galicia seeker
Joined: 30 Apr 2021
Replies: 83
Location: Mississauga, OntarioBack to top |
Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2025 6:40 pm
Post subject: Franciscanischen survey 1820
I have been wading my way through the Franciscanishen survey compiled in 1820. One of my ancestors, Fedor Szykor, lived in Lecowka, Rozniatow. I have pretty much figured out what statistics they were attempting to record. However, there is a page at the end that mentions Fedor and I don't understand what they were trying to say!
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Photo of page is attached.
My understanding is that there were a group of residents in each village responsible for ensuring that the data collected was correct. Could Fedor have been part of this group?
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SophiaPO Top Contributor
Joined: 05 Oct 2014
Replies: 1536
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Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2025 9:47 pm
Post subject: Re: Franciscanischen survey 1820
| galicia seeker wrote: | I have been wading my way through the Franciscanishen survey compiled in 1820. One of my ancestors, Fedor Szykor, lived in Lecowka, Rozniatow. I have pretty much figured out what statistics they were attempting to record. However, there is a page at the end that mentions Fedor and I don't understand what they were trying to say!
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Photo of page is attached.
My understanding is that there were a group of residents in each village responsible for ensuring that the data collected was correct. Could Fedor have been part of this group? |
Hi, so nice to see you on the forum again!
I will leave the translating of this document to others, but I will comment briefly. The word at the top is przysięga which means oath. Fedor's name in the list at the bottom of the document is a record of him taking that oath. His name is the first of seven, and Fedor is listed as the przełożony (supervisor). You see that the other six of them are listed as deputies, beginning with Iwan (with the word deputowany after his name) and the subsequent ditto marks for the others. Rather than write the word ditto, the scribe used the abbreviation "do" in which the letter "o" is underlined. So all six of them were deputies.
It might be better if you did not have your request in two places on the forum simultaneously.
All best wishes to you for the upcoming holidays,
Sophia
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galicia seeker
Joined: 30 Apr 2021
Replies: 83
Location: Mississauga, OntarioBack to top |
Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2025 7:08 am
Post subject: Re: Franciscanischen survey 1820
Hello Sophia!
It is so great to hear from you again and thank you for your speedy reply! Sorry about the double posting - will have to figure out how to get rid of the duplicate post. I have not been on this forum for a while so completely got lost!
The information you provided is really interesting - seems that gr gr gr grandfather Fedor was an upstanding reliable participant, eh? I only found out about the village/town overseers/team by watching part of an old Roots web webinar. Seems the Hapsburgs were not too happy with earlier surveys and wanted some local assurances that the data was not "cooked" to avoid taxes.
Information like this provides flesh to the bone - these ancestors were not merely names in a family tree - they were real people living out their lives. I wonder if the team members got paid?
Thanks again, Sophia! Warmest season's greetings to you and yours!
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SophiaPO Top Contributor
Joined: 05 Oct 2014
Replies: 1536
Back to top |
Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2025 7:17 am
Post subject: Re: Franciscanischen survey 1820
| galicia seeker wrote: | Hello Sophia!
It is so great to hear from you again and thank you for your speedy reply! Sorry about the double posting - will have to figure out how to get rid of the duplicate post. I have not been on this forum for a while so completely got lost!
The information you provided is really interesting - seems that gr gr gr grandfather Fedor was an upstanding reliable participant, eh? I only found out about the village/town overseers/team by watching part of an old Roots web webinar. Seems the Hapsburgs were not too happy with earlier surveys and wanted some local assurances that the data was not "cooked" to avoid taxes.
Information like this provides flesh to the bone - these ancestors were not merely names in a family tree - they were real people living out their lives. I wonder if the team members got paid?
Thanks again, Sophia! Warmest season's greetings to you and yours! |
Hi again!
I should amend my statement about Fedor being the supervisor. He is listed as przełożony gminy and I hope we can get a comment from Barb on this, as to whether it means that he was supervisor only for the sake of this survey, or whether it means he was the head of the gmina altogether which would make him an important local figure.
