The Story of Kazimierz Krawczyk & Rozalia Kobak

Besides the Raczkiewicz family (Pawel and Franciszka) originating from Łaszczówka, another branch of the family also originated from there. Krwawczyk family members lived there for at least three generations. Kazmierez Krawczyk (my 5x great grandfather) and Rozalia nee Kobak (my 5x great grandmother) lived and died there. Kazimierz was born about 1748 and Rozalia sometime between 1764 and 1768. Her last name “Krawczyk” is a diminutive for the occupation of tailor. They worked as peasant farmers. ***** Łaszczówka is a village about one mile east of Tomaszów Lubelski. It currently has about 1,000 residents. It is on the Sołokija River and its tributary Harasinka. While civilization was there for centuries before, the city originated in 1609 by Florian Łaszcz Nidedewski. Three peasant families escaped neighboring villages to live there. It changed hands legally many times as an inheritance, a dowry or a purchase but it was also invaded by a disgruntled heir in 1623. There were frequent Tartar invasions. In 1630, there were 194 houses but due to invasions there were only 80 in 1650. In the first half of the 1700s, they lost their rights as a city and became a village. After several more ownership changes, it belonged to Józef Radecki in 1740, around the time of Kazimierz’ birth. Because Józef owed a debt to the Church, the church was taken over by the Trinitarians from Tomaszów. The Austrians, when they invaded, abolished the Trinitarians so the church was first attached to Chodywance then later to the parish of Tomaszów. ***** Their children were Antoni, my 4x great grandfather (abt. 1779), Franciszek (abt. 1782), Wojciech (abt. 1791), Bartlomiej (about 1793) and Łukasz (abt. 1779.) Antoni was a peasant farmer in Łaszczówka, married to two women from Łaszczówka: first to Dorota Kozyra for twenty years and then to Barbara Probola. There is no information on Franciszek. When their son Wojciech was married in 1812 to Rozalia Kukiz, the record reports that they were residing in Łosiniec. They may have moved there and then moved back or this could be an error. Her family and the witnesses were from Łosiniec. Their son Bartłomiej was a blacksmith residing in Łaszczówka, who married Anna Biszczard, whose family were farmers residing in Ruda. Lucasz was a peasant farmer residing in Sznury, married to Marianna Bucior. ***** Rozalia died in house #5 in Łaszczówka on November 27, 1814 at 2:00 in the afternoon. She was 50 years old. Reporting the death two days later in Tomaszów, were her husband Kazimierz, 60, working as a peasant farmer in Łaszczówka and Jakub Kraczkiewicz, 50, a neighbor. ***** Kazimierz lived nine more years. He was a 75-year-old widower when he died on March 16, 1823, at 1:00 in the morning. His two sons, Wojciech and Bartłomiej, 30, went to report the death in Tomaszów Lubelski. They were both peasants. Kazimierz lived with his son Wojciech and Wojciech’s wife Rozalia when he died in their house #10 in Łaszczówka. Kazimierz possibly moved in with them sometime after 1814 when his wife Rozalia died or they took over his farm. Both his wife and his daughter-in-law were named Rozalia. Kazimierz and Rozalia’s children all died in Łaszczówka except for Lukasz, who died in Sznury. ***** References: Krawczyk family history. Krawczyk Name Meaning & Krawczyk Family History at Ancestry.com®. (n.d.). https://www.ancestry.com/name-origin?surname=krawczyk ***** “Dzieje Miejscowosci Gminy Tomaszów Lubelski.” Dzieje Gmin Zamojszczyzny, 2011. Retreived July 11, 2023 from https://dzieje_gminy_Tomaszów _lubelski_-_calosc_z_okladka... (Tomaszów lubelski.pl) ***** Death of Kazimierz Krawczyk Skan - Szukaj W Archiwach. Przejdź do Szukaj w Archiwach. (n.d.). https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/skan/-/skan/be9e8acb32b3d5129b350077e96af8639ed8e79c72d5154d52484b9e4336959e Death of Rozalia (Kobak) Krawczyk Skan - Szukaj W Archiwach. Przejdź do Szukaj w Archiwach. (n.d.-a). https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/skan/-/skan/b79c749bcfd0f9149606be1029bec927b9b825c4a051942c95c564f594002b55

The Story of Blazej Wisniewski & Jagnieszka Szczesznicka

Błażej Wiśniewski (my 4x great grandfather) was in a bit of a hurry after his wife Jagnieszka Szcześnicka (my 4x great grandmother) died. His children were six to fourteen years old, so that may explain his rush. He ended up engaged – that fell through – and then he ended up marrying about a year after Jagniewska’s death. Jagniewska died May 20, 1823 at age 49. It happened in house #347 at 6:00 in the evening in Tomaszów. Two days later Błażej, 53, who was working as a grave digger and her brother Bartłomiej Szcześnicki, 53, a manufacturer of faience, went to report her death. ***** Wedding banns were posted on the main door of the community house by September 7, less than four months later, by the Parish priest of Tomaszów, who operated as the clerk of the civil records in the Administrative district of Tomaszów, Tomaszów County, Province Lubelskie. These were the first banns for the planned marriage of Marianna Cyronik, age 25 and Błażej, who was quite a bit older, in his 50s. ***** Banns are published prior to a wedding to determine if there is a civil or religious reason to prevent the marriage. Concerns could be a current marriage, a pledge of celibacy, a close family relationship, or lack of consent. The guidance from 1743 required the priest to carefully and separately question the bride and groom. If any of these concerns were discovered, the banns were suspended. If