Gainowski/Geinosky Photo Collections
Gainowski/Geinosky Collections
During the investigation of our Gainowski origins, an evolution of the spelling of their name was found. From their arrival around 1886 to about 1900 the name was generally spelled as Gainowski. However around the turn of the century, a few variants began appearing. For example, Anna Gainowski used Ganowsky on her 1893 Marriage Record to John Pajewski. Then in the 1896 Chicago Directory Joseph Gainowski was shown as Geinewski. Later the 1900 Census taker spelled the name as Geinosky and in the 1902 Chicago Directory Joseph Gainowski was shown as Geinovski. Years later, their children recorded Geinosky on their tombstone.
Similar to what was learned about about pronouncing Pajewski as Payefskee. It is believed Gainowski was pronounced Geinofskee with the “ein” sound the same as the German number one (“ein”). In these genealogy listings I chose to generally use the earliest known spelling Gainowski. Someday records from West Prussia may show it differently if found. I also used Geinosky in the above title as that is what is on Joseph and Rosalia's tombstone. Some of the variants seem to have occured due to the pronounced Geinofskee and German ways for pronouncing the letter w differently than Americans.