You should be able to go to your post on the Polish translation thread and see an option for deleting that whole post. It will be an icon that looks like a white X in a red circle, up near the edit and quote icons. The option to delete an entire post is only available to the very last post in a thread.
Best,
Sophia
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galicia seeker
Joined: 30 Apr 2021
Replies: 83
Location: Mississauga, OntarioBack to top |
Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2025 7:55 am
Post subject: Franciscanischen survey 1820
Sophia, I deleted the duplicate messages from the translation site - thank you!
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SophiaPO Top Contributor
Joined: 05 Oct 2014
Replies: 1536
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Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2025 5:47 am
Post subject:
Good morning Gail,
Well, since I needed something to do while sipping my first coffee of the day, I decided to try to decipher the handwriting as best I could and to ask Google translate to tell me what it says. Generally speaking, I do not favor machine translations like this. Multi-lingual humans are vastly better at translating. However, I think it is appropriate for giving you the general flavor of the document. In some cases I could not read the writing and in some cases parts of words were cut off on the left margin, but at least you can see some of it:
I, Fedor Sikoryn, as the head of the gmina [then brackets and the other six names] as deputies, swear and vow to God Almighty ... all circumstances which will be taken into account when rectifying the old tax regulations, when calculating the census ... and classifying houses ... will be disclosed where my opinion is asked, and I will also diligently and to the best of my ability provide this information ...
And it continues. But I think you get the sense that your original thought of the role of this committee was correct.
I am still unsure how to interpret Fedor's title. I think that the head of the gmina would be a wójt so he may be the supervisor only of this group that worked on the survey but I am not certain.
Best regards,
Sophia
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galicia seeker
Joined: 30 Apr 2021
Replies: 83
Location: Mississauga, OntarioBack to top |
Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2025 2:59 pm
Post subject: Franciscanischen survey 1820
Ah Sophia - you never rest! Thank you for the interpretation. I have occasionally corresponded with a professor in L'viv - he also volunteers on genealogical projects in the area of Galicia where my family came from. He has provided me with a treasure trove of information including folwarki inventories that provide so much clarity to living in those times.
Like you, he has a passion for the past. Novices like me are so blessed by having dedicated super sleuths like you to consult!
Like you, he is not absolutely certain about the title bestowed on Fedor Szykor as shown on the oath page sent previously. He writes: "Fedor Sikoryn was the mayor of the village - the official title in this case was Prelozony Gminy, sometimes he would be written as Wojt, which is the same - he was elected by the community as the person to represent the interests of the community."
So whatever his role might end up meaning, it was refreshing to find an ancestor that actively and publicly participated in the issues of the day.
Thank you, Sophia!
Kind regards, Gail
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galicia seeker
Joined: 30 Apr 2021
Replies: 83
Location: Mississauga, OntarioBack to top |
Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2026 3:43 pm
Post subject: Franciscanischen survey 1820
Hello again Sophia and Happy New Year to you. I am attaching a page from the 1820 survey showing my ancestors - Szykor - in the red box. Any idea what the numbers on this page might be? Any help, as always, is greatly appreciated. Kind regards, Gail
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galicia seeker
Joined: 30 Apr 2021
Replies: 83
Location: Mississauga, OntarioBack to top |
Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2026 4:06 pm
Post subject: Franciscanischen survey 1820
Better photos - top half of page then bottom half!
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Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2026 8:54 am
Post subject: Re: Franciscanischen survey 1820
| galicia seeker wrote: | | Hello again Sophia and Happy New Year to you. I am attaching a page from the 1820 survey showing my ancestors - Szykor - in the red box. Any idea what the numbers on this page might be? Any help, as always, is greatly appreciated. Kind regards, Gail |
Hello Gail,
Some ideas what the numbers on this page might be:
In the first block of the census data you will find the owner’s name(s) and the house numbers. In some cases – Szykor is an example – two names are reported together.
The next block informs about the owner’s legal status (‘Gesetzliche Eigenschaft’). The main difference is ‘Dominikal’ and ‘Rustikal’. ‘Dominikal’ refers to privately owned land usually belonging to a nobleman. ‘Rustikal’ was privately owned land belonging to a peasant.
