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what Ukrainian surnames tell us about our ancestors – UNIAN
These surnames are silent witnesses to the social inequality of past centuries, when many people lived in poverty.
Ukrainian surnames are not just words, but real historical documents reflecting the social realities of past eras. They can tell about the origin of the family, the profession of their ancestors, their social status and even character traits.
One of the most interesting aspects of studying surnames is their ability to tell us about social inequalities that existed in the past. Among the many Ukrainian surnames, there are those that directly indicated the poverty or low social status of their bearers. Linguist Yulian Redko wrote about this in his book “Modern Ukrainian Surnames”.
