The Walentynowicz, Dołmat, Puciata, Nielipowicz and Kisiel families

These are the families of two wives of the Markowicz men. Zofia née Walentynowicz, wife of Bolesław Markowicz, was Alina's grandmother, that is, Romuald's great-grandmother. Urszula née Puciata, wife of Tadeusz Markowicz, was Bolesław's mother, that is, Romuald's great-great-grandmother. The church registers record all these families as petty nobility from around Święciany, Strunojcie and Sorokpol.

Zofia Markowicz née Walentynowicz (b. 1863)

Zofia was born on 7 August 1863 at the manor in Zułów. The baptism register says so plainly: she was born “въ Мызѣ Зуловѣ”, that is, at the Zułów manor and not in the village of the same name. Four days later her parents took her to be baptised at the church of Sorokpol parish. Her parents, Tomasz Antoni Walentynowicz and Maria née Dołmat, were nobility without land of their own. Since they lived at the manor itself, they most probably worked on the estate.

The Russian word “дворяне” means nobility. This is how the priest recorded Zofia's parents and her godfather.

Zułów in 1863

Zułów was then the estate of Maria Billewicz. In April 1863 Maria married Józef Wincenty Piłsudski. Their son Józef, the future Marshal, was born in Zułów in 1867. The year 1863 was also the year of the January Uprising. In January the first insurgent unit of the Święciany district, numbering 36 men, gathered in Zułów.

The baptism records of the children show how long the Walentynowicz family lived at Zułów. In August 1863, when Zofia was born, the family lived in the manor. Her brother Józef was also born at Zułów, in April 1865. In April 1871, when Apolonia was born, the family was already living in the village of Wojtkuny. Wojtkuny is also given as the place of birth in Kazimiera's baptism record of January 1875. The family is certain that one of our people played with little Józef Piłsudski as a child. Zofia was four years older than him and was born in the same manor. Her brother Józef was two and a half years older than the Marshal. Her sister Stefania was almost his age. The story fits these siblings best. The whole story and the history of the manor are given in the chapter on the Witkiewicz and Misiun families.

The wife of Bolesław Markowicz

Zofia grew up in Wojtkuny. In 1884 Bolesław Markowicz lived in the same village. The Walentynowicz and Markowicz families had known each other for a long time. As early as 1871 the godmother of Apolonia, Zofia's younger sister, was Urszula Markowicz. This was most probably Urszula née Puciata, Bolesław's mother, of whom we write later in this chapter. On 7 February 1884 the twenty-year-old Zofia married Bolesław Markowicz. The wedding took place in the church in Święciany. The marriage record with a copy and a translation is in the chapter on the Markowicz family.

Zofia gave birth to eight children, four of whom died in childhood. Her sixth child was Dominik, Alina's father. All the children and their lives are described in the chapter on the Markowicz family.

Zofia stayed close to her brothers and sisters. In 1891 she stood godmother to her sister Stefania's child. In 1900 her husband Bolesław was a witness at the wedding of her younger sister Kazimiera. The parish census of March 1909 recorded Zofia in Wojtkuny with her husband and four children. In 1910 Zofia was a godmother in Wojtkuny. Her mother's death record of January 1915 still lists Zofia among the children left by the deceased. This is the last news of Zofia.

Zofia's brother and sisters

Tomasz Antoni and Maria had six children. All six are named in their mother's death record of 1915.

This record is important for two reasons. It is the only one that gives both of the father's first names, Tomasz Antoni. It is also the oldest trace of the acquaintance between the Walentynowicz and Markowicz families. It was written thirteen years before the marriage of Zofia and Bolesław.

In this record the priest wrote down the maiden name of the bride's mother as "née Dowmant". This is the same person, Maria née Dołmat. The correct form of the surname is given in Kazimiera's Latin death record of 1923, which we show below.

Among the witnesses to this marriage the record names two relatives of the bride. The first was her brother Józef Walentynowicz. The second was Bolesław Markowicz, the husband of her sister Zofia.

