PolishOrigins(TM) Forum

Re: Search for Andrzejwski in Brdow

TedMack — Sun Nov 30, 2025 5:04 am

Author: TedMack

Posted: Sun Nov 30, 2025 5:04 am

rfiorille wrote:

Hi Barb, Sophia, and Ted,

Thank you again, Barb, Sophia, and Ted. Your insights have completely reshaped my understanding of this branch of my family and finally given structure to a very tangled set of records. I'm now able to start really building out this family to inclue the siblings of Andrzej Jędrzejczak and Agnieszka Kwiatkowska and their decendants. I’m incredibly grateful for your time, skills, and willingness to help.

Thank you all so much!
Robert

G'day Robert

Happy to help - sometimes you just need someone else to look at things to see what we may have missed. Happy hunting for your further research.

Cheers
Ted

Re: Search for Andrzejwski in Brdow

rfiorille — Sat Nov 29, 2025 5:56 pm

Author: rfiorille

Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2025 5:56 pm

Hi Barb, Sophia, and Ted,

I want to thank all three of you for the tremendous help you've provided. The last several days have been one of the most productive stretches of research I’ve had on this family in years, and I would never have pieced this together without your collective expertise.

Barb – thank you first of all for reminding me that the Geneteka website existed. I came across the site years before my initial post in this thread but had forgotten - or never fully connected - it with the Szukaj w Archiwach website. I’ve been trying to locate people directly in the archive scans without the aid of the Geneteka indices, and using it earlier would have saved me many headaches. Thank you as well for initially locating Jan’s birth record and the 1876 entry, along with the death record for Katarzyna Gibalska in 1916 and Jan’s second marriage (which I hadn’t known about). Finding all of this set everything in motion and helped clarify a mystery that’s been unresolved for a very long time.

Sophia – thank you for your careful reading of the records and for pointing out the illegitimacy issue and the larger explanation behind how illegitimacy functioned in these records. Your explanation finally made sense of why the birth and death records handled the surnames so differently.

Ted – thank you for digging into the surrounding family entries, locating the earlier marriage for Agnieszka’s first husband, and pulling together the Jędrzejczak/Andrzejczak cluster. That context was essential for showing how all these pieces fit into one larger family picture.

What I now make of everything:

At this point, I am not entirely sure what ultimately happened to Wincenty Jędrzejczak, but it is now very clear that his brother Andrzej had a long relationship with Agnieszka Kwiatkowska, and together they appear to have had nine children born outside of marriage between 1840 and 1858:

Franciszka (1840) – died 1842

Błażej (1842, Lichenek) – died 1842

Stanisław (1844, Lichenek) – died 1846

Szymon (1846, Lichenek) – no death or marriage record found

Emilia (abt. 1847) – died 1850

Maryanna (1850, Lichenek) – mother listed as Agata; no death record found

Maryanna (1852, Lichenek) – died 1852, Żurawieniec

Marcin (1856) – survived

Jan (1858) – survived (my direct ancestor)

For the first three children, the indices list the surname Jędrzejczak and give Agnieszka Kwiatkowska as the mother. Stanisław’s record even names Andrzej as the father, despite the couple not being married at the time - something priests in these villages clearly recorded informally. As Barb and Sophia pointed out, Marcin’s record also lists Andrzej as father, and the surname Andrzejczak is used.

What I find curious is that for Maryanna (1852) and Jan (1858), the father is listed as unknown.

However, the death records follow a different system entirely. Even if the father’s name or surname appears at baptism, the deceased children are consistently recorded under only the mother’s surname. My understanding is that civil law required illegitimate children to be legally treated as belonging to the mother, while the church allowed illegitimate children to take the father’s name - even though taking the name didn't make the child legitimate.

Because I believe the Geneteka indices reflect the civil portion of the record, this excerpt from the “About” section of the Szukaj w Archiwach website may explain why some birth records include the father’s name despite the child's illegitimacy:

“Due to a lack of educated individuals, the duties of civil registrars were often entrusted to clergy appropriate to the location where the event…occurred. These clergy were also responsible for registering the marital status of persons of non-Christian faiths… From 1826, based on the Civil Code of the Kingdom of Poland, civil status records were merged with church records… Civil status was recorded by the superiors of individual parishes.”

The most “questionable” entry is the birth of Maryanna in Licheń in 1850, where the mother is written as Agata (not Agnieszka) Kwiatkowska. Although I’m treating this with caution, I believe, as Ted does when he included it among the children, that this Maryanna is part of the same family, because:

I have found no other record in Dęby Szlacheckie with a mother named Agata Kwiatkowska, and

Everything else about the entry matches this family’s profile.

