Surname Saturday – Grochowski

Hello,

This my version of Saturday’s daily blogging theme. This week will be focused on the Grochowski surname.

Surname Pronunciation Grochowski (Polish) – Gro hof ski – listen to it here: Grochowski
Surname Pronunciation Grochowski (American) – Gro ch ow ski – listen to it here: Grochowski

Surname Meaning: Grochowski – The name is derived from the word “groch”, which means pea. (Source: Polish Surnames: Origins and Meanings, Second Edition by William F. Hoffman)

Roots of Surname:

Surname	Group	Subgroup	Language
GROCHOWSKI	EASTERN EUROPEAN	POLISH	POLISH

Public Profiler’s World Overview Map of the Grochowski Surname:

Public Profiler Worldnames. (2010). Surname Grochowski World Map. Retrieved March 27, 2010, from http://www.publicprofiler.org/worldnames/Default.aspx

Top Five Countries: Poland, Germany, United States, France, and Canada.
Top Five Regions: Podlaskie, Poland; Mazowieckie, Poland; Warminsko-Mazurskie, Poland; Lubelskie, Poland; and Kujawsko-Pomorskie, Poland.
Top Ten Cities: Warszawa, Mazowieckie, Poland; Bydgoszcz, Kujawsko-Pomorskie, Poland; Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States; Lódz, Wielkopolskie, Poland; Siedlce, Mazowieckie, Poland; Bialystok, Podlaskie, Poland; Kraków, Lodzkie, Poland; Berlin, Berlin, Germany; Lublin, Lubelskie, Poland; and Chicago, Illinois, United States.

Public Profiler’s Poland Localities Distribution Map of the Grochowski Surname:

Public Profiler Worldnames. (2010). Surname Grochowski Poland Localities Map. Retrieved March 27, 2010, from http://www.publicprofiler.org/worldnames/Default.aspx?country_code=PL

Currently, I have yet to find the origin of my Grochowski line. My 3x great grandmother, Rozalia Grochoska, born abt 1850, arrived in America in 1872, from Prussian Poland. She married my 3x great grandfather, Paweł Kobs, in 1873, at St. Stanislaus Church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I do have a suspicion that they may have both come from the Złotow Parish area. The other single Kobs family members that arrived in America seemed to have married someone from area around the Złotow Parish. Also, there was a Rozalia Grochowska that was born in 1850 that I’ve found in the Złotow Parish records. Coincidence?

Public Profiler’s Europe Distribution Map of the Grochowski Surname:

Public Profiler Worldnames. (2010). Surname Grochowski Europe Map. Retrieved March 27, 2010, from http://www.publicprofiler.org/worldnames/Default.aspx?region=!WORLD-EUROPE

Moikrewni’s Poland Distribution Map of the Grochowski Surname: Moikrewni. (2010). Statystyka: Liczby do nazwiska ‘Grochowski ‘. Retrieved March 27, 2010, from
http://www.moikrewni.pl/mapa/kompletny/grochowski.html

Public Profiler’s North American Distribution Map of the Grochowski Surname:

Public Profiler Worldnames. (2010). Surname Grochowski North American Map. Retrieved March 27, 2010, from http://www.publicprofiler.org/worldnames/Default.aspx?region=!WORLD–USCA

Grochowski Spelling Variations: Here are some possible variations: Grochowski, Grohowski, Groholski, Grocholski, Grocholski, Grochofski, and Grochowsky.

Best Regards,

James Michaels

· Reply

November 25, 2019 at 10:01 AM

What a GREAT site to discover!!! Our surname is Grocholski. My DNA shows up as 66% Eastern Europe. BUT….My Grandfather (on my mother’s side) was adopted prior to coming through Ellis Island. Their surname was Laskowski.

I get a kick out of the fact the I “may” be Prussian!! No reason…just fun. Can you add any info that I can follow as to my actual DNA? Our family story says that we were aristocrats of some kind!?!?!?

Thanks again for your work!

James Michaels (Grocholski…changed because of my dangerous Police history and threats!).

alwierzba
· Reply

Author

November 25, 2019 at 3:06 PM

Hi,

Thanks for stopping at the site. There are 2 great websites that you can play around with that contain indexes for many “Prussian” areas: http://www.ptg.gda.pl/ and http://poznan-project.psnc.pl/search.php

Best Regards,
Alwierz

Kevin Grohoske

February 15, 2020 at 1:07 PM

There is also another spelling “Grohoske”. My grandfather Leonard (Leon) Grohoske changed his spelling in the 1930’s. His father, George, immigrated to the US in the 1890’s. His parent’s were Mary and Joseph Grohoske.

There is also another family of Grohoske’s in Texas, apparently unrelated to my grandfather, who had the “Grohoske” spelling as early as the 1920’s.

Grochowski

October 27, 2020 at 9:47 PM

I am a Grochowski! We have several in Massachusetts and other parts of New England. I have also met and heard of many in Chicago, the US highest population of poles. See also: https://www.ancestry.com/name-origin?surname=grochowski

From my understanding Grochowski also has strong lineage in Argentina. I remember reading this somewhere but cannot find the link right now.

Surprised nobody brought up that the Grochowski last name has a heroic past with Aushwitz and the Holocaust. Our name shows up in the holocaust memorial database.
Adam Grochowski is one of them:
https://www.southcoasttoday.com/article/19980208/NEWS/302089987

Reverend Kazimierz Grochowski spoke excellent German and was at one point the mayor of Slonim where he helped provide Jews with false identity documents during the Holocaust. He was arrested by Germans for hiding Jews, imprisoned, and then later was executed.
365 Grochowski Street near Warsaw is also where a children’s convent and school was located around that time.
http://kpk-toronto.org/wp-content/uploads/Wartime-Rescue-of-Jews-by-the-Polish-Catholic-Clergy-rev-2019.pdf

alwierzba
· Reply

Author

October 28, 2020 at 5:23 AM

Thanks for adding to my Grochowski post!

M Grochowski

May 13, 2022 at 8:37 PM

Hi, I do not know how other Americans with the last name of Grochowski might pronounce or mispronounce their last name, but I know most Americans who are not familiar with the fact that the c is silent, always mess it up. I mean really how do you say the word czar or tzar? Do you pronounce the c or t? So the way we (my family) have always said it here in America is Gro how ski, and we generally let people know the c is silent. I just tend to drop the c in every last name that has some prefix that ends with chowski, chowsky, or chowska.

C Grochowski

May 31, 2024 at 9:30 AM

We are a Grochowski family in San Francisco Bay Area here and originally from Milwaukee. Our extended family is still in Milwaukee.

Immigrated late 19th century.

Name is often mispronounced as “chow.”

Surname Saturday – Grochowski

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