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Hi, this really isn't religious but I am under the imppression that most Orthodox or Byzantine Catholics would either be Eastern European or hellenistic in descent or have been born in those countries. my grandfather was born in the German state of Prussia, but his grandfather came somewhere farther East or Suoth in Europe. i have never beenn familiar with all of my heritage, so can anybody tell me what the origin of the name Anobis is or could be. Thanks to all who reply.

IAN:

Christ is in our midst!! He is and always will be!!

Have you ever done a name etymology? You break down the name into possible roots and trace the roots through the Old English Dictionary, available in most university libraries.

Bob

Ian,

It's certainly not a common surname.

I searched for its occurrence as a surname. I didn't find any sign or suggestion of variant spellings. Other than learning that (I presume) you participated in a chess tourney about 6 years ago , there were not a lot of usages to be found and this is essentially the full compilation:

it did not appear in the 1920 US census;
it appears in Poland as the surname of only 9 persons, principally in the County of Slupca - see here [moikrewni.pl];
it is the surname of a woman in France, insurance industry;
it is the surname of a man, probably in Greece;
it is the surname of 2 persons/families, in Winnipeg, MB;
it is the maiden surname of 1 woman in Winnipeg, originally from St John, NF (married name Funk);
it is the maiden surname of 1 woman from NF (married name Winsor);
it is the surname of a family in Madison, WI (formerly of UT and CA);
it is the surname of a woman in Toronto, ON, computer industry (no current listing however);
it is the surmame of a man/family in St John, NL;
it is the surname of a woman in Brooklyn, NY;
it is the surname of a woman from Oromocto, NB (no current listing however);
it is the surname of a male actor (probably Canadian) with one TV series episode credit;
it is the surname of a Muslim woman in Iran;
it is the surname of a man in Mexico; and,
it is the surname of a number of folks on FB - those appear to be roughly equally divided between Manitoba and Iran.

Other than as a surname, it shows up as (in no particular order):

a placename (I think) in StarWars;
an Iranian web provider;
a hostel in The Netherlands;
an Egyptian god;
a heavenly body (star or planetary, can't remember which);
a tour agency in Egypt;
an on-line RPG character/place;
a web hosting/design company in Luxembourg;
a heavy metal band in Egypt;
a placename in the Czech Republic;
a placename in Germany;
a champion showdog in Hungary;
a champion showdog in Denmark;
a furniture design company in Malaysia;
a nick used by a (pretty good) pro photographer, who appears to be from Europe; and,
a random username on any number of different on-line sites - most seemingly inspired by either its RPG, Egyptian mythological, or StarWars connections.

All told, I'd guess that Slupca, Poland is most likely your family's place of origin and that the vast majority of those who emigrated did so to Canada - principally to the Maritimes and Manitoba (although I obviously didn't do a place by place search of CanPages People Directory [canpages.ca], I did hit a few random metro areas and all listings appear to be limited to NL and MB presently).

Hope this helps.

Many years,

Neil

PS - should you want to explore any of these as possible long-lost relatives, let me know. I'm pretty certain that I can find most of them again.

Thanks for responding, the Canadians as well as the French woman you mentioned, are all blood relatives. You said there were a few Anobis around Slupca, I know that my grandfather was from Krakow and his ancestors were merchants (and probably not actual Poles) so this is interesting. I thought the name may be from the Balkan Peninsula, specifically Greece (as alot of Greek naames end in - is) and the Egyptian "god" Anubis got that name from the Greeks. You also said some Iranians had the name which suprised me.

a placename in the Czech Republic;
a placename in Germany;

Also where in Germany and the Czech Republic?

Thanks for responding

Lithuanian names also end in "is" generally "itis". The borders of Lithuania and Poland have shifted numerous times.

Welcome to the forum.
Fr Deacon Paul

Ian,

The Czech Republic reference was to Vila or Villa Anobis, so it appears that it may be a pension or guesthouse. The best I can come up is that it's probably in Prague or the immediate area thereof. The fact that there is a B&B or hostel by the name in Antwerp (The Netherlands) makes me wonder if it's a chain, though I can't find anything to confirm that. (I now notice that there is an Anobis B&B in Luxembourg City as well.)