The priest wrote the name of the manor farm of Podworniki unclearly and corrected it himself with a note in the margin. The record is in Latin, so the surname of the dead woman's mother is written in it in the Latin alphabet: "de domo Dołmat", that is "née Dołmat". Thanks to this we know for certain what Maria's maiden name was.

Józef Piłsudski, the Marshal's father, godfather of Józef, Zofia's brother

On 3 April 1865 Józef, Zofia's only brother, was born at Zułów. Six days later he was baptised in the church at Sorokpol. His godfather was Józef Wincenty Piłsudski, who had come to live in the manor at Zułów after his marriage to Maria Billewicz in 1863. The godmother was Miss Julia Piłsudska. Two and a half years later, in December 1867, a son was born to Józef Wincenty in the same manor: Józef, the future Marshal.

Julia Piłsudska was most probably Józef Wincenty's own sister. That makes her the future Marshal's aunt. She was born in 1836, the daughter of Piotr Paweł Piłsudski and Teodora née Butler, who ran the Poszuszwie estate in Kaunas district. The priest recorded her as unmarried, which fits: she was 29 at the time and married Bortkiewicz only later. She died in 1910. So a brother and a sister from the family of the manor's owner stood together at the baptism of the Walentynowicz boy.

People from the manor at Zułów held children from our family at the font three times. In 1862 Antoni Markowicz was held by Antoni Billewicz and Miss Maria Billewicz, most probably the Marshal's future mother and her father. In 1865 Józef Walentynowicz was held by the Marshal's father and his sister Julia. Twelve years later, in 1877, Anna Walentynowicz was held by the Marshal's younger brother Adam. Our families were not related to the family of the manor. For fifteen years, though, the Billewiczes and the Piłsudskis were close neighbours of the Markowicz and Walentynowicz families.

Adam Piłsudski, godfather of Anna, Zofia's youngest sister

We meet the Piłsudskis with the Walentynowicz family again after the fire at the Zułów manor in 1874, when the Piłsudskis were already living in Vilnius. On 9 August 1877 Anna, Zofia's youngest sister, was born in Wojtkuny. Five days later she was baptised in the church at Sorokpol. Anna's godfather was Adam Piłsudski and her godmother was Miss Zofia Potocka.

Adam was Józef Piłsudski's younger brother. He was born at Zułów in 1869, so he was eight at the time. The Piłsudskis also had their own children stand as godparents. A year earlier their son Jan had been held at the font by his nine-year-old brother Bronisław and his elder sister Zofia. As a grown man Adam Piłsudski was deputy mayor of Vilnius. In 1935 he became a senator.

Tomasz Antoni Walentynowicz (d. before 1915)

Zofia's father was Alina's great-grandfather. He first appears in the registers in 1863, in the manor at Zułów, as the father of the newborn Zofia. In 1865 he is still living at Zułów, where his son Józef is born. From 1871 he lives with his family at Wojtkuny. The registers count this village as part of Święciany parish, but the Walentynowicz family had their children baptised in the church of Sorokpol parish. Zułów, where they had lived earlier, belonged to the same parish.

In Wojtkuny Tomasz Antoni married off three daughters: Zofia in 1884, Stefania in 1886 and Kazimiera in 1900. Kazimiera's marriage record of 14 May 1900 names the bride's father still without a note that he had died. The death record of his wife Maria of 10 January 1915 calls her the widow of Antoni Walentynowicz. So Tomasz Antoni died between May 1900 and January 1915, outside the parish of Sorokpol.

The Zagłoba coat of arms

The Zagłoba coat of arms shows a silver horseshoe on a blue shield. The horseshoe has its ends pointing down and is pierced by a sword with a golden hilt. The sword points upwards. Above the helmet there is a wing pierced by an arrow.

The Walentynowicz family of the Zagłoba coat of arms proved their nobility before the authorities in Vilnius on 30 June 1820. They waited thirty-four years for final confirmation, because the Senate in St Petersburg issued it only on 18 May 1854. Their family line begins with Sebastian Walentynowicz, owner of the estate of Jotajnie in the Upita district, near today's Panevėžys.

