The Warner Brothers’ Polish Roots: Uncovering the Wonskolaser Family History

The Polish Genealogist Updated on

Harry, Albert, Sam and Jack Warner founded one of Hollywood’s largest studios, but the family began in Krasnosielc, a village north of Warsaw, under the surname Wonskolaser. Three of the four brothers were born there.

Krasnosielc and the Polish Origins of the Warner Family

Krasnosielc, a modest village in today’s Masovian Voivodeship, is the earliest confirmed home of the Warner (Wonskolaser) family. In the 1880s this part of Poland lay under Russian rule. The Wonskolasers belonged to the village’s Jewish community. Archival mentions of Benjamin (Benzion) Wonskolaser, his wife Perla (Pearl) Eichelbaum, and their children show a family firmly rooted in this everyday village world.

The Original Surname: Wonskolaser

Before the family became associated with Hollywood, they lived under the unmistakably Eastern-European surname Wonskolaser. As the family moved from one country to another, the spelling shifted: Wonsal and Wonsalaser also appear. Variants like these are common where a Yiddish-speaking family was recorded by officials writing in Russian or Polish.

Personal details of the Warner brothers

All four brothers were born into the Wonskolaser family, under the shorter form Wonsal in some records.

  1. Harry Warner (Hirsz Wonsal) - born 12 Dec 1881, Krasnosielc, Poland
  2. Albert Warner (Aaron Wonsal) - born 23 Jul 1884, Krasnosielc, Poland
  3. Sam Warner (Szmuel Wonsal) - born 10 Aug 1887, Krasnosielc, Poland
  4. Jack Warner (Jacob Warner) - born 2 Aug 1892, London, Ontario, Canada

Jewish Vital Records and Polish State Archives

In Russian Poland, Jewish births, marriages and deaths were recorded in civil registers kept separately for the Jewish population of each registration district. For a family like the Wonskolasers, these entries give the parents’ names and ages, the house number and the witnesses, who were often relatives or neighbours. Later records of the family in America can then be checked against them.

Immigration to North America

Benjamin went ahead to Baltimore. His wife Pearl and the children followed in October 1889, sailing from Bremen on the steamship Hermann.

Passenger lists from the era often referred to people from this part of Poland as “Russian”, reflecting the political situation rather than their identity. The family later lived in Canada, where Jack was born in London, Ontario, in 1892, before returning to the United States.

Reconstructing the Warner Family Tree

The tree starts with Benjamin Wonskolaser, a cobbler, and Perla Eichelbaum in Krasnosielc. To take it further back, the Krasnosielc registers are searched for the parents’ own births and marriage, which name the next generation. In America, census returns and naturalisation papers then record the family under the Warner name.

The Question of Jack Warner’s Birthplace

Jack, the youngest of the four, was the only one not born in Poland. He was born on 2 August 1892 in London, Ontario, after the family had emigrated, which is why his birth will not be found in the Krasnosielc registers.

Families from northern Mazovia

Many Jewish and Catholic families left the villages and small towns north of Warsaw for America in the same decades. As with the Warners, the surname often changed on arrival, so the Polish search starts from the original spelling found in passenger lists or naturalisation papers.