Wonder if anyone has come across this Family in their Researches , probably Married in 1854 in "Russian Poland" , had 11 Children between 1855 & 1864 , 8 of whom Died during that period ,all being Born in" Russian Poland", survivors being JACOB b 1855,ANNA b 1861,MOSES b 1864 ; emigrated to Sunderland England between 1864-1869 where their Son BARNET BARNETT was born. Family subsequently moved to Birmingham England and appear in 1871 Census under the Surname of DAVIS.
By Walter Scott.

I have not yet done any deep research on the BARNETT branch of my family (my grandmother was a Barnett). The first Barnett I am aware of who emigrated from Russia/Poland is JOSEPH BARNETT around 1822. On the 1841 and subsequent censuses, he and other BARNETTS were in South Wales. Certainly, in the 1900s some BARNETTS lived in Birmingham too. Names you give are names in my family too, but the dates and relationships don't match. I have an ESTHER DAVIS whose daughter LOUISA  married my second-great-grandfather HENRY BARNETT (JOSEPH BARNETT'S son). They had a son DAVID BARNETT and a BARNET BARNETT (aka BENNETT BARNETT), who seems to have died at 6 or 7 years old. Whether or not JOSEPH had siblings who emigrated to the UK, and perhaps not to Wales, I don't know. If yes, then there may be a family match. I will keep this thread on file for when I get around to researching the BARNETTS, and of course let you know if I discover a potential link.

I have a question for you or ANYONE FAMILIAR WITH BARNETTS ... Do you have any ideas as to the RUSSIAN/POLISH/HEBREW names BARNETT may have come from?

Thank you,

Barry Clarke
British, living in Sarasota
Researching  STEIGLITZ OR SIMILAR, SZKLARKIEWICZ OR SIMILAR that became CLARKE in London, Dublin, Liverpool, Bulawayo, Cape Town, maybe USA too, BARNETT in Wales, MYERS in Manchester and Cape Town, NEUMARK that became NEWMARK in London and USA, LEVINSON changed to BRAHAM in London. All families originally from Poland.

BARNETT was certainly a popular name upon arrival in England!

Although I cannot link your family to my wife Rosalie's family, I can tell you that BOTH my wife's paternal grandparents, who were actually 2nd cousins, before marriage, changed their surnames to BARNETT from original names of CHAJKIELSON and TYLZANSKI.  After a brief stint in England, they also both moved to and were married in Swansea, South Wales, with the South Wales connection referenced by Barry Clarke in his reply to your email, although I know of no direct relation to his BARNETTs.

What I can tell you that may be helpful is that all of this double-BARNETT family came from Suwalki, Poland (then part of Suwalki Gubernia, Russia).  I can also tell you that many of my wife's grandmother's siblings (the TYLZANSKI clan also immigrated to England and Wales, and they all took the surname BARNETT.  Unfortunately, we do not know why BARNETT was chosen as the name to adopt, although there was a famous BARNETT rabbi in the past, and also, my wife's great-grandfather was named Berek (aka Dov Ber) TYLZANSKI, and the surname BARNETT is a derivative of the animal "bear" (as is Berek, Dov and Ber).  I can also tell you that the first immigrant that we know of from my wife's paternal grandmother's family was Meer Leizer TYLZANSKI, who had become Lazarus BARNETT before either of Rosalie's grandparents had left Suwalki.  Lazarus had immigrated to England circa 1888 and appears in the 1891 census as Lazarus BARNETT.  My wife's grandparents both came after 1900 and were married in 1907 in the Goat Street Synagogue in Swansea.

Perhaps there are some clues there for either you or Barry Clarke!