My suspicion is that this is either a clerical error or a miswriting/mishearing of Agnieszka. There is also no death record yet found for this Maryanna, which leaves her status uncertain.

One thing that is consistent is the family’s movement:

Maryanna’s 1850 birth places them in Lichenek

By early 1852, they appear in Żurawieniec, where Maryann, born in 1852 dies, and the remaining two children Marcin and Jan were born

This migration pattern matches the records very well.

Finally, as both Sophia and Ted pointed out, everything comes together in 1876, when Andrzej Andrzejczak finally married Agnieszka Kwiatkowska, and their surviving sons Marcin (1856) and Jan (1858) were legally legitimated by the marriage, a detail clearly reflected in later records and in the evolution of their surnames.

The entire family’s naming history, Jędrzejczak, Jendrzejczak, Andrzejczak, and eventually Andrzejewski, now finally makes sense within the combined framework of illegitimacy, informal paternal acknowledgment, civil naming rules, and later legitimation.

Thank you again, Barb, Sophia, and Ted. Your insights have completely reshaped my understanding of this branch of my family and finally given structure to a very tangled set of records. I'm now able to start really building out this family to inclue the siblings of Andrzej Jędrzejczak and Agnieszka Kwiatkowska and their decendants. I’m incredibly grateful for your time, skills, and willingness to help.

Thank you all so much!
Robert

Re: Search for Andrzejwski in Brdow

TedMack — Tue Nov 25, 2025 5:14 pm

Author: TedMack

Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2025 5:14 pm

Sophia wrote:

Hi Ted,

All very interesting! I see that back in August 2019 I was musing on this thread about the names Andrzej vs. Jedrzej, and here you have exactly that, a family using both Andrzejczak and Jedrzejczak.

Just for clarity, you wrote "Walenty" where I think you mean "Wincenty."

Let's see what Robert makes of all of this.

Best regards,
Sophia

Oooops! Yes, that should be Wincenty.

Ted

Re: Search for Andrzejwski in Brdow

Sophia — Tue Nov 25, 2025 8:53 am

Author: Sophia

Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2025 8:53 am

TedMack wrote:

G'day Sophia

This may go a lot deeper - attached are some location records including Agnieszka's first marriage to Walenty. There was a large Jędrzejczak family in this parish. It appears that there may be other "illegitimate" births for Agnieszka and Andrzej (Andrzej is the brother of Walenty) as included in the last list for this parish. It may take a while to unravel what has happened here and it may revolve around the death of Walenty. Perhaps he went off to the army and never returned? Just speculation, plenty of work required.

Cheers
Ted

Re: Search for Andrzejwski in Brdow

TedMack — Tue Nov 25, 2025 1:37 am

Author: TedMack

Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2025 1:37 am

Sophia wrote:

TedMack wrote:

BarbOslo wrote:

Correct Sophia, both links refer to the same person.
But if you look closely, something is strange.
"Your" Jan was born as an illegitimate child. Recognition of paternity came later, in 1876. The date of birth in the 1876 record on Genetyka is written incorrectly. June 21 was his baptism date.
Recognition came for both Jan and his brother Marcin, born in 1856. Genetyka shows Marcin both in 1856 and 1876. Even though he was born 2 years earlier, both parents are mentioned. I don't know how to interpret that.

-Barb

G'day Sophia and Barb,
I had a look at this yesterday, and it didn't make sense as something was missing. In the attachment from Geneteka you will see the death records for Andrzej and Agnieszka - as well as the marriage record for them in 1876 which may explain why Jan and Marcin were recognised in that year. I can't translate the records, but thought this little bit bit may assist.

Cheers
Ted

Hi Ted,

Yes, the 1876 marriage does seem like a good reason for Andrzej to have chosen that time to acknowledge his sons were both his. I think Barb's puzzlement was more about why the earlier son, Marcin, had both parents' names in his original baptism record from 1856 while two years later the younger son, Jan, was shown with only his mother's name. I interpret that as meaning that Andrzej disputed his paternity of Jan at first, but finally acknowledged it.

