One of the goals of my trip to Poznań was to research the Raczyński
family. This magnate family of Poznań is of great interest to me. I'm not a descendant of their line, but my peasant
ancestors lived on the manor farms and worked at the palace of Rogalin. I
didn't know the ancestral village(s) of the Adamskis and Wojktowiaks when I began interviewing my great aunts, so their
snippets of information didn't provide many clues. Now I see that the family folklore referenced historic fact.
Folklore:
Michael Adamski worked as a gardener for a rich man.
His eye was injured pruning trees so he wore dark lens in his glasses.
Fact:
Rogalin palace near Poznań was built towards the end of the 18th century as
a residence for the Raczyński family. The palace is surrounded by an English-style park with 950 ancient oaks and
elegant French gardens. It is the handiwork of the architect responsible for the Lazienki complex in Warsaw.
Folklore:
The rich man's butler would give Michael books to
read, who in turn taught others in the village to read.
Fact:
The Raczyński Library is the first public library in Poznań, founded by count Edward Raczyński.
The opening took place in 1829 -- its construction lasted 7 years (since 1822). Today this is the second-biggest library in
Poznań.
I did extensive research on the Raczyński family
before leaving home. I obtained Count Edward Raczyński's memoirs, _Rogalin i jego mieszkancy_, via interlibrary loan.
As I scanned the pages I noticed a reference to Adamski. I took the book to a bilingual friend to translate and the paragraph
actually mentioned the coach driver Adamski. The Count said that Adamski would pick him up at the train station at Mosina
in one type of coach in the rain and a different style coach in good weather. Raczyński said from his position in the
coach he could see Adamski's long mustache.
This was a description
of my great uncle Jacob Adamski. Jacob's 1907 ship manifest listed him as a coach driver from Rogalin. This paragraph
made be think that family history didn't stop with the church and civil records, but could possibly be gained from the
manor books and palace ledgers.
I checked the Sezam database on the State Archives in Poland website:
I entered Rogalin. The search results:
Fond Name: Majatek Rogalin - Raczynscy Dates: 1570 - 1936.
This could be interesting. I made a three part research plan:
1. To explore the holding of the civil archives to see if materials available referenced workers.
2. To revisit the Palace of Rogalin and meet with Mikolaj Dmowski, the archivist of Majatek Rogalin.
3. Follow the
route of Count E. Raczynski visiting the manor houses and farms once owned by the family. Here are the results of my visit
to the archives.
Poznan Archives: Archiwum
Panstwowe w Poznaniu
My translator, Katarzyna
Grycza (of Discovering Roots), told me that at the beginning of World War II the majority of the Rogalin archives were taken
to Warsaw for protection. Unfortunately, they were destroyed during the bombing of the city.
But the archives still had some papers spanning 1580-1936. I had to select from the 86 entries in
the index.
Kasia read the titles to me and I selected:
#
10. Inventory of Rogalin Farm 1759
# 16. Mortgage of Rogalin 1845
# 27. Bills and Budgets Rogalin, Jezewo, Korzkowo
1884-1895
# 30. Reports, Incomes and Expenses from the harvest 1891-1894
# 35. Kitchen Expenses 1775
We filled out our request slips and returned in the afternoon when the ledgers
were available. It's interesting that the records are kept in another building, and when it's raining the 300-year-old
books arrive in a "granny" pull cart with a plastic flap pulled over them to protect them.
I will write a more extensive article with illustrations about the findings,
but the most exciting book -- and I'm no accountant! -- was the Bills and Budgets from Rogalin, etc.
The 1889-1890 ledger listed the wages of the workers at the palace and the manor farm.
Jakob Adamski, referenced in the book _Rogalin i jego mieszkancy_, was listed at the top of page 47. The records were written
in German and were divided by costs for the farm, forest, distillery, palace, garden and retired people.
The wages were recorded as the yearly amount in marks as well as payments in
wheat, rye, oats, peas, potatoes, salt, flax, sheep, wood and cows. There was a column for an extra benefit for St. John's
"Swzłojanki" but nothing was awarded to the workers in 1889-90.
My g-g-grandfather Michael Adamski was listed as working in the garden and received 60 marks, 10
units of wheat, 3 units of rye, 2 units of oats, 2 units of peas, 12 units of potatoes, 2 units of salt and 1 and 1/2 units
of flax. His son Jacob received a better wage of 750 marks and more grains, but he didn't receive salt or flax.
Other surnames recorded in the ledger include: Szarzynski, Jankowiak, Piskorz (sp),
Wolna, Matejka, Szmania, Szczesny, Rychlewicz, Lewendowski, Adamowa, Swietlik, Madaj, Chrzanowska, and Stechow.
I encourage other researchers to try this type of research. A good place to
start is with Avotaynu's webpage on magnates:
It lists known magnate families and the location of the archives. As
the introductory paragraph from their site points out, a good source for learning which Polish noble owned the land on which
ancestral towns stood is the 15-volume _Slownik Geograficzny Krolestwa Polskiego i innych krajow slowianskich_ (Geographic
Dictionary of the Former Kingdom of Poland and other Slavic Lands). It is available on microfilm through the Family History
Library system (microfilm numbers 920957-920971):