Brian Neil Burg
Fullerton, CA, USA
Researching BARNETT in England and Wales; CHAJKIELSON, TYLZANSKI, GOLUBSKI, WASZKIEWICZ, and CZAPINSKI in and around Suwalki, Poland and Szaki and Marijampol, Lithuania; also KABAKOV, FRIEDMAN & PORTNOI in Dokshitsy, Belarus; FRYDMAN, GUTMAN, JASKULKA and JASTRZAB in Sokolow Podlaski and Wegrow, Poland; BURG, KLEIN[ER], ALTER, HALPERIN and ZUKERKANDL in or around Zloczow and Podkamien, Galicia (now Zolochiv and Pidkamin', Ukraine); BEILIN & RISHKIN in Klintsy, Mstislavl, Gomel and Surazh in the former gubernias of Chernigov and Mogilev.

David,

In response to your question about original RUSSIAN/POLISH/HEBREW names of BARNETTs, you can see from my reply to Walter Scott that there seems to be no set pattern to the naming, with my wife's family having original surnames of CHAJKIELSON and TYLZANSKI, both of which became BARNETT.  Not only that, but some GOLUBSKIs in her family changed their name to JOSEPHSON after first emigrating from Suwalki to Sundsvall, Sweden, and one of her TYLZANSKI relatives changed his name from Abram Mordechai TYLZANSKI to Henry MARCUS!  Lots of surname changes with no apparent rhyme or reason (although GOLUBSKIs who changed to JOSEPHSON at least had a father named Josiel, a form of Joseph).  Bottom line: name changes were often total makeovers with no obvious reference to original names.

The big question for you is: do you know from what towns in Poland your family originated?  That may help because if Suwalki was one of them, your BARNETTs and my wife's BARNETTs may be connected.

Brian Burg
Fullerton, CA, USA

My Barnett family starting coming to America late 1890’s from Poland /Russia. They were from several towns NE of Warsaw ( Ostrow Mazowiecka, Rozan, Bork, Serock ,  Pultusk) the original name was BANDRYMER 

I don’t know if any family settling in England but it is possible....
Jef Barnett 
Bensalem PA USA 

Unfortunately, I don't know where in Poland (other than Russian Poland on the census) my BARNETT family came from. However, my father's much younger, now octogenarian, first cousin and sole living family member from his generation, in an email yesterday, wrote that her father had related to her that her grandfather, SOL(OMON) BARNETT (my great-grandfather) "had cycled to Poland to find the place where his family were from.  My father said they were rural agricultural workers, banned from owning land,  who lived within a walled area on the farm and did not mix with the farm owner, etc."  I wrote back to ask if she meant that our family were agricultural workers or the people who were living there when he visited, which I guess would have been in the late 1800s. It was the latter. Unfortunately, she has no idea where this was in Poland. 

As for the ORIGINAL BARNETT name, as Brian points out, there could be any number of original names. I believe, though, I can now narrow that down in our case. My father had written on a rough family tree in pencil with a question mark in brackets "BIENSTOCK". His cousin yesterday wrote to me that she had been told verbally (by her mother who was only a Barnett by marriage) Bienstock. And she feels certain that she never discussed this with my father. So, we do have two separate accounts, maybe from one original source, of the family name being Bienstock. I suppose I should consider names more like BINSTOK since the family came from Russian Poland (per census) as opposed to Galicia or Prussia. 

Brian, we had an email exchange July 26 - 30 last year when I was beginning my family research. At that point, I was all over the place with different branches of the family. I am now more focused, and the Barnett side will be a future research project. When I come back to it, in 2021 or 2022, with DNA also, I will come back to you too, to explore in detail if there might be some common connection.

Best,

Barry Clarke
British, living in Sarasota
Researching  STEIGLITZ OR SIMILAR, SZKLARKIEWICZ OR SIMILAR that became CLARKE in London, Dublin, Liverpool, Bulawayo, Cape Town, maybe USA too, BINSTOK OR SIMILAR that became BARNETT in Wales, MYERS in Manchester and Cape Town, NEUMARK that became NEWMARK in London and USA, LEVINSON changed to BRAHAM in London. All families originally from Poland