1810 Biechow (powiat Stopnica) Births Index

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The image above and the second image below are the top and bottom digital picture of the 1810 Birth Index page from Biechow parish (of Stopnica powiat).

A Transcription of names is as follows:

Birth Record    Name
15        Balicki, Jan Kanty
16        Bugay, Katarzyna
3        Ciosiowna, Rosalia
18        Czapla, Andrzey
1        Domin, Jadwiga
13        Fitas, Franciszek
11        Gladysz, Franciszek
12        Gula, Marcin
28        Golen, Mikolaj
4        Koziol. Michal
22        Krzemienski, Barbara
2        Luszcz, Rosalia
23        Lukasik, Tomasz
24        Pinkiasz, Hercyk (Szmulowicz)    Jewish
25        Pekacik, Ewa
10        Resil, Katarzyna
21        Rzand, Barbara
5        Siuda, Jadwiga
6        Sobon, Tekla
26        Stefanie, Kasper
7        Wrobel, Michal
9        Wach, Jadwiga
17        Watroba, Salomea
8        Zdrowski, Antoni Michal (dwoyga Imion)
19        Zmysla, Stanislaw i Andrzey (bliznieta=twins)

Wladislaw III – Father of Columbus

Seal of Wladislaw III (reign 1434-144)

Earlier (2-December-2010 post), you may remember this jester writing about Columbus’ Polish roots.  This was from AOL News reporting on a press release put out by the researcher/author Manuel Rosa here.  Columbus’ Polish father, Wladislaw III reigned from 1434-1444. You can find many of the seals of the Polish Kings at AGAD .  From another blog (Never Yet Melted), which did a very nice review of the story, one of the arguments (besides genealogy, access to royalty, etc.) included a comparison of heraldic seals.

At the left is the actual seal. Only by close examination of the image can I make out the Royal Eagle (of Poland) in upper left quad of the shield and a horse-figure in upper right quad. I cannot quite tease the details for the two lower quadrants from the seal image.

If you compare to Columbus’ (aka Cristobal Colon) heraldic symbol, you can see four quadrants, but I cannot see a resemblance to Wladyslaw III’s seal. A recreation of Wladylsaw III’s seal is here. This bears 4 of 7 elements from his father’s seal. Interesting is that two of the remaining three elements appear in Columbus’s heraldic symbol (if we allow the horizontal bars are represented by the side-wise anchors in Columbus’ symbol).

Stanczyk will just have to wait for the book to come out (in English) or the National Geographic video to make up his mind in total on this matter.  The book (in Spanish) can be purchased from Amazon. I hope an English translation is forthcoming. The comments so far of those who read the Spanish book say the Rosa arguments are persuasive and compelling.

News From … The Head Office of State Archives (Poland)

“Digitalization of  Leszno  Archive”
21 December 2010

The State Archive  in Leszno and Poznan invite you to promote the project “Digitalization of Leszno  Archive. ” The meeting will be held on Wednesday 22 December this year(2010) at  11.00 at the headquarters of the State Archive in Leszno,  Street:  Solski 71st Promotion will be accompanied by the opening of the exhibition “The History of Leszno in the Archival Documentation. ”

The project was implemented under the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage “Digital Resources” priority “Digitisation of Archival Heritage” with the cooperation of the City of Leszno.

Source: The Head Office of State Archives

New Years Resolutions (genealogical)

Stanczyk is waiting for the New Year 2011 to be born. As I have said previously 2010 belongs to Auld Lang Syne. If you have followed Stanczyk, then you may know he is expecting twins (or at least moje zona is expecting, — I am only expecting.). Twin Sons, God Willing, healthy, happy boys who we will name: Aleksander & Chase. We are busy feathering our nest and awaiting the new arrivals. Like the years, genealogy marches on.  Fly true monsieur stork. The jester’s branch grows some more. Well as tradition demands, here are my 2011 Resolutions (genealogically speaking).

