In the year 2000, I visited Poland with two friends . We flew into Kraków where we spent a few days sightseeing . Then we drove to Tarnów where we stayed two nights and toured the Castle at Łańcut .  During our stay in Łańcut, we drove down to Dubiecko and Nienadowa, the village where my Dańko ancestors lived . I previously described the Church in Dubiecko, and what I found there . In short, I found the record for my great grandfather’s second marriage to Zofia Głowacz, but that was all . Because time was short, we had to leave Dubiecko and Nienadowa, knowing that there were a large number of church records we didn’t have the time to examine . We drove to the village of Kazimierz Dolny and then to Warszawa . The trip was exciting and beautiful, and I look forward to the opportunity to return one day.
Wawel Castle in Kraków
Not long after my trip to Poland, I hired a professional genealogist in Poland to go to the church in Dubiecko and search for more records about my family . He spent a week there, and was able to take digital pictures of about 50 baptismal, marriage, and death records for my ancestors.
The church records in the former Galicia used a set of preprinted pages where the information was entered in columns, many records to a page . In general, there were separate books for baptisms, marriages, and deaths, and within any given book, the records for a single village within the parish were grouped together . The entries for a particular village were made sequentially during the year and are written in Latin, although annotations are sometimes made in Polish.
The birth and baptismal records include the following information:
- The year
- Nrus serialis – Sequential number
- Mensis – Month
- Natus – (Day of) birth
- Baptisatus – (Day of) baptism
- Numerus domus – House number
- Nomen Infantis – Given name of the Infant
- Religio – Religion
- Sexus (Puer, Puella) – Sex (Boy, Girl)
- Thori (Legitimi, Illegitimi) – Bed (Legitimate, Illegitimate)
- Parentes – Parents
- Patris (ac parentum suorem nomen, cognomen et conditio ejus) – Father (and also the given name, surname and status of the parent)
- Matris (ac parentum suorem nomen, cognomen et conditio) – Mother (and also the given name, surname and status of the parent)
- Patrini (eorum Nomen et Conditio) – Godparents (their Name and Status)
In order to display the birth and baptismal records for my ancestors, I cut the appropriate parts of the page and pasted the header and the relevant record into a new document . I then converted the record into a PDF file . The birth and baptismal record for Michał Dańko, my paternal grandfather, provides the following information:
- He was born on September 22, 1877 and was baptized on September 23, 1877.
- His birth was the 48th birth in Nienadowa for the year 1877
- His family lived in house number 196
- His name was Michał [the document gives the names in Latin]
- He was a Catholic boy and his birth was legitimate
- His father was Jakub Dańko, a farmer whose parents were the married couple Pawel Dańko and Zofia Szymańska
- His mother was Agnieszka Sowa, the daughter of the married couple Maciej Sowa and Katarzyna Jach
- His Godparents were Andrzej Giergont, a farmer, and Marianna, the widow of Kazimierz [Funali?]
- He was baptised by Father [Arkanakielski?]
- The midwife was Agnieszka Pilch
Genealogical Trivia
Ellis Island operated from 1892 to 1954, during which time nearly twelve million immigrants arrived at Ellis Island, seeking a new life in America.
Copyright © 2006 by Stephen J. Danko
