In July, I wrote about using witnesses & godparents, combined with the records of multiple parishes in a small geographic area, to solve the ancestry of my 4th great-grandma Jadwiga BANDOSZ.
Today, the topic is finding the family of her husband, my 4th great-grandpa Pawel KOSCIELNIAK.
Here’s why I could never find his baptism, despite excellent records in the Sroda area for the time period of interest (1810s)… until now. He’s not listed as a KOSCIELNIAK. He’s Pawel MROZIK.
How did I prove it was him, despite having a different surname? This was a classic case of Polish genealogy, where surnames only emerged reliably as the 19th century continued. Before then, it is not unheard of to find the same people use more than one surname in their lifetime. Many reasons for this, including: there was an ‘alias’ for estate/land purposes, they had one surname previously bestowed upon them & they (or a close relative) chose a new surname, or they regularly used two surnames which was also known to occur.
In this case, I learned that the MROZIK family of Madre Parish, just south of Sroda (see map), use both surnames KOSCIELNIAK & MROZIK interchangeably back to at least the 1780s.
This story starts with Geneteka, an outstanding resource for anyone with Polish ancestry, where volunteers have transcribed millions of records, with more added every day. Every now & then, I take a peak at the latest transcriptions to punch in my family names and see if there’s been any progress.
A bit more context – My Pawel KOSCIELNIAK died on 12 Nov 1860 in Stzeszki, according to Sroda Wielkopolskie Catholic Parish Records. His parents are provided on the record as “Wincenty & Cecylia.” Sroda area records are fantastic, and yet, there are no Wincenty & Cecylia Koscielniaks that I could find. But there is a Cecylia KOSCIELNIAK & Wincenty KAJDASZ, who married on 19 Sep 1815 in Sroda Wielkopolskie. This couple moves to Chudzice, Winna Gora Parish, and sure enough, that is exactly where my Pawel marries for the first time in June 1837, at age 25, to a Franciszka OWCZARCZAK. Wincenty Kajdasz dies on 14 Feb 1838 in Chudzice, and shortly after Pawel moves away. In May 1846, he marries for a second time in nearby Krerowo Parish to Jadwiga BANDOSZ, mother of my immigrant ancestor Jan KOSCIELNIAK.
So back to Geneteka. I searched “Cecylia Koscielniak” born about 1790 in the Sroda area to see if there have been any updates to the database. Yes, a match: Cecylia KOSCIELNIAK born 26 Nov 1786 in Garby, Madre Parish to Jakub & Helena KOSCIELNIAK. Interesting because Pawel’s wife Jadwiga was from Madre Parish. So it would make sense his mother was from there as well.
That’s when things got really interesting. Looking for more children of Jakub KOSCIELNIAK in Madre Parish turned up a few more children with Helena, and many more children from a second marriage with a woman named Agata. But he is not always recorded as KOSCIELNIAK. On many of the records he is Jakub MROZIK, including on his marriage record with Helena in 1782, where I learned her maiden name was LIS. On Jakub’s death record, he is listed as Jakub MROZIK alias KOSCIELNIAK, died 28 July 1809 in Garby, Madre Parish. There it is. Both surnames.
Indeed, several of his children are baptized as “MROZIK” with “KOSCIELNIAK” noted as an additional surname. Sometimes they are MROZIK only, sometimes KOSCIELNIAK only. This is absolutely the same family.
A quick look at family trees over on MyHeritage, which has many Polish trees, revealed another Koscielniak having children in Garby around the same time – Tomasz KOSCIELNIAK and his wife Barbara STASIK. Unsurprisingly, when I went to Geneteka, he too appears synonymously as both a MROZIK & KOSCIELNIAK. It seems highly likely that they’re brothers.
Turning to DNA, I found yet more confirmation. A descendant of Wojciech MROZIK, born 1805 in Madre Parish to Jakub & Agata MROZIK, alias KOSCIELNIAK, is autosomal DNA matching my great-aunts for 20cM+. He and his descendants preferred the MROZIK surname over KOSCIELNIAK as surnames were finalized in the 19th century, while my branch used Koscielniak regularly from Pawel forward. Wojciech would have been a half-brother to Cecylia KOSCIELNIAK alias MROZIK born in 1786, as they had the same father, and technically a ‘half-uncle’ to Pawel.
For me, the two surname thing has taken some getting used to, but it is undeniable when you look closely at the records. It is not something I see in my Irish or German research. In this case, the two names are complementary, as KOSCIELNIAK is an occupational surname meaning ‘churchwarden,’ and MROZIK is a nickname translating to English as roughly ‘frost‘ or ‘frosty,’ perhaps white-haired or ill-tempered.
So back to Pawel. With all of this new information on the Koscielniak & Mrozik family being one & the same, I looked for Pawel one more time. And there he was: Pawel MROZIK, born 23 January 1812 in Nadziejewo, Madre Parish to Cecylia MROZIK, per Geneteka. KOSCIELNIAK wasn’t mentioned in the transcription at all (though I do need to see the original record still, it’s not easily accessible online). The birthdate lined up perfectly with his being 25 years old for his first marriage in June 1837.
That’s why I’ve had so much trouble finding him. He was called MROZIK, and used KOSCIELNIAK later. His mother was born a KOSCIELNIAK, was called KOSCIELNIAK on her marriage record, but in some records is called MROZIK. And his grandfather is both Jakub MROZIK & Jakub KOSCIELNIAK – same person.
Unfortunately, no father is identified by the transcription, and his father may never be known since his mother was a single woman at the time. Since she married Wincenty KAJDASZ so long after Jan. 1812, in Sept. 1815, it is unlikely that Wincenty is the father, but he certainly would’ve raised young Pawel.
I have seen the double surname thing before in my Polish research. DNA helped to confirm that my IGLINSKI family is synonymous with the ZAMIARA family in the village of Szemborowo, a similar case. It’s a great cautionary tale for anyone doing Polish research. The Christian given names stay the same, and sometimes they’re rare enough like Pawel & Cecylia that makes following it all easier. But the surnames were, at times, fluid back in the 18th century & early 19th century.
Craig Kanalley 