On his Passenger Manifest and in his Petition for Naturalization, Stanisław Markiewicz named the village of Braciejowice as his birthplace. When he lived there, Braciejowice was in Russia, near Lublin. The proximity to Lublin may explain why he called Lublin his birthplace on his Declaration of Intention. Today, Braciejowice is in Poland.
The Słownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i Innych Krajów Słowańskich (The Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland and Other Slavonic Countries) is a monumental 16 volume gazetteer published in Warsaw under the direction of Filip Sulimierski in the years 1880-1902. The Słownik provides descriptions of nearly every city, town, and village in Poland and the surrounding areas, and was written at about the time the ancestors of many Polish-American citizens still lived in the old country.
The Słownik entry for the village of Braciejowice states:
Braciejowice, a village and grange [large manorial farmstead], Nowo Aleksandryja Powiat [District], Kamień gmina [municipality], Piotrowin parish. It lies in a clump created by two arms of the Vistula River, it borders on Jarnułtowice and Zakrzów (Długosz [Liber Beneficiorum] III 240); it constituted the property of the Benedictine Monks of Łysogórski, it was already mentioned in the privilege from the year 1270. In 1827 there were 54 homes and 379 inhabitants here; currently it constitutes primogeniture.
Bronisław Chlebowski
Source: Sulmierski, Filip, Bronisław Chlebowski and Wladysław Walewski, eds., Słownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i Innych Krajów Słowiańskich (Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland and other Slavonic Countries), Warsaw 1880, Volume IÂ, page 345.
Besides this entry, there is another entry for Braciejowice in Volume XV (Volume XV provides descriptions of villages missed in the main work, additional information, and corrections to the first 14 volumes).
Braciejowice 1), a village on the Vistula River, Nowo Aleksandryja Powiat [District] (now Puławy Powiat), has 654 inhabitants. According to documents, in the year 1270 and 1374 it was the property of the Łysogórski Monastery. In the year 1569 it belonged to the parish in Solec. Andrzej Klonowski Kurek paid for 1 field, 2 farmsteads, and 2 tenant farmers.
2) Braciejowice, a forest settlement, Częstochowa Powiat, Popi gmina [municipality], it has 1 home, 4 inhabitants, and an 800 mórg manor. It went into the storehouse of the primogeniture grant of the line of Father Czerkaski.
Source: Chlebowski, Bronisław, Józefa Krzywicki, Filip Sulimierski, and Władysław Walewski, eds., Słownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i Innych Krajów Słowiańskich (Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland and other Slavonic Countries), Warsaw 1900, Volume XVÂ, page 226.
The entry from Volume 1 is for a village near Lublin, so this is probably the correct ancestral village for Stanisław Markiewicz. Of the two entries in Volume 15, the first elaborates on the information on the same village described in Volume 1. The second entry is for a village of the same name near Częstochowa – far from Lublin and not likely to be the correct village since it consists of only one home and four inhabitants.
While the Słownik entries don’t provide a whole lot of detail about Braciejowice, they do provide one very important piece of information – the location of the parish church. According to Volume I, the parish church was located in Piotrowin. The entry in Volume XV says that in 1569 the parish church was in Solec, but this time period is well before the time Stanisław lived there.
A search on mapa.Szukacz.pl shows the location of the village. A search for the parish village of Piotrowin shows that Piotrowin is over 60 miles from Braciejowice. This village can’t be the correct parish church. Solec is close to Braciejowice, but Piotrowin is not.
Lidia Mí¼llerowa’s book Roman Catholic Parishes in the Polish People’s Republic in 1984 (Polish Genealogical Society of America, Chicago, 1995) shows a parish in the village of Piotrawin (note the spelling difference – Piotrowin – Piotrawin). Piotrawin is within about 5 miles of Braciejowice. Was there a spelling error in the Słownik?
A check of the Słownik entry for Piotrawin provides a lengthy description of this village. The passage begins:
Piotrawin, erroneously Piotrowin, in Długosz Pyotrawin, a village and grange [large manorial farmstead] on the Vistula River, Nowo Aleksandryja Powiat [District] (Pulawy), Kamień gmina [municipality], Piotrawin parish….
Source: Chlebowski, Bronisław, Władysław Walewski, and Filip Sulimierski, eds., Słownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i Innych Krajów Słowiańskich (Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland and other Slavonic Countries), Warsaw 1887, Volume VIIIÂ, pages 185-186.
So, the parish for Braciejowice is in Piotrawin. The next question is – does the Family History Library have the parish records for Piotrawin in their collection? The answer is yes!
The Family History Library has microfilmed records for the parish of Piotrawin including:
- Acta urodzeń (Birth Records) – 1810-1833, 1836-1845, 1850-1914
- Acta małżenstw (Marriage Records) – 1810-1913
- Acta zygonów (Death Records) – 1810-1833, 1836-1845, 1849-1909
This is excellent! While there are some gaps in the records, the time period when Stanisław was born, when his parents were married, and when his parents were born seems to be covered. There is even a chance that Stanisław’s ancestry can be traced back to 1810. There is also a chance that Stanisław’s family is not represented in these records at all, but this is an excellent lead to finding more about the ancestry of Stanisław Markiewicz.
I can order these microfilms through my local Family History Center in San Bruno, California, or I can just wait until my next trip to Salt Lake City. In the meantime, there are some additional records on the Markiewicz family that can be obtained online.
Tomorrow: the Markiewicz family in the Census
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