ViewMate - Image Archive, Image 24921 - Translation - Polish - Austria - Bolszowce

Information

Picture

Question

Category: Translation - Polish
Approval Date: 11/18/2012 3:59 PM
Family Surname: Gutman
Country: Austria
Town: Bolszowce

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I have the birth register entries for my grandfather and his siblings. One of the columns asks for the name, occupation, and residence of the father (the column heading has already been translated). In each instance, the father is Moses Gutman and the residence is Bolszowce in Galicia. What I would like to know is the meaning of the words which appear to represent the occupation. These are listed in the image. Google Translate has not been helpful.

Response

11/18/2012 11:05 PM

zarob from zarobnik is roughly speaking a worker in Polish.
krawiec? would be a tailor in Polish.

I think I keep seeing Zimmerman, which in German is timber man thus carpenter in German.

11/19/2012 11:48 AM

I rather see the word kupiec as occupation which means literally purchaser or buyer and means shopkeeper or tradesman. The word zarob might be an abreviation for zarobki or earnings. I don't think the occupation would be written in German on a polish certificate would, so Zimmerman is surely someone's name et not carpenter, maybe a witness

11/19/2012 1:58 PM

The first word is Taglöhn[e]r (German) = day laboror. This is undoubtedly German because written in old German script.
I disagree with "Zimmermann". This word is rendered three times in the sample given. It is most certainly written in old German script, because no latin script vowel can be identified except possibly "u". Given that, the first letter cannot be a "Z", because the old German script capital "Z" has a descender. Looking at the last instance of the word, the upper loop of the first letter is thicker at the left than at the right. This indicates that the left side of the loop was written downwards. The first letter is therefore a capital "D". My guess is that the word is "Diener", German for "servant". The last letter would then be "r", written with three strokes. I have often seen a German script "r" written this way.
To corroborate my guess it would be useful to have larger parts of the records scanned and posted so that one could compare the shape of the letters in the handwriting of the same person.
Regarding the language, Bolszowce was in Galicia, then a bilingual country where German and Polish were used interchangingly.

11/20/2012 1:21 AM

I think the word 2-3-5 is Diener, a servant or domestic. Note that the word Schuldiener mean School Clerk at Synagoga (in polish Skolnik)

11/21/2012 4:21 PM

The word no.4 from the top is definitely "kupiec" means salesman/trademan.

The last word "zarob" may be the abbreviation of "zarobek" - means earning. Especially if in the full original text there is an amount after colon.

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Last Updated 4 Apr 2012
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ViewMate Posting VM 24921

Submitted by Kenneth Entin