Who Were the Burghers In the Family

Burghers were immigrants and free citizens that worked as bankers, craftsmen, tradesmen, and merchants which the noble could not do by law. While almost all the men on the Kaszucki side worked in these areas, only a few were referred to as burghers in the birth, marriage and death records. **********One was Andrej Kaszucki (my 3x great grandfather), who in 1885 when he was 53, was listed as a burgher in the city of Tomaszów Lubelski. He would have been a minor burgher, as he worked in the middle class as a furrier, carrying on the tradition of his father who came from Uhnow, Galicia, Austria from a family of furriers. **********Andrzej Kurkiewicz (my 2x great grandmother Paulina’s brother) was considered a burgher in 1867 at age 26 as a shoemaker. His brother, Ignacy Kurkiewicz was listed as a minor burghur in his death record at age 53 in 1851.**********Grzegorz Niedźwiedź (related to Curt Wolf), age 31, was also considered a burgher from Tomaszow Lubelski. They were listed this way in the birth record of Jozef Kasucki’s daughter Jozefa. **** **********Adam Eifler from Rognozno was considered a “burgher”. He was a shoemaker and so was his father. This means that he likely lived in town and was anything from lower middle class to middle class. His great grandfather had been one of the colonists from Germany that was given land and other belongings in return for payments to Zamoyski to settle the area. His grandmother was a single parent.************ Here is a story from Curt Wolf about him: Story from Curt Wolf: Adam’s land Busha’s father Adam was considered a “burgher”. This term means that he likely lived in a town and was anything from lower middle class to middle class. There were only 3 social strata back then which were peasant, burgher, and nobleman. Given what I learned, I would put Busha’s family of origin in the lower middle to middle class given the land they owned and his business as a shoemaker… but more research has to be done to confirm this. According to Uncle Frank, Pauline and Josef Niedzwiedz had about 6 acres of land in the Tomaszow area before they moved to America. It was not clear if this land came from the Niedzwiedzki side or Eifler side. But I saw the land that Adam’s family owned. It is near the center of Tomaszow with government buildings including a school on top of it. I do not know how Adam’s family of origin obtained this land because they were leasing land in the village of Roguzno from the time their ancestors came in 1784. Image by 13smok from Pixabay