Prussia

Wysogotowo, [before] 1782-1813

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This post is a continuation of (or addition to) Kirsch Family Origins. I am currently writing a section for my History of Martha project (tracing the ancestry of my great-grandmother, Martha Kirsch), so much of the text in this post may be copied from that first post about the earliest information I have about the Kirsch family. I realized recently that I tend to write “backwards in time” as I solve genealogical “mysteries” for blog posts, or I start with what I know and then follow clues backwards. In the attempt to rearrange (and add more) information to be more chronological, I may repeat parts of previous posts.

I have a question for those knowledgeable about Polish sources: Do Polish book titles capitalize every word like in English? Thank you. Again, please excuse the inconsistent citations as I try to finalize a (customized) style that works for me.

Finally, a quick note that Wysogotowo will be spelled numerous ways, depending on the original source. Variants will be in quotations to make it less confusing.

Wysogotowo, [before] 1782-1813

The Kirsch family’s paper trail begins with Martha’s great-grandparents in Wysogotowo in the late eighteenth century. Wysogotowo, located eleven kilometers west of Posen (city), was a German colony in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.[1] At the start of the eighteenth century, various Kirsch family members, including our ancestors, Kazimierz and Elzbieta (Pfeiffer) Kirsch (and little son, Gottlieb), traveled 225 kilometers from Wysogotowo (now in Wielkopolskie, Poland) to Florentynow, Lodzkie, Poland. The paper trail begins with marriage and death records created in the Kirsch family’s new jurisdiction, which sometimes mentioned birthplaces.

Ignacy Wyssogota Zakrzewski; photo courtesy of Mazovian Digital Library

The 1830 marriage record of Gottlieb Kirsch, the oldest child of Kazimierz and Elzbieta Kirsch, and Eva Rozyna Both states that Gottlieb was born in “Wola Wysokotowska” in around 1808 and that his parents were also from there. According to Stanislaw Kozierowski, “Wyssogotowo Oledry” was named for the noble Polish family that founded it, the Wyskotow Zakrzewskich family.[2] The family also founded Zakrzewo Oledry, which is five kilometers from Wysogotowo, “before 1745,” and it is possible the two colonies were founded around the same time.[3] One member of the Wyskotow Zakrzewskich family was Ignacy Wyssogota Zakrzewski, the mayor of Warsaw in 1792 and 1794. In a 1788 Magazin für die neue Historie und Geographie [Magazine of New History and Geography] (volume twenty-two), “Oledry Wysogotowo” had twenty-one “chimneys.”[4] In 1841, the population was 181.[5] Fifteen years later, Wysogotowo, “a village of Prussia, in the regency and [kreis] of Posen” had 200 people.”[6] Meyers Gazetteer (1893 map, not searchable database) includes “Wyssogottowo Hauland.”[7]

Some records mention only “Wola, Grand Duchy of Posen” (the Grand Duchy of Posen existed at the time of the records’ creation, from 1815 to 1848). When Elzbieta Kirsch died in 1847, “Wola” was recorded as her birthplace. She was born in around 1782 to Gottlieb Pfeiffer and Mariana Pelsz.[8] Ten years before her birth, in 1772, the First Partition of Poland shrunk the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the fringes going to Europe’s three most powerful kingdoms of that time: Russia, Prussia, and Austria. Posen (region), however, remained in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. By the time Elzbieta’s first son, Gottlieb, was born in Wola in 1808, the Second Partition of Poland (1793) had granted Prussia possession of Posen (region).

“Wola” appears in other records. Marcin Kirsch, whose precise relation to known Kirsch ancestors is unknown (though likely a close relative), died in Florentynow in 1846 at the age of seventy-eight. His death record names Krystyan Kirsch and Maryanna Elzbieta Has as his parents and “Kolonia Wola in the Kingdom of Prussia” as his birthplace. “Wola” on its own does not indicate a specific location because it refers to a type of settlement. The word “wola” is possibly from the Polish “wolni,” which means “free” and refers to a colony “established at the will of the local gentry or aristocracy” and populated by farmers not bound to the land by serfdom (abolished in Prussia in 1807), but by the agreement to improve it in exchange for certain privileges.[9] The term “wola” has a similar meaning to “hauland,” which is interchangeable with the Polish “holendry” or “oledry.” “Hauland,” which refers to the initial Dutch settlers who arrived in Poland during the sixteenth century, indicated “lease of land, with only cash rent payable to the landowner.”[10] The colonists were also collectively responsible for rent owed to the landowner.

