Way back on February 3rd, 2007, I wrote about my plan to find my Niedziałkowski ancestors. Then, on June 21st, Agnieszka left a comment on that post, saying:
Hi Steve. I come from a neighboring village of your ancestors. The name of Niedziałkowski is well known in this area and there are still many families probably related to you. The parish you are looking for is called Pałuki…
After receiving this welcome message, I found that the Family History Library had microfilmed the church records from Pałuki including birth, marriage, and death records from 1658-1904 and ordered three films covering the years 1658-1831.
Last week, the films arrived and, on Saturday, I drove to my local Family History Center to examine those films. In three hours, I made copies of nine records of my ancestors. Those records provided names and dates for two generations further back than I had found previously: my 5th and 6th great grandparents!
The earliest record I had previously found for my Niedziałkowski ancestors was the marriage record for my 4th great grandfather, Tomasz Niedziałkowski, who was married on 15 Nov 1785 in the Krasne parish. That record mentioned that Tomasz was from Klonowo in the Pałuki parish, but the record listed the name of the village as Kłonowe and the parish as Pałucene. Agnieszka corrected the spelling of the names of those villages, leading me to the correct location of the records.
On 20 Dec 1750 my 4th great grandfather, Tomasz Niedziałkowski, was baptized.
The Birth and Baptismal Record of Tomasz Niedziałkowski – 1750
SOURCE: Parafia Św. Gotarda (Pałuki, Ciechanów County, Mazovian Voivodeship, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth). Liber Baptisatorum, ab Anno 1740 ad 1754, Księga III, p. 57, Tomasz Niedziałkowski baptism (1750); FHL microfilm 1,496,612, item 12.
Click on the link for a PDF copy of the Birth and Baptismal Record of Tomasz Niedziałkowski – 1750. Translated from the Latin, the record states:
Klonowo
On the year and day and I, as written above, baptized an infant by the name of Tomasz, son born of Ignace & Zofia Niedziałkowski, legitimately married. The Godparents in the Sacred Font were Kazimierz Carmowski & Marianna Lagumina.
The record begins: On the year and day and I, as written above, indicating that the reader must find these details in a previous record. That previous record begins:
In the year 1750 on the 20th of December I, Szymon Antoni Lawistowski, P[romotor] Most Holy Rosary…
The maiden name of Tomasz Niedziałkowski’s mother is not provided in this record; his parents are only listed as Ignace & Zofia Niedziałkowksi (my 5th great grandparents). Luckily, I was able to find Zofia’s maiden name (Szamińska) in another record.
I am not certain what the words following the priest’s name mean: P SSmi Rosary. I infer from other records written by this priest that P is an abbreviation for Promotor, a word meaning champion or prosecutor. I’ll have to find out what this term means in the Roman Catholic Church. I also infer that SSmi is an abbreviation for sanctissimi, meaning most holy, giving the entire phrase the translation of Promotor, most holy Rosary. I assume this is some position within the Church, but I don’t know exactly what that position entails.
The record does not indicate when Tomasz was born but, in the Roman Catholic Church in Poland at this time, children were generally baptized within a few days of their birth.
The record does not state the name of the church, but the header of this section of the microfilm stated that the records were from Pałuki, Par. Św. Gotarda, Diec. Płocka, translated as Pałuki, Parish of Saint Gotard, Płock Diocese.
One final note: On Friday, I received my copy of Elizabeth Shown Mills’ new book: Mills, Elizabeth Shown. 2007. Evidence explained: citing history sources from artifacts to cyberspace. Baltimore: Genealogical Pub. Co.
The source citation for the record above was written using the guidelines in Evidence explained.
Copyright © 2007 by Stephen J. Danko
It’s always exciting to find out more about an ancestral location, and even more exciting when that knowledge leads to more generations on a family tree!
Whenever I read your posts, I’m always so amazed that you can read–and translate–the old Polish writing. Even though I can read printed Dutch and can read old handwriting in English, when I see a combination of the two–old Dutch handwriting–I can’t make heads or tails of much of it. I suppose practice makes perfect.
Hi Miriam,
Yes, I was very excited to find these microfilmed records. I had thought that I had traced the NiedziaÅ‚kowski family as far back in time as I could – to the marriage of Tomasz NiedziaÅ‚kowski and Cecylia Chotkowska in 1785 in the Krasne parish.
These records from the Pałuki parish allow me to trace the Niedziałkowskis back another hundred years! Sto lat!