PolishOrigins(TM) Forum

Re: House numbering in Galicia records

Henryk — Sat Apr 25, 2015 12:31 pm

Author: Henryk

Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2015 12:31 pm

In my family village, Kolosy, in former Kielce, the house numbers were all changed in an organized fashion, sometime in 20th century. Probably in many other places as well.

Present day house/lot numbers, in Poland, are shown on maps on this site:
http://geoportal.gov.pl/

Re: House numbering in Galicia records

rsowa — Fri Apr 24, 2015 7:58 pm

Author: rsowa

Posted: Fri Apr 24, 2015 7:58 pm

Tjleszcz...I think in many cases, you might be right. Numbers were assigned based on when the houses were built. There are a LOT of village maps posted online, where the house numbers are identified and often the numbers are (like you said) close to the same when nearby.

However, other research I have done leads me to believe that "as they were built" numbering only happened in later years. Prior to say, 1840 when feudalism was still in place, numbers were assigned (at least the first few houses) based on the importance of the family in the community. Once the numbers were first assigned, they rarely changed for decades and decades. In fact, I suspect they are the same today as they were 200 years ago.

Re: House numbering in Galicia records

Tjleszcz — Thu Apr 23, 2015 8:34 pm

Author: Tjleszcz

Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2015 8:34 pm

I am new to this, but my research thus far shows that sometimes houses were numbered based on the order in which they were built. So house 15 could be across town from 16.

House numbering in Galicia records

rsowa — Wed Nov 19, 2014 9:23 am

Author: rsowa

Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2014 9:23 am

As I study the old parish records for my ancestors, I have started paying a lot more attention to the address listed in the record. One of the things I discovered, was that when one of my ancestral families immigrated to Chicago, they left behind one of their daughters, who had gotten married the year before. It turned out that the family home was then occupied by the married daughter they left behind. In other words, the house remained in the family, even after most of them immigrated to America.

But the reason for my post is to try and find out if there was any rationale for numbering the houses in Galician villages. I wouldn't normally think too much about it, except that two of my relations wound up marrying into a family that lived at house #1. Any other number for a house wouldn't be as intriguing as #1. The first record I found for my relatives at house #1 is from 1849...when serfdom was on it's way out. That tells me that the house number was assigned back when feudalism was still practiced. Could it be that the owner of the house, was in fact, the feudal lord?

This came up for my relatives in Lipnica Murowana, but I am sure that it might be the same for other villages as well.

Thanks in advance,
Richard