A Tale of a Young Maid

Most of the genealogy searching is finding names and dates related to relatives from a previous generation. Occasionally, from these dry facts a story emerges that triggers my imagination and leads to more questions than answers. The story of Konstancja (Connie) is one of those stories. Many of the families experienced infant mortality and early deaths of spouses with quick remarriages--probably out of necessity. Her family story clearly demonstrates that but there is a twist with her own life. Here is her story: ***** I asked for a record of a Marianna Kurkiewicz to be translated, I thought she was a different Marianna Kurkiewicz--there are at least seven different ones in my tree already. I was interested to see that Konstancja was listed as the mother but no father was listed. I decided to look for more records related to Konstancja to try to figure out if she had ever married. Having Marianna out of wedlock though is not what is unusual about her story. ******* Before I learned anything about her, the only person who appeared to be a single parent was my fourth great aunt , Anna Eifler. She was from the Rogozno colony and Curt Wolf is one of her relatives also so I had learned alot about her story from him. I am sure single parenthood occurred but this was only the second time I saw it. ***** Here is a little background on Konstancja and her family. Be prepared, there is alot of death and quick remarriage but this was apparently common for the time period. Konstancja’s stepmother Aniela Weisberger had been previously married to Piotr Miller in Zamosc in 1805. They had a daughter Brigda but when she was five years old, her father died. ***** Walenty Kurkiewicz married the widowed Aniela and together they raised Brigda and their children Wojciech, Marianna, Tomasz and Jozef. HIs wife Aniela died in 1817 and son Jozef in 1819. Walenty remarried when his children and stepdaughter were between the ages of one and 13. He married Katarzyna Wiciejewska, my 5th great aunt. Together they had Anna, Francis, Jan (died in infancy), Agnieszka, Konstancja and Marcin. Before Konstancja was born, her half sister Brigid got married. When Konstancja was 4 years old, her mother Katarzyna passed away. ***** When Konstancja was 17 years old, her sister Francis married widower Jehosphaphat Romanowicz. He died three years later and widow Franicis married widower Aleksander Uminski in 1849, the same year his wife and their only child died. Francis and Aleksander live in Ruda Wolowska. They had one child together and Francis died six years later in 1855, the same year that Konstancja and Francis’ father Walenty died. ***** The death of her sister seemed to be a pivotal event. Over the span of ten years, Konstancja had five children. After her sister died, Konstancja had her first child, Marianna in 1856. Konstancja was single and a maid in Tomaszow. Two years later, her son Franciszek was born. The following year, her daughter Marianna died and the next year, her daughter Antonina was born. In 1863, her daughter Karolina was born, Her son Franciszek died two weeks before Karolina was born. In 1866, a daughter she also named Marianna was born. ***** The same year that the last child was born, finally, on 25 November 1866, she married Aleksander Uminski. He had been widowed by her sister for 11 years. It turns out, the five children were fathered by him. As part of their marriage record, they were granted a dispensation related to their children being born illegitimately. Another reason a dispensation might be granted would be for permission to marry a blood relative. The marriage confers legitimacy on her children and the priest amends their birth records to indicate that. They were “granted a dispensation for the first degree affinity from the Apostolic “Capital.” In other words, the children were already his by birth but now would be recognized by the marriage. The record read, This marriage record on the strength of the above dispensation and according to Article 291 and Civil code of the Kingdom of Poland, status and rights of the children are recognised by law.” ***** Besides being his sister-in-law, how did Alex know Konstancja? She was probably his maid in his shoemaker shop. The story here is probably similar to the other single mother I learned about --Anna Eifler. Anna was a maid for a shoemaker and that is who fathered her child. Konstancja was a maid -- probably for her brother-in-law Aleksander, a shoemaker in Tomaszow. Once her sister died, she had five children--which he legally recognized when he married Konstancja eleven years later. The mystery is: why did they wait so long to get married? ***** Image credit: http://www.metmuseum.org/