The Story of Blazej Wisniewski & Jagnieszka Szczesznicka

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 her 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 quite a bit older, 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 of the records in this time period, the wedding went through. In this fascinating example however, 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 likely 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. Information about Wojciech is not available. 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 Uhnów, Ukraine. Józef later worked as a mason, and died fairly young at the age of 28. Anna died in childhood. ***** Whatever happened to Błażej’s fiancé? Marianna Cyronśkówna died in 1839, 16 years after her engagement to Błażej, at the age of 42. She never married. Blazej died after nearly 20 years of marriage, on January 20 in 1844 at 2:00 p.m. He 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, Franciszek was Błażej ’s prior wife Jagnieszka’s nephew. ***** 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 Story of Franciszek Gołębiowski & Katarzyna Chmiel

The death record for Fracniszek Golebiewski (my 5x great grandfather) makes me think about all the different ways a last name may be spelled. When looking at genealogical records, the same last name may appear in lots of variations. Some of it occurs because of a spelling alteration such as “c” and " s" in Raczkiewicz and Raszkiewicz. Apparently, spelling wasn’t as big of an issue back then as it is today. I believe I was told that “-wicz” means “son of –”, similar to my sister’s last name which is Peterson. Handwriting might be another reason a name is written as “Gołęb” versus “Gołąb,” for instance. It can be hard to tell a cursive “e” from a cursive “a”. It is fascinating to have variations such as Gołębiów, Gołębiówski, Gołębiów, Gołębia, Gołębiewski, etc. In Polish, nouns may change for gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter). Gołębiowski is male and Gołębiowska is female. Some surnames also used to have endings that can also indicate if the woman is married or unmarried: -iowa for married and -iowna for unmarried. Endings of other words change for lots of other reasons such as number (singular and plural) and for case (direct object, indirect object, possession, interrogatives, prepositional, and vocative – addressing people in special situations.) So when addressing someone and using they name in the vocative case, the nickname Tomek would become Tomku. My understanding of all of the rules in the Polish language is that I do not understand all of the rules! Some records are written in Latin so the name needs to be translated into the Polish version. For instance, Hedwiga would be Jadwiga. Hieronymus is the Latin equivalent of the name Hieronim (the name of Franciszek’s father.) ***** Another interesting thing about the names of relatives is that some of the surnames of my direct ancestors seem to translate into words. Just like in English where common names like “Smith” at one time referred to blacksmith. I THINK these family surnames can be translated to common words – maybe referring to occupations or natural features: Golab (pigeon) Kowol (blacksmith) Kukielka (puppet) Kwiatkowski (kwiat=flower) Plebanski (presbytery or parsonage) Kozyra (kozy=goats) Krawczyk (tailor) Grabek (rakes) Chmiel (hops--used to make beer) ***** Szymon Marzuk, the young genealogist who has grandparents who live in Tomaszów Lubelski, explained that his “7th great-grandparents were Franciszek Gołąb vel Gołębiowski and Katarzyna Chmiel vel Chmielowska, born in Majdan Górny, Lubelskie, Poland.” ***** Katarzyna’s father’s last name was Chmiel and hers was Chmielowska. “As for his surname, his daughter at some point in her life decided to change her name to resemble a higher status.” Szymon shared information from Wikipedia about the addition of -ski/ska to a surname: "Over time, surnames ending in -ski also began to spread among lower classes like burghers and peasants. In the first half of the 17th century, surnames with this ending were given to self-proclaimed nobles from the land of Cracow. This phenomenon was met with protest from the nobility, who considered surnames with a ski as one of the nobility's privileges. In 1638, Wladyslaw Stanislaw Jeżowski (a nobleman!), in a booklet written in verse and dedicated to the economy and charms of landed life, noted with indignation: " ... Noble names They are often used by craftsmen as well, It is good for a craftsman to have a surname ending in, for example, wicz, Not na ski, noble it..." Thus, in order to avoid the complete similarity of plebeian surnames to noble surnames ending in -ski, an orthographic trick was used and they were written in the form oski reserving the form with the letter "w" at the beginning." —---- Franciszek was born around 1753, I am not sure why the family of Franciszek had the name of “Golab” or “Goleb”, except that maybe at some time, they were known for raising pigeons. He was a peasant farmer in Majdan Górny, a village that was important to several parts of the family tree. The village of Majdan Górny was founded at the beginning of the 18th century and takes its name from Górno. Franciszek married his wife Katarzyna nee Chmielewska. Since “chmiel” means “hops”,their name could either refer to a grower of hops or to one of the many places in Poland with this word in their name. Her father was Hieronim Chmiel, born around 1715, and her mother’s name is unknown. ***** Franciszek and Katarzyna had seven children: Michał 1768 approx - 1832), Zofia (abt. 1770 -1840), Marianna 1784 – 1795), Wojciech (1787 – 1788), Apolonia (1789 – 1844), Anna (1792 – 1795), Paweł (1795 – 1847), and Anna 1798 – ?) Three children – Marianna, Wojciech and Anastasia – died in early childhood. ***** Zofia married Maciej Jakubus in July of 1797 and he died in July of 1798. Their daughter Anastasia was born five months later. Zofia remarried Wawrzyniec Turek and they had fifteen children – including three sets of twins! Apolonia (my 4x great grandmother) married Jan Raczkiewicz in 1804. In 1812, Paweł married Elżbieta Przybysz from Tomaszów, whose family were peasant farmers. When Anna married Jozef Grzegorz Kita in 1813, both of their fathers were deceased. ***** Their son Michał had the most complicated story of all the children. It looks like Michał wasn’t quite as lucky as his siblings and was married several times. Some trees on Ancestry have his first wife as Jagnieszka and a son Szymon in Zgrzbeiny but that is very far away and unverified if that is true The name Michał Golebiowski was a common name like the name “John Smith is in the United States. Therefore, there is a likelihood that there was a different Michał married to a different Jagnieszka that is being confused. I think that his first wife was Elzbieta (Helena) Łach, who he married in 1792. She died March 1, 1806, and less than two months later, Michał married his second wife Agnieszka Dominik. Her father was Andrzej but the connection to other Dominik relatives in the Dominik family has not yet been made. She died December 2, 1811, and Michał again married less than two months later, this time to Rozalia Gorbula. She presented an Act of Knowing from the Tomaszów Court of Peace stating her age and that her parents weren’t present or mentioned so they may have been deceased. After Rozalia died November 16, 1824, Michał remarried for the fourth time to Marianna (Sawiak) Dzier. This marriage occurred less than three months later. Michał was a 58-year-old widower and Marianna was a 41-year old widow of a peasant farmer from Majdan Górny, who had died 17 years earlier. ***** Franciszek died on February 13, 1813, at 10:00 in the morning. He died at home (number 20) in Majdan Gorny. He was sixty years old when he died. One declarant reporting his death was his son Michał, a 40-year old peasant farmer residing in Gurnia, who had married two weeks earlier. The other declarant was Jan Raszkiewicz, age 38, and a neighbor. Figuring out which “Jan Raszkiewicz” it likely was, is a process of determining what makes sense. The record doesn’t say this but Jan was likely married to Franciszek’s daughter Apolonia (my 4x great grandparents.) ***** Katarzyna also died in February, seven years later. She died at 6:00 in the evening on February 20, 1820 in house number 30 in Gorno. She was 80 years old and a widow. She had seen her son Michał married at least four times, her daughter Apolonia married to Jan Raczkiewicz with nine children. Her son Paweł had married the year before Katarzyna’s death. He was 35 years old when he went with Jan Raszkiewicz (his brother-in-law), the 36 year old husband of his sister Apolonia to report his mother’s death. They left Górny two days after her death and went into Tomaszów Lubelski and reported to the authorities at 10:00 in the morning. ***** After reading this story on February 13, 2023, Eugeniusz Raczkiewicz sent the following message: “Gdyby mój Stryj Antoni nie wyjechał do USA i nie miał wnuczki Paulette nie znalibyśmy tak ciekawej historii naszych przodków. Z tej historii wynika, że wiele nazwisk wymienionych w drzewie genealogicznym to nasi dalecy kuzyni.” “If my Uncle Antoni had not left for the USA and had no granddaughter Paulette, we would not know such an interesting history of our ancestors. From this story, many of the names listed in the family tree are our distant cousins.” ***** References: Chmiel family history. Chmiel Name Meaning & Chmiel Family History at Ancestry.com®. (n.d.). https://www.ancestry.com/name-origin?surname=chmiel 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 Wikimedia Foundation. (2022b, November 24). Majdan Górny. Wikipedia. https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majdan_G%C3%B3rny Franciszek’s death: Skan - Szukaj W Archiwach. Przejdź do Szukaj w Archiwach. (n.d.-b). https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/skan/-/skan/f9dd411dac30d20455deb2c60574151df33301870119a5e77c1cc405c8ca198b Katarzyna’s death: Skan - Szukaj W Archiwach. Przejdź do Szukaj w Archiwach. (n.d.-b). https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/skan/-/skan/f29ea7f73d11e1491865adb629832cceb20cc2ab06c32d379cd43dc1dae07f58