1.	Find Tomasz Leszczynski’s 1st marriage certificate (circa 1859), in either Biechow or Swiniary parishes
2.	Compile a detailed list that I could give to a Polish researcher to work on for me
3.	Explore new avenues besides Birth, Marriage, and Death Records. For example: Alegata, court documents, land maps(cadastrals)
4.	Learn about military records in the Russian Empire (1868-1918) for Russian-Poland Guibernias
5.	Get a better Russian-English dictionary
6.	Do some more gathering of Dziennik Polski images (July 1936, Jan 1923, Polish Consulate Images)
7.	Build a Timeline for Tomasz’s Lifetime
8.	Find Marcin Eliasz and Anna Zasucha’s marriage record  late 1840’s (in Pacanow?)
9.	Find Jozef Elijasz birth record in Pacanow circa 1848 and his siblings
10.	Find my paternal grandmother’s birth record and her brother Mikolaj Leszczynski’s birth record

Tomasz Leszczyński de Biechów (part two)

The 2nd Marriage of Tomasz Leszczynski

This is the second part of my search for Tomasz and family. The first aritcle is here . This amazing find was done by my equally amazing friend from Krakow, Jacek.  Stanczyk prized his great-grandfather Tomasz so much, Jacek made an extra effort on my behalf. Thank You Jacek (researcher / genealogist of the Sokolowskich from Swiniary/Biechow/Pacanow/Zborowek parishes).

This document is an alegata. Let me review a bit of Polish genealogical terms to help other new-to-Polish-genealogy researchers. The Polish archives have a few databases ( I have written of them before ), but the most critical to me so far has been Pradziad. If you search their database for Biechow (do not bother with diacriticals), you will find:

urodzenia – Births

małżeństwa – Marriages

zgony – Deaths

and … alegata – Addendum (other, miscellaneous).

So this is an addendum … to something. Now this alegata is fascinating on many levels to me. First off, it is from 1885 and it is testimonial from 1863 !  So this document recounts the events of 22 years ago (from 1885).  Second, since it is the era from 1868..1918, it is written in Russian as is required and … also in Polish. Take a closer look…

Alegata from October 1885 about ...

This portion is written in Russian (old style Cyrillic). Notice the stamp which shows that a fee/tax was paid and the date: 4th-October-1885. The last words (bigger than the rest) mean.. BIRTH RECCORD. Oh, so this recounts a birth from 1863. To give you a place we read the first three lines …

Gubernia Kieleckie

Uezd Stopnickie

Parish Biechow

This is from the Russian Empire era where this portion of Poland is one of ten gubernias previously from the Duchy of Warsaw (Russian- Partition of Poland also known as Congress Kingdom of Poland before the czar made it direct territories of the Russian Empire which would last until 1918).

The three pages go on to describe the birth of a female child to Marcin Major &  Katarzyna  z  Ozarowiczow. I like that this birth was originally recorded at 7pm (in 1863) and describes a birth from 5am. Such detail! It is commendable that their bureaucrats worked late into the evenings. Oh this is a quote of the birth record of my great-grandmother Aniela born Piestrzec (part of Biechow parish)! Oh so the Polish is a direct transcription from the church record of 20-July-1863.

All that was great! But the third page was a Marriage Certificate. I had waited so long to see my great-grandfather’s marriage certificate. Now I would have a definitive age and his parent’s names. I was disappointed that his age was not listed in the record?? Oh, well I know he was born 1835 +/- 2 years, so his second bride was as young as his children from his first marriage. My 50-ish great-grandfather was married again and I know in 1886 what happens (Stanczyk’s babcia comes along).  It appears Tomasz is the town burgher and a farmer and now Aneila lives in Pacanow, while Tomasz still lives in Biechow. Wait a second, neither set of parents are listed. I know Aniela’s from the first two pages retelling her birth. But I had hoped to learn Tomasz’s parent’s names. Oh, this IS a disappointment!

Now I will have to track down his marriage record from his first marriage and that would be the late 1850’s, an era where no microfilm exists in Biechow. I do not even know where Julianna Kordos was born; I do know her parent’s names and her approximate age — so if I do find her record I will know it is her.