the bride and groom cleared this hurdle, the banns were published to give the public the chance to object. In most cases, there are three banns and in most of the records in this time period, the wedding went through. In this fascinating example however, the first banns were published – but eight months later the groom married someone else! Banns are no longer required in the Catholic church but may still be published and many parishes still do so. ***** Obviously, something happened before the wedding occurred to determine they could not be married, and the wedding was canceled. The intended bride was Marianna Cyronśkówna, 25. Her father Ignacy had been a farmer in Tomaszów but was deceased and her mother Helena née Kowalik, was working as a laborer. There was a very large age difference, but Błażej had been prominent earlier in his role as a pottery factory supervisor even though he was working as a grave digger at this time. It is unknown what prevented the marriage from occurring. ***** Instead of marrying Marianna, Błażej and Anna Adamczyk were married on May 9, 1824, at 6:00 p.m.. Anna, a 41-year-old maiden, was living and working in Tomaszów, as a servant. She was the daughter of deceased parents Błażej Adamczyk and Katarzyna nee Fuss, who had been peasants in Wólka Łosiniecka, which is in the same county as Tomaszów, about six miles (10 kilometers) west. Wólka Łosiniecka had about 73 houses at the time with granges, mills, a brickyard and an inn. The witnesses were Grzegorz Nazarewicz, 36, a smith, Jan Kalarzyński,45, a manufacturer, Maciej Wiciiowski, 55, a "garncarz" (potter), and Michał Kudlicki, 45, a shoemaker, 45, all residing in Tomaszów. I believe Maciej was another 4th grandfather of mine, from the other family that worked at the pottery factory. Błażej was working as a grave digger and a farmer, like his father was before his death. ***** Błażej's family were from Pacanów, Galicia. He was born approximately in the 1750s or 1760s. His parents were Mateusz Wiśniowski and Marianna Kalinowska. When Błażej first married Jagnieszka, her father Michał was a legal authority or judge ("jurydyczanie" singular: "jurydyczanin.") At the time, the owner of the local manor was the administrator and judge unless he delegated those duties to someone else. It is possible that Jagnieska’s father worked for the magnate Alexander Zamoyski who likely employed her husband in his pottery factory. ***** The local ceramics factory figured prominently in their lives. Błażej was a foreman there before the demise of the faience industry in Tomaszów. He knew many potters: Błażej’s brother-in-law Bartlomiej Szczesnicki was a potter and fellow potters Filip Zawalski, Jan Lisikiewicz and Stefan Okopcinski were witnesses for his second marriage. Maciej Wiciejewski (another 4x great grandfather) and Jakub Wiciejewski, his father (my 5x great grandfather) were also potters. Maciej Glowacki was a potter who was a declarant for the birth of one of Antoni Kurkiewicz’s (another 4th great grandfather) children. ***** Błażej and Jagnieska’s children were Ewa (1809), Józef (1810), Wojciech (1813), Józef (1815), and Anna (1816.) Ewa (my 3x great grandmother) married Wincenty Rachański, a shoemaker and later married Józef Kurkiewicz, a farmer and shoemaker. Józef died in childhood. Information about Wojciech is not available. Their second child named Józef was a journeyman shoemaker when he married Miss Marianna Kaszucka, age 17, the daughter of Teodor Kaszucka and Teodorzia nee Pańczyszak. Her father (3x great uncle) was a furrier from the Kaszucki family that moved to Tomaszów from Uhnów, Ukraine. Józef later worked as a mason, and died fairly young at the age of 28. Anna died in childhood. ***** Whatever happened to Błażej’s fiancé? Marianna Cyronśkówna died in 1839, 16 years after her engagement to Błażej, at the age of 42. She never married. Blazej died after nearly 20 years of marriage, on January 20 in 1844 at 2:00 p.m. He died at the age of 92, though there are some discrepancies in the records, and he might have been 83. One witness was Józef Kurkiewicz, farmer, age 29, his son-in-law, married to Ewa (my 3rd great-grandmother.). The other witness was Franciszek Szcześnicki, bricklayer, age 29, Franciszek was Błażej ’s prior wife Jagnieszka’s nephew. ***** Anna, his wife for twenty years who had raised his children from Jagnieszka, died less than two years after her husband Józef . She died as a beggar woman “'baba żebraczka” in Tomaszów on February 26, 1846. Her age was unknown in the death record. She was listed as a widow but her husband wasn’t named. The informants knew her parents were peasants from Wolka Losiniecki but did not know their names. She was 63 year old Anna Wizniewska (a different spelling) from Tomaszów, the second wife of Błażej Wiśniewski. Reporting the death was Michał Wizniewski, a 42-year old blacksmith – how he was related to her is unknown. Also reporting on the death was Józef Kurkiewicz, a 30 year old cobbler/shoemaker and her son-in-law. Her stepdaughter Ewa was remarried with four (soon to be five) children, her stepson Józef had already died in his twenties and it is unknown if Wojciech was alive. ***** http://wystawy.biblioteka.pollub.pl/exhibits/show/ceramika/historia-Tomaszów (History of Tomaszów pottery) http://wystawy.biblioteka.pollub.pl/exhibits/show/ceramika/kolekcja-Tomaszówska (Pictures of pottery from Tomaszów) http://wystawy.biblioteka.pollub.pl/exhibits/show/ceramika/historia-Tomaszów https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faience http://www.turystyka.susiec.pl/?wolka-losiniecka,63 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kozio%C5%82ek_Mato%C5%82ek

