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Posted By:
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Christopher Novak
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Posted On:
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Monday March 5, 2012 at 5:50 PM
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Message:
The REAL story behind " NO-V- ACK", Ellis Island 1923
My grandfather landed at Ellis Island in 1923. when asked to write his name, he had trained himself to do so in english. he did so by Writing "John Nowak".
This is how you got it correctly pronounced from Polish to English. when the immigration officer read it, he he said "welcome Mr. John NoWack". My grandfather was indignant. "It's NOT NOWACK! IT's NOVAK!" (In Polish language there is no letter V. that sound is written like a "W". So to say my last name correctly in English you must say NoVak.) Once this was explained to my grandfather he reluctantly
accepted the new spelling........Novak. Later in his life, my father's and mine, we found that the Hungarian version of the same name is indeed spelled Novak. So when people of Hungarian decent see it, they get all excited and hug us and welcome someone from the old country.......until we tell them we are Polish. Things cool off really fast, and attribute the confusion to dumb Polak's...... can't win, can't explain well enough...but that's the story of my name.
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 | The REAL story behind " NO-V- ACK", Ellis Island 1923 by Christopher Novak #41610.14.1
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