This site is an archive for information about my family heritage and the Stuczynski surname. All my known ancestors are Polish, though Lentz (Great-Grandmother’s maiden name) is believed by some to be German. They are all from Dunkirk, New York, most or all having arrived from Poland around the beginning of the 20th Century. In other words, if you share a family name with me and do NOT have ancestors who lived in Dunkirk, we’re probably not tracably related.
This is my family; this is my story. But it is shared with many people, and even those who just share the surname are welcome to comment here. I am always looking for new information — and friends. But this site’s story begins here:
The Internet, Circa 1996
I remember the first night I went on the Internet back in the fall of 1996. Before going to bed, I decided to do a search (probably AltaVista or Yahoo! or whatever was the most common engine or directory at the time) for my surname, Stuczynski. I figured there would be no hits, as it is a very rare name, but instead I found around 80 hits, mostly for a man by the name of Steve Stuczynski. To this day, he’s all over the net, mostly because of his involvement with computers, back before people called it “IT”. But what I found was an explanation of what my last name meant. Most books don’t even list it, and various genealogy-types told me it was a corruption of Strucynski or other similar names. And it may or may not be related to the Polish word for “strike” or “hit”, but my family believed (apart from an amusing anecdote that was meant in jest) that it meant nothing in particular.
The Crusades? Maybe, Maybe Not
So here I was, looking at the “Stuczynski Family Roots Page” of Steve’s (whom I am not traceably related to), claiming the name traced to a clan named after a parcel of land rewarded to them for their service in the Crusades. A discussion of this and other name history research can be found on the Surname History page.
Did you mean Jenn Stuczynski?
After a couple years of adding a not-so-small amount of content to the web, as well as owning my own web development company, I took up the lion’s share of Google results, all the way to the top. However, after the rise of Olympic pole vaulting star Jenn Stucyznski (my second cousin’s daughter), I am nowhere to be found, or at least not anywhere on the first bunch of results pages. I remember the first time I searched for my own name and it asked me “Did you mean Jenn Stuczynski?” A very humbling moment.
Anyway, I continue to research now and then, and grill my Dad for old stories and help filling in the blanks of the family tree.
UPDATE: Working to archive this site. My Father passed away in 2018 and now and then I recall something I should have asked or written down . Such is life …