Re: Durcak, Durchak, Dorsak

It depends on how it was pronounced.Emigrants usually tried to preserve the original pronunciation as much as possible, even as they simplified the spelling.It also depends on the language in which it is written.In Slovak, it would probably be spelled Durc'ak (pronounced "DUR-chock") or possibly D'urc'ak (pronounced "DYUR-chock").In Polish, Durczak.In Magyar/Hungarian (the language in which Also Lipnicza is spelled), Durcsak or possibly Dyurcsak.

At least one person from the village arriving at Ellis Island gave the Magyar spelling Durcsak (mis-transcribed as Duresak).Another gave his name as Dvorcsak, which would be Dvorc'ak in Slovak; so it's possible that the surname was originally Dvorc'ak (meaning the owner of a "dvor," a farming compound of buildings around a courtyard/"dvor"). If not, if it was always D'urc'ak, it may have derived from D'ur or D'urko, a version of the first name George.