Second Generation  

2. Franciszek KAMINSKI ² was born about 1858.³

General Notes: Kaminsky or Kaminski is a surname we find among many peoples of eastern Europe. I don't know if you've ever heard the word "Slav," it is a general term used for many related ethnic groups of eastern Europe, including the Poles, Belarusians, Bulgarians, Czechs, Russians, Ukrainians, Slovaks, Serbs, Croats, etc.

About 1,200 years ago these people were all one large group and all spoke the same language; but as time went on they split up, moved to different parts of eastern Europe, and their language changed and developed into many different languages, as the peoples themselves gradually developed into different ethnic groups. A lot of words are still similar in the various Slavic languages, however, and your name comes from one of them, a word meaning "stone, rock."

Poles spell this word kamien~ (I'm using N~ to stand for the Polish N with an accent over it, which American computers can't show without special configuration). Czechs spell it kámen (there's an accent over the A). When Russians write it in their alphabet, Cyrillic, it looks like KAMEHb; Ukrainians also use the Cyrillic alphabet, and they spell it a little differently, KAMIHb. So they all write the word different ways, but they all pronounce it more or less the same, sort of like saying "COMM-yen" in English (Ukrainians pronounce it more like "COMM-een"). Many surnames come from this word, and the one you bear is written in slightly different ways, too, depending on where it came from: Poles, for instance, spell the name either Kamin~ski or Kamien~ski. The spelling you now have, Kaminsky, might be Czech; it might be the Russian or Ukrainian forms spelled in English letters; or it may have been Polish but people changed the final -I of Kamin~ski to -Y in this country (this happened often when Poles came to America). You can't always tell just by looking at the name which country it came form, it could come from many countries where Slavs live.

Surnames like Kamin~ski usually started because of a link with a place. In Polish kamien~ski just means "of, from, pertaining to stone or rock," and sometimes it got started as a name for a person who worked with rock (like a stone-carver), or lived in a rocky place, or had some other connection with rocks. But much of the time the name started because a person lived in a place with a name like Kamien~ or Kamin~ -- which just means it was a rocky place. So Kamin~ski means either "rock-person" or "one from Kamien~ or Kamin~" = "one from the rocky place." Looking only at Poland, there are literally dozens of places named Kamien~, and this name could come from any of them; there are also many villages and towns in Ukraine, Russia, etc. where the name could also come from.

As of 1990 there were 87,935 Polish citizens named Kamin~ski, and another 1,514 named Kamien~ski. I don't have sources with data for other countries such as Ukraine, Russia, the Czech Republic, etc., but I'm pretty sure the name is just as common there.

So in summary:

1) the name comes from a Slavic word for "rock, stone," especially as a reference to people who lived in or came from a place with a name like Kamien~ or Kamin~

2) it could be Polish, Czech, Russian, Ukrainian, etc., but the spellig Kamin~ski is usually Polish

3) and it is a very, very common name in Eastern Europe. ⁴

Noted events in his life were:

• His native language was Polish.

• He was Roman Catholic. ⁵

• Resided: Ostojów, Kielce, Poland. ¹

Franciszek married Maryanna FLASINSKA ² on January 14, 1880 in Poland.,¹ daughter of Pawel FLASINSKA and Jozefa PIAST. Maryanna was born about 1858 in Ostojów, Kielce, Poland^1,3 and died before August 25, 1909.⁶

Noted events in her life were:

• Her native language was Polish.

• She was Roman Catholic. ⁵

• Resided: Ostojów, Kielce, Poland. ¹

The child from this marriage was:

+ 3 M    i. Jozef KAMINSKI ^3,7 was born on January 10, 1883 in Ostojów, Kielce, Poland,^2,3,6,7,8,9 was baptized on January 10, 1883 in Suchedniów, Kielce, Poland,³ died on July 21, 1951 in Troy, Rensselaer County, New York, USA^10,11,12 at age 68, and was buried on July 24, 1951 in Queens, New York, USA.¹³