Both Sides Now

[auld argonian]

...and apologies to Joni Mitchell...

But....I've been trying to get rid of some books and came across one of those boilerplate genealogy books that someone in my family bought a while back and, despite the fact that it's pretty much useless, it has given me a new perspective on my families and Scottishness.

If you've not seen one of these things, it's about eighty pages of vague genealogical advice and sketchy history and twenty pages of names and addresses of people with your surname all over the world. Those of you who have met me know that my actual surname is "Gronkowski", my dad's family being (if you go far enough back) from Poland. In fact, my wife was on a business trip over there some time ago and they drove through the Polish town of Gronkow which is about as far South in Poland as you can get. One thus assumes that those with the surname Gronkowski are probably descended from folks who came from Gronkow.

So you might figger that I get a lot of flack from my dad's family when I show up in the kilt...and you would be right. They are a right bunch of sarcastic and insulting b*st*rds about it.

Oddly enough, though, "The Big International Book Of Gronkowskis" lists two families with that surname as living in Aberdeenshire. So I now have some ammo to shoot back with when I get a wisecrack from one of my dad's relatives, eh? I know that a whole lot of Poles resettled in Scotland during the Second World War and decided to remain there and are proud citizens of Scotland and even have their own tartan...but this is just great for me.

Best

AA

[McFarkus]

Very cool discovery, John! Now that you know there were Scots Gronkowskis, have you thought about designing a tartan?

[dfmacliam]

Well if we visit history, the Poles in WWII who made it out of Poland, after the German assault.. many of those relocated to England, Scotland, and elsewhere.. and some reformed the Polish military to help fight with the Allies. Of course, after the war, many would not return home, due to the Communist occupation of their country, and the history the Soviet forces had with the Polish military, in the early part of the war. Sooooo, its possible for Polish residing in Scotland.. and adopting a new homeland.

I learned a lot from the History Channel...LOL and the special they had on Stalin..interesting show..