Glad to have been of assistance. :)

- as general pointers I wrote this for surnames of people from eastern Europe / Slavic origin:

Things to be confirmed before you can research etymology of a surname:

1. original spelling of the surname in the native language of your ancestors

2. original spelling of the surname for the period when your ancestors were born in their place of origin ( this will in many cases differ from 1. due to foreign languages that were used as official language)

3. ethnic and religious affiliation of your ancestors


then you can proceed to


4. trace the family within the vital and other records in the community of origin for as far back as they exist

5. trace the surname/family/clan/community through earlier migrations and origin in historical sources


It is always a nice chapter of family and surname history to document all places around the globe where it is found.

Surnames that are same or similar in Eastern Europe:

-can be the consequence of pan-Slavic root word from which they were created and similar formation patterns :

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:List_of_Proto-Slavic_...

-common foreign language of origin of the root word:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greek

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loanword#Loanword_transmission_...


- documented migrations of specific ethnic groups to very distant parts of Europe from their country of origin:

http://republic-of-macedonia.jimdo.com/macedonian_polk_in_uk...

-sheer linguistic coincidence:

http://www.zompist.com/chance.htm

Consider all of the above possibilities before connecting two same/similar surnames in two localities/among different ethnic groups.

And most importantly - as the language contact was so immense, never assume that just because the etymological root word of a surname is from a particular language that the origin of the people who carry that or any surname derived from it are/were of that same ethnicity - things are not that simple when it comes to onomastics. :)






"Rodoslovlje" Serbian Genealogy Society
http://www.rodoslovlje.com/en