The Story of Antoni Krawczyk & Dorota Kozyra & Barbara Probola

A period of mourning is typical before a spouse remarries. The length of the mourning period may have been short in Poland in the past, especially if there were young children involved. Anthony Krawczyk (my 4x great grandfather) wed Barbara Probola on May 22, 1824. This was Antoni’s second marriage. His wife Dorota (Kozrya) Krawczyk (my 4x great grandmother) died two months earlier on March 22, 1824 when she was 45 years old. Her death was reported by Antoni Krawczyk, 42, her husband, and Jozef Litwin, 60, a neighbor in Laszczowka where they lived. Her death information was in the record for her husband's remarriage two months later to Barbara Probola. Having children that needed care might explain why Antoni remarried so quickly. Antoni and his first wife had seven children together and at least four of them were living when he remarried, Three of them lived at home and the youngest was six years old. His oldest daughter Katarzyna (my 3x great grandmother) was married November 1823, four months before her mother died. His new wife Barbara was 32 years old and the daughter of Sebastyan Probola and Anna nee Bartnim, who were once peasant farmers, but were deceased when Barbara married. Barbara was living with her brother-in-law in Łaszczówka. Antoni was a 42 year old peasant farmer residing in Łaszczówka. His parents also were once peasant farmers in the same village but were deceased. His parents Kazimierz Krawczyk and Rozalia nee Kubak were from this village in the mid 1700s and many of his children remained there (my 3x great grandmother moved to Majdan Gorny when she married and her daughter Marianna Grabek - my 2x great grandmother - moved to Sabaudia when she married.) There is a Łaszczówka and a Łaszczów. Eugeniusz Razkiewicz helped me understand the difference. Łaszczów was a town in the years 1549-1870.It is currently a town again since 2010. The distance from Tomaszów is 30 kilometers. Łaszczówka is a village about one mile east of Tomaszów Lubelski in Tomaszów Lubelski County, Lublin Voivodeship (area administered by a governor.) It has about 1,000 residents. It was a town from the years 1610 to 1764. The Krawczyk family lived in Łaszczówka. Antoni’s children with Dorota were Katarzyna (about 1800 - 1803), Marianna (1807), Mikołaj (1809), Marianna (1814), Łukasz (1811), Tomasz (1815), and Franciszka (1818). Mikołaj and Marianna died young at age one and age three. The first Marianna likely died early, though her death record was not available. Katarzyna (my 3x great grandmother) married Łukasz Grabek, a peasant from Majdan Gorny, living with his mother and stepfather. Łukasz married Katarzyna Litwin whose parents were peasants from Łaszczówka. Tomasz married Katarzyna Zawalska from Łaszczówka who was living in Tomaszów with her uncle since her parents were deceased and then they lived in Sznury. Franciszka married Sebastian Rejman whose parents were peasant farmers from Ruda Wolowska. When Antoni and his second wife Barbara had an additional four children, Łaszczówka.was a small village of 29 houses and less than 150 people. They had three children, Marianna (1825), Agnieszka (1828), Maciej (1830), before the November Uprising insurgents of General Wojciech Chrzanowski were requisitioned in the village. This was an attempt to rebel against the Russian occupation. Antoni and Barbara had their last child, Wawrzyniec (1833). Their daughter Marianna married Marcin Jakubus, born in Majdan Górny, but working as a servant in Łaszczówka. Marianna died in 1898, at age 64, during a local children’s epidemic. Agnieszka married Jakub Kozyra, a peasant farmer born in Majdan Górny and living in Bondyrz. He died in 1854 at age 25 during a local cholera outbreak. Maciej married Ewa Rejman, from Ruda Woloski. Ewa was the sister of Sebastian Rejman, married to Ewa’s half sister Franciszka ten years earlier. Wawrzyniec married Katarzyna (Krupa) Dziura, a widow from Łaszczówka. Antoni died in Laszczowka on February 4, 1841 when he was 60 years old. He left behind his second wife Barbara. His older children of Dorota were all married when he died. His children with Barbara were eight to sixteen years old. I am unable to find out if Barbara remarried. Dorota’s last name comes from “Kozera” who is a gambler. She was born around 1779 in Laszczowka. While Dorota’s name is Kozera or Kozyra in most of the records, in two birth records and in her death record, she is referred to as Lokaj/Lokay. I am working on trying to find out more about her family.