My last name is Tulowetzke i cant find the country of origin help me?

Question:

My last name is Tulowetzke i cant find the country of origin help me?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: There are a few variant spellings in immigration records. From the pattern of the letters, your ancestors were from very eastern Germany or more likely north central Poland (Eastern Pomerania in today's terms...Danzig, Gdansk)

First name Last name Occupation Age Sex Arrived Origin Ship
Auguste Tulowietzky Unknown 4 F 23 Dec 1881 Germany Jan Breydel
Carl Tulowietzky Unknown 11 M 23 Dec 1881 Germany Jan Breydel
Caroline Tulowietzky Unknown 9 F 23 Dec 1881 Germany Jan Breydel
Charlotte Tulowietzky Unknown 7 F 23 Dec 1881 Germany Jan Breydel
Charlotte Tulowietzky Unknown 35 F 23 Dec 1881 Germany Jan Breydel
Henriette Tulowitzki Unknown 32 F 29 May 1890 Germany Dresden
Hermann Tulowitzki Child, Youngster 6 M 29 May 1890 Germany Dresden
Pauline Tulowitzki Child, Youngster 2 F 29 May 1890 Germany Dresden
Rudolf Tulowitzki Infant 11 m M 29 May 1890 Germany Dresden
Wilhelm Tulowitzki Joiner 32 M 29 May 1890 Germany Dresden
Louise Tulowitzki Infant 21 F 22 Nov 1884 Germany Oder

The fact that they came between 1881-1890 is also interesting. Moreso, though, because I think at least 1-2 of the progenators of the line in the US came earlier. I found WWI draft registration records showing a member of the family (born 1874) who was listed as a native born American.

There's also a few records from the Port of Philadelphia that are very curious. Somehow these folks bypassed the Immigration Station at Ellis Island:

View Record Name Arrival Date Estimated birth year Gender Port of Departure Last Residence Ship Name View Image

Katharina Tulowietzki 1 Feb 1913 abt 1890 Female Bremen, Germany Russia Rhein
Kostanti Tulowietzki 1 Feb 1913 abt 1888 Male Bremen, Germany Russia Rhein
Stanislawa Tulowietzki 1 Feb 1913 abt 1912 Female Bremen, Germany Russia Rhein

These were "Russian Poles" (east of Warsaw extending to the Lithuanian border). That doesn't mean as much as it seems to, other than they were separated from their brethren to the west when Poland was partitioned. But if these were your relatives, pull their Declarations of Intent and Naturalization petitions from NARA and you'll know exactly where they came from, when, how, to whom they were related...everything.

Country of origin is somewhere within 300 miles of Warsaw (east or west). If your ancestors came over before 1891, they were German Poles (from the Prussian partition) and probably from Pomerania. If your ancestors came over after 1892 they were probably Russian Poles (East Prussia, the former Congress of Poland or somewhere in or near the Polish border with Lithuania...they were in essence one country). The reason we can use years to predict with decent reason where a Pole came from is that the Germans allowed Polish emigration starting in the 1860s. The Austrians were later (1880s...but "tzke" isn't a Galician suffix, so they weren't from the Austrian partition). The Russians were very late in allowing their slaves...errr...serfs....err peasants to leave for Amerika.