When genealogists enter the names of the locations where events in their ancestors’ lives occurred, they are faced with the dilemma of how to enter place names so as to unambiguously identify the locations in both space and time.<\/p>\n
On 09 June 1815, the Kingdom of Poland was established by the Congress of Vienna from the lands formerly known as the Duchy of Warsaw.<\/p>\n
The Duchy of Warsaw had been split into several different types of administrative divisions including departments (singular departament, plural departamenty) which were subdivided into powiats (districts) (singular powiat, plural powiaty) which, in turn, were subdivided into gminas (townships) (singular gmina, plural gminy). These same divisions were used during the first year after the formation of the Kingdom of Poland, although only eight of the ten departments of the Duchy of Warsaw were incorporated into the Kingdom of Poland. The remaining two departments (Bydgoszcz and Pozna\u0144) had been returned to Prussia by the Congress of Vienna. The departments that were incorporated into the Kingdom of Poland were:<\/p>\n
Departament kaliski (Kalisz Department)
\nDepartament krakowski (Krak\u00f3w Department)
\nDepartament \u0142om\u017cy\u0144ski (\u0141om\u017ca Department)
\nDepartament lubelski (Lublin Department)
\nDepartament p\u0142ocki (P\u0142ock Department)
\nDepartament radomski (Radom Department)
\nDepartament siedlecki (Siedlce Department)
\nDepartament warszawski (Warsaw Department)<\/p><\/blockquote>\nGenealogists may specify a place name in the Kingdom of Poland from 09 June 1815 to 16 January 1816 as follows:<\/p>\n
name of city or village, powiat, department, nation<\/p>\n
for example:<\/p>\n
Krasne, Przasnysz Powiat, P\u0142ock Department, Kingdom of Poland<\/p>\n
or, if one prefers to write the place name in Polish:<\/p>\n
Krasne, powiat przasnyski, departament p\u0142ocki, Kr\u00f3lestwo Polskie<\/p>\n
The Kingdom of Poland was also known informally as Congress Poland (Kongres\u00f3wka). In my own records, I call the nation established by the Congress of Vienna the “Congress Kingdom of Poland” in order to differentiate this nation from the Kingdom of Poland that existed from 1025-1569 and the Kingdom of Poland proposed as a puppet state by the German Empire and Austrian Empire from 1916-1918.<\/p>\n
From a practical standpoint, one need not include the name of the Gmina, since the Gminas are seldom required in order to precisely identify the location of a village.<\/p>\n
Although the former Duchy of Warsaw departments of Bydgoszcz and Pozna\u0144 had been returned to Prussia by the Congress of Vienna, the administrative structure\u00c2\u00a0of the eight remaining departments of the Duchy of Warsaw were largely preserved in the structure of the Kingdom of Poland from 1815-1816. To convert the name of a village in one of the eight remaining departments of the Duchy of Warsaw to the name in the Kingdom of Poland (1815-1816), simply change \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Duchy of Warsaw\u201d to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Kingdom of Poland\u201d.<\/p>\n
To directly\u00c2\u00a0learn the names of the Powiat and Department to which a village belonged, the researcher should consult the civil registrations recorded in the corresponding parish during the 1808-1816 time period. Most civil registrars of the time included the names of the Gmina, Powiat, and Department directly in the records.<\/p>\n
Other articles in this series:<\/p>\n
Describing Place Names in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth 1569-1795<\/a><\/li>\n Describing Place Names in the Duchy of Warsaw 1807-1815<\/a><\/li>\n Describing Place Names in the Kingdom of Poland 1816-1837<\/a><\/li>\n Describing Place Names in the Kingdom of Poland 1837-1844<\/a><\/li>\n Describing Place Names in the Kingdom of Poland 1844-1867<\/a><\/li>\n Describing Place Names in the Vistula Land 1867-1915<\/a><\/li>\n Copyright \u00a9 2010 by Stephen J. Danko<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On 09 June 1815, the Kingdom of Poland was established by the Congress of Vienna from the lands formerly known as the Duchy of Warsaw. Continue reading