The Story of Błażej Wisniowski

Błażej Wisniowski (my 4x great grandfather) was in a bit of a hurry after his wife Jagnieszka Szcześnicka died. He was the son of Mateusz and Maryanna Wisniowski, deceased gravediggers, from Sieniawa, Galicia (now in Ukraine) or in Pacanow or Glacinow. His five children were ages 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 Jagnieska’s death. ***** Jagniewska died May 20, 1823 at age 53. By September 7, less than four months later, the Parish priest of Tomaszów, who operated as the clerk of the civil records in the Administrative district of Tomaszów, Tomaszów County, Province Lubelskie, announced wedding banns on the main door of the community house. These were first banns for the planned marriage of Marianna Cyronik, age 25 and Błażej , who was 50 or 55 at the time. There was a very large age difference, but he had been prominent earlier in his role as a pottery factory supervisor even though he was working as a grave digger at this time. Obviously something happened before the wedding occurred to determine they could not be married, and the wedding was canceled. Instead, Blazej and Anna Adamczyk married May 9 1824 at 6:00 p.m. She was a 41 year old maiden, daughter of deceased parents Błażej Adamczyk and Katarzyna nee Fuss, who had been peasants in Wólka Łosiniecka. Anna was living and working in Tomaszow as a servant. The witnesses were Grzegorz Nazarewicz, smith, 36, Jan Kalarzyński, manufacturer, 45, Maciej Wiciiowski, a potter, 55, Michał Kudlicki, shoemaker, 45, all residing in Tomaszów. ***** His first wife Jagnieska’s father Michal 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 Zamoyski who employed her husband in his pottery factory. ***** Błażej and Jagnieska’s children were Ewa, Józef, Wojciech, Józef and Anna. Ewa (my 3x great grandmother) was born about 1809. She married Wincenty Rachański, a shoemaker and later married Józef Kurkiewicz, a farmer and shoemaker. Jozef was born in 1810 and died in childhood. Wojciech was born in 1813 and I do not have any other information about him. Their second child named Jozef was born in 1815. He 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 Tomaszow from Ukraine. ***** Jozef later worked as a mason, and died fairly young at the age of 28. Anna was born in 1816 and died in childhood. When their stepmother Anna died, her stepdaughter Ewa was remarried with four children, soon to be five, her stepson Jozef had died in his twenties and it is unknown if Wojciech was alive. ***** Błażej worked in the faience factory in Tomaszow, owned by the magnate Alexander Zamoyski, likely from the same manor that his wife Agniezka’s father worked as a judge. ***** Maciej Wiciejewski (another of my 4x great grandfathers) also worked in the faience factory, as well as Maciej’s father and Agnes’ brother Bartlomiej, and many of the witnesses for the family’s births, marriages and deaths. ***** Within the Lublin region in the 18th century until the mid-19th century, there were factories in four areas that were established by Polish magnates, including in Tomaszów Lubelski. They were built to compete with imported products. The factories started out making imitations but then they hired artists that created original designs. A popular color was blue. Different factories produced different products such as pottery, porcelain dishes and stoneware. In Tomaszów Lubelski,, in the Zamość Estate, a faience and porcelain factory was begun in 1794 by Alexander August Zamoyski, age 24 and a ceramist, Franciszek Mezer. They established a contract where a square and buildings were signed over to the business. “The manufactory buildings were located on Lwowska Street - it was the only paved road in the city - on both sides. In the period of its greatest prosperity, 50 employees were employed here. For the first 12 years, until 1806, only earthenware was produced”. ***** Local forests were available for the fuel and the clay was brought in from Wolowska, near Lviv, approximately 150 miles away. The local clay was useful only to produce faience, not porcelain. Faience is “fine tin-glazed pottery.” A glaze was developed that allowed for decorative painting to be added which was a major innovation in the history of pottery. It required a kiln producing temperatures above 1,830 degrees F (1,000 C.) In 1806, the factory began to produce porcelain and their profits increased yearly until 1809. Utensils, vases and items for pharmacy use were among the products manufactured. They were famous for their artists creating cups with pictures of famous historical and contemporary figures. The products were sold widely in Ukraine, Poland, Hungary, and Moldavia. Around this time, Blazej was a 40-year old factory foreman and by 1819, he was referred to as “famous” and “renowned.” ***** Profits from sales began to decline and political changes that also occurred doomed the factory and by 1827, the factory had closed. Maciej, who had risen to a foreman position, went to grave digging at least by 1823 – the occupation of his father, possibly before the factory closed. Political changes affected the borders of Poland many times with resulting challenges. The creation of The Duchy of Warsaw in 1807 meant that the factory in Tomaszow and the raw goods in Lviv were now in two different regions. This increased costs such as a new border tax and decreased sales because of the unavailability of markets.. By 1827, the factory was no longer in operation. ***** 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. Błażej was born approximately in the 1750s or 1760s. . 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 Blazej’s prior wife, Jagnieszka. He had been married to Anna for twenty years and they had raised his children from Jagnieszka but less than two years later she died as a beggar in Tomaszow. ***** http://wystawy.biblioteka.pollub.pl/exhibits/show/ceramika/historia-tomaszow (History of Tomaszow pottery) http://wystawy.biblioteka.pollub.pl/exhibits/show/ceramika/kolekcja-tomaszowska (Pictures of pottery from Tomaszow) http://wystawy.biblioteka.pollub.pl/exhibits/show/ceramika/historia-tomaszow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faience