Posen (Poznan) Poland: Origins of the Syska Family and Szyperska Street

Szysperska Street

While reading an article showing pictures of European locations, I stumbled upon Szyperska Street located in the city of Posen, Poland.   It caught my attention because of its similarity to our surname which was originally Szyska.  Just drop the 'per' and thats basically our name.   We already knew that our Syska ancestors lived in the Posen province.  Still I felt it was important to share.  Who knows, maybe you'll be visiting Poland and looking for interesting locales to visit!

Szyperska Street is located in the city of Posen.  Adelnau is
located just to the south.  The Posen/Poznan province was
located near the border of Germany. 

Today Poznan or Posen is a city in Poland, but at one time it was a large Province with a decidedly polish heritage that became part of Prussia in 1848 and then part of the German Empire in 1871.   Our ancestors, who came to America in 1885, were technically German at that point, but identified themselves on US census records as Prussian.  I remember my father saying that his grandparents were German, but spoke Polish which makes sense considering how their homeland changed hands so many times.  Even while it was part of the German Reich, the population of Posen remained 90% Polish.  Most of the province was returned to Poland after WWI and the remainder after WWII.

 Adolph & Caroline (Petroll) Syska (my 2nd great grandparents) lived in Adelnau, Posen before coming to America.  Records show their children were baptized in the Lutheran church there.  The Petroll family records show babtisms in Ostrowo as well.  Adelnau & Ostrowo are in the Southern part of what was once the Poznan province and today is in the Greater Poland Voivodeship/ Wielkopolska Province.

Adolph & Caroline Syska were actually married in Radlow Oder-Spree which is still located in Germany, southeast of Berlin.

The family of my great grandmother, Elizabeth (Zimmerman) Syska, emigrated in 1848 from Brandenburg Germany which is just south of Berlin.