The Wankowicz family from a parish of Berezyna - history, geography and people

I am looking for all information about my grandfather Marian or Jerzy Konstantynowicz and about his family from the parish of Berazino (Berezina, Berezino or Berezyna). He belonged to one of the old noble families from the farthest eastern reaches of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Those lands were also the first to be taken by tsarist Russia as the result of the partitions of Poland.

Those near and dear (families at the beginning of the 20th cent.) in the Berazino parish (Mother of God of Mercy catholic church), Riga, the Dryssa ujezd and elsewhere:

1.	Malkiewicz	Old Svolna, Miezonka and the Jauji farm (i.e. Jowce or Javci in LATVIA; 49 km north - east of Vilani in the Ludsen = Ludza district formerly) www.surnameweb.org/registry/m/a/l/malkiewicz.shtml
2.	Nieciejewski	in farms Hrynica / Griniza and Usochy in the Ihumen district, and also village Luszewska Slobodka in the Rahacou district (345 ha., here a family of Gorski lived, too) since 1881; the Russian and Soviet general, count Bronislaw Nieciejewski who was born c. 1870 in the Berazino parish came from Hrynica, and his daughter worked as translator and interpreter as early as November 1917 (after completion of the University of Paris) at the first Council of People's Commissars under direction of Wladymir (Vladimir) Boncz Brujewicz who was the chief of the Lenin's office 1917 - 1918; either Nieciejovski or Niecijevskij, Nicijewski and Nieciovski, too
3.	Uminski	or Uminskas with Cholewa arms in the Vilna and Vicebsk provinces (Manulki farm A.D. 1672*), Bruslevo* (**or Bryjelov, Brialewo in the Berezina parish) and Smolarnia - Florian Czarnyszewicz has written the book "Nadberezyncy" about this village; Smolarnia was situated next to Krasny Brzeg in the Babrujsk district, property of the Korzeniewski family and also of Wincenty Stanislaw Koziell Poklewski - he was born 1853 and died 1929, son of Alfons Koziell Poklewski 1810 - 1890, member of the State Administration of Trade 1907 - 1912 according to Tatiana Pietrovna Mosunov and he was related to Hotowski i.e. Gatovskij, Slotwinski from Ravanicy and Malkiewicz, too; Uminski family was related to Sarnecki (or Sarneckis from Skierniow estate in the Trakai district) family with Slepowron arms
4.	counties Zarako Zarakowski	i.e. the Zarokovskij family e.g. during war 1878 - 1879; properties: Holubovo palace, Kniazievo village and the great Svolna / Swolna estate - the chief military state prosecutor of communistic Poland (after - see http://konstantynowicz.info/September_1939 - 1939 P. O. W. in Russia and next Military Attorney in Warsaw / Attorney General) and Soviet general, count Stanislaw Zarako Zarakowski was born here in 1909 or November 1907; neighbourhood of them: Lipski Jan who was the noble marshal of the Vicebsk government, Alina Rykow, Maryia Zabiella, famous Czerski by 1835, Szczyt since 1725, Rudomin, Korsak, Dluzniewski; Jan Zaraka(o) - Zarakowski b. 21.02.1857, Russian general, stayed in Vicebsk in June 1918, next Polish division general 1923, d. in Warsaw before 1934 according to T. Kryska-Karski; Soviet and Polish general Boleslaw Zarako - Zarakowski was chief of the main staff of the Polish People Army in 1944, b. in Polack 1894
5.	Zbieranowski	Igumen, Berazino (Michal born Berezino in 1882 son of Jozef Zbieranowski and his wife Zofia nee Witkowski, after Bobrujsk, Sluck and Riga / Ryga 1899 - 1904), Riga and Miezonka; they were relations of Sarnecki (or Sarneckis) family with Slepowron arms
6.	Szostak	Miezonka and (acquaintances of Raczkiewicz) Babrujsk = Bobruisk or Bobruysk www.surnameweb.org/registry/s/z/o/szostak.shtml
7.	Konstantynowicz	Miezonka, Petersburg, Svolna = Svol'na or Swolna, Krycau, Daugavpils, Kovalki, Riga, Omsk, Borovina
