Three Microfilms Studied: 1898452-4. 1686+. See M52 for Notes

Luszowice

Three microfilms studied: 1898452-4. 1686+. See M52 for notes.

Bator

I spotted a few Bator records. Very few were noted, and fewer yet were entered into the Excel file. A Franciszek was born 1757. This is documented in Wadowice.Doc.

Bielat

Jadwiga Bielat is my ancestor, who married Wojciech Kmiec.

There are two Jadwiga Kmiec death records, but the older one died Feb 1758 a few months before my ancestors married, and that older one matches up with a 1709 marriage to a Kazimierz Kmiec, so she is an older person not Bielat.

The 1771 Jadwiga Kmiec death is documented and discussed under Wojciech Kmiec, below.

Franciszek father of Michal Gwozdz of Luszowice (below) also married a Jadwiga Bielat, in 1742. Their oldest son, Jan, was born in 1759 a year after that other Jadwiga Bielat married Kmiec. I found a Jadwiga Gwozdz death record, 1787, age 70; this is very likely her. Conclusion: There were 3 Jadwiga Bielat but the other 2 are older than my ancestor.

My Jadwiga was born 1771 - 36 = about 1735, before the birth records start in 1741.

There is a 4th, younger Jadwiga Bielat born 1751.

Just in case, I double checked the birth records from the start May 1741 through Oct 1745; she is not there. Cannot be born after Oct 1745, because that would make her only 13 at marriage, not reasonable. Nov 1745 - Dec 1748 were never checked for Bielat because I was not aware of the Bielat name when studing the earliest records.

Just in case, I spot checked 1750 - 1758 to see if any godmothers have father names; none spotted.

My Jadwiga’s parents were probably married about 1730, surely between 1700 - 1740. The Bielat marriages are: 1708, 1709, 1717, 1726, 1729, and 1733, all good candidates, particularly the 3 in the middle.

The 1708 marriage would mean Jadwiga was born 27 years after marriage, not common, but not a good reason to rule out the 1708 and 1709 couples.

My descendancy has that 1733 marriage family with the child Jadwiga born 1751 to Tomasz and Zofia. Five children born to Tomasz Bielat and Zofia (no last name given). No children 1741 - 1750. (No birth records 1733 - 1740.) It seems very unlikely that they married in 1733, then perhaps had children in the 1730’s, then no kids in the 1740’s, then 5 kids 1751 - 1772, that last child 39 years after marriage. More likely, there is another Tomasz Bielat who married a Zofia from another town (or I missed a marriage). So that 1751 Jadwiga birth does not elliminate Tomasz and Zofia as possible ancestors.

I see no way to pick one of the 6 groom and bride pairs as my ancestors.

In addition, there is a Szczepan Bielat who died at age 50 in 1740 with no indication if he ever married; he is a 7th candidate for my ancestor.

Tantalizing. The next generation would be “coulumn 7” on my charts, for which I have no names. They may be in front of me. One of those 1708 and 1709 marriage could be it. Two other families have children in that 1688 - 1691 book. So there are 4 possible column 7 Bielat ancestor couples on my list, and of course I could be missing the correct one.

The bride village is not mentioned in the 1758 marriage, but both witnesses are from Swierze, which indicates that may be the Bielat home. Many of the Bielat birth records are from Swierze. I am a little confused about “Stara Wies”, another Bielat home; I suspect Stara Wies is another name for Swierze, which I am guessing is the old manor of the local gentry; I’m not sure.`

Gwozdz

Michal Gwozdz of Smykow born 1756 is a contemporary of my ancestor Michal Gwozdz. Michal of Smykow is probably a little older. I was suspicious he may be the same person. Funny how he has 3 kids between 1788 and 1793, then no more. I wondered maybe wife Ewa died and he moved to Wadowice. I got sidetracked by that “Anus Militaris”; 1793 deaths seem to be missing; I copied that part of the death book for the raw data file. However, after a lot to time checking death records (see raw data) I found a Michal Gwozdz death record, 1829. Age 70 implies birth year 1759, close enough to actual 1756. Death house 77 same a birth house of oldest child. Death record copy in analysis file. Since I found no other contemporary Michal Gwozdz in the records, is is reasonable to conclude that he lived and died in Luszowice. I found a Heva Gwozdz death record, Luszowice, 1844, age 80, implies birth 1764, right age to be Michal’s wife. The record, house 115, just says “vidua” without naming the late husband, so the ID is not very solid, but I saw no other Ewa Gwozdz individuals, so she is likely the right one.