The Story of Franciszek Gołębiowski & Katarzyna Chmiel

The death record for Fracniszek Golebiewski (my 5x great grandfather) makes me think about all the different ways a last name may be spelled. When looking at genealogical records, the same last name may appear in lots of variations. Some of it occurs because of a spelling alteration such as “c” and " s" in Raczkiewicz and Raszkiewicz. Apparently, spelling wasn’t as big of an issue back then as it is today. I believe I was told that “-wicz” means “son of –”, similar to my sister’s last name which is Peterson. Handwriting might be another reason a name is written as “Gołęb” versus “Gołąb,” for instance. It can be hard to tell a cursive “e” from a cursive “a”. It is fascinating to have variations such as Gołębiów, Gołębiówski, Gołębiów, Gołębia, Gołębiewski, etc. In Polish, nouns may change for gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter). Gołębiowski is male and Gołębiowska is female. Some surnames also used to have endings that can also indicate if the woman is married or unmarried: -iowa for married and -iowna for unmarried. Endings of other words change for lots of other reasons such as number (singular and plural) and for case (direct object, indirect object, possession, interrogatives, prepositional, and vocative – addressing people in special situations.) So when addressing someone and using they name in the vocative case, the nickname Tomek would become Tomku. My understanding of all of the rules in the Polish language is that I do not understand all of the rules! Some records are written in Latin so the name needs to be translated into the Polish version. For instance, Hedwiga would be Jadwiga. Hieronymus is the Latin equivalent of the name Hieronim (the name of Franciszek’s father.) ***** Another interesting thing about the names of relatives is that some of the surnames of my direct ancestors seem to translate into words. Just like in English where common names like “Smith” at one time referred to blacksmith. I THINK these family surnames can be translated to common words – maybe referring to occupations or natural features: Golab (pigeon) Kowol (blacksmith) Kukielka (puppet) Kwiatkowski (kwiat=flower) Plebanski (presbytery or parsonage) Kozyra (kozy=goats) Krawczyk (tailor) Grabek (rakes) Chmiel (hops--used to make beer) ***** Szymon Marzuk, the young genealogist who has grandparents who live in Tomaszów Lubelski, explained that his “7th great-grandparents were Franciszek Gołąb vel Gołębiowski and Katarzyna Chmiel vel Chmielowska, born in Majdan Górny, Lubelskie, Poland.” ***** Katarzyna’s father’s last name was Chmiel and hers was Chmielowska. “As for his surname, his daughter at some point in her life decided to change her name to resemble a higher status.” Szymon shared information from Wikipedia about the addition of -ski/ska to a surname: "Over time, surnames ending in -ski also began to spread among lower classes like burghers and peasants. In the first half of the 17th century, surnames with this ending were given to self-proclaimed nobles from the land of Cracow. This phenomenon was met with protest from the nobility, who considered surnames with a ski as one of the nobility's privileges. In 1638, Wladyslaw Stanislaw Jeżowski (a nobleman!), in a booklet written in verse and dedicated to the economy and charms of landed life, noted with indignation: " ... Noble names They are often used by craftsmen as well, It is good for a craftsman to have a surname ending in, for example, wicz, Not na ski, noble it..." Thus, in order to avoid the complete similarity of plebeian surnames to noble surnames ending in -ski, an orthographic trick was used and they were written in the form oski reserving the form with the letter "w" at the beginning." —---- Franciszek was born around 1753, I am not sure why the family of Franciszek had the name of “Golab” or “Goleb”, except that maybe at some time, they were known for raising pigeons. He was a peasant farmer in Majdan Górny, a village that was important to several parts of the family tree. The village of Majdan Górny was founded at the beginning of the 18th century and takes its name from Górno. Franciszek married his wife Katarzyna nee Chmielewska. Since “chmiel” means “hops”,their name could either refer to a grower of hops or to one of the many places in Poland with this word in their name. Her father was Hieronim Chmiel, born around 1715, and her mother’s name is unknown. ***** Franciszek and Katarzyna had seven children: Michał 1768 approx - 1832), Zofia (abt. 1770 -1840), Marianna 1784 – 1795), Wojciech (1787 – 1788), Apolonia (1789 – 1844), Anna (1792 – 1795), Paweł (1795 – 1847), and Anna 1798 – ?) Three children – Marianna, Wojciech and Anastasia – died in early childhood. ***** Zofia married Maciej Jakubus in July of 1797 and he died in July of 1798. Their daughter Anastasia was born five months later. Zofia remarried Wawrzyniec Turek and they had fifteen children – including three sets of twins! Apolonia (my 4x great grandmother) married Jan Raczkiewicz in 1804. In 1812, Paweł married Elżbieta Przybysz from Tomaszów, whose family were peasant farmers. When Anna married Jozef Grzegorz Kita in 1813, both of their fathers were deceased. ***** Their son Michał had the most complicated story of all the children. It looks like Michał wasn’t quite as lucky as his siblings and was married several times. Some trees on Ancestry have