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