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ArchivesRe: Fatula & Lesnefsky
in reply to a message by Missy
Two cases here of shifting borders and crumbling empires.
Lesnefsky is almost certainly the Polish surname Lesniewski (there should be a mark over the S to show how it's pronounced, near enough -sh-). Lithuania was once part of the Polish Commonwealth, the King of Poland being also the Grand Duke of Lithuania. Some Lithuanians, particularly of the landowning class, had Polish surnames. These names would later become politically incorrect, but your ancestors probably left before that change. Your name is likely to be from a place name based on the word for forest, las/lesie.
Fatula may not be Hungarian, though from Hungary of old, which incorporated the modern Slovakia. So Slovak may be correct for the language. Alternatively it may belong to one of those minority Carpathian Slav languages related to Ukrainian, known collectively as "Rusyn". At the end of all that I have to say that I haven't a clue what it means.
Lesnefsky is almost certainly the Polish surname Lesniewski (there should be a mark over the S to show how it's pronounced, near enough -sh-). Lithuania was once part of the Polish Commonwealth, the King of Poland being also the Grand Duke of Lithuania. Some Lithuanians, particularly of the landowning class, had Polish surnames. These names would later become politically incorrect, but your ancestors probably left before that change. Your name is likely to be from a place name based on the word for forest, las/lesie.
Fatula may not be Hungarian, though from Hungary of old, which incorporated the modern Slovakia. So Slovak may be correct for the language. Alternatively it may belong to one of those minority Carpathian Slav languages related to Ukrainian, known collectively as "Rusyn". At the end of all that I have to say that I haven't a clue what it means.
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