Swinary Parish – A Survey of Births 1826-1852

Once again, I have reviewed the images of the indexes to compile a brief survey of the births in the Swinary parish.  As I posted before this Swinary is in southern Poland:

Świniary – 409 osób(people) woj.:  świętokrzyskie,   powiat: buski,  gmina: Solec-Zdrój,    Polish Postal Code: 28-131

[Source: mapa.szukacz.pl]

Year	Count Of Births
1826	124
1827	111
1828	99
1829	95
1830	96
1831	53
1832	95
1833	92
1834	99
1835	112
1836	94
1837	91
1838	99
1839	111
1840	98
1841	92
1842	114
1843	97
1844	109
1845	86
1846	N/A
1847	N/A
1848	N/A
1849	N/A
1850	80
1851	N/A
1852	86

I do not know what to make of the data. There are years missing and the first year was the highest birth registration. 1831 seems to be an outlier with only 53 births. From reading in books, works in newsletters (like by Dr. Paul Valasek), and in my own grandmother’s parish of Biechow which is very nearby, I know 1831 to be a year of the Cholera epidemic. So perhaps an epidemic limited births (or at least their registration).

From birth records (so this may not be a complete/exhaustive list), we see the following villages make up the Swiniary parish:

Ludwinow, Oblekon, Parchocin, Swiniary, Trzebica, Wlosnowice, and Zielonki .

One final note, this parish was in the old wojewodztwo, Kielce in this era (1826-1852).

Other Surveys of Nearby Parishes, I have previously done:

Biechow 1810	http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~meliasz/biechow/Biechow_Births1810.htm
		Biechow 1811	http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~meliasz/biechow/1811_BiechowChurchRecords_Births%20.htm
		Biechow 1812-1831	http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~meliasz/biechow/BiechowVillageHouses.htm
		Pacanow 1883	10 sample births Out Of 203 Births
		Pacanow 1884	15 sample

Swiniary parish – 1827 Births (a selection)

1. Kasper Rosinski
2. Agnieszka Kuckowna (Kuc is probable root)
3. Agnieszka Głosowna
4. Agnieszka Gubalonka
5. Agnieszka Fortunianka (Fortuna family name)
6. Agnieszka Halastrzonka
7. Maryanna Komarkowna

A note is due here. The names are in chronological order. Kasper being the first baby born in the parish in 1827. When I see clusters of names in a row, I think Polish Name day – Kasper is the 6th of January and Agnieszka is the 21st of January, so perhaps those are the approximate dates for these babies.

1. Sbastyan Błaydo
2. Antonina Giolewska
3. Agata Ciostkowna
4. Salomea Malinowska
5. Maciej Wiziaszek
6. Salomea Wybałowna
7. Elzbeita Kuzonowna
8. Maciej Kramarz
9. Jozef Błaszczyk
10. Maciej Misior
11. Maciej Kawalski
12. Maciej Juszczyk
13. Jozef Dudek
14. ? Kiszczanka
15. Kazimierz Juszczyk

… It continues on from there. This is from an index which was not ordered, except by Akt # (i.e. 1, 2, 3, …). Implicitly that is chronological.  By the way, that flurry of Maciej’s probably occurred around the name day of February 24th. In Stanczyk’s family name day was not utilized to any great consistency. But this parish seems to have some tradition of naming babies by the name day.

Stanczyk has indexes from about 1826-1852. I found my great-grandfather’s first wife’s birth record in 1833. In fact, the microfilm had the Latin Box data (usually copies in Russian-Poland partition) and the Polish Paragraph form for the same years, so I could get the data in both forms. This era uses house numbers (pod numerum) which I have found useful again. My ancestor, Julianna Kordos, was born to her father from his 2nd wife. I see her father having babies with wife #1, then when Julianna and her siblings are born it is to wife #2. Julianna’s father is Adalbertus (Latin form) Kordos and I knew it was him because of the house number was common across wives. So keep your eyes open for other clues sometimes they can provide yet another reason to accept the church record as your ancestor.

Juliana Kordosowna birth index in 1833 (record #34)

Information, Free Speech, and Journalism

Stanczyk want to weigh in on WikiLeaks and the many tangents that a WikiLeaks article can take.

