05/22/15

Zacharski Name Page

Another long term goal of the site is to find a common Zacharski ancestor. It is likely that most Zacharski named persons have a single ancestor, probably from Poland.  We know that the Zacharski name originated from the biblical name Zackary and we also know that the ski was added as shown in documents after 1434 when Jacób Zacharz added the ski suffix in the ancestral village of Zacharz.

It is also known that the Coat of Arms known as the Wolf’s Scythes was assigned to the Zacharski name. This was proved in the city of Radomsko around 1438.

It is not certain however that all persons with the Zacharski surname are descendants of Jacób Zacharski.  In the past it was popular in Poland to adopt surnames ending in ski for the prestige associated with the ski surname. Over time, as surnames were required, some families simply adopted a surname of their liking, even though there was no family connection to that surname.

Additionally, the nature of the Polish coat of arms is that most of them were not issued to a single family.  For instance the Wolf’s Scythes COA was issued to 102 other families besides the Zacharski family. So it isn’t that the Wolf’s Scythes COA was issued to the Zacharski family; it was issued to 103 families, including the Zacharski family.

So perhaps the original Zacharski was Jacób Zacharski.  We just don’t know yet.