The village of Chełchy is significant in my family history because some of my Chodkowski and Burski relatives lived there. The village belonged to the parish of Karniewo.
Austrian Military Map of the Chełchy 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 16 May 2010.
Słownik Geograficzny Entry for Chełchy
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 1880, Volume I, page 552.
Click on the link for a PDF copy of the Słownik Geograficzny entry for Chełchy. Translated from the Polish, the entry reads:
Chełchy, the names of ten villages in the Maków Powiat, and in the Gmina and Parish of Karniewo, with which lie:
1) Chełchy Iłowe (erroneously called Silowe), together with Mosaki Iłowe, in other words Iłówek, extends 530 morgs [in the Russian partition 1 morg = 1.388 acres], the property of the Chełchowskis;
2) Chełchy Klimki, extends 267 morgs, of which 12 morgs belong to 4 peasants, 255 morgs belong to the manor; the land is mostly pastures; 195 morgs under the plow;
3) Chełchy Kmiece, extends 692 morgs; 604 morgs of grange land, 88 morgs of peasant land, and 30 homesteads;
4) Chełchy Chabdzyno, besides the grange lands, it includes 12 morgs of peasant lands and 7 homesteads;
5) Chełchy Cibory and
6) Chełchy Dzierskie, constitute one whole [hypoteczna?] about one half mile from Maków; 165 morgs of space, 5 morgs belong to the peasants, of the grange lands, 49 morgs are in wheat, 94 morgs in rye, 10 morgs in meadows and pastures, and 7 morgs are unused;
7) Chełchy Jakusy.
In the Sypniewo Gmina and Gąsewo Parish lie:
8) Chełchy Falki and
9) Chełchy Seborym, having the municipal court for the second okręg in Krasnosielc and post office in Maków.
The first seven villages named Chełchy also use the same post office but belong to the municipal court for the first okręg in Maków.
In the year 1827, all these villages together had 72 homes and 450 residents . A.T.
2.) Chełchy, a village in the Szczuczyn Powiat, Szczuczyn Gmina, and Niedżwiadno Parish. In 1827, there were a total of 14 homes and 79 residents.
Chełchy, Chelchen in German, 1.) a village in the Łęck Powiat, below Ełk [East Prussia], 2.) Chełchy, a village in the Olecko Powiat, below Kowale [East Prussia], 3.) Chełchy, a possession in the Olecko Powiat, post office in Dunajek [East Prussia].
There are several other entries for places named Chełchy, including one in the Szczuczsyn Powiat and three in East Prussia.
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