The block titled ‘Ausmessung’ informs about the size of the lot. The units used are ‘Klafter’, square Klafter and ‘Joch’. The Szykors had 2,062 square Klafter, which equals 1 Joch (1,600 Square Klafter) plus 462 Square Klafter. A Joch had around 5,754 square meter, 1 square Klafter around 3.5979 square meter.
The next three blocks inform about the land use: Aecker or fields, Wiesen or meadows, Waldungen or woodland. The whole land reported on this page was used as fields, growing oats.
Hope this helps,
Michael
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galicia seeker
Joined: 30 Apr 2021
Replies: 83
Location: Mississauga, OntarioBack to top |
Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2026 3:41 pm
Post subject: Franciscanischen survey 1820
Michael! Thank you so much for the translation/interpretation - wowsers, over 85 pages that captured every piece of land and what it was used for as well as how much to tax!
Kind regards,
Gail
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galicia seeker
Joined: 30 Apr 2021
Replies: 83
Location: Mississauga, OntarioBack to top |
Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2026 3:52 pm
Post subject: Franciscanischen survey 1820
Hello Sophia! I think that I solved the puzzle as to whether my ancestor, Fedir/Theodorus Szykor was the mayor of Lecowka/Letsivka when the Francisanische Survey was conducted in 1820 in Galicia.
“This land survey followed the main principles of the previously conducted Josephine survey, but clearly there had been many changes in the ensuing years – new owners of buildings and land, changes in land classification and other factors that affected the amount of tax to be collected.
The task of conducting this survey was delegated to cadastral communities and municipalities, i.e., local mayors and councils.
The delegates from these communities were summoned to local district authorities where they were provided with instructions as well as copies of all essential documents from the Josephine Survey.
They did not conduct new surveys but were instructed to determine and record changes. They marked all the changes that had taken place. Again, no measurements unless previous ones were inaccurate OR a plot was divided into smaller ones or land classifications had changed.”
A lot of the foregoing information was gleaned from a Roots Tech webinar by Lujcian Cichocki in 2024.
So, because the Habsburgs suspected, quite correctly, that data collected in the Josephine Survey was probably vastly undervalued and because the current emperor Francis II needed money (they had lost fortunes in the 1815 Napoleonic War) and need to replenish their coffers, they were determined that this new survey would be more accurate.
To that end, the local municipality committees signed a significant oath – Sophia correctly interpreted this in a previous posting.
When I took a closer look at the document covering Lecowka (my ancestral roots) and nearby Dubszara, I remembered that when villages were very close together, in this case, less than 5 km apart, the committees were instructed to work together to ensure that land was not double counted or missed, particularly on the perimeters of each village.
Apparently, a couple members of each committee went out with the other committee members when required.
So, in this instance, given the proximity of Lecowka and Dubszara, the mayors of each committee signed, with a cross, the oath of the other.
I am attaching the photos – Wasyl Kuczer, the mayor of Dubszara in the lower left-hand page of the Lecowka pledge and Fedir Szykor, the mayor of Lecowka, in the lower left-hand page of the Dubszara pledge.
I learned a valuable lesson here! How unfair it is to send a random document to such great researchers at Polish Origins and expect a response without the appropriate context. I read the 90-page document starting at the END before the light bulb came on!
Thank you, Sophia! In the future I will endeavor to provide more fulsome information the next time I pose a question.
Kindest regards
Gail
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galicia seeker
Joined: 30 Apr 2021
Replies: 83
Location: Mississauga, OntarioBack to top |
Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2026 7:07 pm
Post subject: Franciscanischen survey 1820
Sophia! So little detail anywhere that I could find regarding the composition of the local municipal committees who participated. "The delegates from these communities were summoned to local district authorities where they were provided with instructions as well as copies of all essential documents from the Josephine Survey" It would be reasonable to assume that these committees would be existing administrative bodies, alive and well in this part of Galicia that was formerly part of Poland. I will attempt to research further, but I wanted to thank you for your restraint in your response - my eagerness to accept what I want to hear should not always result a in an answer that is not thoroughly looked into. Kind regards, Gail
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