Tumilowicz Family Origins
Tumilowicz h. Ostoja
Origins
The origins
The Tumilowicz family lived in an area between
Minsk and Mogilev in what is today Belarus.
The families "nest" is supposed
to have been the small town originaly called
Tumilowicze located just east of Dokszyce.
Tumilowicze is a plural form of Tumilowicz.
The town is shown on maps as Tumilowicze, Tumilovichi, Tumilavichy depending on time period, language and alphabet
used.
The town once belonged to the Dominican
Order (1)(2). The Church
encouraged settlement of lands
owned by it in the then wilderness
territories
of eastern Poland (Commonwealth of
Poland-Lithuania).
Persons who settled these lands were
not
required to pay taxes for several years.
Presumably, the town of Tumilowicze
was so
named because it was settled initially
under
the auspices of the Church by persons
named
Tumilowicz. Based on information gathered
for taxation purposes, eight domiciles
constituted
the village of Tumilowicze in 1690.
At the
turn of the 19th century, Tumilowicze
was
a rural district populated by 2200
enfranchised
peasants inhabiting 410 farms. Flax
was a
prominent crop.
The church of St. George in Tumilovichi
(Click images for larger view)
The church of St. George bell-tower
There are also two other locations:
Tumilowo (Tf) - manorial farm (Polish - folwark)
located near the river, Mieryca, northwest
of Dzisna (1)(2)
Tumilowo (Tz) - walled settlement (Polish
- zascianek) northwest of Szarkowszczyzna.
The designation, zascianek, suggests habitation
by persons descended from Polish nobility (1)(2). Sites (Tf) and (Tz), are indicated approximately
on the map.
The suffix, OWO, indicates derivation of
the place name, Tumilowo, from someone named
Tumil, the root of Tumilowicz. The relationship
between someone named Tumilowicz or Tumil,
after whom these sites are named, and the
Tumilowiczes of Swierynowo is unknown.
To uncover the earliest origins of the family,
research was undertaken by Dr Zygmunt Klimek
and Dr Joseph Tumilowicz. The following is
a summary.
The family name Tumilowicz is built of a
base of Tumil and a patronymic -owicz (pronounced:
-ovich) meaning a son of somebody called
Tumil. The spelling varied in the different
languages of the region and followed the
pronunciation. Tumilowicz according to research
is polonized version of a Belarussian family
name Tumilovich.
According to M V Birila (5)"Tumila - Tumilevich, Tumilovich and Tumialevich
(where i became ia)". Tumila is a pet form of Tuma known in the Russian as well as Belarussian
languages by means of suffix -ilo (Belarussian -ila).
Birila further explains tuma - as a hybrid of two different races of
animals or men
According to M. Vesmer (6) the noun tuma - mixture, half Russian and half Tartar
(halfcaste).
It is difficult to say if the base of the
family name Tumilo is of Tartar origin. Everything
is possible and Vesmer at the end of the
explanation of the noun tuma says: "most probably of foreign origin".
References
(1) Sulimierski F. et al - Slownik Geograficzny
Krolewstwa Polskiego i Innych Krajow Slowianskich
(Geographic Dictionary of the Kingdom of
Poland and Other Slavic Countries). W. Walewski,
Warsaw, 1890-1902, v12: pp 623 & 382-383
(2) Skorowidz Miejscowolci Rzeczypospolitej
Polskiej (Index of Localities in the Republic
of Poland) . Bystrzycki T., Ed., 1934
(3) Chorzempa RA - Polish Roots. Genealogical
Publishing Co., Baltimore, MD, 1993
(4) Metryka Litewska - Rejestry Podymnego
Wielkiego Ksiestwa Litewskiego Wojewodzstwa Wilenskiego
1690 r. Warszawa, Panstwo Wydownictwa Naukowe,
1989, s112 (Census of Lithuania - Register
of Domiciles in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
in the Province of Wilno in 1690. Warsaw,
State Academic Publication, 1989, p112
(5) M. V. Birila - Byelorussian anthropology.
2. Family names derived from an appellative
vocabulary, Minsk 1969
(6) M. Vesmer - Russisches Etymologisches
Wörterbuch (Etymological Dictionary of Russian
Language). Vol III Heidelberg 1958