I do not think Julian Paul Assange is correct;  In fact I think he is breaking many laws and violating many standards of ethics. So US Supreme Court and US Attorney General Eric Holder listen up, so to speak.

First off, making threats like, ‘Do this or else I will do this” is an act of extortion. When I listen to NPR or read the New York Times or Philadelphia Inquirer, or even when I watch Fox News, I do not get threatened that act against their news/journalistic articles, I will have to bear the brunt of some kind of blackmail. Not even Rush Limibaugh gives voice to such as that. So if WikiLeaks is journalism, why does it make extortionate and/blackmail threats?

WikiLeaks and its supporters cannot espouse Free Speech and then attempt to deny the voices of other organizations via Denial-Of-Service attacks. That is thuggery to claim you deserve Free Speech rights, but then turn right around and deny others, their right to free speech on their web sites or in other endeavors. An awful hypocrisy. It also demonstrates a lack of understanding of Free Speech.

American has had the right of Free Speech longer than any other nation. As such, it has had to deal with many nuances related to Free Speech. It has long been acceptable to outlaw, yelling “Fire” in a movie theater or even to remove people from said theater for creating a disturbance. Free Speech does not allow such irresponsible or reprehensible actions. Free Speech also does not extend to people who make Hate Speeches or to people who incite violence. Those are not examples of Free Speech. Do you not see the principle that “Free Speech” cannot deprive others of their rights/liberties and be considered Free Speech.

Stanczyk has long been an IT worker. As such, data and information and the communication of such is governed by laws. These laws extend beyond national boundaries sometimes.  Stanczyk saw how the latest “Cables” spanned such a breadth of data, that it covered many aspects of the human condition. For example, it was covered in sport news pages, because there instances of how Iran used sports to deal with internal political strife. Who would have thought that WikiLeaks would impact Sports? So too must there be data dealing with:  HIPAA laws (privacy related to medical conditions), PI (privacy information and data) would seem to have been heavily violated. What about identity theft from  WikiLeaks releases? Stanczyk likes his genealogy but also sees that Census data must be on ice for 72 years before being released to the public. So Free Speech and Freedom of Information has long had a defined context of limits.

Finally, the last concept is IP (Intellectual Property). WikiLeaks received stolen property from soldier Manning (whose legal/ethic problems are even worse than WikiLeaks). Assange might not have realized that when he received IP from Manning and that Manning stole this “valuable property” from the US Government, he not only violated receipt of stolen property, and violations of espionage, but also clearly violated many aspects of the Digital Millennium Act (both civil and criminal). By failing to return said information when the property owner demanded it,  it made the WikiLeaks organization as a whole (including distributed agents) subject to confiscation of computer and other technology. This is best understood by comparing this to what happened in the matter of  Apple Computer and Gizmodo on the iPhone prototype. IP is valuable and cannot be willfully stolen or received and cannot be denied from its rightful owner. There are many corporate espionage cases of late that also demonstrate the severity of IP theft and the civil/criminal aspects that accrue from those actions taken.

The many civil cases against Assange and WikiLeaks that come out of the distribution of data in violation of HIPAA, PI, or other identity theft matters and resulted in damage or losses of property or loss of life will keep lawyers around the world gainfully employed for a decade or more.

Assange is learning too late, that Journalists have editors and legal teams to vet stories against laws and customs and matters of ethics. Journalists do not make threats.

As Stanczyk sees it, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Russian Premier Putin have come down on the wrong side of this issue. Putin seems out of place for sure, when one considers how many Russian journalists have been killed. This jester has appreciated Mr Putin’s work with respect to Poland of late and has even written a note of consolation to Mr Putin when his nation has come under attack by terrorists, so it pains this jester’s Slavic soul to call Mr Putin out on this issue — just because Putin sought to lash out against the US in order to make points for Russia on the backs of this difficult issue.

Time will tell on this matter.

 

Tomasz Leszczynski & I, Post Cards, Swiniary – A Hodge Podge

Stancyzk inherited much from his great-grandfather, Tomasz Leszczynski and is happy with his legacy. Today Stanczyk was speaking with a genealogist friend and as I told him I was expecting twin sons in my 50’s;  He then asked has that happened before in your family tree. Stanczyk thought for a second and said, yeah , but not since the 19th century.

