My fourth great grandfather, Tomasz Niedzia\u0142kowksi, lived a relatively unusual life. He was born on 20 Dec 1750, he married for the first time at age 34, he lived in four different countries although he never lived more than 10 miles from the place he was born, he fathered children when he was 60, and he died just short of his 76th birthday.<\/p>\n
Both Tomasz and\u00c2\u00a0his wife Cecylia Chotkowska\u00c2\u00a0were members of the nobility, and one might expect\u00c2\u00a0that the marriage between\u00c2\u00a0the two\u00c2\u00a0was arranged. If the marriage was arranged\u00c2\u00a0at the time of Cecylia’s birth in 1767 (when Tomasz was 16 years old), Tomasz\u00c2\u00a0would have\u00c2\u00a0had to wait 18 more years until Cecylia was old enough to marry.<\/p>\n
The earliest known birth of a child to the couple was in about 1793,\u00a0eight years after\u00c2\u00a0their marriage. Tomasz\u00c2\u00a0and Cecylia continued to\u00c2\u00a0have children\u00c2\u00a0until he was 60 years old and she was 44.<\/p>\n
If any of my direct ancestors was born at the right time to see dramatic changes in his homeland, it was Tomasz. During his life,\u00a0Tomasz saw his homeland ruled by four distinct governments: the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Kingdom of Prussia, the Duchy of Warsaw (with allegiance to France), and the Congress Kingdom of Poland (with allegiance to the Russian Empire).<\/p>\n
Tomasz died on\u00c2\u00a017 Dec 1826\u00c2\u00a0and, although he was just a few days short of his 76th birthday, his death record stated that he was 72 years old.<\/p>\n
A timeline of\u00c2\u00a0Tomasz’ life shows the tumultuous political and military conditions of his homeland interspersed with events in his personal life:<\/p>\n
Written for the 52nd Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Copyright \u00a9 2008 by Stephen J. Danko<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My fourth great grandfather, Tomasz Niedzia\u0142kowksi, lived a relatively unusual life. He was born on 20 Dec 1750, he married for the first time at age 34, he lived in four different countries although he never lived more than 10 miles from the place he was born, he fathered children when he was 60, and he died just short of his 76th birthday. Continue reading