Dominik Izbicki’s brother, Piotr, was born in Piertanie in 1851. His birth and baptism was recorded as entry number 90 for that year.
The Birth and Baptismal Record of Piotr Izbicki
SOURCE: Roman Catholic Parish of the Immaculate Conception of Mary in Wigry, Poland. Księga Urodzonych (Book of Births). 1851. Entry Number 90. FHL INTL Film 0752640, Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah. Text in Polish, translated by Stephen J. Danko.
Click on the link for a PDF copy of the Birth and Baptismal Record of Piotr Izbicki. The record, translated from the Polish, states:
90. Piertanie
This happened in the Wigry on the seventeenth / twenty ninth day of June 1851 at five o’clock in the afternoon . Franciszek Izbicki presented himself, a farmer living in Piertanie, age 27, in the presence of Antoni Omilianowicz, age 25, and Karol Daniłowicz age 40, both farmers living in Piertanie, and he showed us a male child born in Piertanie on the eighth / twentieth day of the present month and year at twelve o’clock noon, born to his wife Franciszka née Bućko, age 25 . At Holy Baptism performed this day, the child was given the name Piotr, and his Godparents were Marcin Kielch and Rozalia Krupińska. Also present were Antoni Omilianowicz and Dorota Buchowna . This document was read aloud to the declarants and witnesses, all of whom cannot write, and was signed by us. –
Reverend W. Olszewski, priest in Wigry parish
The records kept in Poland before 1918 differed depending on the partition. The records kept in the Russian partition were kept in Latin, Polish, or Russian, depending on the year. Before 1808, records were written in Latin in brief paragraphs. From about 1808 to about 1868, the records were usually written in Polish in detailed paragraphs. After about 1868, the records were written in Russian, again in detailed paragraphs. The reasons for these changes are tightly associated with the political events in the region.
The exact year in which the churches began to maintain records of births/baptisms, marriages, and deaths varied somewhat, but the records were kept in Latin – the language of the Church, and typically these records were maintained for all Poles beginning in the late 18th century.
In 1807, after Napoleon’s conquests formed the Duchy of Warsaw from lands seized from Prussia, civil registration was mandated . Both church records and the transcripts of those records prepared for the state were written in Polish according to the format used in Napoleonic France.
After Napoleon’s defeat, the Congress of Vienna split the Duchy of Warsaw between Prussia and Russia. The portion allotted to Russia became known as the Kingdom of Poland, Congress Poland, or informally as Russian Poland. Records continued in Polish in the Napoleonic style.
After the January Uprising, which lasted from 1863-1865, the Russian government decreed that all official records in the Kingdom of Poland be maintained in Russian. Consequently, by about 1868, the birth/baptism, marriage, and death records were written in Russian. The exact year of the change from Polish to Russian varied somewhat from parish to parish, but eventually all parishes kept their records in Russian.
