I need help with a strange surname...
Since I began researching my family tree, I haven't been able to overlook one surname in particular... "Esolk". It was the surname of my great-grandmother, Prospera Pura Viñoles Esolk, from Uruguay.
The surname "Esolk" appears to be of Prussian-German origin. This is known because my most distant ancestor (and the one who brought the surname to South America) was Juan (Ján, Johann, idk) Esolk, a man who, according to his grandchildren's birth certificates, was "of German/Prussian origin/nationality".
As you can see, the surname Esolk has few or no records online. It is such a rare surname that it is limited only to our branch of the family, which has made it quite difficult to find more records or information about it. It is also worth noting that "Esolk" IS NOT THE ORIGINAL SURNAME; it is a modified variant of the real surname upon arrival in South America.
And yes, before you ask, I've tried EVERYTHING: I've contacted relatives, genealogists, reviewed newspapers, and archives on external websites, and the result remains the same: almost nothing is known about the surname.
And as if that weren't enough, there are also mentions of other Esolks around the world (apart from Uruguay and Brazil, of course). For example, there are records of Esolks in the former Czechoslovakia, Finland, the United States, and Israel, records dating from the 1850s to the 1970s.
All the information I've been able to gather about Juan Esolk in the last 6 months is in his FamilySearch profile, which I'm sharing below: https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/details/G67K-ZL8
List of possible surnames:
Klose (Esolk backwards becomes Klose), Cieslik, Solk, Hasulke, Haseloch, Hadzeleck.
I hope you can help me get closer to my goal. At this point, ANY INFORMATION COUNTS, no matter how small or how little, everything counts toward advancing the investigation.
Thank you very much. I look forward to the community's responses.
Answers
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Hi @Andrik73.
Have you considered taking a DNA test? It's possible that you could find some surnames/clues with that.
There's also the option of a Y-DNA test. Sometimes it's called a surname test, though it goes back much farther than that. It would show a "haplogroup" and may help narrow down the line geographically. However, that would only work if there's an unbroken male line descendant who would be willing to test (Juan's son who had a son….etc). It may be worth looking into, if there is such a relative.
As for the surname changes, these research groups may have ideas. You could consider posting there:
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You may already have this information. I found an Augusto Esolk Carlevaro mentioned in a tree in Geneanet. The link is below. Some of the locations are in Argentina and Uruguay, and you can message the owner of this tree. I found an Augusto Esolk in FamilySearch as the son of Jan Esolk and also as a brother of Jan Esolk in your tree.
https://gw.geneanet.org/gdut?lang=en&n=esolk+carlevaro&p=augusto
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