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Old 3rd September 2007, 01:10
Franek Grabowski Franek Grabowski is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Warsaw, Poland
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Re: Burchard Flakowski

Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisM View Post
Sorry, Franek, but I thought that was correct - "son of flak". Can you put me right please?
Ski suffix means more less equal to von, see my name, Grabowski - from Grabów. It is used in the context of son, but then the christian name was used, just like in the name Peterson. Example could be Jakubowski or Piotrowski. Another lenghty issue are Jewish names, but this has nothing to the case.
Flakowski would mean a man from Flaków, but as I find no such place in Poland, I believe this was previously Flak, which means gut (no though guy meaning) and is a peasant's name, so I assume someone changed it to sound more noble. This often happened in 19th century.
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