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

The Life of Paulina (Raczkiewicz) Dubiel

As a practitioner of folk medicine, Paulina (Raczkiewicz) Dubiel would have had knowledge of how to use herbs for healing. While my great aunt worked with her husband on their farm, she was also a herbalist/healer. This picture of cases of herbs used for medicine may be similar to where she obtained her herbs. The Polish Museum of America, a museum in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., contains many artifacts from Poland, Polish Americans and from the Polish Pavilion for the 1939 World’s Fair, including this case of herbs. ***** Paulina was the seventh of the nine children born to the Raczkiewicz family in Sabaudia, Poland. The older children were ages two to thirteen when she was born. Paulina Raczkiewicz was born June 12 1901 at 5:00 in the afternoon. Her parents were Jan, 37 years old and a peasant, and Katarzyna (nee Kaszucki), 30 years old, from a family of furriers from Tomaszow. They lived in the village of Sabaudia. The witnesses at her baptism on June 18th were both peasants – Marcin Matej, age 30 from Sabaudia and Andrzej Luj, age 28, from Podhorce. Her Godparents were Marcin Matej and Jozefa Kedrowa. Everyone present at her baptism was illiterate (at least in Russian), so the priest read the record out loud to them and he was the only one who signed it. ***** The marriage of Jan and Paulina occurred on Wednesday, June 15, 1921 in Tomaszów at 4:00 in the afternoon. Michal Mandziak, 27, and Michal Muczek, 23, both farmers from Rogóźno, were the witnesses. Paulina was 20 years old and living with her mother in Sabaudia. Her father had died six years earlier. Her siblings Piotr, Mary, Franciszek and Boleslaw also still lived at home. Jan was a 32 year old bachelor farming in Rogóźno. His parents, Wojciech Dubiel and Agnieszka Mandziak, were deceased. ***** Jan was born April 16, 1889 in Rogóźno, a village with roots before the 1500s. Rogóźno was colonized by Germans in cooperation with the noble Zamoyski about 100 years before Jan was born, in 1795. This is the same village that Curt Wolf (my newfound 4x cousin) had descendants (Eiflers) that came from Germany to this village. Jan’s father Wojciech was born in Mokrzyska, Małopolskie, near Krakow. By 1871, Wojciech’s father Paweł, had a son in Rogóźno, and Wojciech married his wife Agnieszka Mandziuk in 1885 in Tomaszów. ***** This picture of Rogozno is not of their house but I was excited to see a stork nest in the picture. Who would have thought that white storks and their nests would be a way that Poland and the U.S. differ? Finding ways that Poland and the U.S. are similar and for ways that they are different is interesting. Poland has 50,000 storks, about 20% of the worldwide stork population. They are very big with a 10 foot wingspan, weighing up to 18 pounds. The nests are large, up to six feet in diameter and ten feet in depth. People clean the nests of storks before they migrate back in the Spring. Apparently hundreds of nests will be spruced up. The storks are symbols of good fortune and their return in the spring signals the end of a long winter, just like the return of the robin does for us in Michigan. While also migratory, the robin is only about 3 ounces in weight and has a wingspan of 12 to 18 inches. From a long ago description, “First we pass vast wheat fields. Harvest has begun. Trucks are waiting to be loaded. Storks walk behind tractors and harvesters. Then we pass dense forests.” The author then describes what else he sees and then reports that, “A stork has settled on a lamppost and flies up as I get closer.” ***** According to Andrzej, “After marriage, Paulina moved to Rogóźno, a small village near Tomaszów Lubelski. Sabaudia is a village 2 or 3 kilometers north-east from Tomaszów Lubelski, and Rogóźno is 3 kilometers west of Tomaszów Lubelski. Their whole life they were peasants – they had some land and lived there until their death.” They had six children: Leokadia (1922), Bronislawa (1923), Jan (1926), Jozefa (1930), Edward (1933), and Halina (1940). ***** Paulina died on January 15, 1968. Memories of her may be hard to find because this was long ago but we managed to find a few. Paulina was 67 years old when she died in Rogóźno, Poland. Her husband Jan Dubiel died 17 years earlier at age 62. Paulina and Jan had six children, 17 grandchildren, more than 30 great-grandchildren, and many great - great - grandchildren. ***** Image credit: Attribution: Przemysław Czopor Picture of stork from Joanna Kuzniarska https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stork https://www.polskieradio.pl/395/7789/Artykul/2655718?fbclid=IwAR0fb_40Ia0-KL5ARq9wgiLAyx71os4_954vNnjeHoDES4V06Lud2CWv43s https://vanishedworld.blog/2014/08/03/in-the-borderland/#more-1247