In tracking back to the German listings again, I think that I misread the situation. It appears on a second look that the references are to photos taken in Germany by the photographer I mentioned who uses it as his nick on various stock photo sale sites.

Krakow is considerably south of Slupca and near both the current-day Czech and Slovak borders, so it's entirely possible that the name originates in either of those regions, but in a variant spelling - or that no one there by the name has had occasion to do anything that would bring them to the attention of the internet.

I considered the possibility of Greece and you may remember that I referenced a male by the name whom I said was probably Greek. He signed an on-line petition that was written in Greek - which doesn't guarantee anything but, as all the other signatories were clearly Greek, I suspect he was as well. However, there was no location information for him at the site. The one odd thing was that his first name was Erik or Eric - not a common Greek personal name, at least not in either of those spellings (it would more commonly be Aric), but it does occur occasionally.

Apparently, judging by the number on FB (about equal to the number of your Canadian relatives there), it's at least as common a surname among Iranian Muslims as it is among Canadians.

Sorry not to have been of more help. You might try posting an inquiry on the Slovak and Carpatho-Rusyn Genealogy Research Pages [iarelative.com] and see if you get any replies.

Many years,

Neil

Hi, my grandfather was born in Slupca more specifically the village of Zagórów, which was previously known as Hinterberg. My grandfather said that the village was pretty much all German when he was born. However, Anobis does not seem like a German name. Any advice?

Well, we've at least determined that Slupca was on the money. There are articles on both Slupca County [en.wikipedia.org] and Slupca [en.wikipedia.org], the county seat, on Wikipedia. At least the latter appears to be written by an inhabitant - it also contains a rather detailed timeline.

Hinterberg is the German name of the town of Zagarow [en.wikipedia.org]. Slupca was part of Prussian Poland at one time, obviously. However, I agree that Anobis doesn't sound German.

You might want to contact a (CoJCoLDS) genealogist who has begun indexing Slupca church records (I'm guessing that he's using 'Slupca' in the context of the county). Some of these are online. See Slupca Genealogy [slupcagenealogy.com], which has contact info. See also Genealogical Records of Greater Poland - Slupca District [donhoward.net] - which includes at least some listings for the parish at Zagorow, although Anobis is not a listed name.

In addition to the C-R/Slovak site I suggested above, you might also try posting an inquiry on the Polish Genealogy Forum [genforum.genealogy.com]. Other than those suggestions, I have no others. Obviously, the name was not changed by an immigration official since your Grandfather doesn't suggest that - so, it would appear that whatever change came about happened earlier. Your best bet in that case would be to try and find someone through one of these sites who has had some success in researching the same name back further to the time when it first differed as shown in church or civil records.

Your chances of success are lessened by the fact that it is clearly uncommon (witness that almost every person whom I found on-line, all of those in 4 Canadian provinces and France, are your blood relatives and that the only ones I found elsewhere in Europe are all residents of the region in which your Grandfather was born and are, undoubtedly, related to you as well). That's an extraordinarily small circle.

Many years,

Neil

Hi, thankyou for the sites and the help. On the site where you found all people with Anobis as a surname, I looked it up on the map of Austria and Germany, there are 111 Anibis in Austria. True there is no proof of blood relation with these Austrians, but do you thibk there could be any connection. I was talking to my grandfather and his mother (Piatek-surname) spoke fluent German. After WWI, his family mooved to France, during the 1930's, they recieved a letter requesting my grandfather and his brothers to return to the Reich and enlist in the Whermact. Incidently he did not and returned to Poland at the outbreak of war to fight in the Polish army.

Ian,

Of course there could be a connection - the spellings are close enough to be variants of the same name. I'd suggest researching locales for your gr-grandmother's maiden name, as it's very likely that your gr-grandfather came from near there.

Many years,

Neil