his first wife as Jagnieszka and a son Szymon in Zgrzbeiny but that is very far away and unverified if that is true The name Michał Golebiowski was a common name like the name “John Smith is in the United States. Therefore, there is a likelihood that there was a different Michał married to a different Jagnieszka that is being confused. I think that his first wife was Elzbieta (Helena) Łach, who he married in 1792. She died March 1, 1806, and less than two months later, Michał married his second wife Agnieszka Dominik. Her father was Andrzej but the connection to other Dominik relatives in the Dominik family has not yet been made. She died December 2, 1811, and Michał again married less than two months later, this time to Rozalia Gorbula. She presented an Act of Knowing from the Tomaszów Court of Peace stating her age and that her parents weren’t present or mentioned so they may have been deceased. After Rozalia died November 16, 1824, Michał remarried for the fourth time to Marianna (Sawiak) Dzier. This marriage occurred less than three months later. Michał was a 58-year-old widower and Marianna was a 41-year old widow of a peasant farmer from Majdan Górny, who had died 17 years earlier. ***** Franciszek died on February 13, 1813, at 10:00 in the morning. He died at home (number 20) in Majdan Gorny. He was sixty years old when he died. One declarant reporting his death was his son Michał, a 40-year old peasant farmer residing in Gurnia, who had married two weeks earlier. The other declarant was Jan Raszkiewicz, age 38, and a neighbor. Figuring out which “Jan Raszkiewicz” it likely was, is a process of determining what makes sense. The record doesn’t say this but Jan was likely married to Franciszek’s daughter Apolonia (my 4x great grandparents.) ***** Katarzyna also died in February, seven years later. She died at 6:00 in the evening on February 20, 1820 in house number 30 in Gorno. She was 80 years old and a widow. She had seen her son Michał married at least four times, her daughter Apolonia married to Jan Raczkiewicz with nine children. Her son Paweł had married the year before Katarzyna’s death. He was 35 years old when he went with Jan Raszkiewicz (his brother-in-law), the 36 year old husband of his sister Apolonia to report his mother’s death. They left Górny two days after her death and went into Tomaszów Lubelski and reported to the authorities at 10:00 in the morning. ***** After reading this story on February 13, 2023, Eugeniusz Raczkiewicz sent the following message: “Gdyby mój Stryj Antoni nie wyjechał do USA i nie miał wnuczki Paulette nie znalibyśmy tak ciekawej historii naszych przodków. Z tej historii wynika, że wiele nazwisk wymienionych w drzewie genealogicznym to nasi dalecy kuzyni.” “If my Uncle Antoni had not left for the USA and had no granddaughter Paulette, we would not know such an interesting history of our ancestors. From this story, many of the names listed in the family tree are our distant cousins.” ***** References: Chmiel family history. Chmiel Name Meaning & Chmiel Family History at Ancestry.com®. (n.d.). https://www.ancestry.com/name-origin?surname=chmiel Dzieje Miejscowosci Gminy Tomaszów Lubelski.” Dzieje Gmin Zamojszczyzny, 2011. Retreived July 11, 2023 from https://dzieje_gminy_tomaszow_lubelski_-_calosc_z_okladka.pdf (tomaszowlubelski.pl Wikimedia Foundation. (2022b, November 24). Majdan Górny. Wikipedia. https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majdan_G%C3%B3rny Franciszek’s death: Skan - Szukaj W Archiwach. Przejdź do Szukaj w Archiwach. (n.d.-b). https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/skan/-/skan/f9dd411dac30d20455deb2c60574151df33301870119a5e77c1cc405c8ca198b Katarzyna’s death: Skan - Szukaj W Archiwach. Przejdź do Szukaj w Archiwach. (n.d.-b). https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/skan/-/skan/f29ea7f73d11e1491865adb629832cceb20cc2ab06c32d379cd43dc1dae07f58

The Story of Antoni Krawczyk & Dorota Kozyra & Barbara Probola

A period of mourning is typical before a spouse remarries. The length of the mourning period may have been short in Poland in the past, especially if there were young children involved. Anthony Krawczyk (my 4x great grandfather) wed Barbara Probola on May 22, 1824. This was Antoni’s second marriage. His wife Dorota (Kozrya) Krawczyk (my 4x great grandmother) died two months earlier on March 22, 1824 when she was 45 years old. Her death was reported by Antoni Krawczyk, 42, her husband, and Jozef Litwin, 60, a neighbor in Laszczowka where they lived. Her death information was in the record for her husband's remarriage two months later to Barbara Probola. Having children that needed care might explain why Antoni remarried so quickly. Antoni and his first wife had seven children together and at least four of them were living when he remarried, Three of them lived at home and the youngest was six years old. His oldest daughter Katarzyna (my 3x great grandmother) was married November 1823, four months before her mother died. His new wife Barbara was 32 years old and the daughter of Sebastyan Probola and Anna nee Bartnim, who were once peasant farmers, but were deceased when Barbara married. Barbara was living with her brother-in-law in Łaszczówka. Antoni was a 42 year old peasant farmer residing in Łaszczówka. His parents also were once peasant farmers in the same village but were deceased. His parents Kazimierz Krawczyk and Rozalia nee Kubak were from this village in the mid 1700s and many of his children remained there (my 3x great grandmother moved to Majdan Gorny when