The Tabiś or Tabis surname comes from my Polish grandfather, Josef Mirota’s, side of the family. His mother was Margaretha Tabis (1844-1927). She was born in Zborowice, Poland to Antoninus and Agnes Gucwa Tabis. Our Tabis family lived in Zborwice for over two hundred years – possibly longer. Here from Wikipedia is a description of the town:

Zborowice [zbɔrɔˈvit͡sɛ] is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Ciężkowice, within Tarnów County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, in southern Poland. It lies approximately 6 kilometres (4 mi) south of Ciężkowice, 32 km (20 mi) south of Tarnów, and 82 km (51 mi) south-east of the regional capital Kraków.[1] The village has a population of 1,300 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zborowice,_Lesser_Poland_Voivodeship].

My sister, Veronica, searched through lots of microfilm from FamilySearch, and recorded our Polish family tree. Thanks, Sis! Our family was Roman Catholic, and there are diocese and local church records that have survived all the partition and war years in Poland. Most of the baptismal, marriage, and death records were recorded in Latin.

My grandfather, Josef Mirota, was born in the small Polish village shown on the left edge of the map, to the west of Zborowice, called Pławna. The LDS microfilm #2064571 lists the baptism of Jozef Mirota, in 1882.  Also on that microfilm the marriage of his father, Jacob Mirota, and his mother, Margaretha Tabis, in Zborowice was recorded on 28 October 1863, when Jacob was 28 and Margaretha was 19 years old. The photograph below was taken of my grandfather when he was a young man in Poland.

We have one photograph of a Polish woman that may have been my grandfather’s mother, Margaretha. You can click on the photos to enlarge them.

This photo was of my great-aunt, Julia Mirota, from when she married in 1913. She was born in 1879 in Pławna, Poland, to Jacob and Margaretha Tabis Mirota.

Margaretha Tabis Mirota died in 1927, aged 83, while living in Pławna, Poland. On our Mirota records the family was living in what was called the #4 house in Pławna. Here below is the entry.

Margaretha was the daughter of Antonius and Agnes Gucwa Tabiś. She was born in 1844 in Zborowice. Below is the page recording her birth. Her entry is the third from the bottom.

Antonius Tabis was born in Zborowice in 1816. His father Sebastian was also born in Zborowice, in 1785. Sebastians’s father was Felix Tabis [LDS microfilm # 2064570].
Sebastian Tabis was born in house #25 in Zborowice. It is always wonderful to hear from anyone with similar surnames, and especially when their ancestors came from the same small Polish villages. It was great to hear from someone with the Tabiś surname, who also had roots in Zborowice! Most likely, back a few more generations our family was related.

The Tabiś and Tabis surname isn’t a very common Polish one. There is an excellent resource for family researchers that have Polish roots called, Dictionary of Surnames In Current Use In Poland At the Beginning of the 21st Century,compiled by Kazimierz Rymut – published in Krakow-Chicago 2002 – in a CD Format. It is based on the printed version from the Polish Language Institute, also by Kazimierz Rymut, and re-formatted by the Polish Genealogical Society of America. Next to each surname is the total number of persons with that surname in all of Poland from the time the first version was created. The first letters correspond to the capital of the province – for example Kr is for Krakow.

Tabis 41, WrBo: M. 1, WrLi: F. 1, WrmWr: M. 1, LuŚw: M. 1, KrGo: F. 1, KrmKr: M. 2, F. 5, WaOw: F. 2,
WaPr: M. 2, F. 2, WaWa: F. 1, GdmGn: M. 1, KamRu: F. 1, PoCh: F. 2, PoPi: M. 3, F. 1, PoWą: M. 5, F. 3,
PomPo: M. 1, F. 1, SzSg: M. 1, SzmSz: M. 1, F. 2

Tabiś 914, WrBo: M. 2, F. 3, WrJG: M. 1, F. 2, WrKG: M. 2, F. 1, WrLa: M. 2, F. 2, WrLi: M. 2, F. 1, WrOl:
M. 1, F. 1, WrŚw: M. 6, F. 5, WrTr: F. 1, WrWo: M. 2, F. 1, WrWr: M. 1, F. 3, WrZą: M. 1, F. 1, WrZg: M. 8,
F. 6, WrZł: F. 1, WrmJG: M. 6, F. 1, WrmLe: M. 2, F. 2, WrmWr: M. 7, F. 3, ToBy: M. 1, F. 3, ToŻn: M. 1, F.
3, TomGr: M. 1, LumLu: F. 1, ZGWs: M. 3, F. 1, ZGmZG: M. 1, F. 2, ŁoPt: F. 1, ŁomŁo: M. 1, F. 1, KrBo: M.
1, F. 1, KrBr: M. 1, KrGo: M. 39, F. 38, KrKr: M. 4, F. 6, KrMi: M. 1, KrNS: M. 8, F. 12, KrOś: M. 9, F. 8,
KrPr: M. 6, F. 6, KrTa: M. 123, F. 125, KrWi: F. 1, KrmKr: M. 50, F. 54, KrmNS: F. 1, KrmTa: M. 22, F. 25,
WaWa: M. 1, OpNy: M. 7, F. 6, OpPr: M. 1, F. 2, OpmOp: M. 1, F. 2, RzUs: M. 1, F. 2, RzDę: M. 11, F. 11,
RzKr: M. 3, F. 2, RzRz: M. 3, F. 2, RzSa: M. 4, F. 5, RzLs: M. 2, F. 1, GdTc: M. 3, F. 2, GdmGn: M. 1, F. 1,
KaBę: M. 8, F. 7, KaPs: M. 8, F. 7, KaTG: M. 5, F. 3, KamBi: M. 3, F. 7, KamCh: M. 3, F. 3, KamDG: M. 5, F.
4, KamJw: M. 2, F. 2, KamKa: M. 6, F. 6, KamMł: M. 7, F. 6, KamPi: M. 2, F. 3, KamRu: M. 2, F. 2, KamSi:
M. 3, F. 6, KamSo: M. 5, F. 6, KamŚw: M. 1, F. 1, KamTy: M. 1, KamZb: M. 7, F. 9, KiSk: M. 3, F. 2, OlOl: M.
1, OlGo: M. 4, F. 9, PoKś: M. 4, F. 2, PoPi: M. 3, F. 3, PoPo: M. 2, F. 1, PoWą: M. 1, F. 1, PomPo: M. 1, SzMy:
F. 1, SzPy: M. 2, F. 1, SzSg: M. 8, F. 7, SzŚd: M. 2, F. 4
[Dictionary of Surnames in Current Use in Poland at the Beginning of the 21st Century. Compiled by Kazimierz Rymut. Krakow-Chicago 2002. Pages 11545-11546.

Surname Saturday is a blogging prompt suggested by GeneaBloggers. Good luck researching your surnames! Happy Saturday!

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