Conclusion: These Gwozdz not related to my family.

Kmiec

Summary: Katarzyna Wrobel married Andrzej Kulaga in Luszowice parish in 1784 or 1785. Their child was born 29 Oct 1785. Andrzej died in 1785 or 1786. Katarzyna remarried 16 Sep 1787 to Jozef Kmiec. Their first child was born 12 Dec 1788, still Luszowice parish. Apparently, they moved to Wadowice about 1789. Their second child was born 24 May 1790 in Wadowice parish (17 months later). They had 5 more children in Wadowice. Katarzyna died 4 May 1803. Jozef remarried 23 May 1803 to Maryanna Ogorzalek; this is my ancestor couple.

Evidence that Jozef Kmiec moved from Luszowice to Wadowice: Jozef 1 Kmiec 0 of Wadowice has first wife Katarzyna. No marriage record in Wad. Wife “Catharina Wroblowna” named in 6 births 24 May 1790 to 4 Jan 1803. Katarzyna death 4 May 1803. The Wad house numbers vary; death house number does not match any birth number. In Luszowice, one birth, Tomasz, to “Josephus Kiec & Catharina Wroblowna” 12 Dec 1788, house 62 Luszowice village. Too bad about that missing “m” in “Kiec”. No further births to Jozef Kiec or Kmiec married to any Katarzyna in the Luszowice parish 1790 - 1725.

More evidence; marriage. 16 Sep 1787 (Luszowice parish, Smykow book): Jozef Kmiec & Katarzyna Kulazyna, widow. Widows seem to be always named with their previous marriage name in this time frame.

I found a birth 29 Oct 1785, (house 42 Smykow W), to “Andreas Kulaga & Catharina Wrobel”.

I suppose “Kulazyna” is a feminine inflection for Kulaga. “Wroblowna” is an inflection for Wrobel.

No wedding for this couple in the records < 1784. The Smykow marriage records are missing Oct 1783 to Dec 1785. The Luszowice marriage records are missing Oct 1783 to Dec 1784. They were probably married in 1784. There should be a separate book 1784 - 1785, polish tables, same format as births and deaths, but it is missing.

I checked the Luszowice death records to make sure a 2nd Katarzyna (Wrobel) Kmiec did not die.

I checked Luszowice for the Andrzej Kulaga death. Not found. Smykow death records are missing Mar 1783 - Aug 1784. The Luszowice village death records have gaps Mar 1783 - May 1784 and May 1785 - Aug 1786. We presume he was alive early 1785 for the Oct 1785 birth. I conclude Andrzej may have died in Luszowice village in early 1786.

End of evidence that Jozef Kmiec moved to Wad.

Katarzyna Wrobel birth record found. 15 Nov 1764 (Smykow). No big effort to make sure there is not a 2nd person by that name. Katarzyna widow age 24 in 1786 marriage record to Kmiec, I figure 2 months short of 22, close enough. Her death record says age 42 in Oct 1803, which is a bit exaggerated; she was a month short of turning 39.

Evidence for Jozef Kmiec birth record 5 Mar 1760 (parents are not named in the marriage records): No other Jozef Kmiec birth in Luszawice 1748 - 1773. Jozef age recorded 28 at 1787 marriage, I figure 27 + 6 mos + 11 days, technically does round to 28. This is lucky, because there are other Jozef Kmiec marriages: There are 2 older ones, born 1744 and 1747. Their marriage records in 1769 and 1773 to not give their ages, so I cannot match them with their birth records. One of them remarried in 1787 (the birth record just before our Jozef Kmiec), but that previous one is clearly marked as a 40 year old widower. There is an older Jozef Kmiec born 1774 who matches with a marriage in 1802 with his age recorded.

Conclusion: Jozef my ancestor is probably the Jozef born to Wojciech in 1760, but not a great ID, since his father is not mentioned in any of his records. For this ID to be wrong, he could have been born in a different town, or his birth recording could have been missed.

