Hi, Sandie <marana@tds.net> asked: > I would appreciate assistance in locating the > following area. This was in > 1834. > > village Koscielna (township Jakiwiszki) - > Folwark (big farm) Ryngwaldyczki The names "Jakiwiszk" and "Ryngwaldyczki" don't sound at all Polish. I suspected they might be Polonized versions of Lithuanian or Belarusian names. So I wondered if searching in Poland, in its modern borders, would be a waste of time. In such cases, the best place to look is the massive 15-volume Polish-language gazetter _Slownik geograficzny Krolestwa Polskiego_, published in the late 19th century. It does not mention a "Ryngwaldyczki," but it does mention a folwark (manorial farmstead) called Ryngwaldyszki (Volume 10, p. 104). It was located in the county of Maryampol, district of Aleksota, parish of Godlewo. This area is now in Lithuania -- Maryampole is Marijampole, Godlewo is Garliava. The Garliava area is just a little south of Kaunas (Polish name Kowno). You can search the SGKP for specific names of places at this site: http://www.dir.icm.edu.pl/dirop/index.php/Slownik_geograficzny/Tom_I/30 Under "Wyszukiwanie," you can search for entry names ("w haslach") or within the actual text of entries (w tekscie). Text searches take longer, but are still reasonably fast. Of course, you have to spell the names correctly. A search for "Ryngwaldyczki" comes up empty, but "Rynwaldyszki" finds the place in question -- but you have to type in the name with the slash-L, not plain L. You can get around that by using "wild cards," ? for any single character, * for any combination of characters. Thus if you seach the entry titles for RYNGWA?D*, you get one match: Ryngwaldyszki. So you can find many places if you search correctly, but there is a bit of a learning curve involved. I couldn't find any entries mentioning Jakiwiszki or this particular village Koscielna, but that may just be because they were awfully small; or perhaps "Jakiwiszki" has been misspelled and isn't the correct name. Still, it may be correct. I notice the compilers of the SGKP did not always have much info on smaller villages in Lithuania. Perhaps they just didn't have access to sources for Lithuania as detailed as those for Polish territory. Normally you could study maps of areas in Lithuania at: http://www.maps.lt/redirect.asp?l=2 For some reason, when I tried it just now, the site was very slow to respond; usually it's much quicker. I wasn't able to take a close look. But a search for Garliava should put you very, very close to the place you're looking for. I tried Google maps and it showed Garliava and Aleksotas, but I couldn't find any places with names corresponding to Jakiwiszki (which would probably be something like Jakiviskiai) and Ryngwaldyszki (Ringvaldiskiai?). Perhaps the maps aren't detailed enough. It's also quite possible these places no longer exist, have been absorbed into other communities, or have different names now. "Koscielna" is a Polish word meaning "of the church," and a _koscielna wies_, literally "church village," was usually a property owned by the Church, as opposed to property owned by a local noble or by the government or king. You would expect Lithuanians to rename such a place, perhaps with a Lithuanian word meaning much the same thing (Lithuanian for "church" is _baz^nyc^ia_, using ^ to stand for the little v diacritical mark over the Z and C). Or under Communist rule it might have been given a completely different name, one with no hint of a religious connection. _Ryngwaldyszki_ is a Polish rendering of a Lithuanian adaptation of a German name (Ringwald) -- also a prime candidate for renaming. So even if these places still exist as independent communities, I'd expect them to have different names. You may need the help of someone in the area, a local historian or long-time resident, to find out for sure. I hope this helps you find what you're looking for, Sandie. With luck, it may at least help you look in the right country! Fred Hoffman