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My ancestors lived in former Prussia, Wagrowiec/Golantz (today Poland) during 19th century. According to family tradition the original roots came from Crna Gora some time 1790-1830. The tradition says:
.....................
"During this time there was a teacher of fencing from Montenegro: Wolkowicz. He fell in love with this sister and they married. From this marriage the son Nikodem was born. But 2 years after the wedding Wolkowicz was called by his prince and was forced to hurry to his native country to protect it against the Turks. But he never came back because he gave his life in the defence of his country.
After a couple of years together Wróblewski´s wife died and he married Wolkowicz´s widow, the wife´s sister.
........
"But after Wolkowicz who was an officer and Montenegrian nobel-man, I have a coat of arms tattooed on my right arm. On the top there is a half moon, under it a star between 2 Turkish lances and 2 crossed Turkish sables. And below a wolf. This is supposed to mean that with these weapons the attacking Turks were defeated and the wolf helped."
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Could anybody on this forum help me with further info:
When could the turkish attack had been? Is the described herald codified?
Are there any good sources for investigation?
Sincerely
Gregor Wroblewski
Posted : 22/05/2006 11:24 am
Is Wolkowicz the original spelling, do you have other spellings? The Turks did do frequent raids so it is possible. The best source would be the archives of Montenegro.
Regards,
Sergej
Posted : 23/05/2006 2:13 pm
Topic starter
The story and name has been oraly transmitted. No documents.
In 1943 a letter was written by descendant of Wolkowicz/Volkovic using the Polish spelling (Wolkowicz). The description of coat of arms is very precise. Should be possible to identifie. Are there any on line archives of montenegrine heraldry?
Posted : 23/05/2006 2:25 pm
Well there is a problem with that approach. Serbian/Montenegrin coat of arms are just like all other arms not attached to a surname. So its possible that there is a Volkovic family with an coat of arms, but its also possible that there are 3 families with the same surname and with different coat of arms. Identifying family genealogy through coat of arms without documentation is tricky.
Now the Montenegrin archives are not digitally availible. So you would have to write them/call them in order to get information.
We have a database of coats of arms for society members, and we are still adding info to it. I dont know if there is a Volkovic in there or in Siebmachers.
Regards,
Sergej
Posted : 23/05/2006 2:53 pm
Topic starter
I understand the family structure around a given coat of arms.
At this stage I am primarily interested in confirming the existence of the described coat of arms. Could You suggest which archive I should approach?
Sincerely
GW
Posted : 23/05/2006 3:19 pm
You should contact the archives of Montenegro in Podgorica. The surname is not mentioned in the documentation I have here. So there is a possiblity that the spelling is not correct and that there is a -lj or that the -v is a -b.
You can try looking in the Siebmacher collection. But I must warn you. The archives are not microfilmed so you would need to look through it manually and chances are the people there would like to be paid for it. Either way, you should try to find the person who came from Montenegro and send that info to the archives.
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Sergej
Posted : 23/05/2006 3:41 pm
Topic starter
Thank You and Hvala!
GW
Posted : 23/05/2006 3:56 pm
Nema na cemu 
Regards,
Sergej
Posted : 23/05/2006 4:08 pm