Best regards,
Sophia

Re: Search for Andrzejwski in Brdow

Sophia — Mon Nov 24, 2025 5:54 pm

Author: Sophia

Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2025 5:54 pm

TedMack wrote:

BarbOslo wrote:

Re: Search for Andrzejwski in Brdow

TedMack — Sun Nov 23, 2025 8:50 pm

Author: TedMack

Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2025 8:50 pm

BarbOslo wrote:

Re: Search for Andrzejwski in Brdow

BarbOslo — Sun Nov 23, 2025 9:50 am

Author: BarbOslo

Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2025 9:50 am

Correct Sophia, both links refer to the same person.
But if you look closely, something is strange.
"Your" Jan was born as an illegitimate child. Recognition of paternity came later, in 1876. The date of birth in the 1876 record on Genetyka is written incorrectly. June 21 was his baptism date.
Recognition came for both Jan and his brother Marcin, born in 1856. Genetyka shows Marcin both in 1856 and 1876. Even though he was born 2 years earlier, both parents are mentioned. I don't know how to interpret that.

-Barb

Re: Search for Andrzejwski in Brdow

Sophia — Sun Nov 23, 2025 8:55 am

Author: Sophia

Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2025 8:55 am

BarbOslo wrote:

Hi, Robert,
I checked the year 1857 and didn't find him. But I see something interesting that you might already know about.
Katarzyna Gibalska died on February 12, 1916, and Jan remarried already the same year (June 13, 1916) to widow Rozalia Gębka.

From Genetyka - 1916 No.14 Jan Andrzejczak and Rozalia Gębka nee Tomczak - parish Brdów

https://geneteka.genealodzy.pl/index.php?op=gt&lang=eng&bdm=D&w=15wp&rid=2276&search_lastname=andrzej%2A&search_name=katarzyna&search_lastname2=&search_name2=&from_date=1916&to_date=1916&parents=1

I can read that he was born in Żurawieniec. This confirms his birthplace from the marriage record (1882) with Katarzyna Gibalska.
Jan's surname is listed as Andrzejczak. The son of Andrzej and Agnieszka (not Katarzyna) Kwiatkowska. I think that is your Jan. There are other children of that couple born in Żurawieniec parish Brdów.

Sophia can you look at this?

-Barb

Hi Barb,

In reply to both your posts, here he is in 1858 as an illegitimate birth:

https://geneteka.genealodzy.pl/index.php?op=gt&lang=eng&bdm=B&w=15wp&rid=2267&search_lastname=kwiatkowski&search_name=jan&search_lastname2=&search_name2=&from_date=1850&to_date=1860

https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/skan/-/skan/91d4d6816610208471851a66686831d0bb5cc4d2b28b07ce084525bc95170190

Sophia

Re: Search for Andrzejwski in Brdow

BarbOslo — Sun Nov 23, 2025 6:09 am

Author: BarbOslo

Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2025 6:09 am

Hi again,
I found him. He was born on June 16, 1858 in Żurawieniec parish Brdów, but was first registered in 1876.
You can find it on Genetyka. No.59 / 1876. His parents were Andrzej Andrzejczak and Agnieszka nee Kwiatkowska.

-Barb

Re: Search for Andrzejwski in Brdow

BarbOslo — Sun Nov 23, 2025 5:40 am

Author: BarbOslo

Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2025 5:40 am

Hi, Robert,
I checked the year 1857 and didn't find him. But I see something interesting that you might already know about.
Katarzyna Gibalska died on February 12, 1916, and Jan remarried already the same year (June 13, 1916) to widow Rozalia Gębka.

From Genetyka - 1916 No.14 Jan Andrzejczak and Rozalia Gębka nee Tomczak - parish Brdów

https://geneteka.genealodzy.pl/index.php?op=gt&lang=eng&bdm=D&w=15wp&rid=2276&search_lastname=andrzej%2A&search_name=katarzyna&search_lastname2=&search_name2=&from_date=1916&to_date=1916&parents=1

I can read that he was born in Żurawieniec. This confirms his birthplace from the marriage record (1882) with Katarzyna Gibalska.
Jan's surname is listed as Andrzejczak. The son of Andrzej and Agnieszka (not Katarzyna) Kwiatkowska. I think that is your Jan. There are other children of that couple born in Żurawieniec parish Brdów.

Sophia can you look at this?

-Barb

Re: Search for Andrzejwski in Brdow

rfiorille — Sun Nov 23, 2025 12:09 am

Author: rfiorille

Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2025 12:09 am

Dear Forum,

I am hoping someone can help me locate the birth record for Jan Andrzejewski.
According to marcelproust’s translation of his marriage record (posted on page 1 of this topic), Jan was born in Żurawieniec, powiat kolski, gubernia kaliska, around 1858.

I have searched for his baptism in both parish Brdów and parish Lubotyń (because Żurawieniec appears in records connected to both parishes), but so far without success.

