Descendants of Stanislas (Stanley) Julius Gwiazdowski

The Polish name ‘Gwiazdowski’ is found to be from a place called Gwiazdowo, in the voivodeship of Poznan. For this family, the “Americanized” name change from Gwiazdowski to Starland took place around 1915.

Generation 1

Stanislas (Stanley) Julius Gwiazdowski and Valeria (Laura) G. Mordec had the following children:

i. ANTHONY S. (GWIAZDOWSKI)²STARLAND was born on 07 Jun 1906 in Saginaw, MI. He died on 30 Jun 1984 in Saginaw, MI. He married Rose Mary Bannan on 06 Jun 1931 in Saginaw, MI. She was born on 11 Jul 1911 in Saginaw, MI. She died on 22 Feb 2002 in Saginaw, MI Buried St. Andrews Cemetery.

ii. GERTRUDE (GWIAZDOWSKI) STARLAND was born in 1908 in Saginaw, MI. She died in Apr 1908 in Saginaw, MI Buried Holy Rosary Church Cemetery.

2.iii. HELEN LAURA (GWIAZDOWSKI) STARLAND was born on 29 Mar 1909 in Saginaw, MI. She died on 13 Dec 1983 in Flint, MI Buried New Calvary Cemetery. She married Leo J. Mullally, son of William J. Mullally and Anna Brennan, on 28 Nov 1935 in Saginaw, MI. He was born on 24 Jul 1907 in Coleman, Michigan. He died on 27 Jun 1983 in Flint, Genesee Co., MI.

iv. CHESTER FRANCIS (GWIAZDOWSKI) STARLAND was born on 02 May 1911 in Saginaw, MI. He died on 04 May 2006 in Saginaw, MI Buried Eastlawn Cemetery. He married Bernice Josephine Michkoski on 14 Jun 1947 in Saginaw, MI. She was born on 11 Dec 1918 in Iron River, MI. She died on 29 Sep 1994 in Saginaw, MI.

v. FRANK J. (GWIAZDOWSKI) STARLAND was born on 26 Feb 1915 in Saginaw, MI. He died on 04 Sep 2001 in Saginaw, MI Buried Eastlawn Cemetery. He married Rosemary Young, daughter of Peter Young and Louise Frances Bannan, on 29 Nov 1941 in Saginaw, MI. She was born on 29 Nov 1923 in Michigan. She died on 03 Jul 1994 in Saginaw, MI.

vi. LEONARD J. (GWIAZDOWSKI) STARLAND was born on 03 Sep 1922 in Saginaw, MI. He died on 17 Feb 2012 in Saginaw, MI. He married DORIS.

vii. LUCILLE LORRAINE (GWIAZDOWSKI) STARLAND was born on 24 Jan 1925 in Saginaw, MI. She died on 09 Sep 2015 in Saginaw, MI. She married Darrel E. Carter on 05 Feb 1949 in Saginaw, MI. He was born on 24 Jul 1919 in Detroit, Wayne Co., MI. He died on 04 Nov 2009 in Freeland, Michigan.

3.viii. RALPH CONRAD (GWIAZDOWSKI) STARLAND was born on 13 Mar 1928 in Saginaw, MI. He died on 29 May 2008 in Saginaw, MI. He married Betty Ruth Clarke on 30 Jul 1949 in Saginaw, MI. She was born on 29 Nov 1923 in Saginaw, MI. She died on 02 May 2011 in Linwood Bay, MI.

Generation 2

2. HELEN LAURA (GWIAZDOWSKI)²STARLAND (Stanislas (Stanley) Julius¹ Gwiazdowski) was born on 29 Mar 1909 in Saginaw, MI. She died on 13 Dec 1983 in Flint, MI Buried New Calvary Cemetery. She married Leo J. Mullally, son of William J. Mullally and Anna Brennan, on 28 Nov 1935 in Saginaw, MI. He was born on 24 Jul 1907 in Coleman, Michigan. He died on 27 Jun 1983 in Flint, Genesee Co., MI.

Leo J. Mullally and Helen Laura (Gwiazdowski) Starland had the following child:

i. PATRICK J.³MULLALLY was born in 1937 in Flint, Genesee Co., MI.