The historian of the nobility Czesław Malewski counts among this family the Walentynowicz family of Zułów, Wojtkuny and Podworniki, that is from the same places and years in which our family lived. That is why the Zagłoba coat of arms appears on the wall chart next to Tomasz Antoni and Zofia.

Maria Walentynowicz née Dołmat (c. 1840-1915)

Zofia's mother was Alina's great-grandmother. Maria's maiden name is repeated in six records from 1863-1923. These records were written by three different people, in Russian and in Latin.

In her old age Maria went to live with her youngest daughter. The parish census of March 1909 recorded her as a widow at the manor farm of Podworniki, in the home of Kazimiera and her son-in-law Henryk Biesiekirski. She died there on 10 January 1915. The death record gives her age as 75. From this age comes the approximate year of her birth, about 1840. Two days after Maria's death the parish priest Stanisław Szczemirski buried her in the cemetery at Sorokpol.

The Dołmat coat of arms, with a question mark

Every noble family had a coat of arms, because the coat of arms was the sign of nobility itself. Anyone proving their nobility before the authorities had to state their coat of arms. Church registers, however, record only that someone was a nobleman. They never give the coat of arms. For the Dołmat, Puciata, Nielipowicz and Kisiel families in our tree no document has survived that would show their coat of arms. So we have adopted the coat of arms that armorials, that is books describing coats of arms, assign to the surname. On the wall chart and in this chronicle such a coat of arms carries a question mark.

Dołmat is a coat of arms belonging to this surname alone. It shows a silver chevron on a red shield, that is a sign like an upside-down letter V, with its lower ends bent outwards and joined by a bar. Above the helmet, in a crown, are three ostrich feathers. Juliusz Ostrowski's armorial says that this coat of arms "belonged to the Dołmats in Lithuania". In the Vilnius governorate only the Dołmat family of the Troki district proved their nobility. They were Wincenty and Ignacy, sons of Tadeusz, who proved it on 10 February 1804. Our Maria is linked to these Dołmats only by her surname.

Urszula Markowicz née Puciata (b. 1822)

Urszula was the mother of Bolesław Markowicz, which makes her Alina's great-grandmother. She was born on All Saints' Day 1822 in the village of Nareysze and was baptised the same day. Nareysze belonged to the Bakszty estate of the Chomiński family and to the parish of Konstantynów. Urszula's godmother was Teresa Nalipowicz, who bore the same surname as the family of Urszula's mother. In that area the surname Nielipowicz was also written Nalipowicz.

The abbreviation "9bra" is an old way of writing November. November was the ninth month in the old Roman calendar.

When Urszula was at most ten years old, her parents moved with her to the zaścianek of Popieliszki. In 1840 Tadeusz Markowicz also lived there. On 2 July 1840 Father Cyprian Skirmont blessed the marriage of Urszula and Tadeusz in the church at Święciany. According to the record the bride was eighteen, but in fact she was seventeen years and eight months old. The record calls the young couple and their parents "well-born". This was the word old records used for the nobility. The witnesses to the marriage were Adam Gumowski, Piotr Puciata, Piotr Michałowski and Szymon Nielipowicz. The marriage record with a copy and translation is in the chapter on the Markowicz family.

After the wedding Urszula and Tadeusz stayed in Popieliszki, where Urszula's parents also lived. Four of their children were born there: Marianna, Bolesław, Salomea and Helena. By 1862 the Markowicz family was already living in Obkorty. The youngest sons, Antoni and Józef, were born in Obkorty. Urszula's father died in Popieliszki in October 1862.

In 1871 Urszula Markowicz was godmother at the baptism of Apolonia Walentynowicz, the sister of her future daughter-in-law. Urszula's name appears for the last time in 1884, in the marriage record of her son Bolesław.

The children of Urszula and Tadeusz, with their dates of birth and later lives, are listed in the chapter on the Markowicz family.