Here is what I have found:

Six of Jan’s seven children were born in Żurawieniec (parish Brdów)

One child was born in Bogusławice (parish Lubotyń)

His wife Katarzyna Gibalska was born in Marynki (parish Modzerowo)

Births for parish Brdów in 1857 are not indexed, and although I searched manually, I may have missed the entry

I realize this requires searching across several parishes, but I would be very grateful for any help or guidance in locating Jan’s baptismal record.

Thank you very much!

Robert

Re: Search for Andrzejwski in Brdow

rfiorille — Mon Mar 17, 2025 9:28 pm

Author: rfiorille

Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2025 9:28 pm

dnowicki wrote:

Hi Robert & Barb,

I would like to add a few ideas which may help to clarify the meaning of the word servant as it was used in the Kingdom of Poland AKA Russian Poland during the second half of the 19th Century and the early years of the 20th Century.

Nothing, including the meaning of words, exists in a vacuum. Historical events and sociological circumstances always have an impact on the meaning of words. The year 1863 saw an unsuccessful uprising in the Kingdom of Poland against Russian rule. In the year 1864 the peasants both in the Kingdom of Poland and in the Russian Empire were emancipated from their feudal obligations. (The peasants in South Prussia aka the province of Posen were emancipated in 1806 and those in Galicia AKA Austrian Poland we’re emancipated in 1848.) The emancipation of the peasants in the Kingdom of Poland combined with the change in the Polish economy brought about by the industrial revolution had widespread consequences for the newly emancipated peasants. The 1864 emancipation came with the promise of land reform which was supposed to decrease the number of landless peasants. Unfortunately, that decrease did not happen and instead the number of landless peasants actually increased from 220,000 in 1870 to 849,000 two decades later in 1891. This increase together with a high birth rate had a profound impact upon the peasants population of the Kingdom of Poland. The large number of landless peasants meant that individuals had a difficult time searching for and obtaining employment. Many were on the treadmill of moving from village to village in search of work and never being able to break free from that treadmill. Those landless peasants were referred to as servants because they did not have the land or the ability to be self-sufficient and thus needed to work for wages for minor members of the Gentry (Szlachta) or for relatively well to do members of the peasantry. The surplus of landless peasants insured that wages would be kept low, making it an employer’s market. Some beat the odds and were able to accumulate sufficient funds to purchase their own farmstead but many were not able to beat the odds and thus lived the life of migrants in their own Homeland. This, of course, formed an impetus for immigration to North America. If you can’t beat the odds it’s time to get out of Vegas and head for greener pastures. Clearly other factors influenced the decision to immigrate, including the desire to avoid conscription into the czar’s army, but economics was probably the most important of all the factors. During the period from about 1870 until 1914 emigration from Partitioned Poland was often said to be “Za Chlebem” (for bread). A goodly number of historical tomes from the early 20th Century can help to flesh out the whys and wherefores of the lives of Polish emigrants.

Robert, it appears that your ancestor was part of the group of landless peasants and, if he is your ancestor who immigrated to the USA, he probably did so to break free of the treadmill.

Regarding the dual dates and civil records...Civil records in the Kingdom of Poland were kept in Polish until 1868 and from then until the end of World War I they were kept in Russian (a punishment for the unsuccessful 1863 insurrection) and the civil records always included the dual dates according to the Julian and the Gregorian Calendars. The Julian calendar goes back to the time of Julius Caesar and was a solar calendar based upon the solar year of 365.25 days. Leap years were meant to correct for the fact that the solar year was not 365 days. However the solar year is not exactly 365.25 days and thus with the passage of time the Julian Calendar fell behind the solar year. Pope Gregory XIII commissioned a group of scientists to reform the calendar. A major reason for the commission was the need to bring the date of Easter Sunday back into sync with the season of spring. In 1582 he issued a Papal Bull which was intended to put those reforms into effect. (The title “Bulla” in Latin referred to the wax seals (bullae) which were attached to the document.) Since the Protestant Reformation had already taken place the change in the calendar only went into effect in 1582 in Catholic countries, which included the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth as well as the countries of Western Europe such as Portugal, Spain, and France and their colonies. Other countries of Europe adopted the reformed calendar at various dates in their history. Great Britain and it’s North American colonies changed to what they termed the “new style” calendar in 1752. If you lived in New Jersey in 1752 you would have gone to bed on September 2 and awakened on September 14 even if your name was not Rip Van Winkle. Russia continued to use the Julian calendar until after World War I when the switch was made to the Gregorian calendar. Thus the use of dual dates ended after the Great War.

I hope that the above helps to shed some light on the circumstances of your ancestor’s life.