3. RALPH CONRAD (GWIAZDOWSKI)²STARLAND (Stanislas (Stanley) Julius¹ Gwiazdowski) was born on 13 Mar 1928 in Saginaw, MI. He died on 29 May 2008 in Saginaw, MI. He married Betty Ruth Clarke on 30 Jul 1949 in Saginaw, MI. She was born on 29 Nov 1923 in Saginaw, MI. She died on 02 May 2011 in Linwood Bay, MI.

Ralph Conrad (Gwiazdowski) Starland and Betty Ruth Clarke had the following children:

4.i. RICHARD CARL³STARLAND was born in 1954 in Saginaw, MI. He married JACQUIE LEE MOELLER. She was born on 15 Feb 1957 in Saginaw, MI.

ii. RALPH C. STARLAND JR. was born in 1958 in Saginaw, MI.

iii. SUSAN JO STARLAND was born in Saginaw, MI.

iv. LINDA MARIE STARLAND was born in Saginaw, MI.

v. ROGER OWEN STARLAND.

Generation 3

4. RICHARD CARL³STARLAND (Ralph Conrad (Gwiazdowski)², Stanislas (Stanley) Julius¹ Gwiazdowski) was born in 1954 in Saginaw, MI. He married JACQUIE LEE MOELLER. She was born on 15 Feb 1957 in Saginaw, MI.

Richard Carl Starland and Jacquie Lee Moeller had the following child:

5.i. MATTHEW CRAIG⁴STARLAND was born on 22 Sep 1983 in Saginaw, MI. He married Christine Deryer on 15 Nov 2007 in Wisconsin.

Generation 4

5. MATTHEW CRAIG⁴STARLAND (Richard Carl³, Ralph Conrad (Gwiazdowski)², Stanislas (Stanley) Julius¹ Gwiazdowski) was born on 22 Sep 1983 in Saginaw, MI. He married Christine Dreyer on 15 Nov 2007 in Wisconsin.

Matthew Craig Starland and Christine Dreyer had the following children:

i. EMMA⁵STARLAND was born in Jul 2009 in Wisconsin.

ii. JACK MATTHEW STARLAND was born in 2012 in Wisconsin.

iii. CLARA MADELYNN STARLAND was born in Mar 2015 in Wisconsin.

How did the name GWIAZDOWSKI become STARLAND?

There is a link that makes sense. The Polish word _gwiazda_ means “star.”

The surname GWIAZDOWSKI, pronounced roughly ” g’v’yahz-DOFF-skee,” would most often refer to the name of a place the family came from some centuries ago, a place name beginning with Gwiazd-. There are four places in Poland with the name Gwiazdowo, and also one named Gwiazdy. These names probably start up meaning something like “place of the stars.” So it’s not too tough to see how someone might turn it into STARLAND in English.

There is no way to tell from the surname alone which of those places a particular GWIAZDOWSKI family came from. The only way to do that is to trace the family history. We know from immigration records that the family came from Posen (Poznan). The closest “GWIAZD” place in Posen is the village of Gwiazdowo.

Gwiazdowo is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Kostrzyn, within Poznań County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, in west-central Poland.[1] It lies approximately 3 kilometres (2 mi) north of Kostrzyn and 21 km (13 mi) east of the regional capital Poznań. The village has a population of 350.

It’s worth mentioning that all the places with these names are in Western Poland, an area long populated by a rule by Germans. At least a couple of those places had names in German from the German word for “star,” such as Sternhof (star-court) and Sternfeld (star-field). The fact that both German and Polish names for these places derived from the respective words meaning “star” reinforces the hypothesis these places were, in some sense, “the place of the star or stars.”

It’s also worth mentioning that Polish surnames in the form X-owski can mean either “from the place of X” or “of the kin of X.” The most likely derivation of the surname GWIAZDOWSKI is from a place name that meant more or less “the place of stars.” It is however possible to interpret the surname is meaning “of the kin of the star” or one from the place of the star.” So in some cases the reference might be to an ancestor who was nicknamed Gwiazd, “the star,” for summaries. Maybe he wore a star as declaration, maybe he was a leader of people treated as the star in some sense, maybe he lived in a place where the view of the stars was particularly impressive — hard to say exactly how that name got started.

 If you’re curious, there is a website that offers maps illustrating 2002 data on the frequency and distribution of specific names in Poland. You can see the data and map for this name here: https://nazwiska-polskie.pl/Gwiazdowski

Author, Fred Hoffman (Polish Surnames: Origins & Meanings) gives a lot of very helpful Polish research links that he has collected here: http://www.fredhoff.com/polonicae.htm