There is an 1803 marriage for a widower named Jozef Kmiec in Luszowice that does not have an age recorded, so I cannot match him with the other individuals, but perhaps I could if I studied the children births and wife deaths more carefully.

I found no Jozef Kmiec death record in Wadowice, but 1829 and 1840 are missing. Or I may have missed it. Maryanna’s 1849 death record says she is a widow of Jozef Kmiec, and that her maiden name is Ogorzalek, so the family stayed in Wad.

There are several Wojciech Kmiec births from 1746 on, but these cannot be the father of my Jozef, who was born in 1760. No Wojciech Kmiec born 1741 - 1745. Birth records start in 1741. His birth record is missing.

I found 8 Wojciech Kmiec marriages, 1728 - 1802:

The family of Wojciech Kmiec and Jadwiga Bielat is well documented. These are my ancestors, parents of Jozef, born 1760.

The marriage is 8 Oct 1758. Jadwiga is named with the Bielat family name in the marriage. Jadwiga is named (Hedvigis, Edvigis, Hevigis) without family name in the birth records of the 4 children, and also in the death record of the unnamed infant who died in 1769. The is no evidence of another Wojciech & Jadwiga Kmiec couple.

The groom in the 1758 marriage is from Smykow. Another record on the same page has the groom from Katy, so I guess this means Wojciech came from Smykow. The bride village is not indicated. The witnesses are from Swierze. Three of the 4 family births are Katy, the last one village Jastrzabka; the infant death is Katy.

That 1769 unnamed “infant” death record for this family has the age as “Annos 3 W”. I can’t figure out that W; it cannot mean “weeks”. That same page has 2 other records with “Annos 3 W”. The next page has one with “Annos circiter 4 is”. The next year has one “Annos 3 ** plus * min”. I suppose the W is some kind of abbreviation for “about”? I assigned this death to the son born 1767, actual age 2 years + 1 month. It could just as easily be Sebastian, age 4 years + 1 month. Or perhaps a child still born just recently and not recorded in the births.

That Jastrzabka birth village is scribbled; I figured it out from the 1930’s maps. The parish seems to be named, L*. It looks like it could be Lisia Gora, farther south. Maybe they moved for a few years. Jastrzabka is not far to the south. It is interesting that a birth from another parish is recorded here; maybe they were just visiting. The 1775 village tally that I did has quite a few Jastrzabka birth records. See the comment above, about Pat Smith mentioning on RootsWeb that Lisia Gora data is duplicated in Luszowice.

Jadwiga Kmiec death Apr 1771 is Katy, so that must be her. Also, there are no birth records of any children born to a couple Wojciech and Jadwiga Kmiec after 1767. Her age at death, “Annos Circiter 36” is about right; that makes her born 1735, and age 23 at the marriage.

The husband of Jadwiga is not named at her death, but the record has the unusual phrase “Custodis Silvan Uxor”, which I translate as “wife of the custodian of the forest”. Nice. The 16 Jun 1771 marriage of Wojciech Kmiec has him with that title. The title is badly scribble on the 1771 marriage; I deciphered it by comparison to the death record. The “Viduus” word is also badly scribbled on the 1771 record, but it is good enough to determine that the groom is a widower. All this is evidence that the Wojciech Kmiec who married in 1758 is the same as the Wojciech Kmiec who married in 1771. The 1775 birth record also has “Custodis Silvan” as a title for Wojciech.

The last child in this family is Regina, born 1786, with the mother identified correctly as Katarzyna Szumny. That’s 26 years after the birth of Jozef, so Wojciech must be about 50.

I have lots of death data, but not yet analyzed to see if I have the deaths of Wojciech and Katarzyna.

A little more discussion about the 1758 main marriage record. The record does not specify if Wojciech is a batchelor vs widower (juv vs vid). The record for Jadwiga says “virginem” which means not previously married. See raw data for a list of all the groom & bride status for 11 records on that page. There are 3 others that have no mention of the groom’s status, one groom has an unusual title; all other grooms and all brides have status. Perhaps the word after the bride is plural for both of them, I’m not sure. I suppose when the recorder failed to mention, then batchelor is much more likely to be the status than widower.

