and his family moved there from Czechoslovakia. So no other Zarodnansky's in Slovakia.

2. in touch with the others on FB and turns out we ALL may be related (and here in the States). LOL so going back and forth with messages on that.

Also I will be uploading pics of my aunt and uncle tonight to pass on to these people and maybe this will help.

My gut is telling me that while my family is (and many years at that) in Czechoslovakia, that we are not from there AND that the name was in fact changed to acclimate themselves to the Czech country (adding of the -sky at the end).

Back to the search.

And thanks again for everyone's help. This is actually quite fun to search.

Ok so I said I decided to contact people on FB right? WELL one of the people was a kid who got his dad on facebook to help me.

Now I told a few of you that I had this gut instinct about all things Russian. Well apparently I was right. I just did not understand WHY I had such a strong inclination for this culture or community. Now I know.

This is what I rec'd via a message from a family member.
************
It's a long and complicated story... But to make it short, Stephen Zarodnansky, Sr. came to the US from Czechoslovakia in 1906, setlled in Philadelphia and married Anna Kuric. They had 13 kids, 6 of whom survived to adulthood. The only surviving one now is Paul, my uncle, who is in his 80's. My father, Stephen, Jr. was born in 1911, and died in 1995. Joe, his brother, died sometime before that - I'm not sure of the exact year. He would have been the one who raised you. Agnes, Anna, and Pauline are all now, I believe, deceased.

Quick ethnic background. Stephen's father (name unknown) went from Russia to Czech Republic sometime around 1880, I think. Stephen, Sr. was born in 1886, died in 1976 at the age of 90. Family origin, I believe outside what is now St. Petersburg, Russia, according to a former co-worker of mine from St. Petersburg who knew of a small hamlet called Zarodna (Zarodnansky translates loosely as a person from Zarodna). It was a poultry farming community.

*********

yesterday I did that search and found the town. Just spelled a bit differently in Russian.

Well this person and I will be talking soon!

So it looks like culturally or rather my heritage is Russian and Romanian!

I doubt it's Polish, the ending fits (-ski), but it would make one hell of a difficult surname to read, sounds very clumsy in Polish. If I heard it, I would've probably assumed it's somewhat foreign.

Originally Posted by it-ogo

I googled some possible cyrillic transliterations of this name (Зароднянский?) and found NO ONE LINK.

There are people with the surname Роднянский (Rodnansky) though. May be it will help to find out roots of the name. The Russian preposition "за" means "behind", "beyond", "outside". We also say "вышла замуж" ("she is married to").

[quote=Полуношник]

Originally Posted by "it-ogo":t9ktnhwh

I googled some possible cyrillic transliterations of this name (Зароднянский?) and found NO ONE LINK.

There are people with the surname Роднянский (Rodnansky) though. May be it will help to find out roots of the name. The Russian preposition "за" means "behind", "beyond", "outside". We also say "вышла замуж" ("she is married to").[/quote:t9ktnhwh]


Thank you so very much!