8.	Pilecki	Pileckis with Leliwa arms in the Vilna region in 1632 and the Trakai district in 1648, Navahrudak in 1674; first information of 1484 and 1511; they verified the Swan coat of arms in Vilnius and Kaunas in 1807, and also the family possessed a farmland near by Lida and close to an estate of Marshal Edward Rydz Smigly west of Lida in the thirties of the 20th cent.
9.	Stankiewicz	The Stankiewicz ancestry with the Wadwicz coat of arms lived in the Minsk and Mscislau provinces, according to Kasper Niesiecki, vol. 8 (among others 1648 and 1661) as early as the 17th century; the Mazyr district, the province of Polack A.D. 1674. They were related to Kotowski and Oginski families. According to Jan Ciechanowicz, vol. 5, p. 134 - 135: Stankiewicz or Stankevicius of the Mogila, Boncza and Wadwicz coats of arms; they were near related to Bilewicz (or Billewicz) family from Samaites at the turn of the 16th century. There are information about Jan Stankiewicz in Samaites and Vilna A.D. 1635 and about Michal and Adam Mikolaj here in 1648; Jan Mikolaj from Raseiniai region in 1646, and also Kazimierz in 1658; about Stefan from the Minsk province in 1697 and Adam Stankiewicz in Samaites 1788. They verified the Mogila coat of arms on March 16th, 1835 and derived from Samaites territory in Lithuania. Here they owned Raseiniai in 1535 and next moved to Vilkmerge district (Kirbutiszki and Krekszle farms). The noble Stankiewicz family with the Wadwicz coat of arms came of the Orsa district, and next in the Asmjany one, also the Minsk province and the Mscislau one. They verified the Wadwicz coat of arms in Minsk on February 25th, 1828; besides they lived in the Braslau region. You can to see interesting website on the Stankiewicz family, http://republika.pl/aord/stankiewicz.htm among other things about: 1. Wladyslaw, Adam and Witold Stankiewicz from Vilna; 2. Antoni from the Minsk government (b. circa 1870, the member of the Civil Guard in Minsk in 1918); 3. Feliks b. 1927 in Babrujsk; 4. The Stankiewicz family from Przydrusk village near by Daugavpils was related to colonel Jan Stankiewicz. Przydrusk = Przydrujsk or Piedruja in the former Grand duchy of Lithuania, and Latvia now, 44 km West of Malkiewicz's Old Svolna = Stara Swolna; Jan Stankiewicz born 04.04.1862 in Vilna / Wilno as son of Franciszek Stankiewicz with the Mogila coat of arms and Pelagia nee Sienkiewicz, got married to Maria Odrowaz in 1886 and next as colonel served and lived in Riga / Ryga 1887 - 1909 / 1910 and possesed the Awocin property in Latvia to c. 1910; the friend of the minister Jozef Beck parents from Riga and acquaintance of Jozef Pilsudski in August 1919 in Wilno; the relation of Butrym family. Colonel Jan Stankiewicz was Polish educational activist and freedom fighter within the Pilsudski undercover movement before 1910 in Riga. Colonel Jan Stankiewicz had withdrawn from the Russian Army on 01.01.1918, and the Bolsheviks assented to this discharge on 28.02.1918; reunion with family in Smolensk after January 1918; and next after settled himself in Vilna / Wilno / Vilnius in 1918 or maybe after spring 1919. But he served for the Polish Army just since April 1919 and as brigade-general in October 1923; died in Milanowek near to Warsaw in December 1945. He was mistaken for colonel Gustaw Stankiewicz son of Marian from the Siedlce government b. 1860 - 1918 who was maybe commandant of the 2nd Polish Corps in Ukraine in accordance with Nicman of 1995 and with a Moscow Archive of 2000, and Gustaw died in 1918 over a fight against "reds" somewhere in Ukraine; also he was mistaken with Sylwester Stankiewicz, according to Vronskya J. of 1992.. Sylwester Stankiewicz born 1866 and died in Taganrog close to Rostov-na-Don in March 1919; maybe since 10th January 1918 to 28th March 1918 as the commandant of the 2nd Polish Corps in Moldova and Ukraine; General-Lieutenant Sylwester Stankiewicz after served for general Anton Denikin in the Voluntary Army with 3000 Russian soldiers; maybe since January 1919 under command of general Piotr Vrangel. It's not plain statement seeing as turned up just now and come in from East surely. Entries in Wikipedia of September 2008 on Gustaw and Sylwester (!) have got only currently edited* references and there are mistakes in details.