The Polish Village of Szelków (Szelków Parish)

The Słownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i Innych Krajów Słowiańskich (Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland and other Slavonic Countries) includes three entries for the Polish village of Szelków, two of which apply to the village currently known as Stary Szelków near Maków Mazowiecki. The third entry applies to the village of Shel’viv (Шельвів) which is now in the Volyn Oblast of Ukraine and which will not be discussed here.

Today, the parish of St. Simon and Jude Thaddeus is seated in Stary Szelkow. According to the parish website, the parish includes the villages of Ciepielewo, Kaptury, Laski, Łaś, Magnuszew Duży, Magnuszew Mały, Nowy Sielc, Nowy Strachocin, Nowy Szelków, Orzyc, Rostki, Smrock Dwór, Smrock Kolonia, Stary Sielc, Stary Strachocin, Stary Szelków, and Św. Rozalia-Słojki.

Szelków and Surrounding Area – 1910

Third Military Mapping Survey of Austria-Hungary (ELTE Faculty of Informatics,
Institute of Cartography and Geoinformatics); digital images, Lazarus ELTE
(http://lazarus.elte.hu/hun/digkonyv/topo/200e/39-53.jpg: accessed 20 December 2025)

Source: Chlebowski, Bronisław and Władysław Walewski, eds., Słownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i Innych Krajów Słowiańskich (Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland and other Slavonic Countries) – Warsaw 1890, Volume XI, page 890.

Click on the link for a PDF copy of the the Słownik Geograficzny entries for Szelków. Translated from the Polish, the first entry reads:

     Szelków, a village and manor estate on the Orzyc River, Maków powiat, Smrock gmina, Szelków parish, is located on the Warsaw-Kowno highway, 72 km from Warsaw. It has a brick parish church and a post office. In 1827, there were 16 houses and 123 inhabitants. In 1867, the Szelków manor estate covered 870 mórgs [Gerald Ortell’s book on Polish Parish Records states that in the Russian partition 1 mórg = 1.388 acres]: 270 mórgs of arable land and gardens, 14 mórgs of meadows, 70 mórgs of pastures, 240 mórgs of forest, 220 mórgs of thickets, and 56 mórgs of unproductive land. The village of Szelków had 17 settlements and 104 mórgs of land. Mikołaj, son of Widon, a canon of Płock, in 1247 in Płock, in the presence of Prince Bolesław and with his permission, granted to the Płock church for the bishop’s table “the estate which is commonly called Selcovo… with the adjacent villages” (Kod. Maz., 13). The church and parish were established in 1402 by Bishop Jakub of Płock. The present church was built in 1817. Szelków parish, Maków deanery, 2880 souls. Bronisław Chlebowski

Source: Chlebowski, Bronisław, ed., Słownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i Innych Krajów Słowiańskich (Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland and other Slavonic
Countries
) – Warsaw 1902, Volume XV Part II, page 641.

Translated from the Polish, the second entry reads:

     Szelków, Celkovo in the year 1247, village, Maków powiat. In the Płock castle in 1247, Bolesław I, the Duke of Mazovia, confirmed the grant of the villages of Żeromino and Szelków by P., the canon of Płock, to the Płock church (Ulanow. Documents of Mazovia, 155, 7). In 1582, the village of “Selkow” with its parish church paid taxes on 9 1/2 łans (land units), 2 homesteads, and 1 craftsman.

Copyright © 2025 by Stephen J. Danko

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