Move to Sabaudia

While it might seem like the Raczkiewicz family was in Sabaudia “forever,” their move there began with my 3x grandfather. Before that the family was in Majdan Górny, and before that they were in Łaszczówka. ***** ŁASZCZÓWKA: 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 Jozef Radecki in 1740, around the time of Pawel Raczkiewicz’ (5x great) birth. ***** Besides the Raczkiewicz family (Pawel and Franciszka) originating from Łaszczówka, several other branches of the family also originated from there. Krwaczyk family members lived there for several generations. Kazmierez Krawczyk (5x great), born about 1748, lived and died there. Kazimierz was born about 1748. His children all remained in Łaszczówka, except one who moved to Sznury. Franciszek Gołębiowski (5x great), born around 1753, lived in Majdan Górny and it is unknown if he originated from Łaszczówka, like the othersIt is unknown who the 5x great Grabek/Walawenders were and where they originated from. ***** Because Radecki 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. (This is why some of the early records are not in the Tomaszów books See: Jednostka - Szukaj w Archiwach 1784 to 1813 Górno, Jezierna, Łaszczówka, Sznury, Ruda Wołoska) ***** Jan (4x great) was born in Łaszczówka in about 1778. ***** Majdan Górny: ***** Majdan Górny is a village that was important to several branches of the family tree. The village of Majdan Górny was founded at the beginning of the 18th century and takes its name from Górno. Majdan Górny and Łaszczówka were part of the same estate in 1747, established by Maurycy Kurdwanowski, castellan of Halych with wife Rozalia Granowska. In 1782 it went to their son Jan. In 1809, a small part went to Jan Kiwerski, the estate administrator. ***** Walenty Grabek (4x great) married Teresa Walawender in 1791 in Majdan Górny. All their children lived and died there. Eventually, Teresa remarried Grzegorz Lebiodowska, from Podhorce. ***** By 1813 or earlier Jan Raczkiewicz and Apolonia Gołębiowska moved from Łaszczówka to Majdan Górny. Jan and Anna’s six sons all were peasant farmers in Majdan Gorny except Michał who later moved to Sabaudia. Why Jan didn’t stay in Łaszczówka is unknown. During the same time period nine children of the Krawczyk family remained in Łaszczówka with only two daughters moving to live in Majdan Górny. Why they lived in Majdan Górny where Apolonia had two brothers is unknown. ***** Michał Raczkiewicz (3x great), born around 1805 in Majdan Górny, married Anna Dominik in 1824. The Dominik family came from the village of Różaniec, and around 1780 they began to move to Majdan Górny. After 1825, the name Dominik rarely appears in the records of the Tarnogród parish. ***** In 1855 another manor farm and house were established. It was originally part of the Łaszczówka estate owned by Hulewicz, until the January Uprising in 1863, when it was passed to the Kozlowski family. They modernized it, added breeding ponds, and started a brickyard. The enfranchisement of peasants at this time meant they gained ownership of 1180 morgens (729 acres) of land and 400 morgue (247 acres) of forest. With the changes to serfdom, peasants were able to acquire land, though often with terms more favorable to the original manor owners. The land that they were required to sell off was often less desirable, often not contiguous with other land, and available in small strips. The financial arrangements were also often challenging. By the end of the 1800s, there were 6 carpenters, 15 weavers, 2 wheelwrights, 6 sawmills, 4 spooners and 1 blacksmith, as well as several beekeepers. 976 people lived there, including 868 Catholics. August 1914, the Austrians shelled the Russians, destroying most of the buildings, and killing around a dozen Austrian soldiers. By 1921, there were 193 houses and 1277 people. ***** SABAUDIA: ***** “Sabaudia is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Tomaszów Lubelski, within Tomaszów Lubelski County, Lublin Voivodeship, in eastern Poland.” It is about two miles northeast of the city of Tomaszow. