This is a story of trying to differentiate between two different men named Blazej. There can be multiple people with the same name so it can get very tricky determining which is which. Birth, marriage and death records are about the person and may or may not list their parents. Witnesses are listed so there are clues about who might be their relatives or neighbors.. Their age is usually listed so you can sort out which ones fit into the right time frame. It turns out that there were two men with the same name- of Blazej Wisniewski. He was the parent of Ewa Wisniewska (my 3rd great grandmother.) One was born about 1761 and died in 1844. He worked as a foreman of a faience factory and later a grave digger and a farmer. He had two or three wives and a fiance and at least four children with one of the wives. The other one was born about 1755 and died in 1823 while he was in some sort of facility as a patient or resident. He had one child with an unmarried employee of some sort who worked in the hospital or alms house that he lived in. I am telling you this story today because on January 20 in 1844 at 2:00 p.m., Blazej Wisniewski (my 4th great grandfather) died. He was a grave digger who lived in Tomaszów Lubelski. He lived to the age of 92 according to his record but maybe 83 according to some other records. So maybe he was born in 1761 or maybe in 1752???? He was the son of Mataeusz & Maryanna Wisniowski, deceased gravediggers even though when he died the witnesses didn’t know who his parents were. One witness was Józef Kurkiewicz, farmer, age 29, He was Blazej’s son-in-law, married to Ewa (my 3rd great grandmother.). The other witness was Franciszek Szcześnicki, bricklayer, age 29, As a Szcześnicki, Franciszek would have been related to Blazej’s prior wife, Jagnieszka Szcześnicka. Blazej left behind his widowed wife Anna nee Adamczak. There was a lot more to his story though. Blazej had two sons and two daughters with Jagnieszka Czernicka. (my 4th great grandmother.) Their four children were born between 1809 and 1817 beginning when he was about 44. It is possible that he had a wife before Jagnieszka because of how old he was during this marriage. His wife Jagnieska passed away on May 20, 1823, in Tomaszów, Lubelskie, Poland, at the age of 49. Just a little over three months later on Sept 7 1823, Blazej Wisniowski, as a 55 year old widower, became engaged to the MUCH younger Maryanna Cyronskowna, age 25. “Owna” on her name meant she was unmarried. She was a labourer, and the daughter of deceased Ignacy Cyronik, farmer & living Helena nee Kowalik. Maybe because her father was deceased, the engagement happened so her mother had one less mouth to feed in the house. In any case, the announcement of the banns in this case must have caused something to turn up to stop the wedding. He then eight months later married Anna Adamczk instead on May 9, 1824, when he was 63 years old. He ended up with Anna for the next 20 years until his death. I noticed that Maryanna (his former fiance) died in 1840 unmarried. Now even though there are sometimes mistakes in ages in the records, it doesn’t make a lot of sense that he was 55 years old in 1823 and then 63 in 1824. Another confusing thing was seeing what occupation was listed in the various records: grave digger, farmer and faience factory foreman. Did that mean some of the records were of the “other” Blazej? Blazej worked in the faience factory & so did his wife’s Agnes’ brother Bart. I eventually figured once I studied the pottery industry in the area that he worked there until the factory closed. He may still have needed to work so ended up a grave digger, who maybe also farmed. When his on Jozef was born in 1810, he was a 40 year old faience factory foreman. In 1817 when his daughter Anna was born, he was referred to as the “famous” Blazej Wisniewski. By 1823 when his wife dies, he was listed as a grave digger. He was a grave digger when engaged to Cyronik still in 1823 and when he marries Adamczyk in 1824, he is a grave digger. A different 68 year old Blazej died February 20 1823. He would have been born in about 1755. He died in some sort of hospital or alms house #71 and Szymon Wojpieki, 32, an organist and Piotr Fedorowicz, 50 a church sexton were the witnesses. His wife Anna nee Paszkowska was a church sexton. When he was 50 in 1814, he was a , "dziad szpitalny" a hospital grandfather,and he had a child Francziszka Wisniowska with Anna Paszkoska, age 35. This story shows one of the harder people to figure out. Amazingly, with many of them, the pieces all match up right and their family falls into place! There was a lot to this puzzle! (Image from Heirloom Archeology, LLC FB page)