she married and her daughter Marianna Grabek - my 2x great grandmother - moved to Sabaudia when she married.) There is a Łaszczówka and a Łaszczów. Eugeniusz Razkiewicz helped me understand the difference. Łaszczów was a town in the years 1549-1870.It is currently a town again since 2010. The distance from Tomaszów is 30 kilometers. Łaszczówka is a village about one mile east of Tomaszów Lubelski in Tomaszów Lubelski County, Lublin Voivodeship (area administered by a governor.) It has about 1,000 residents. It was a town from the years 1610 to 1764. The Krawczyk family lived in Łaszczówka. Antoni’s children with Dorota were Katarzyna (about 1800 - 1803), Marianna (1807), Mikołaj (1809), Marianna (1814), Łukasz (1811), Tomasz (1815), and Franciszka (1818). Mikołaj and Marianna died young at age one and age three. The first Marianna likely died early, though her death record was not available. Katarzyna (my 3x great grandmother) married Łukasz Grabek, a peasant from Majdan Gorny, living with his mother and stepfather. Łukasz married Katarzyna Litwin whose parents were peasants from Łaszczówka. Tomasz married Katarzyna Zawalska from Łaszczówka who was living in Tomaszów with her uncle since her parents were deceased and then they lived in Sznury. Franciszka married Sebastian Rejman whose parents were peasant farmers from Ruda Wolowska. When Antoni and his second wife Barbara had an additional four children, Łaszczówka.was a small village of 29 houses and less than 150 people. They had three children, Marianna (1825), Agnieszka (1828), Maciej (1830), before the November Uprising insurgents of General Wojciech Chrzanowski were requisitioned in the village. This was an attempt to rebel against the Russian occupation. Antoni and Barbara had their last child, Wawrzyniec (1833). Their daughter Marianna married Marcin Jakubus, born in Majdan Górny, but working as a servant in Łaszczówka. Marianna died in 1898, at age 64, during a local children’s epidemic. Agnieszka married Jakub Kozyra, a peasant farmer born in Majdan Górny and living in Bondyrz. He died in 1854 at age 25 during a local cholera outbreak. Maciej married Ewa Rejman, from Ruda Woloski. Ewa was the sister of Sebastian Rejman, married to Ewa’s half sister Franciszka ten years earlier. Wawrzyniec married Katarzyna (Krupa) Dziura, a widow from Łaszczówka. Antoni died in Laszczowka on February 4, 1841 when he was 60 years old. He left behind his second wife Barbara. His older children of Dorota were all married when he died. His children with Barbara were eight to sixteen years old. I am unable to find out if Barbara remarried. Dorota’s last name comes from “Kozera” who is a gambler. She was born around 1779 in Laszczowka. While Dorota’s name is Kozera or Kozyra in most of the records, in two birth records and in her death record, she is referred to as Lokaj/Lokay. I am working on trying to find out more about her family.

The Life of Piotr Raczkiewicz

Piotr, characterized by extraordinary honesty and warmth, “as if he wanted to give his soul away” is how his nephew Eugeniusz Raczkiewicz describes the type of person Piotr was. Eugeniusz also remembered what he looked like and said that he looked like the pictures he recently saw of older sibling Antoni. Antoni was 5’5” tall, 145 pounds and had brown hair and gray/blue eyes. ***** Piotr was born May 13, 1897 at 5:00 in the morning. Piotr was the fourth of nine children. His father Jan was 32 years old and working as a peasant in the village of Sabaudia and his mother Katarzyna was 25 years old. His father Jan, along with witnesses Michal Kielar, age 50, and Josef Kondra, age 30, reported the birth two days later in the town of Tomaszów, about two miles away from their village. The baptism was at 3:00 in the afternoon and his godparents were Michal Kelar and Antonina Kurkiewicz. The baby was given the name Piotr in honor of Saint Apostle Piotr. ***** Piotr was 26 years old when his younger sister Mary left for the United States in 1923 and she listed him as her contact in Poland. His older siblings Jan, Józef, and Antoni had left years before that. ***** Piotr married Józefa Szczupakowska and lived in the village of Podhajce near Łaszczów. It is located at the northern edge of the Tomaszów Lubelski commune, on the Huczwa River. There are traces of early civilizations found in shards of pottery but the first historical mention is in 1409. ***** Piotr and Józefa worked as farmers, as did most people in the area though there was also a dairy plant, a steam mill and a woodmill and people in occupations such as cooper, carpenter, blacksmith, shoemaker, butcher and store owner. The area had 175 houses, 1,061 inhabitants, including 40 Jews and 114 Ukrainians in 1921. They had two sons: Jan, born in 1927 and Zdzisław Mieczysław, born in 1934. By the time Jan was born, the school established during the Russian partition no longer existed and the Polish school was well established and had moved into its own building the year before his birth. ***** The People’s Movement was active in the area and in 1937 there was a peasant strike. During World War II, there was a battle in September 1939 where the Polish troops expelled the German occupiers, but then lost control of the village again. During this time, 17 people from the village were sent to forced labor camps in Germany from 1940 to 1942. On July 12, 1943, the village was evicted by the Germans with settlers from Romania and Bulgaria put in place instead. The Peasant Battalion lost 32 members. After liberation, people returned in 1944 and