This was a really in-depth talk by Clr. Nick Tomaszewsk, currently Mayor of Deal, delving into his Polish family tree, both genetically and genealogically. He started by telling us his Polish first names Mikolaj Eugeniusz had been anglicised to Nicholas Eugene and that he was brought up in Canterbury by an English mother and Polish father.
His genetic journey had begun about 10 years ago, tracing his Y chromosome using the American company FT DNA, who tested the samples at the University of Arizona. The markers found on Nick’s Y chromosome occurred in this order with the first marker being the oldest:-M168→M89→M9→M45→M207→ M173→M17→ M458 (R1a1a)
M168 – 50,000 years ago a man in Southern Asia was born carrying this marker. His ancestors had begun the first major wave of migration out of North-eastern Africa 70-80,000 years ago
M89 – 45,000 years ago this marker appeared from N.E. Africa or the Middle East, when people followed the great herds of game into the vast steppes of Central Asia. Today it is found in 90% of all non-African men.
M9 – appeared in a man born 40,000 years ago in Iran or South Central Asia, from a group of hunter-gatherers. This line diverged from the M89 clan.
M45 – this marker occurred 35,000 years ago in Central Asiaand was part of the M9 Eurasian Clan. When the environment became more hostile with glaciers expanding and the Ice Age extending southwards, this forced these ancestors to follow herds of game northwards. This marker is found on the male chromosomes of the common ancestor of most European men.
M207 – 30,000 years ago a new mutation appeared on a male chromosome; his descendants split into 2 distinct groups. One group headed eastwards towards Russia, while the other group went westwards into Europe. This genetic distribution supports both the linguistic and archaeological evidence that there were large migrations of people from the Steppes into Europe and India. All these areas use a Proto-Indo-European language where, for example, milk is a similar word across this vast landscape.
M173 – shares the westward journey of M207 with Central Asian Steppe hunters. These were the first Modern Europeans.
M17 – this mutation appeared in a European man born10,000-15,000 years ago in the Ukraine or S. Russia. His people would domesticate the horse, discover the wheel and spread the Proto-Indo-European language. These people were nomadic horsemen, roaming the Steppes and were named after their burial mounds (Kurgans).
M458 (R1a1a) – this mutation appears in all Slavic men through their Y chromosome, from Poland to Siberia and sprang from M17 about 10,000 to 7,000 years ago. This gave the audience the genetic story of the male lineage of Nick Tomaszewski.
Cllr. Tomaszewski had also brought along some reproductions of ‘Venus figurines’ of the Palaeolithic or Old Stone Age. Several of these had been made as long ago as 30,000 years BCE and were found across Eurasia from France to Siberia. The most famous is the ’Venus of Willendorf’ from Austria, with exaggerated breasts and buttocks – perhaps a Mother Goddess suggesting a more matriarchal society in the distant past?
The Mayor went on to describe the derivation of surnames and Tomaszewski in particular. Thomas, as a surname, seems to come from Thomas Didymus, the ‘Doubting Thomas’ of the Bible about 2,000 years ago and increased in popularity across the Christian world, with the canonisation of Thomas Becket. Tomaszewski itself developed from the 12th century where a homestead was inhabited by a man named Tomasz. As there was no Industrial Revolution in Poland, most people remained in the same area where they were born and Nick’s family continues to live in and near Kalisz in central Poland and have done so since the 15th Century.
With the birth of his grandson Noah, the Mayor went on to see if he could find any connection between his family, the Kings of Poland and the British Royal family, in the vein of Danny Dyer in ‘Who do you think you are?’
The creator of the Polish state is considered to be King Mieszko I, a member of the Piast dynasty, who lived from approx. 930-992 AD. Later on, a more famous Polish ruler was King John Sobieski III who stopped the Ottomans invading Austria by his victory at the Battle of Vienna in 1683. His granddaughter Maria Clementina Sobieska married James Stuart, the Old Pretender (son of James II) which provides a link between the Polish and British Royal families.
Another link is that one of the Mayor’s cousins (Alan Philip Mercer) is a descendent of George Swan, reputedly the illegitimate son of Charles II (the Merry Monarch) by Dorothea Helena the Countess of Derby. In this way Nick Tomaszewski has found a collateral connection between his family, the Kings of Poland and the British Royal Family.
This entertaining evening covered vast areas, both geographically and historically, but certainly gave us a different angle on searching our family histories.
Leslie J Smith Deal & District Branch Secretary