Maciej Puciata (c. 1782-1862)

Urszula's father was Alina's great-great-grandfather. Records from 1840-1862 call him a nobleman. We believe he came from the family that the registers of the parish of Strunojcie recorded until about 1818 in the village of Bitoły under the surname Buciuta and later under the surname Puciata.

In 1822 Maciej and Teresa lived in Nareysze, where Urszula was born. By 1832 at the latest they had settled in the zaścianek of Popieliszki. We know this because in June 1832 Teresa Puciata of Popieliszki was a godmother in the church of the parish of Sorokpol. Maciej lived in Popieliszki for thirty years. In that time he married off his daughter, lived to see grandchildren and buried his wife. He died on 15 October 1862. The death record gives his age as 80. From this age comes the approximate year of his birth, about 1782.

The Puciata coat of arms, with a question mark

Puciata is a coat of arms belonging to this surname alone. It shows a golden letter A on a red shield, with a cross on top and a short post below the crossbar. Juliusz Ostrowski's armorial says that this is a coat of arms "belonging to some Pucyatas and Pucyatyckis, Lithuanian boyars", that is to the ordinary nobility of this surname. The princes Puciata had a different coat of arms. Our family has nothing to do with them.

The same sign already appears in the 17th-century armorial of the Lithuanian nobility by Father Wojciech Wijuk Kojałowicz, a Jesuit from Vilnius. He noted that in 1651 he himself saw such a coat of arms with one of the Puciata family, who sat in the highest court of the Grand Duchy in Vilnius. He also named Jan Puciata of the Vilnius voivodeship and his four sons. They were wealthy officials. Our Maciej is linked to them only by his surname.

The registers still call Maciej a nobleman in 1856 and 1862. We have adopted the Puciata coat of arms for him only on the basis of his surname, which is why this coat of arms has a question mark on the wall chart.

Teresa Puciata née Nielipowicz (c. 1793-1856)

Urszula's mother was Alina's great-great-grandmother. She died of fever on 28 February 1856 in Popieliszki, after receiving the sacraments. She was buried by the parish priest of Sorokpol, Adam Szłanowicz. She left her husband Maciej and her daughter Urszula.

The revision list of 1795 recorded a four-year-old Teresa in the village of Dzwiłany, in the household of Mikołaj Nielipowicz and Ewa née Kisiel. The age, surname, noble status and area all match our Teresa. The list of the nobility of the district from 1816 names only two Nielipowicz households: Mikołaj's household and that of his brothers Justyn, Kazimierz and Franciszek. That is why on the wall chart Mikołaj and Ewa are shown as Teresa's parents, but with a question mark.

The Prus coat of arms, with a question mark

The Prus coat of arms shows a white cross on a red shield. The cross has its lower right arm cut off. Above the helmet there is an armoured arm holding a sword. Armorials assign this coat of arms to the surname Nielipowicz. The same coat of arms was shown before the authorities in Vilnius on 9 April 1820 by the Nielipowicz family of the Święciany district, the four sons of Szymon: Mikołaj Tomasz, Justyn, Franciszek Szymon and Kazimierz. Czesław Malewski records this family in Dzwiłany near Strunojcie and in 1847 in Popieliszki, the very zaścianek in which Teresa died. We have adopted the Prus coat of arms for Teresa from this family, which is why this coat of arms has a question mark on the wall chart.

The Prus coat of arms was described in the 15th century by Jan Długosz in his list of the coats of arms of the Polish knighthood. According to him the family descends from three princes of the old Prussians, who fled from Prussia to Poland after some wrongdoing and founded a family here. The name of the coat of arms comes from these Prussians.

Mikołaj Nielipowicz and Ewa née Kisiel

According to the wall chart, Mikołaj and Ewa were the parents of Teresa Puciata. After his marriage Mikołaj went to live with his father-in-law, Andrzej Kisiel, in the village of Dzwiłany. The revision list of 1795 recorded the whole family in one house. Living in it were Mikołaj's parents-in-law, his brother-in-law Jan, Mikołaj himself with his wife Ewa and four-year-old Teresa. Dzwiłany then belonged to the Hilzen estates and later to the Cerkliszki estate of the Counts Mostowski.