* Main former historians: Baginski H., Dowbor - Musnicki J., Holowko T. of 1931 and Michaelis E. of 1929 point out Russian General-Lieutenant Jan Stankiewicz as the commandant of the 2nd Polish Corps in Moldova and Ukraine during December 1917 - March 1918. Who was a Commander of the 2nd Polish Corps in Soroka (Soroca by Dnister in present north Moldova id est Soroki) and Iasi (east Romania now) in the end of January 1918 till March 08th, 1918? Colonel Jan Stankiewicz from Riga? General Jan Stankiewicz? Old Gustaw Stankiewicz or an unknown Stankiewicz? Sylwester Stankiewicz? Commander of the 2nd Polish Corps retreated front of Germans (a withdrawal of military forces after acceptance the Ukraine as ind. state by Germany on 09 February 1918 and 03 Mar. 1918) and after stayed in Iasi on March 02nd, 1918 and came into contact with Haller in Jaruga on March 05th, 1918; when Romania on the same day March 05th, 1918 concluded an alliance with Germany - Haller and Jan Stankiewicz with the 2nd Corps on 08th March 1918 launched a march east and crossed Dnister river going into Ukraine evading a disarmament in the then Romania. On the other hand General - Lieutenant Jan Stankiewicz went out from Czeczelnik to Kiev on March 25th, 1918, to Gen. Michaelis, and next he joined the White Russian Gen. Aleksiejew / Alekseev by the Kuban river in April 1918. He fought north of Stavropol in September - October 1918, e.g. battle near by Ternovka on October 14th, 1918 with White Russians against "reds". Jan Stankiewicz took the offensive against Stalin's troops for Astrakhan in middle of November 1918, and after a retreat of the Voluntary Army, fought at Stavropol "White" Territory in December 1918 and at the beginning of 1919. General Jan Stankiewicz evacuated himself from Novorossijsk and probably arrived close by Odessa in March 1919 or Taganrog close to Rostov-na-Don in March 1919. He served for general Anton Denikin in the Voluntary Army with 3000 Russian soldiers, March and April 1919. Note: the retreat of 3500 soldiers of the Voluntary Army from under Odessa commenced at the beginning of April 1919 towards Bessarabia - it was a province of the then Romania between 1918 and 1940/44 - where the Romanians had disarmed "white" Russians, and a part of this "Army" joined in General Zeligowski 4th Division transcending Dniestr / Dnister river on 10th April 1919; made Tschernowzy (= Chernovits, Černivci) and Stanislavov in Poland in June 1919. See Berezyna 5. Bronislaw from Riga (b. 1913, his grandfather Nikodem was policeman in Riga).
10.	Spychalski	The Spychalski family from Lodz, worked in a garage of Andrzejak at the beginning of the 20th century and they were acquainted with Pilsudski.

my grandfather was a regular; at first he learnt in the secondary school in Mahileu by the river Dnjapro, next a real school in PÄRNU / Pernau / Parnawa (the Livland government, and Estonia present) and the Naval Corps (or at the Petrograd Naval College = the Naval War College; Course of Navigation Officers 1912 - December 1916) in St Petersburg and he first served in the Kronstadt Stronghold (the Bureau of Navy Transport - in a navigation ensign capacity, i.e. concretly "pra'porchik", this is a temporary rank, about equivalent to Sub-Lieut., R.N.R. in British Navy, one 1/2-inch gold stripe without curl - Dec. 1916 / March 1917); during the First World War he escaped on powerboat from the Kronstadt Stronghold to Tallinn (Reval = Revel, the capital of autonomous Estonia = Estland since March 1917) with Estonian engineer Jansen and stayed here since April by June of 1917; next in Petrograd by November 1917;

The Wankowicz family

from

a parish of Berezyna

- history and genealogy