Consent of parents

When the priest met with a couple that wanted to be married, one thing that needed to be determined is if they had the consent of the parents if they were under the age of 21. The marriage record from November 16, 1862 for Antoni Raczkiewicz and Marianna Grabek says, “They received their parents’ verbal permission to the wedding.” Another example is from 1829. When Szczepan Czarnopyś and Pelagia Romanowicz were married, they were 21 and 20 years old and both mothers gave their verbal consent to this marriage. Their fathers were deceased.

Antoni Raczkiewicz Marries Marianna Grabek November 16, 1862

Today is the anniversary of Antoni Raczkiewicz and Marianna Grabek. They were my 2x great grandparents. On 16 November 1862, Antoni Raczkiewicz and Marianna Grabek were wed in Tomaszow. Antoni was a 20 year old peasant farmer working in Sabaudia who had been born in nearby Majdan Gorny. Twenty year old Marianna was born in Majdan Gorny. ***** The parents of the groom were Michal Raczkiewicz and Anna nee Dominik from Sabaudia who worked as peasant farmers. Antoni was the 11th of 13 children born to their family. The parents of the bride were Lukasz Grabek and Katarzyna Krawczyk and they were also peasant farmers. Marianna was the youngest of their six children. ***** Antoni’s older brother Marcin Raczkiewicz, 40, was one of the witnesses. The second one was Jakub Herda, 45, a peasant farmer from Gorno, who was married to Antoni’s older sister Marianna. ***** # 66/1862. . . The marriage proceeded after the release of 3 banns on November 2, 9, and 16 in the parish church in Tomaszów. They received their parents’ verbal permission to the wedding and didn't sign the prenuptial agreement. This record was then read to them and signed by the priest only since they were illiterate. Signature of ... Felix Kwiatkowski.(priest) ***** Today's record is in Polish. The recent marriage record of Jan Raczkiewicz and Katarzyna Kaszucka was in Russian.

Jan Raczkiewicz & Katarzyna nee Kaszucka Wed November 5

One of the first translations that I received when I started learning family history was the marriage record of Jan Raczkiewicz and Katarzyna nee Kaszucka (my great grandparents.) On November 15 (Gregorian calendar) or November 3 (Julian calendar) 1885, Katarzyna Kaszucka and Jan Raczkiewicz were wed in Tomaszow. While the wedding record indicates Katarzyna’s age as 16 when she married 21 year old Jan Raczkiewicz, she was actually only 14 and a half years old when you look at her birth record. Katarzyna was born in the town of Tomaszów Lubelski. Parents of the bride were Jozef Kaszucki and Paulina nee Kurkiewicz. Her father was a burgher in the town of Tomaszow at this point so must have had some standing within the community. They worked as furriers. Jan was born in the nearby rural, agricultural area of Sabaudia. Parents of the groom were Antoni Raczkiewicz and Marianna nee Grabek. Jan’s parents had been born and raised as peasants in Majdan Gorny and their family was there for at least four generations back to the 1750s. They had moved and were peasants in Sabaudia at this time. Majdan Gorney is a small village about four miles east of Tomaszow and Sabaudia is an even smaller village about five miles north of Tomaszow. Witnesses for the wedding were Katarzyna’s father Jozef Kaszucki, 50, a burgher in the town of Tomaszow and Jan Skurcz, 50, a farmer in the village of Sabaudia. Jan and Katarzyna lived in Sabaudia and their nine children were born there -- including my grandfather, Antoni Raczkiewicz -- along with Jan, Jozef, Stanislawa, Piotr, Mary, Paulina, Franciszek and Boleslaw.

Mike & Connie Liszewski

In April of 2020, I sent “m liszewski” a message on Ancestry. This person was a DNA match with me and we both had the name “Kurkiewicz” in our trees. It turned out to be the tree of Mike Liszewski, managed by his wife Connie. She emailed me back about her husband’s connections to Grand Rapids and what she knew about Anna Kurkiewicz, Mike’s grandmother. At that point, I was already getting records translated from Poland so we worked on how there might be a connection and determined that Anna Kurkiewicz’s father Ignacy and my 2x great grandmother Paulina Kurkiewicz were siblings. So the connection between Mike and me was with the parents of Ignacy and Paulina -- Jozef Kurkiewicz & Ewa nee Wiśniewska. This made Michael my third cousin 1x removed. Shortly after that, Connie and I started working together building the family tree and getting translations. Help from Mike’s sisters has been very valuable. In February 2021, Connie and I started Polish class together. The class is online through the Brooklyn Public Library in New York. We are planning a trip to Poland next year. There are a few of us that plan to go but there is room for more if you want to go! Let me know and I will share what we are planning.