school operations resumed. It is unknown to me when Piotr and his wife moved to this area or how much of this they experienced, but Piotr’s wife Józefa died in 1946. ***** Time with his siblings was important to Piotr. After church, Piotr would often enjoy a small beer with sister Paulina and brother Bolesław. Łaszczów was a trip of approximately 30 kilometers (18 and a half miles) for his brother Boleslaw. Bolesław and his family would leave home at dawn and return late at night to travel the horse-drawn cart ride over bumpy roads and through the forest to work their own land and then visit with Piotr. “The brothers met with great cordiality and joy” according to Eugeniusz. ***** In 1963, the village received electricity, in the 1960s drainage and a paved road. Andrzej Dubiel believes that Piotr attended his older sister Maria’s wedding. It was about the year 1976 and he remembered that Piotr was very old then. In fact, Piotr would have died soon after. ***** Marianna Ziółkowska is a granddaughter of Piotr. She shared that when her father Jan died on April 3, 1974, at age 47, his father Piotr came to his funeral. Jan lived with his father and his brother Zdzich (Zdzislaw) in the countryside. Jan worked as a state institution worker and Zdzislaw worked as a farmer – possibly at the farm his father and mother originally farmed. Marianna and her family lived in Pruszków near Warsaw. ***** Piotr died at age 80 on January 30, 1977 in Podhajce. Joanna Len shared, “I remember my grandfather’s death as if it were yesterday. I was seven years old.” She shared the picture of Piotr and his wife along with a picture of her and her family in front of Piotr’s body after his death. Eugeniusz shared the family shots. “These photos of families were taken by me personally with my first camera, “Smiena.” ***** History of Podhorce “Dzieje Miejscowosci Gminy Tomaszów Lubelski.” Dzieje Gmin Zamojszczyzny, 2011. Retreived July 11, 2023 from https://dzieje_gminy_tomaszow_lubelski_-_calosc_z_okladka.pdf (tomaszowlubelski.pl)

The Story of Lukasz Grabek & Katarzyna Krawczk

When Lukasz Grabek (my 3x great grandfather) got married, he had been living with his mother and stepfather. Born around 1798 in Majdan Gorny, Lukasz’s parents were Walenty Grabek and Teresa nee Walawander. His father died when he was 14 and his mother remarried a year later to Grzegorz Lebiedowski. ***** Both Lukasz and his stepfather were working as peasant farmers when he married at age 25. Many of the records on the Jan Raczkiewicz side of the family list the occupation as “komornik” – a peasant farmer. A peasant may be a farmer who: Kmiec: worked enough land to support his family and owned two or more cows, horses, sheep oxen, goats, and pigs as well as several buildings on the farm. Potrolik: worked a half-sized farm. Zagrodnik: owned a farmhouse, out buildings, animals and a vegetable garden. Many peasants had no crop land. Chalupnik: lived in a small cottage. Komornik: was a tenant farmer, or day laborer. Often the word “Włościanin” is used in the records to describe the occupation of many of my ancestors. According to Ewa Switek who translates records for Genealogical Translations (on Facebook), that is a “former term for a rural inhabitant who works in agriculture, synonymous with peasant. The name comes from the estate, that is the land estate, usually consisting of several villages belonging to one owner together with its inhabitants. The peasants formed the most numerous social group, which included, among others: peasants, homesteads, cottage workers and others. Even in 1921, they constituted about 75% of the total population in Poland.” I am not sure where she got this information. I looked for more information and found out that peasants worked for their lords to pay rent and as time went on that obligation increased. Peasants who were wealthier were expected to contribute more, but they could hire others to help them do it. Peasants needed permission to marry, move or begin a trade. In different areas of Poland, serfdom was abolished beginning in the early 1800s. After the 1863 uprising, Czar Alexander II, who had previously abolished serfdom, gave the land to the tenants. Lukasz married Katarzyna Krawczyk, age 20, from Łaszczówka, about four and a half miles away, outside of the city of Tomaszow Lubelski to the southeast. Katarzyna was the daughter of Antoni Krawczyk and his first wife Dorota née Lokaj who also were peasant farmers. Her mother Dorota died four months after Katarzyna’s wedding, at the age of 45. Katarzyna’s siblings were 5 to 16 years old when Dorota died and their father remarried within two months of her death. The banns for Lukasz and Katarzyna’s marriage were announced on November 9 and 16, 1823 and their wedding was on November 21, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, in Tomaszów. The witnesses were Marcin Walawender, 55, (Lukasz’ uncle), Jan Garbula,30, Józef Litwin, 54, and Bartłomiej Krawczyk, 36 (Katarzyna’s uncle.) They were all peasant farmers. The first two were from Majdan Górny, the groom’s village and the other two were from Łaszczówka, the bride’s village. Lukasz and Katarzyna had at least six children with three daughters living to adulthood. Rozalia’s (1827) Godparents were Jakob Sidor & Anastazja Kozyra. She married Jakub Raczkiewicz from Majdan Górny in 1843. Her husband’s parents were Jan Raczkiewicz and Apolonia Gołębiowska (my 4x great grandparents.) They had nine children and lived in Majdan Gorny. Jozef’s (1830) Godparents were Stanislaw Dominik and Anastasia