Forum | PolishOrigins :: View topic - Catholic church in Sarnowo

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Lani

Joined: 25 Mar 2026
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Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2026 9:09 am Post subject: Catholic church in Sarnowo

Hi, I am new to Polish research and the forum and am trying to help a friend locate the church where their great-grandparents were married in Sarnowo in the Masovian Voivodeship in 1897. I have found the marriage record of the couple, Jozef Korzeniak and Ewa Cegielka, on Genetka and according to that record both of them were born and lived in Zalesie, which I believe is a village a few miles away in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship. I think that the church where they were married may be the Church of St. Joseph in Sarnowo but I am not sure how to confirm that. (An article on this website "A Prayer from Poland" has some of the same locations involved and focuses on the Church of St. Joseph.) Any suggestions as to how to determine which church they were married in would be greatly appreciated. I am attaching the translation of the marriage record. There is also a birth record of their son that is from the same parish signed by the same priest.
Thank you!

Marriage_KorzeniakCegielka.pdf

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BarbOslo
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Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2026 12:16 pm Post subject:

Hi,
Welcome to the forum!
Correct. Jozef and Ewa were married in the parish of Saint Joseph in Sarnowo. See the attached image.
Zalesie, which is mentioned in the marriage record, is located only a few kilometers from Sarnowo. See map.
According to Genetyka, Jozef had brothers: Jan, Marcin, Leon, Stanisław.

Regards,
-Barb

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Last edited by BarbOslo on Wed Mar 25, 2026 1:06 pm; edited 1 time in total

Lani

Joined: 25 Mar 2026
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Location: Virginia
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Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2026 1:06 pm Post subject: Church in Sarnowo

Barb, thank you so much! This is great. I really appreciate the extra information on the brothers.

I have one more question. The couple's son who was also named Joseph/Josef came to the US using his surname Korzeniak in 1912. He stayed in the U.S. until he served in World War I in the Blue Army/ Haller's Army. When he returned to the U.S. after the war in 1920 the surname he used for the rest of his life was Korzeniewski. I am wondering if anyone might explain possible reasons for the change. Could it be that it was more of a Russian name so was this to make it more Polish? I see that in earlier times adding -ski was linked to land ownership and/or nobility.

Thank you!
Lani

BarbOslo
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Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2026 1:19 pm Post subject:

Hi Lani,
Surnames were quite often changed after arrival in the United States.

If this is of interest to you:

Leon was born in the village of Wawrowo parish Dłutowo, on November 6, 1874.
Marcin was born on November 15, 1869 in the village of Gnojenko parish Sarnowo. He died on January 3, 1874, in Wawrowo parish Dłutowo.
Jan was born on May 11, 1863 in Zalesie. His last name was noted by the priest as Korzen. He died on January 6, 1875, in Wawrowo parish Dłutowo as Korzeniak.
Stanisław was born on May 16, 1857 in the village Niechłonin parish Sarnowo.
Antoni was born on December 1, 1860 in the village Łążek parish Sarnowo. His last name was noted by the priest as Korzeniowski.

I have found birth records for Joseph and Eva. Do you have these?

-Barb

jajan

Joined: 12 Jan 2014
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Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2026 3:14 pm Post subject: Re: Church in Sarnowo

Lani wrote:

Hi Lani! I can’t answer your surname question but can provide some direction to the Haller’s Army recruitment records if you do not already have them.

They are available on Family Search at: https://www.familysearch.org/en/search/catalog/1387152.

The Polish Genealogical Society of America (pgsa.org) has a publicly available index to these records. Here is what I found for Joseph/Josef/Jozef’s with a surname beginning with “Korz”.

The form “C” is full of genealogical information. Forms “A” and “B” have interesting info as well if they exist for your recruit.

I hope that this is helpful and of interest to you.

jajan

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Lani

Joined: 25 Mar 2026
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Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2026 7:26 pm Post subject:

Barb, I have the birth record of their son Joseph who was born in 1897 but I do not have the birth records of his parents, the couple, Joseph and Eva. (I realize the date for their marriage was 1896. I had 1897 in my initial post.) Interesting that Antoni's surname is listed as Korzeniowski.
Jajan thank you for the information on the Army!

BarbOslo
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Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2026 3:44 am Post subject:

Józef Korzeniak was born on June 22, 1866, in the village Zalesie parish Sarnowo. He was a son of Bartłomiej Korzeniak and Katarzyna née Sobotka. Scan 73.

Ewa Cegiełka was born on December 8, 1879, in the village Zalesie parish Sarnowo. She was a daughter of Mikołaj and Anna née Nowakoska (Nowakowska). Scan 146.

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Sophia
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Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2026 7:59 am Post subject:

Hi Lani, Barb and Jajan,

I see lots of great work has already been done here. I would like to make a small contribution, as well. Lani, in your first post you wrote that according to the records, the family you are researching "were born and lived in Zalesie, which I believe is a village a few miles away in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship." I agree that that is the correct Zalesie. As you can see from the information that Barb posted about the Sarnowo parish, the town of Sarnowo belonged to the gmina (administrative district) of Kuczbork-Osada. This gmina still exists today and has its own website. On their website is a link to a PDF file of the history of the gmina. There are 108 pages and it is all in Polish, but if you find some particular part of it (based on the index) to be interesting, I am sure you can copy and paste some sections of it into an online translator, although much of it consists of images of articles or books and you won't be able to lift text from those. I will point you to a few pages of significance.

https://ugkuczbork.pl/rys-historyczny-gminy-kuczbork-osada.html

There are several maps. Ones of most interest that include Zalesie are on pages 27, 79 and 107. Otherwise, the author's text only refers to Zalesie on page 80. You can see that the arrangement of which villages and towns belonged to which gmina changed several times through history.

Best regards,
Sopha

Lani

Joined: 25 Mar 2026
Replies: 4
Location: Virginia
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Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2026 8:00 am Post subject:

Sophia, thank you for this information. I will definitely check it out. I really appreciate all the help from you and the others. What a great group.
Lani

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