Radomsko, May 11, 1846, 2 o’clock in the afternoon. Declarants: Chrystjan Kirsch, age 63, the brother of the deceased, Gottlib Weber, age 33, both farmers residing in Kolonia Florentynow. Deceased: Yesterday at 10 o’clock in the morning in Florentynow, Marcin Kirsch, residing in Kolonia Wlodzimierz in Parzniewice Commune, renter, died, age 78, born in Kolonia Wola in the Kingdom of Prussia, son of Chrystjan Kirsch and Marjanna Elzbieta Has, married, farmers who died there. Left behind his widowed wife Rozyna Lotka (Lotek) and children: Gottfryd, Marcin, Jakob.

“[Marcin Kirsch death record, 1846]” from Akta stanu cywilnego Filialu Ewangelicko-Augsburskiego w Dziepolci (Dziepolc Civil Records, Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession), Archiwum Panstwowe w Lodzi (Lodz State Archives), digitized by Polskie Towarzystwo Genealogiczne (Polish Genealogical Society), accessed 21 Nov 2020 through Geneteka. Translated by Monika Kucal.

Map from Meyers Gazetteer showing Wyssogottow Hauland

The Kirsch family likely migrated to Wysogotowo during the first half of the eighteenth century. According to historian Walther Maas, many Germans migrated to Posen (region) during the eighteenth century as a result of the devastation following the Great Northern War, a conflict fought mainly between Russia and Sweden and lasting from 1700 to 1721.[11] Plague also claimed the lives of more than half of the inhabitants of Posen (city) in 1708-1709, perhaps killing more people in the region than war.[12] As a result of this population and economic loss–due to war, plague, as well as famine–in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Polish nobility recruited Germans to take their place.[13] These landowners needed cash and benefited from the switch from labour to cash rent.[14] According to Maas, the new German settlements were built on land that had not yet been farmed; the new German settlers had to clear the forests, the incentive being that they were allowed to keep surplus crops.[15] The 1893 map shows Wysogotowo with the typical “hauland” layout: a row of houses along one or both sides of a road with narrow fields behind the houses.[16] The timeline of events and the nature of Wysogotowo’s founding by Polish nobility provides a plausible explanation as to why Kirsch ancestors migrated there, though more information is needed.

“The landscape of Poznan during the siege in 1704”; Stragona, or the capital city of Poznan, and tabula accuratissima there per totam Poloniam, quam ertra regnum; How many miles to count for foreign cities, published in 1707; copied from “The impact of the Great Northern War on Poznan and the lives of its inhabitants” by Karol Koscielniak

[1] Note: Posen is now Poznan, Wielkopolskie (Greater Poland), Poland

[2] Stowarzyszenie Konserwatorow Zabytkow [Association of Monument Conservators], “Names of Oleder Settlements in Wielkopolska: Origins and Changes” from Catalogue of Monuments of Dutch [Oleder] Colonization in Poland, 2005, accessed 18 Nov 2022 through http://holland.org.pl/art.php?kat=art&dzial=konf_2001&id=6&lang=en; Note: Variants of surname are Wyssogota, Wyskota, Wyszogota, and Wyszkota; information from Badania nazw topograficznych na obszarze dawnej wschodniej Wielpolski [Research on Topographic Names in the Area of Former Eastern Wielkopolskie] by Stanislaw Kozierowski, published 1928

[3] Ibid.

[4] Curt [publisher], Magazin für die neue Historie und Geographie [Magazine of New History and Geography] v22, p37, published 1788, accessed 13 Nov 2022 through Google Books

[5] De l’Echaude [publisher], Opisanie geograficzno-historyczno-statystyczne wojewodztwa poznanskiego [Geographical, Historical and Statistical Description of the Poznan Voivodship], p116, published 1841, accessed 13 Nov 2022 through Google Books

[6] A. Fullarton [publisher], A Gazetteer of the World v7, p566, published 1856, accessed 13 Nov 2022 through Google Books

[7] Note: Map is Karte des Deutschen Reiches [Map of the German Empire], published 1893, accessed 22 Nov 2022 through https://www.meyersgaz.org; Digitized map from David Rumsey Map Collection, accessed 22 Nov 2022 through https://www.davidrumsey.com/blog/2011/4/10/karte-des-deutschen-reiches-1893

[8] Note: German Pfeiffer appears as Fayfer in Polish records

[9] PolandGenWeb [copyright], “Place Name Guide” from Lubelskie Genealogy Web, undated, accessed 14 Nov 2020 through http://sites.rootsweb.com/~pollubel/lubelname.html