Kozyra. He died in Infancy Jakub’s (1831) Godparents were Michal Srutwa and Rozalia Kozydra. He also died in early childhood. Apolonia’s (1834) Godparents were Michal Turek & Marianna Grabek. Shemarried in 1851, Antoni Kowal, son of Sebastyan Kowol and Zofia née Kuzniarz, peasant farmers from Majdan Górny. Franciszka’s (1837) Godparents were Marcin Kozyra & Katarzyna Turek. She died at age 10 though the record says she was aged 20. A local potato blight as well as cholera, were issues at the time. Marianna (my 2x great grandmother) was born in 1843 and her Godparents were Tomasz Krawczyk and Katarzyna Krawczyk, likely her maternal uncle and his wife. She married twice. She married Antoni Raczkiewicz, son of Michał Raczkiewicz and Anna Dominik (my 3x great grandparents), peasants from Sabaudia and also Tomasz Kędra, from Jeziernia, the son of Michał Kędra and Anastasia Król. When she died in 1881, there was documentation of the plague locally. After living in Majdan Gorny for the previous 31 years, Katarzyna died on March 28, 1853 at approximately 50 years old. The cause of death is not given, but there was “The Great Famine” in Galicia from 1853 to 1855 as well as a local children’s epidemic. The witnesses reporting her death were Jakob Raczkiewicz, 29 and Josef Sidor, 36. Their youngest child was ten years old when Katarzyna died but it doesn’t appear her husband remarried. Eight years later, on January 23, 1861, Lukasz died at 5:00 in the evening at age 61. Jakub Raczkiewicz, age 31, (his son-in-law), and Piotr Raczkiewicz, age 50, (his son-in-law’s uncle), presented themselves and confirmed that he had died. The image is of a funeral in Galicia in 1882. Image: By Teodor Axentowicz - http://www.pinakoteka.zascianek.pl/Axentowicz/Index.htm, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12546957 https://europebetweeneastandwest.wordpress.com/2015/06/19/an-austro-hungarian-tragedy-the-kingdom-of-galicia-lodomeria-part-two/ fortchoteau1, 21, B. G. on A., & 22, fortchoteau1 on A. (2015, June 19). An Austro-hungarian tragedy – The Kingdom of Galicia & Lodomeria (part Two). Europe Between East And West. https://europebetweeneastandwest.wordpress.com/2015/06/19/an-austro-hungarian-tragedy-the-kingdom-of-galicia-lodomeria-part-two/ “Famines in Austrian Galicia.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 25 Jan. 2023, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famines_in_Austrian_Galicia. Wikipedia contributors. (2023, September 27). Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Galicia_and_Lodomeria Peasants: Wiki, F. (2022, December 9). Poland social life and customs • FamilySearch. FamilySearch Wiki. https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Poland_Social_Life_and_Customs Difference between Peasants and Farmers? | ResearchGate. (n.d.). ResearchGate. https://www.researchgate.net/post/Difference_between_Peasants_and_Farmers The Peasant in Poland Today: Reactions to land reform and collectivization on JSTOR. (n.d.). www.jstor.org. https://doi.org/10.2307/40392495 —--------------------------------------------------------- Info from Ewa Switek, Genealogical Translations 1/14/2021 https://www.askdifference.com/farmer-vs-peasant/#:~:text=A%20peasant%20is%20a%20pre,%2C%20serf%2C%20and%20free%20tenant. Difference farmer & peasant https://www.italki.com/post/question-337962 Land re-distribution in 1945 now farmers own their land https://www.jstor.org/stable/40392495?seq=1 Polish social life and customs https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Poland_Social_Life_and_Customs A Kmiec, a Potrolik, a Zagrodnik, a Chalupnik, a Komornik History of area: “Dzieje Miejscowosci Gminy Tomaszów Lubelski.” Dzieje Gmin Zamojszczyzny, 2011. Retreived July 11, 2023 from https://dzieje_gminy_tomaszow_lubelski_-_calosc_z_okladka.pdf (tomaszowlubelski.pl

The Story of Błażej Wiśniewski and Agnieszka Szczesnicka

Błażej Wiśniewski (my 4x great grandfather) was in a bit of a hurry after his wife Jagnieszka Szcześnicka (my 4x great grandmother) died. His children were six to fourteen years old, so that may explain his rush. He ended up engaged – that fell through – and then he ended up marrying about a year after Jagniewska’s death. Jagniewska died May 20, 1823 at age 49. It happened in house #347 at 6:00 in the evening in Tomaszów. Two days later Błażej, 53, who was working as a grave digger and her brother Bartłomiej Szcześnicki, 53, a manufacturer of faience, went to report the death. ***** Wedding banns were posted on the main door of the community house by September 7, less than four months later, by the Parish priest of Tomaszów, who operated as the clerk of the civil records in the Administrative district of Tomaszów, Tomaszów County, Province Lubelskie. These were the first banns for the planned marriage of Marianna Cyronik, age 25 and Błażej, who was in his 50s. ***** Banns are published prior to a wedding to determine if there is a civil or religious reason to prevent the marriage. Concerns could be a current marriage, a pledge of celibacy, a close family relationship, or lack of consent. The guidance from 1743 required the priest to carefully and separately question the bride and groom. If any of these concerns were discovered, the banns were suspended. If the bride and groom cleared this hurdle, the banns were published to give the public the chance to object. In most cases, there are three banns and in most records I read, the wedding went through. In this fascinating example, the first banns were published – but eight months later the groom married