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ArchivesRe: anyone know anything behind Henke?
in reply to a message by Henke
It is not Polish. Sounds German to me. Unless it was borrowed by Germans from Polish and changed, but I can't think of any similar Polish surname.
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hey agian, did some more searching and found henke on this site http://www.nordicnames.de/pojk_h/Heinrich.html which lists it as a variation of the German Heinrich, as "Henke (m) pet form of Henrik"
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Don't know if you mean as a first or last name since Henke is also a German last name. Although there is a Polish connection as well. My grandfather lived in the area of Germany that switched hands between Germany and Poland several times through history as borders were redrawn after almost every conflict/battle/war. Several Henkes came over to the USA prior to WWI and settled in the Midwestern USA.
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There are now 527 of us in Canada too!
10 from 3 generations of my family, which started with my parents Franz and Eva Henke who came over in 1955 from Hamburg, Germany
10 from 3 generations of my family, which started with my parents Franz and Eva Henke who came over in 1955 from Hamburg, Germany
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I mean as a last name, thanks for all the help :)
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We are most certainly German; from the Prussia area in my case, which I would assume is why others have said there are Polish links. My grandmother was Polish, Wersonski. My great-grandfather came here about the same time as one of the other posts, 1912, and settled in Watertown WI. We are all over the place now as far as I can tell. Haven't done any new searching for relatives in a long time.
The interesting new thing I found was there seems to be an abundance of the surname Henke in Sweden now.
The interesting new thing I found was there seems to be an abundance of the surname Henke in Sweden now.
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The surname is definately German. No doubt about it. My grandfather came over from Germany as a little boy around 1912. He was from an area that today is part of Poland. The name of the town is Polzin. As one of the other people have posted, the border between Germany and Poland were redrawn many times over the centuries.
I did some research a while back and I learned that Henke is the root word of the german word for "hangman". If you use a english to german translation, you will find that the german word for "hangman" is "Henker". Somewhere along the line the letter "r" was dropped.
I did some research a while back and I learned that Henke is the root word of the german word for "hangman". If you use a english to german translation, you will find that the german word for "hangman" is "Henker". Somewhere along the line the letter "r" was dropped.
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