Mikołaj's father was Szymon Nielipowicz. The register of the parish of Święciany records him in 1769-1772 in the village of Bubele as a nobleman. In January 1772 it notes the baptism of a daughter of Szymon and his wife Marianna. On the wall chart Szymon and Marianna are shown as Mikołaj's parents, but with a question mark.

The sons of Mikołaj and Ewa, Mikołaj Joachim and Leon, were born in Dzwiłany. Leon was baptised on 6 April 1803. Between 1803 and 1806 the family moved to nearby Bitoły. Their daughter Petronela was baptised in Bitoły on 10 June 1806.

Ewa died before June 1813. We know this because on 16 June 1813 Mikołaj, recorded as a widower from Bitoły, married Rozalia Klimaszewska in the church at Święciany. In November 1816 Mikołaj and Rozalia had their daughter Barbara baptised in Bitoły. The list of the nobility of the district from 1816 names three sons from Mikołaj's first marriage: seventeen-year-old Mikołaj, thirteen-year-old Leon and six-year-old Szymon. This list did not name daughters. In it Mikołaj stated that he had previously lived in Dzwiłany together with his father-in-law Andrzej Kisiel. His brother Franciszek signed the list on Mikołaj's behalf.

Ewa's maiden name is given in the marriage record of her son Leon. On 27 January 1829, in the church at Strunojcie, Leon, according to the record twenty-three years old, married Józefata Goyska. The record calls him the son of "the Noble Mikołaj and Ewa née Kisiel Nilipowicz, Lawful Spouses". One of the witnesses at the wedding of Urszula Puciata and Tadeusz Markowicz in 1840 was Szymon Nielipowicz, most probably Mikołaj's youngest son.

Mikołaj's father was called Szymon. The baptism register of the parish of Święciany recorded in January 1772, in the village of Bubele, the baptism of Marianna, daughter of the nobleman Szymon Nielipowicz and his wife Marianna. We believe they were Mikołaj's parents.

Andrzej Kisiel of Dzwiłany and his wife Teresa

Andrzej Kisiel and his wife Teresa are the oldest ancestors in this branch. We know them both from the revision list of 1795. Andrzej is also named in the register of the nobility from 1816. It states that Mikołaj Nielipowicz had earlier lived in Dzwiłany together with his father-in-law Andrzej Kisiel. Andrzej was then 50 years old and Teresa was 60. The list also gives the name of Andrzej's father as Stefan. On the family tree chart Andrzej and Teresa carry a question mark, just like their daughter Ewa and their son-in-law Mikołaj.

Dzwiłany lay in the parish of Strunojcie near Święciany. In 1795 three groups of people lived there side by side: peasant serfs, the nobility and Russian settlers. The nobility occupied six houses. These stood on an estate that was not their own property but belonged to another owner. The list recorded the Kisiel household as the third of these six.

The Kisiel coat of arms with a question mark

Kisiel is a coat of arms belonging to this surname alone, also called Namiot or Światołdycz. It shows a white tent on a red shield with a gold cross on top. Above the helmet there are three towers. Czesław Malewski records under this coat of arms the Kisiel families of the Święciany district, including those from the parish of Strunojcie. The Kisiel families of the Vilnius and Lida districts proved their right to this coat of arms on 22 December 1800. Andrzej Kisiel of Dzwiłany is listed as a nobleman in the lists of 1795 and 1816, but he left no document of his own with the coat of arms. That is why the Kisiel coat of arms has a question mark on the family tree chart.

The same coat of arms was borne by Adam Kisiel, voivode of Kyiv in the 17th century. Our family does not descend from him, because the voivode died childless in 1653.

Sources

The registers and lists from which the facts in this chapter come are kept by the Lithuanian State Historical Archives in Vilnius. In the table we give the fond, the volume and the number of the record.