someone else! Banns are no longer required in the Catholic church but may still be published and many parishes still do so. ***** Obviously, something happened before the wedding occurred to determine they could not be married, and the wedding was canceled. The intended bride was Marianna Cyronśkówna, 25. Her father Ignacy had been a farmer in Tomaszów but was deceased and her mother Helena née Kowalik, was working as a laborer. There was a very large age difference, but Błażej had been prominent earlier in his role as a pottery factory supervisor even though he was working as a grave digger at this time. It is unknown what prevented the marriage from occurring. ***** Instead of marrying Marianna, Błażej and Anna Adamczyk were married on May 9, 1824, at 6:00 p.m.. Anna, a 41-year-old maiden, was living and working in Tomaszów, as a servant. She was the daughter of deceased parents Błażej Adamczyk and Katarzyna nee Fuss, who had been peasants in Wólka Łosiniecka, which is in the same county as Tomaszów, about six miles (10 kilometers) west. Wólka Łosiniecka had about 73 houses at the time with granges, mills, a brickyard and an inn. The witnesses were Grzegorz Nazarewicz, 36, a smith, Jan Kalarzyński,45, a manufacturer, Maciej Wiciiowski, 55, a "garncarz" potter and, Michał Kudlicki, 45, a shoemaker, 45, all residing in Tomaszów. I believe Maciej was another 4th grandfather of mine, from the other family that worked at the pottery factory. Błażej was working as a grave digger and a farmer, like his father was before his death. ***** Błażej's family were from Pacanów, Galicia. He was born approximately in the 1750s or 1760s.His parents were Mateusz Wiśniowski and Marianna Kalinowska. When Błażej first married Jagnieszka, her father Michał was a legal authority or judge ("jurydyczanie" singular: "jurydyczanin.") At the time, the owner of the local manor was the administrator and judge unless he delegated those duties to someone else. It is possible that Jagnieska’s father worked for the magnate Alexander Zamoyski who employed her husband in his pottery factory. ***** The local ceramics factory figured prominently in their lives. Błażej was a foreman there before the demise of the faience industry in Tomaszów. He knew many potters: Błażej’s brother-in-law Bartlomiej Szczesnicki was a potter and fellow potters Filip Zawalski, Jan Lisikiewicz and Stefan Okopcinski were witnesses for his second marriage. Maciej Wiciejewski (another 4x great grandfather) and Jakub Wiciejewski, his father (my 5x great grandfather) were also potters. Maciej Glowacki was a potter who was a declarant for the birth of one of Antoni Kurkiewicz’s (another 4th great grandfather) children. ***** Błażej and Jagnieska’s children were Ewa (1809), Józef (1810), Wojciech (1813), Józef (1815), and Anna (1816.) Ewa (my 3x great grandmother) married Wincenty Rachański, a shoemaker and later married Józef Kurkiewicz, a farmer and shoemaker. Józef died in childhood. I do not have any information about Wojciech. Their second child named Józef was a journeyman shoemaker when he married Miss Marianna Kaszucka, age 17, the daughter of Teodor Kaszucka and Teodorzia nee Pańczyszak. Her father (3x great uncle) was a furrier from the Kaszucki family that moved to Tomaszów from Ukraine. Józef later worked as a mason, and died fairly young at the age of 28. Anna died in childhood. ***** Marianna Cyronśkówna died in 1839, 16 years after her engagement to Błażej, at the age of 42. She never married. On January 20 in 1844 at 2:00 p.m., Błażej died at the age of 92, though there are some discrepancies in the records, and he might have been 83. One witness was Józef Kurkiewicz, farmer, age 29, his son-in-law, married to Ewa (my 3rd great-grandmother.). The other witness was Franciszek Szcześnicki, bricklayer, age 29, As a Szcześnicki, Franciszek may have been related to Błażej ’s prior wife, Jagnieszka. ***** After nearly 20 years of marriage, Błażej died on January 20, 1844, at the age of 92. Józef Kurkiewicz, a 29-year-old farmer and his son-in-law, and Franciszek Szcześnicki, a 29-year-old bricklayer and his first wife’s nephew, reported the death two days later. ***** Anna, his wife for twenty years who had raised his children from Jagnieszka, died less than two years after her husband Józef . She died as a beggar woman “'Baba żebraczka” in Tomaszów on February 26, 1846. Her age was unknown in the death record. She was listed as a widow but her husband wasn’t named. The informants knew her parents were peasants from Wolka Losiniecki but did not know their names. She was 63 year old Anna Wizniewska (a different spelling) from Tomaszów, the second wife of Błażej Wiśniewski. Reporting the death was Michał Wizniewski, a 42-year old blacksmith – how he was related to her is unknown. Also reporting on the death was Józef Kurkiewicz, a 30 year old cobbler/shoemaker and her son-in-law. Her stepdaughter Ewa was remarried with four (soon to be five) children, her stepson Józef had already died in his twenties and it is unknown if Wojciech was alive. ***** http://wystawy.biblioteka.pollub.pl/exhibits/show/ceramika/historia-Tomaszów (History of Tomaszów pottery) http://wystawy.biblioteka.pollub.pl/exhibits/show/ceramika/kolekcja-Tomaszówska (Pictures of pottery from Tomaszów) http://wystawy.biblioteka.pollub.pl/exhibits/show/ceramika/historia-Tomaszów https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faience http://www.turystyka.susiec.pl/?wolka-losiniecka,63 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kozio%C5%82ek_Mato%C5%82ek