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabaudia,_Lublin_Voivodeship There are currently 600 people living there. Here is a link to the current area. If you switch to satellite view and zoom in, you can see that the area is still very agricultural. If you click on the picture on the lower left, you can get street view and look up and down the street. There is a little shrine at the intersection. https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Sabaudia/22-600+Tomasz%C3%B3w+Lubelski/@50.4513291,23.4332671,13z/data=!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x4724af60ea937279:0xa350c5b9c962ba7d!2m2!1d23.4341877!2d50.4714181!1m5!1m1!1s0x4724af11c7aacc15:0x268d7ac08cef58c!2m2!1d23.4163099!2d50.447024!3e0 ***** There is evidence the land was occupied as long ago as the middle stone age, but modern history documents brickyards in the 1770’s. A manor was established in 1836 and the area had 15 peasants. In 1837, with contracts with the ordinator Konstanty Zamojski and later his brother Stanisław, it was sold to five Germans, one Dane and two Poles. (I have seen the contract for Rogoźno, from February 28, 1785, that a distant relative acquired from a researcher so the contract for Sabaudia is also likely available. Andrzej Zamojski entered into a contract with 100 German families to live in Rogoźno.) ***** Michał raised his family in Majdan Górny, Poland until around 1848 or 1850, when he moved to Sabaudia. Michał died in the village of Sabaudia on November 4, 1882. When Michał died, he left a will leaving his farm in Sabaudia to his grandson Jan Raczkiewicz (2x great), according to his 2x great grandson Eugeniusz Raczkiewicz. Jan was a few days away from being 18 years old. Jan’s parents were both deceased, along with his siblings, and his stepfather Tomasz Kędra and stepmother Anna Raczkiewicz had additional children in Sabaudia: Jakub (1883), Rozalia (1885), Jozefa (1888), and Jan (1890). Why didn’t Michał leave the land to one of his children? Michał’s children (who were Jan’s aunts and uncles) likely already had land available to them. Michał had three children who died in childhood, a son Marcin had died at age 25 and his widow had remarried, and Jan’s father Antoni who had died at age 26. That left the oldest son Jan and his son Jakób to potentially inherit his farm. However, Jan, age 57, was already farming land in Majdan Górny, possibly from his wife’s family. Jakób had moved to Jezernia, where the family of his wife Katarzyna Kedrak lived. Two daughters of Michał were farming with their husbands: Marianna with Jakub Herda in Majan Górny and Katarzyna with Jan Rekolhicz in Sabauda. That left grandson Jan to be named in the will. Three years after inheriting the land, Jan married in 1885. Jan was 21 years old, a week over the legal age to marry without parental permission. When she married, Katarzyna was 16 years old according to the record, but actually 14 and 1/2 years old, according to her actual birth record. Katarzyna’s siblings and mother were deceased. ***** The village of Sabaudia grew slowly and by around 1900, there were 17 houses with 137 people living there. By then, six of their nine children had been born. During the Russian partition, a primary school was established in 1902, so the younger children were likely able to attend school. ***** In 1921, there were 36 houses, with 35 of them occupied. By then World War 1 had occurred in the area, Jan was deceased, the three oldest sons Jan, Antoni and Jozef had left for the United States. The two brickyards were in operation and people made a living mostly by farming. That year daughter Paulina married Jan Dubiel and moved to Rogoźno, in 1923 daughter Mary moved to the U.S., and sometime before 1927, son Piotr married Jozefa Szczupkowska and moved to Podhorce. ***** In the 1930s, the village was built with cobblestones in the streets and a paved road was built to Tomaszów Lubelski. A small shop was operated, and it was purchased by a priest in 1935. Times were hard and there was little help from the government. ***** “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)