[10] Stowarzyszenie Konserwatorow Zabytkow [Association of Monument Conservators]

[11] Joel Streich, “HAULAND – its meaning?” [response to Google Group post] from soc.genealogy.german [Google Group], accessed 20 Nov 2022 through https://groups.google.com/g/soc.genealogy.german/c/RCTbhqpwaeU?pli=1; Note: Google Group post references information from Siedlungen an Obra, Bartsch, Prosna und Oberer Warthe, im Leslauer und Tschenstochauer Lande sowie in den Kreisen Bromberg und Wirsitz: Historische und sozialgeographische Studien [Settlements on Obra, Bartsch, Prosna and Oberer Warthe, in Leslauer and Tschenstochauer Land and in the districts of Bromberg and Wirsitz: Historical and Socio-geographical Studies] by Walther Maas, published 1978

[12] Publication of the Archaeological Institute of America [copyright], “18th-Century Plague Victims Unearthed in Medieval Cemetery” from Archaeology Magazine, 24 Jul 2017, accessed 13 Mar 2023 through https://www.archaeology.org/news/5757-170724-poland-plague-victims; Karol Koscielniak, “The impact of the Great Northern War on Poznań and the lives of its inhabitants” from Open Military Studies, 31 Dec 2021, accessed 13 Mar 2023 through https://doi.org/10.1515/openms-2020-0115

[13] William Remus, “Your Ancestors in Volhynia and Poland from 1700 to 1900: How They Got There and How They Lived” [PowerPoint presentation] from Foundation for East European Family History Studies, undated, accessed 20 Nov 2022 through https://feefhs.org/sites/default/files/past_conferences/ancestors-in-volhynia-poland.pdf

[14] Ibid.

[15] Joel Streich.

[16] Karte des Deutschen Reiches [Map of the German Empire]; Joel Streich.

Kubsch Family

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This will be the final entry in the Kirsch Family Origins series. Below is the genealogy beginning from the earliest known Kubsch (also Kupsch, Kupsz, Kubsz, and possibly Kuppisch) ancestor to me. Again, much of what I write refers to my great-grandmother, Martha Kirsch, who is the focal point of the family history book I am writing (Kirsch family and ancestors).

  1. Gottfried Kubsch m. Ewa Rozyna <Unknown>
  2. Gottfried Kubsch m. Anna Rozyna Rismann
  3. Anna Karolina Kubsch m. Krzysztof Kirsch
  4. Samuel Kirsch m. Karolina Wurfel
  5. Martha Kirsch m. Julius Kelm
  6. Robert Kelm m. Lyla Krause
  7. My parents
  8. Me

In 2017 and 2019, blogger Pawel Dudek visited an abandoned German evangelical cemetery on a hill overlooking Florentynow. The hill is called Kubscha Gorka because the land belonged to the Kubsch (Kubsz) family, the last descendant in the area being Gustaw Kubsz. The cemetery, nestled within a copse of trees, was cared for until the early twenty-first century. Now, locals sometimes leave candles and flowers among the remains of headstones.[1] You can view some amazing photographs at Pawel’s blog about historical Radomsko and area right here.

The first recorded Kubsch birth in available records (those records or indexes of records readily available to the English-speaking public) is Boguslaw (Gottfryd) Kubsch, born in Florentynow, Lodzkie, Poland, in 1812 to Krystyan Kubsch and Elzbieta Lindner. However, there is, so far, no definite link to Martha, who was related to the Kubsch family through her paternal grandmother, Anna Karolina Kubsch, born in Florentynow in 1817 to Gottfried Kubsch and Anna Rozyna Rismann. Gottfried Kubsch was born in Chrzastowo, Posen, Prussia, which was where the Wurfel family also originated. His parents were Gottfried and Ewa Rozyna Kubsch. He and Rozyna migrated to Florentynow before 1815, which was the first record of a child, Samuel Kubsch, being born in the colony. Jan Karol Kubsch was born in Florentynow in 1813, but his parents are recorded as Boguslaw (Polish variant of Gottfried) and Anna Kubsch.