Wishing you continued success,

Dave

Dave,

Thank you for taking the time to share such thorough insights, especially regarding the use of the word servant. Your explanation provides the context I was hoping to find that would explain my great great grandfather Jan Andrzejuk's movement around these multiple different villages. It's greatly appreciated!

Sincerely,
Robert

Re: Search for Andrzejwski in Brdow

rfiorille — Mon Mar 17, 2025 9:26 pm

Author: rfiorille

Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2025 9:26 pm

BarbOslo wrote:

Hi,
The pleasure is all mine. So wonderful that you found this record. A new document and search will continue. I know this feeling well.
Ask if you need more help.
-Barb

Barb,

I appreciate your shared feelings of discovery in breaking through those brick walls!

I will be asking for more help with translations for other birth records I've found for the other children of Jan Andrzejuk and Katarzyna Gibalski, but I will move those requests to the Russian Translations Pt. 2.

Thank you again!
Robert

Re: Search for Andrzejwski in Brdow

dnowicki — Mon Mar 17, 2025 1:19 pm

Author: dnowicki

Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2025 1:19 pm

BarbOslo wrote:

rfiorille wrote:

BarbOslo wrote:

Hi Robert,
This is the translation:

No.21 Bogusławice
It happened in Lubotyń, on February 8th/ 20th, 1891, at 10 a.m.
Appeared Jan Andrzejuk, a servant from Bogusławice, 36 years old, in the presence of Jan Michalak, 45 years old and Wojciech Adamczyk 40 years old, both servants from Bogusławice and presented Us a newborn male child who was born in Bogusławice, yesterday, at 5 a.m. to his wife Katarzyna nee Gibalska.
At The Holy Baptism, held today, the child was given the name Józef, and his godparents were: the aforementioned Jan Michalak and Franciszka Polkowska.
This act was read to the declarant and the witnesses, who all were illiterate and it was signed by Us.

Regards,
-Barb

Thank you immensely for your translation, Barb!

I hope you can answer a few clarifying questions for me.

First, could you please explain the two dates of "February 8th/ 20th,"? Is there any indication whether the document was written on February 8th or February 20th?

Also, "servant" is a very broad term - could you explain the role of "servant" a bit more? Or does the word simply refer to the generic defenition of a servant?

Finally, can we conclude that they did not give the age of the mother Katarzyna nee Gibalska?

Thank you in advance for your help! Kind Regards,
Robert

Hello,
Two dates: They are written in Julian and Gregorian calendars. You should look at the second one. This is the day the child was baptized. His date of birth was February, 19.
Servant - here is the direct translation from Russian. I think he worked for others.
Sorry that I forgot to write her age. She was 30 years old.
-Barb

Re: Search for Andrzejwski in Brdow

BarbOslo — Sun Mar 16, 2025 10:26 am

Author: BarbOslo

Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2025 10:26 am

rfiorille wrote:

BarbOslo wrote:

Hello Barb,

It is interesting to see that they included both the Julian and Gregorian Calendars. It seems about this time they started including the Polish variation of the father's and the child's names as well. This record is a long overdue break in my research and I am so appreciative of your help. Thank you for the explanation of servant and for updating the wife's age as well.

Sincerely,
Robert

Hi,
The pleasure is all mine. So wonderful that you found this record. A new document and search will continue. I know this feeling well.
Ask if you need more help.
-Barb

Re: Search for Andrzejwski in Brdow

rfiorille — Sun Mar 16, 2025 9:42 am

Author: rfiorille

Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2025 9:42 am

BarbOslo wrote:

Re: Search for Andrzejwski in Brdow

BarbOslo — Sun Mar 16, 2025 8:58 am

Author: BarbOslo

Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2025 8:58 am

rfiorille wrote:

BarbOslo wrote:

Re: Search for Andrzejwski in Brdow

rfiorille — Sun Mar 16, 2025 8:32 am

Author: rfiorille

Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2025 8:32 am

BarbOslo wrote:

Re: Search for Andrzejwski in Brdow

BarbOslo — Fri Mar 14, 2025 11:47 am

Author: BarbOslo

Posted: Fri Mar 14, 2025 11:47 am

rfiorille wrote:

Hello,

I have recently found the following Declaration of Intention document for Joseph Andrzejewski where he lists his last foreign residence as Brodow [Brdòw], but his place of birth is listed as Lubotin [Łubotyń]. This is the first I've seen this location in any of his documents. I searched the archives of Łubotyń for 1891 and believe I may have found Joseph's birth record. Could someone please confirm and provide a translation if this is so?

Here is a link to the document (image number 10), and it is also attached below.
https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/jednostka/-/jednostka/1829748

Thank you!