Andrzej Dubiel & Family History

I want to make sure you know who all my “connections” are and how I made them. Andrzej Dubiel had a tree in MyHeritage that contained some of the relatives that I had discovered. I was aware of his tree for a while before I could figure out enough to make any connections. Finally in January 2020, I reached out to him. He has done a lot of research so he looked at everything carefully to determine if there truly was a connection and there was! He shared his tree with me and we have had the opportunity to share what we find about relatives in the past with each other. He has also helped me make many connections with living relatives. I am trying to find all the second cousins and their parents. Andrzej said there are “a lot of us here” and he wasn’t kidding! It has been amazing to make many new connections. His grandmother was Paulina (Raczkiewicz) Dubiel (sister of my grandfather Anthony.} Andrzej is definitely the “go-to” guy for family history! He knows a lot and is really good at tracking things down.

Richard Streng & My Family History

In December of 2020, Jacek Raczkiewicz told me that when he was in his 20s, that he was incontact with a US relative who visited Poland and Jacek later visited him in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Jacek remembers visiting the Grand Rapids Public Museum and Lake Michigan. Jacek helped me get in touch with Richard Streng. It turns out that Richard and his second wife Judy are active at St. Adalbert Church, where much of my family history occurred. I found out that Richard had done a lot of family research years ago. It turns out, Richard had connected with my two uncles Ron and Tony to ask them questions. He remembered that one of them owned a bar in Standale and lived in Coopersville and he remembers meeting the other one at The Cooper Top (a westside restaurant at the time.). Unfortunately, neither Ron or Tony knew any of the family history. Richard told me about his grandfather, Pawel Raczkiewicz. He told me that Pawel had been required to enter the Russian Army and when he returned, his parents were deceased. The family farm had been divided since they thought he was dead so he came to the U.S. We determined that our family connection was Jan Raczkiewicz and Apolonia nee Gołębiowska (my 4th great grandparents and Richard’s 3rd great grandparents.) Richard also told me about being in Warsaw 15 or 16 years ago. He had written a letter to a minister who forwarded it to Jacek’s parents and Richard and his wife intended to visit them in Tomaszow Lubelski. Unfortunately his wife became very ill so Richard contacted them to cancel the visit. Instead, Jacek’s parents (Miecyslaw and Stanislawa) and him drove 5 hours to come to see them, visited for a few hours and then the parents left. Jacek remained for the weekend and then helped them find the way back to the airport. Does anyone else from Poland remember this visit and have anything to add to it?

Connecting with Tomasz Raczkiewicz

Very shortly after connecting with Curt Wolf in September of 2020, he emailed me with some amazing news. During his research and travel to Tomaszow Lubelski, he had made a connection with a person who is a 2nd cousin to me. This was the first connection to a living person in Poland! Curt wrote, “You are not going to believe this but didn’t I tell you I was in contact with a relative over there? I Know he is related to Kaszukis and don’t hold me to this but I believe he is a descendant from the same Katherine who your grandfather came from.Ps. I don’t know about you but I am feeling like a gold mine for you 😊.” I found out that Tomasz Raczkiewicz had done family history. Curt suggested I use Google Translate to communicate. I immediately wrote to Tomasz, explaining the connection to Curt and our family connection through Jan Raczkiewicz and Katarzyna nee Kaszucka. It was very exciting to get a reply, “I am very happy to hear from you. If you want to stay in touch, I will be very pleased.” He gave me an overview of my grandfather’s youngest brother Bolesław and a little about himself and his family. He also shared his Facebook page. We have shared information back and forth and by Christmas I was able to chat on Facebook with his brother Jacek. I am grateful for this first Polish connection.