One more point on the 1758 record, on spelling. The last name seems quite legible, and it looks like “Kmieuk”. The “e” looks funny but that priest makes other “e”’s like that; compare to “Adalbertum”. “Kmiecik” and “Kmieciak” are common inflections; I think they are supposed to be used gramatically for the groom but not for the witness because of the way the sentences are contstructed, but I am not sure, and I studied enough of these to see that the recorders are not consistent. I conclude that the “u” is really “ci” even though all the other “i”’s on the page are properly dotted. That final “k” is questionable; there are only 2 other final “k” on the page, not like this one, but the range of all 3 seems OK; no other final letter on the page looks like that cut off “k” in the groom’s name. This particular record has a witness with the same name; compare the groom “Adalbertum Kmiecik” to the witness “Adalberto Kmiec”. A 1750 marriage, discussed below, has groom “Adalbertum Kmiecik” and a witness “Adalbertum Kmiec”, close but not exactly the same as the 1758 inflections. I did check to see if there are individuals who always use the name Kmiecik, but it does not seem to be the case. I conclude that the word for the groom in 1758 is Kmiecik, an inflection for Kmiec.

Next, a discussion of the other marriages in the parish with grooms named Wojciech Kmiec:

There is another Wojciech Kmiec born in Katy 1750 (mentioned below) who cannot have married in 1758.

The first Wojciech Kmiec marriage record is 1728. No age, no juv vs vid. No children to this marriage, because the birth records start 1741. He may have finished before that, or died. It is possible his wife died and he is the widow in one of the subsequent marriages. For him to be my ancestor in the 1758 marriage, it would have to be the case that “widower” was not mentioned by mistake in 1758, and I would have to be wrong about that second 1771 marriage, because it is very unlikely a man married in 1728 (born 1710 or earlier) will have 3 children 1780 - 1786 (76 years old).

I found 3 more earlier Wojciech Kmiec marriages 1743, 1750, 1752. Again, no ages. Again, 2 of the 3 do not use the word “Juvenem” nor “viduus”. The 1750 does say Juvenem. One of the other 2 logically could be a widower from the 1728 marriage. The 1750 and my 1758 have one of the witnesses named Wojciech Kmiec. These are all distinct. There are at least 4 independent Wojciech Kmiec individuals, married 1743, 1750, 1752, and 1758. I know this because all 4 have families with children born in the late 1750’s and early 1760’s with wives first names in the birth records. The birth dates are properly spaced.

Two more marriage records, younger, 1775 and 1802, both recorded as juv batchelors. No age on the first, 25 on the 2nd. I’m not sure which births these match up with, but they are way to young to be confused with my ancestor, so no problem.

All the children of Wojciech Kmiec birth records are Smykow except the children of my ancestor’s 2 families, which are Katy, and one other Katy in a family of 5 Smykow.

Review: Three Wojciech Kmiec marriages just before my ancestor’s represent 3 individuals perhaps a bit older than my ancestor having contemporary children. Two later marriages represent 2 individuals quite a bit younger. That makes 6. The oldest 1728 marriage may be a 7th individual, or may be the same as a later widower. The 1771 marriage is my ancestor’s 2nd marriage.

Summary: The 8 marriage records are at least 6 individuals, probably 7, named Wojciech Kmiec.

There are quite a few Wojciech Kmiec born after 1745: The first one, 1746, probably died, because he has a brother same name born 1750.

There are 2 Wojciech Kmiec born in 1750. Either of these two 1750 born Wojciech could be the groom at that 1775 juv marriage. Of course, they could be 8th and 9th individuals who married in another town or did not marry.

The 1802 groom is age 27, born 1877; I have not yet assigned him to a birth, because the closest I found is 1773.

Szymon Kmiec, 18, died in 1765, age 18, son of Wojciech Kmiec and Regina. This implies a 1747 birth, which I did not find. I did not find a Regina marriage to Wojciech Kmiec. Perhaps this is an error. Perhaps I missed it. Perhaps they moved in from out of town. Unfortunately, this underlies the fear that maybe my ancestor moved in, doesn’t it? This makes another possible 8th Wojciech Kmiec contemporary.