This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Cywinski Puchala Switala Lewandowski Kielinski Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/hdC.2ACI/1994 Message Board Post: I have been told over the years, by multiple descendants (one of them being my mother) of my core Baltimore, MD CYWINSKI family, that our Cywinskis (quoting my mother now) "came from aristocracy." I was told by one cousin that the family back in Poland was wealthy and had servants. (I am well aware of the Cywinski connection to the PUCHALA coat of arms.) My Cywinski g-g-grandfather, Wawrzyniec Cywinski (birth year unknown, died sometime during the 1882-1886 time frame; he never left Poland), was a successful wheelwright / wainwright / carpenter. He is said to have been a widower with one or more children when he married never-before-wed Jozefa SWITALA (my g-g-grandmother, born circa 1833, died 1929 in Baltimore) in probably the early 1860s. My g-grandmother, Maryanna Cywinski LEWANDOWSKI (c1864-1937), was the couple's eldest-known child. Although my g-g-grandfather bore the surname Cywinski, as did all of his children (and everyone was always listed in ecclesiastical records bearing that surname, which means the surname was officially and validly held by them), he is said to have been born out of wedlock (I have concluded to a young woman surname of KIELINSKI). An old family letter states: "....[Wawrzyniec] was the son of a peasant girl. This happened in those days in Poland and was no reflection on the morals of the girl....The head of the family was a Count. This Cywinski family acknowledged the relationship and tried to help in every way...." The author of that letter was given those details by Wawrzyniec's daughter Weronika (c1875-1947). Perhaps because of the circumstances of my g-g-grandfather's birth, he found himself needing a career, and in the profession mentioned above. He ultimately was killed by a tree he was felling. The letter previously cited mentions that "....[Weronika] often remarked...that she and the others would have had a much easier life had they remained in Poland...." Members of the aristocratic Cywinski family are said to have tried unsuccessfully to persuade Jozefa to remain in Poland with her children after Wawrzyniec's death. Children of my g-g-grandparents are variously documented in Polish and American ecclesiastical records as having resided in, or come from, the villages and towns of: Bedzitowo, Czewujewo, Dziewierzewo, Labiszyn, Lisewo, Mamlicz, Murczyn, Obielewo, Rogowo (possibly Rogozno), and Slupy. It is not known from which, if either, G-G-Grandpop Wawrzyniec came. His wife Jozefa apparently came from the village of Murczyn (located very near the town of Znin). All of the places listed are located in central Wielkopolska, relatively near to one another, between Bydgoszcz and Poznan. If anyone has any feedback to offer, or any ideas, based on the villages and towns mentioned, which Cywinski family group my g-g-grandfather may have come from, or anything about children he may have had with his first wife, or information about Murczyn-area Switalas, please contact me at Genplant29@aol.com, and word the Subject line of your e-mail to read "Wielkopolski Genealogy." Thanks. I know quite a lot about Wawrzyniec's children (and have photos of most, and also two of Jozefa), but have hit a brick wall, trying to get past him, or to pinpoint a specific ancestral home.