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Question: Help with surname meaning [Polish]!?
So, for the past few weeks, I've been quite obsessed with finding the meaning of my last name and trace it back to my ancestors!.

My current last name is Wudarczyk!. It was changed from Wlodarczyk during the Second World War due to disputes in our family!.

I have no way of contacting my father to ask him about this stuff, and I'm moving to Poland in 2 years!. I would love to know more about my father's side of the family, and not just my mother's!.

If anyone could tell me what either Wudarczyk or Wlodarczyk mean, I would be more than thankful!. It would make me ecstatic!.

I appreciate any comments!.

I know it's a difficult last name to work with, and I won't even bother trying to spell out the pronunciation, as it is nearly impossible!.

Thank you once again for any sort of help!. Www@QuestionHome@Com


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
It's not a difficult name, in fact it's pretty common!. I grew up in a very Polish part of town in Michigan and there were half a dozen families in the parish with the name!. I can help you first by amending the l to add a slash to it to put it back in the Polish alphabet: W?odarczyk!. That softens the pronunciation from a hard V to the Wu sound that you're used to!. I can also tell you that your family is probably from Poznan or Galicia, leaning more towards Poznan if they came over before 1880!. I ran the name throught the Poznan Marriage Indexing Project database and there were over 270 matches!. So there's a lot of information from the Polish databases out there to help you once you find the name of your immigrant ancestor!. Here's their site to help you play with it: http://bindweed!.man!.poznan!.pl/posen/sear!.!.!.

The Polish Genealogy Society of America is a wealth of information and can give you the actual meaning of the name!. Send them an email and they have Polish-speaking volunteers who do look ups and answer emails one day a week!. Here's their website: http://www!.pgsa!.org/index!.phpWww@QuestionHome@Com

try some of these
http://www!.polishroots!.org/
http://www!.geocities!.com/siliconvalley/h!.!.!.
http://www!.polishroots!.org/genpoland/ind!.!.!.
http://www!.cyndislist!.com/poland!.htm!.!.!.
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