The Polish Village of Leszno

The village of Leszno is significant in my family history because some of my Chodkowski relatives lived there. The village belonged to the parish of Przasnysz.

Austrian Military Map of the Leszno Area – 1910

SOURCE: Third Military Mapping Survey of Austria-Hungary, Sheet 39-53, Ostrolecka. Online http://lazarus.elte.hu/hun/digkonyv/topo/200e/39-53.jpg; downloaded 10 May 2010.

Słownik Geograficzny Entry for Leszno

Source:  Sulimierski, Filip, Bronisław Chlebowski, and Władysław Walewski, eds., Słownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i Innych Krajów Słowiańskich (Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland and other Slavonic Countries) – Warsaw 1884, Volume V, page 177.

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

4.) Leszno, a village in the Przasnysz Powiat, Karwacz Gmina, and Przasnysz Parish, about 4 versts from Przasnysz.
It has a school, a windmill, a tavern, 56 homes, 614 residents, 1815 morgs of land and 32 morgs of wastelands. In the year 1827 there were 33 homes and 285 residents. The property of Leszno consists of the granges of Leszno and Annopol, the villages of Leszno, Annopol, and Osieczyzna. It is 21 versts from Ciechanów. Its range extends to 1473 morgs; the Leszno grange includes 683 morgs of arable land and gardens, 90 morgs of meadows, 16 morgs of pastures, 158 morgs of forests, 34 morgs of wastelands and town squares, altogether 981 morgs, 7 stone buildings, 18 wooden buildings; The Annopol grange includes 314 morgs of arable land and gardens, 23 morgs of meadows, 2 morgs of pastures, 135 morgs of forests, 18 morgs of wastelands and town squares, altogether 492 morgs, 1 stone building, 8 wooden buildings; crop rotation 1 l-field; there is a beer brewery and a reserve of peat. The village of Leszno has 96 settlers with 832 morgs of land; the village of Annopol has 8 settlers with 8 morgs of land; the village of Osieczyzna has 8 settlers with 39 morgs of land.
              Sob. and Bronisław Chlebowski

There are several other entries for places named Leszno, but I have translated only the one relevant to my own family history.

The maps of the Third Military Mapping Survey of Austria-Hungary and the entries in the Słownik Geograficzny were prepared at about the same time and make a good pair for studying places in and around the Congress Kingdom of Poland at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century, a time period when the Eastern European ancestors of present-day Americans left their homelands for the United States.

Copyright © 2010 by Stephen J. Danko