Indexed Gottfried Kuppisch and Anna Rosina Rissman marriage record at Poznan Project

According to records indexed by the Poznan Project, Gottfried Kuppisch (thirty years old) and Anna Rosina Rissmann (twenty-four years old) married in the Protestant community of Zaniemysl, Wielkopolskie, Poland, in 1804.[2] The names and marriage date align, and Zaniemysl (Santomischel in German) is approximately twenty kilometers from Chrzastowo, Gottfried’s place of birth; however, the ages of the bride and groom are approximately ten years younger than our Gottfried and Rozyna Kubsch, whose dates of birth were determined by their death records (see records below; it should be noted that sometimes dates of birth as reported by family members for death records are often approximate, depending on the relationship to the deceased). The Gottfried and Rozina of the Posnan Project record would have been born in around 1774 (Gottfried) and 1880 (Rosina). These dates, however, perhaps make more sense with the ages of their children, who, by the death record dates of around 1763 (Gottfried) and 1771 (Rozyna), were born to parents much older than was typical.

Descendants of Gottfried Kubsch m. Anna Rozyna Rismann

Gottfried Kubsch (b. abt 1763 in Chrzastowo, Schrimm, Posen, Prussia; d. 23 Apr 1852 in Florentynow, Lodzkie, Poland) m. Anna Rozyna Rismann (b. abt 1771; d. 23 Feb 1851 in Florentynow, Lodzkie, Poland)

            Note: Anna Rozyna Rismann’s name was erroneously transcribed as Rozyna Kitzmann

  1. Anna Rozyna Kubsch m. Jan Dawid Kimmel
  2. Gotlieb (Bogumil) Kubsch (b. abt 1812 d. 27 Apr 1876 in Florentynow, Lodzkie, Poland)
  3. Jan Karol Kubsch (b. 1813 in Florentynow, Lodzkie, Poland) – parents recorded as Boguslaw and Anna Kubsch
  4. Samuel Kubsch (b. 1815 in Florentynow, Lodzkie, Poland)
  5. Anna Karolina Kubsch (b. 23 Jan 1817 in Florentynow, Lodzkie, Poland; d. 20 Jan 1876 in Florentynow, Lodzkie, Poland) m. Krzysztof Kirsch (b. 22 Jul 1813 in Florentynow, Lodzkie, Poland; d. 04 Jul 1846 in Florentynow, Lodzkie, Poland)
  6. Anna Dorota Kubsch (b. 1819 in Florentynow, Lodzkie, Poland)
  7. Anna Kubsch m. (1825 in Radomsko, Lodzkie, Poland) Franciszek Hofman – possibly duplicate of Anna Dorota Kubsch

Note: List of children likely incomplete

“[Rozyna Kubsch death record, 1851]” from “Akta stanu cywilnego Filiału Ewangelicko-Augsburskiego w Dziepółci (Dziepolc Civil Records, Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession),” Archiwum Państwowe w Łodzi (Lodz State Archives), digitized by Polskie Towarzystwo Genealogiczne (Polish Genealogical Society), accessed 31 Dec 2021 through Geneteka. Translated by Dorothy Woloszczuk.

Registered in Radomsko on February 14 (February 16), 1851, at seven in the morning. Bogumil Kubsch, age 38, and Samuel Kirsch, 30, both farmers residing in Florentynow, stated that Rozyna (maiden name Kitzmann) Kubsch, 80 years old, died in Florentynow where she lived with her husband. She leaves behind her husband, Gottfryd Kubsch, a farmer, and three children: the information, Bogumil; Rozyna, married to Kummel; and Anna Karolina, widow of Kirsch.

“[Gottfried Kubsch death record, 1852]” from “Akta stanu cywilnego Filiału Ewangelicko-Augsburskiego w Dziepółci (Dziepolc Civil Records, Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession),” Archiwum Państwowe w Łodzi (Lodz State Archives), digitized by Polskie Towarzystwo Genealogiczne (Polish Genealogical Society), accessed 03 Jan 2022 through Geneteka. Translated by Dorothy Woloszczuk.

Death registered in Dziepolc on April 24, 1852. Gottfryd Kubsch died on April 23, 1852, 89 years old. He was born in Chrzastowo in the Grand Duchy of Poznan, the son of Gottfryd and Ewa Rozyna, deceased. He was a widower leaving behind children Bogumil; Rozyna, married to Kummel, and Rozalia, married to Kirsch.

[1] Pawel Dudek, “Cmentarz ewangelicki we Florentynowie [Evangelical Cemetery, Florentynow]” [blog post], 05 Nov 2017 [published], Radomsk.pl, accessed 04 Jan 2022, http://radomsk.pl/cmentarz-ewangelicki-we-florentynowie/

[2] “[Gottfried Kuppisch and Anna Rosina Rissmann] marriage entry” [search result], Protestant community Zaniemyśl [Santomischel], from Poznan Project, accessed 03 Jan 2022. Note: Thank you to Gilberto Magroski for conducting the search. I have yet to gain access to the original record.