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I was told that the name had to
do with being a carpenter or a person who worked with wood.
He added that at one time it referred to a person who made
barrels from oak trees.
I also learned that my
great-grandfather directed his woodworking skills in a
practical direction: he made the caskets for the village.
I lived peacefully with this
account of things. In fact, I once worked in a haberdashery
in New Jersey that employed a tailor who was half Polish and
half Ukrainian, a World War II refugee. During an idle
moment, we were discussing things relating to ethnic
heritage. In short, he told me what he thought my name
meant. Happily, it was almost exactly the account that my
grandfather had given me.
Several years ago I visited a
Website dealing with the genealogy of Eastern Galicia, a
site dealing with Polish and Ukrainian genealogy. The
webmaster holds a number of genealogical credentials. He
affirmed that there might be a connection between the “dub”
of Dubiel and “dub,” the Russian and Ukrainian word for
“oak.” The Russian/Ukrainian pronunciation of the “dub”
would be more nasal, as with the original Slavic
pronunciation, and thereby sound like “dub,” paving the way
for the name Dubiel, especially since –el and –al were
common suffixes.
Two other notes on Dubiel
coming from the Russian/Ukrainian “dub”:
Back in the 1970’s there was
a company doing a massive direct mail campaign, selling
coats of arms, that is, heraldry. For x dollars you got your
family coat of arms plus a brief history of your
family name. I was suspicious regarding my family ever
having had a coat of arms. I knew that my Dubiel ancestors
were farmers, albeit relatively prosperous ones.
Nonetheless, I sent in my money. I discovered that
according to these people Dubiel meant “one who was as
strong as an oak.” (They cited Elsdon C. Smith’s New
Dictionary of American Family Names.) The crest featured
a cluster of oaks leaves and both the Russian and Polish
eagles, side-by-side, further proof to my mind that the
Russian/Ukrainian “dub” hypothesis held water. If nothing
else, these people had done some sort of scholarship that
appeared to be on the right track.
Add to this that my ancestral
village is in the Krosno province, and not all that far from
the Ukraine. In fact it is regarded as “in the east” by the
more sophisticated Krakowians I met on my trip to the
region. I visited my grandfather’s village, which is between
Jaslo and Krosno. The area is rife with Dubiels. Most of the
people I met had no knowledge (nor much interest) in the
origin of the name Dubiel. But I did meet two people in the
area (one a cousin) who mentioned that it had something to
do with wood or carpentry. I’m taking this on faith in that
I was working through a student translator.
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