Uh A Major Mistake …

Mea Culpa  !       Stanczyk played the fool for sure yesterday. I thought I had made a major breakthrough — pun intended. Instead I made a MAJOR mistake. Let’s examine two proper nouns in Russian Cyrillic.

Major in Cyrillic

MAYCHER

<- That is MAJOR

That is MAYCHER ->

The two names are close, but they are clearly not the same name and are transliterated into English (or Polish) as shown. So I erred when I said MAJOR=MAYCHER. Please note my mistake  and accept my apologies.

Perhaps they are the same and Fr. Michal Krolikowski erred when he wrote down MAJOR for Aniela Major, but perhaps he was correct and all of the error is with me. The only thing in my favor is that I have not found any MAJOR in pre-1868 records. I did send an email to a member of the SwietoGen Polish Genealogical Society, to a Kornelia Major, so perhaps she can help me correct my errant ways.

On the plus side, I did find another church record for a female ancestor  (actually a son of hers) that I had previously not  noted before. All in all, it was still a good find.

—Stanczyk

#Polish #Genealogy – Biechow Parish Clergy, including visiting clerics …

I decided to update the info from the SwietoKrzyskie Digital Library, in the book, “Historical Description of Churches, Cities, Monuments, & Memorials of Stopnica“, written by Jan Wisniewska in 1929 . I found that info in the book was very accurate indeed. What I did notice was his info was incomplete. So Stanczyk went through his images and compiled a more complete list. Please compare the image at left with my spreadsheet data:

Years	Cleric
1326-	Boguslaw ?
1391-	Konrad ?
1531-	Stanislaw Biechowski
1553-	? Gladysz
1610-	Aleksandr Lukomski
1641-	Joachim Parzniewski
1664-	Fran. Gogolinski
1668-	Marcin Humienicki
1671-1675+	Jozef Walcerz
1674-1675+	Albert Tryescinski
1693-	Kazimierz Rogala
1717-	Ludwik Siemieradzki
1727-	Zacharias Stakowski
1727-1730+	Antonius Ciolek Zaleski
1731-1759	Kasper(Gaspar) Sebastyan Zabrowski
1738-1748+	Karol Szaykowski
1753-1757, 1769-1782+	Camirus Zabkowski
1759-1764	Valentinus Szeligowski
1759+	Augustyn Zagoborski
1760-1763	Wojciech Basa Radoszowski
1760+	Casmirus Kayski
1763-1769	Matheus Sowicki
1764+	Franciscus Muszenski
1764-1777	Laurentius Lalosinski
1777-1780	Josephus Ignatius Malczewski
1778+	Sebastianus Skwarcz
1782+	Augustyn Filipowski
1779-1782+, 1792-1796	Wojciech(Adalbertus) Wdowskiewicz
1787-1797	Kajetan Aleksander Boniecki
1792-1794	Nicolaus Kotlinski
1796+	Carolus Binkowski
1796+	Alexius Debski
1797-1828	Jozef Parzelski
1797, 1806(Pacanow), 1827	Jan Gliszczynski
1797+	Dominicus Cyranski
1798-1799	Laurentius Gomborski
1798-1825+	Jozef Gierasinski
1800+	Felix Smukrowicz
1801+	Petrus Draskiewicz
1801-1806	Samuel Snorski
1806+	Domincus Boznowicz
1806-1808, 1827-1828+	Franciscus Stawiarski
1809-	Placidus Janicki
1809-1810	Fracnciscus Maykowski
1810+	Josephus Szwanderski
1811+	? Pasternik
1815-1817	Ludovicus Filipowski
1819+	Jacobus Walichowski
1819+, 1825+	Jozef Krzewski
1821-1822	Floryan Milewski
1825-1847	Jan Kanty Bielski
1848-1852	Jozef Stanko
1852-1907+	Michal Krolikowski
1910	Franciszek Dworak
1919	Jozef Banasik
Year(s)	Visiting Clerics (Parish/Monastery)
1720’s-1730’s	Jan Trzeminowski (Pacanow)
1720’s-1730’s	Michal Handzynski (Beszowa)
1720’s-1730’s	Atanasius Jedrzeykiewicz(Beszowa)
1720’s-1730’s	Christianus Ochozki (Beszowa)
1720’s-1730’s	Michal Kolowski (Trzes??)
1760’s	Josephus Kotlinski(Pacanow)
1770’s	Ignatius Glowacki(Pacanow)
1792	Laurentius Kloscenski(Pacanow)
1793	Nicolaus Dabrowski(Swiniary)
1796	Jacobus Walichowski
1796	Jan Gliszczynski(Swiniary) [see above]

This is Major … Major = Maycher (also Majcher, Maicher)

Jakob MAYCHER from Biechow Parish 1880

Stanczyk has been trying to find someone to help him confirm that MAJOR (pronounced by my family in USA as My-Her and misspelled in USA as Meyer) was the Russification of the Biechow family name that has been in Biechow at least since the 1670’s (as far as the record goes back) of Maicher/Maycher/Majcher. In fact the Maicherowich have married the Eliaszow for many years.

Now I have a good friend Jasek of Krakow (a native Pole) who has helped me with my genealogical research (since we both have family from the same ancestral villages). I first proposed to that ELIASZ = HELIASZ = ELIJASZ and after some time and mutual research he agreed with me. I said that ELIJASZ was just the Russification of ELIASZ due to Russian/Cyrillic transliteration. As I said, Jasek accepted my findings and blessed what he called this name “evolution”.

So when I proposed that MAJOR=MAICHER/MAJCHER/MAYCHER and gave my reasons (i.e. no MAJOR before Russian Partition and no MAICHER after the Russian Partition, etc.). I was taken back by my friends, “Perhaps”. If it is one thing I knew about the very polite Poles, is that they will not say you are wrong — unless they know you very well. So instead of a “I don’t think so” or an outright, “I believe you are wrong”, Jasek said, “Perhaps” in an unconvincing fashion that crushed my hopes.

So today as I was looking at microfilm images verifying the Priest names, I was looking at Biechow parish  Marriage Record #4 from 1880. I was interested because, I saw the groom’s name was MAJOR and I thought perhaps he was a brother to my great-grandmother (Aniela Major Leszczynska). So I looked at the record closely to see who the parents of JAKOB MAJOR were. Now when I did, I got excited, because I found the mom was Sofia Heliasz (always good to find those female relatives and their married names). I then noticed that the groom’s father was Antoni MAJOR. I then tried to find a Sophia/Zofia Eliasz/Heliasz in my family tree in the appropriate era and see if I had one that married a Maicher. Lo and Behold, I had my long sought after proof.

I had a Zofia Eliasz married to Antoni Maicher and that they were born about 1814. So when I saw that their Jakob was age 39 in 1880 (implying birth about 1841, when the parents would have been about 27) and I saw that he was born in Piestrzec, the same village where the parents were married, his birth of 1841 is after the 1832 marriage date of the parents.  I knew I had a match. Not only did  I have MAJOR=MAYCHER, I also had a bonus of HELIASZ=ELIASZ [long since convinced of this]. Now this was significant as I had my first proof across the Russian language boundary to the pre-1868 Polish language days.