Stanczyk had one Eliasz ancestor who had three wives and somewhere just shy of 20 children by the three of them. But I have been thinking about great-grandfather Tomasz Leszczynski recently. I am his descendant via Tomasz’s second wife, Aniela Major. Tomasz’s 1st child with Aniela was Walerya (Stanczyk’ s Busia) at roughly 50 years of age. He went on to have  at least five more children with Aniela, so I guess he had children until he was sixty (plus or minus a couple of years). So Stanczyk realized he now has something in common with the great Tomasz, children born unto him in his 50’s.

Stanczyk, finally received a post card from his Dziennik Polski database, from someone who found an ancestor in my web pages. I had done that as a lark. It has been so many years, that I had forgotten that I asked for postcards. So April, I will post your contact by Helen Steba (and Alojyus Heyza) with your email for others,  related to you to find via the indexes. Thanks April for the first postcard!

Swiniary is a parish in Southern Poland (above the Vistula River, north-east of Krakow). It is very near to Biechow where my grandmother, Walerya was born. So I was searching for some Leszczynski family there (and possibly some Eliasz too). Well I have found Tomasz Leszczynski’s first wife, her birth record in Swiniary!  I am elated to find another clue to my great-grandfather’s life. Now that is great news, but I also wanted to share my largess with other genealogists with family from this parish. In my next article, I will list some family names and the villages that made up the parish. Stanczyk has Birth Indexes for the years 1826-1852 (some missing, some blurry), so if you have an ancestor, drop me a line and I will search these indexes for you. Eventually, I hope to compile another index similar to what I have for Biechow and Pacanow parishes. This Swiniary is located at:

Świniary – 409 osób(people) woj.:  świętokrzyskie,   powiat: buski,  gmina: Solec-Zdrój,    Polish Postal Code: 28-131

[Source: mapa.szukacz.pl]

It’s close-in (12km) map looks like:

Auld Lang Sine…

As the end of 2010 draws near, Stanczyk feels the need to recall his family to mind. The duties of the family historian are felt most keenly. Joys are larger and the sorrows are most burdensome.

Please say a prayer for the loved ones lost to us this year:

9-JAN-2010 – Stephen E. Eliasz, my god father died. I miss his strong wisdom

25-FEB-2010 – Phyllis M. (nee Darbe) Gawlik – my 2nd cousin’s mother. My father was their best man at their wedding

Peace be with them. God grant Stanczyk a respite from the sorrow.

There is an old saying…

When a man dies, his wife is a widow,

likewise, when a woman dies her husband is a widower

If a child’s parents die, that child is an orphan,

But if a man’s child dies, there is no word for that,

for God could not bear to hear it

So a bitter adieu to 2010 as it joins the days of long ago. Stanczyk is looking forward, but like Orpheus, I could not help myself from   sneaking one last peak backwards.

Tomasz Leszczyński de Biechów (part one of many)

It was said by my elders and confirmed by distant cousins who had heard the same story, that Tomasz Leszczynski lived to the ripe old age of 104! For me as it was for Tomasz, I am sure that is a mixed blessing. Now perhaps my grandmother, my father (and his siblings) and perhaps even myself have inherited that longevity. That would be, should be  a blessing. In 104 years of life on this planet, you could generate a whole  lot of genealogy and played  a large role in that genealogy. Tomasz outlived his first wife (Julianna) and took a second wife (Aniela). It is from Aniela and Tomasz  that my grandmother comes, the first born child of that second union.

Tomasz was a shoemaker and an innkeeper, those are facts recorded in the church records of Biechow. There are family stories about Tomasz (was he or was he not descended from royalty). How did my grandmother, Valeria, inherit a mill (not certain what kind of mill) in Łodz ??? In an era of limited literacy, my grandmother was fluent in Polish (undoubtedly her native language), Russian (Biechow was in Russian-Poland partition), and German (the Austrian-Hungarian Empire was just across the Vistula river). Plus she learned English when she arrived here in America, so four languages she was fluent(read/write/speak) in.

