Syzdek Family Newsletter

Stumped by Maciejewski? Tongue tied by Tomaszewski? Check out this online guide for pronouncing common Polish names. They also have a bunch of other names and languages, so you can pronounce your new Hindi’s coworker name, Chinmayananda.

Thanks to Lifehacker for the tip:

We’ve all been there. You look at a list of names for a meeting or at a new business card and you have absolutely no idea there was a last name with that many vowels. HowToSayThatName.com is a web site devoted to cataloging both first and last names, spoken by native speakers. No idea how to pronounce last names like “Nyguyen” or “Dokht”? Look the name up and play the embedded audio file to hear it. While a mispronounced name here and there is unavoidable, saying someone’s name correctly when they are accustomed to it being butchered goes a long way whether in a boardroom or at a barbecue.

The New York Times has this interesting article on the genetic relatedness of the peoples of Europe.

The genetic map of Europe bears a clear structural similarity to the geographic map. The major genetic differences are between populations of the north and south (the vertical axis of the map shows north-south differences, the horizontal axis those of east-west). The area assigned to each population reflects the amount of genetic variation in it.

Europe has been colonized three times in the distant past, always from the south. Some 45,000 years ago the first modern humans entered Europe from the south. The glaciers returned around 20,000 years ago and the second colonization occurred about 17,000 years ago by people returning from southern refuges. The third invasion was that of farmers bringing the new agricultural technology from the Near East around 10,000 years ago.

The pattern of genetic differences among present day Europeans probably reflects the impact of these three ancient migrations, Dr. Kayser said.

The map also identifies the existence of two genetic barriers within Europe. One is between the Finns (light blue, upper right) and other Europeans. It arose because the Finnish population was at one time very small and then expanded, bearing the atypical genetics of its few founders.

The other is between Italians (yellow, bottom center) and the rest. This may reflect the role of the Alps in impeding free flow of people between Italy and the rest of Europe.

The Battle of Grunwald (or Battle of Tannenberg) took place on July 15, 1410 with the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ranged against the Knights of the Teutonic Order. It was the decisive engagement in the Polish-Lithuanian-Teutonic War (1409-1411) and one of the greatest battles of medieval Europe. The battle saw the Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights decisively defeated — and the order never recovered its former power. This battle was one of the most important battles of Polish History.

Ever since their party scored big in Poland’s elections last fall, the Kaczynski brothers — identical twin movie stars with equally big political ambitions — were widely assumed to be running the country in tandem behind the scenes. Now, it’s official.

On Saturday, Poland’s governing Law and Justice Party voted to name its party leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the country’s new prime minister. With his brother, Lech, already holding the Polish presidency, there is no longer any doubt that the 57-year-old, chubby-faced twins are in charge of the eastern European country.

Link.

Joe Syzdek’s Yahoo Syzdek Family Group has a great link to a history of Bremond Texas which is where many Syzdeks and other Polish people settled in the 1870s and 1880s.

“When the railroad passed through Hearne and Calvert and the town site for Bremond was staked-off in early 1869, thousands of people moved westward. When Bremond came into existence as a roaring boom town and railroad terminus, settlers flocked to the place. The first settlers in Bremond were railway workmen and merchants of all kinds who had followed railroad construction from Houston. Within a year after the first train, Bremond had a population of over 2000 and the overflowing population spread into the countryside. “