The picture that was given to me by Carol (my 2nd cousin, who I have never met in person). The picture is hard to see, it so old (perhaps a century old). But it appears that Tomasz wears a tie and he is seated outside with his wife Aniela [see full picture at end]. I was told that my Busia (Valeria) was one of 12. Well so far I have info on Tomasz having 14 children across his two wives. Indeed two of those children died in infancy (so 1 of 12 cannot be said to be incorrect info). But he lived to be 104. So I have not found his death record (circa beginning of World War 2), but I am fairly confident when I find it, that it will NOT list his parents (as many church death records do), the curse of a long life, your survivors no longer remember that far back. I was never able to find the Leszczynski records in Biechow, except for one record that I believed at the time was my great-grandfather Tomasz’s first wife (Julianna Kordosów). So I recorded the fact, uncertain as I was (time will tell). This jester later joined a Polish social network (Nasza Klasa) and eventually I traded emails with a kind woman who spoke no English. Her maiden name was Heliasz and was from Biechow parish. We realized that we were still too far apart with too many missing links to connect our family trees (although we are very close to connecting them). Unbeknownst  to me she went to Biechow and got the marriage record of my grandparents! So it was true. My grandmother was from Biechow and her father was Tomasz Leszczynski and her mother Aniela Major. So now I had confirmed many US documents listing these two whose names were spelled many ways. Well I was elated for sure. Still why so little info on the Leszczynskich  from Biechow when I had so many microfilm from the LDS spanning decades/centuries even. Well I had also joined a Polish Genealogical Society website (genealodzy.pl). From there I met a genealogist (Jacek of Krakow) whose family also came from Biechow. I lamented to him my problem of not finding Leszczynski when I had so much evidence that this where they were from. Well Jacek, was also very kindly and he found a few early records from Biechow born to Tomasz Leszczynski and a Julianna Kordos from the early 1860s (not in the LDS microfilm I had seen). So now I had a pretty strong confirmation that the death record of Julianna Kordos from Pacanow parish, was indeed my great-grandfather’s first wife. But I do not have a marriage record for Tomasz and either wife nor do I have any birth info on Tomasz other than an indication he was born in the mid 1830’s. So I cannot go further back. If only I could find a marriage record of Tomasz and one of his wives, then I would know his parents’ names.

Aniela Major & Tomasz Leszczynski

Let me end this posting at this point, but the story continues…

Christopher Columbus Discovers … He Is POLISH!

Polonia, this jester is pleased as punch to tell you, that you can now celebrate Columbus Day as well as Pulaski Day, so get out there in September with the Italians and celebrate with pride our newest Pole, Christopher Columbus! Portuguese historian Manuel Rosa has spent the better part of two decades studying the Columbus myth and has now reached a new conclusion, that everything we thought we knew about Columbus was wrong.

First book up on the background articles:

• AOL-  Book: Columbus Was Son of Polish King

• London Daily Mail: Christopher Columbowicz

Apparently Columbus’s grandfather was the founder of the Jagiellonian Line of Polish Kings. And his father was Wladislaw III . Wladislaw III was thought to have died at the Battle of Varna in 1444. Luckily for America he survived, found absolution in Palestine for his wrongs, and settled in Portugal, where the Portuguese King gave him land on  the island of Madeira,  and he married Portuguese aristocracy and had two sons (one of which was Columbus).

Now this story makes sense of why Columbus had access to no less than four royal lines who he could approach and propose such a venture of discovering a new path to the Orient (uh America, ummm, the Caribbean Islands). A Book is coming and National Geographic is also interested in the story. Manuel Rosa is now seeking access to DNA to prove his theory. In the mean time, lets see some Polish flags next September at the Columbus Day Holiday Parades and reclaim our prodigal son from the Italians. This will be a nice entre into October (Polish History Month, Pulaski Day celebrations) giving Polonia two months of pride. Also drink some Madiera wines. It appears we can thank our Polish son for this wine appearing in the Americas — a nice red wine. This also adds to the credibility that Columbus was born on the Island of Madiera (a Portuguese territory at the time) and not in Genoa.