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I connect to the KOTLARZ family of Łęki Górne and Łęki Dolne (Leki Gorne / Leki Dolne), Poland, through my GALUS ancestry.  My grandfather, Stanislaus GALUS, immigrated from Łęki Górne / Łęki Dolne, (Galicia) Poland (now in Podkarpackie Province). (Current map showing Łęki Górne.)   More about my GALUS family.

Stanislaus was a son of Andrzej GALUS and Agnieszka nee SZTORC, a grandson of Jan GALUS and Marianna nee PAPROCKI, a great grandson of Wojciech (Adalbertus) GALUS and Marianna nee KOTLARZ.  Wojciech (Adalbertus) GALUS and Marianna nee KOTLARZ are my 3rd great grandparents.

In March of 2006 I received an e-mail from Paweł Bandur, who lives in Poland.  His grandfather Józef  Bańdur was born in Łęki Dolne and Paweł was interested in tracing his grandfather's family in Łęki.  After doing some initial research, Paweł and I were excited to find that we are 5th cousins through our KOTLARZ family. 

Following is more about our KOTLARZ connections.

3rd Great Grandparents, Adalbertus / Wojciech GALUS and Marianna nee KOTLARZ

4th Great Grandparents, Joannes KOTLARZ and Lucia ŁADOWNA

My 3rd great grandmother was Marianna KOTLARZ GALUS.  My cousin Paweł's 3rd great grandmother, Salomea KOTLARZ PODRAZA, was a sister of Marianna.  Marianna and Salomea were daughters of Joannes KOTLARZ and Lucia nee ŁADOWNA (LADOWNA). 

From information on my grandfather's and my great grandfather's baptism records, I determined that Joannes and Lucia ŁADOWNA KOTLARZ are my 4th great grandparents.  My grandfather's birth/baptism record included the names of his parents and his grandparents:

My great grandfather's birth/baptism record also had the names of his parents and his grandparents:

Andreas was a son of Joannes GALUS and Marianna nee PAPROCKI.  His grandparents were Adalbertus GALUS and Marianna nee KOTLARZ and Adalbertus PAPROCKI and Hedwigis nee MICEK.  Starting with Andreas' birth year, I searched backward through the marriage records, looking for the date of his parents' marriage.  Joannes and Marianna were married 28 May of 1841:

Joannes was 24 years old at the time of his marriage in 1841, therefore he was born about 1817.  I knew the names of his parents from the baptism records of his children. 

This record does not include the names of Joannes' grandparents, however I was lucky enough to find Marianna's father's name on the baptism record of her youngest son, Josephus.  Marianna was named as the daughter of Joannes KOTLARZ.  Referring to the record above, Joannes GALUS was baptized on the 25th of Ocbtober 1818.  Beginning with the year 1818, I looked back through the marriages for the record of Adalbertus GALUS and Marianna KOTLARZOWA.

Their marriage record does not include the names of their parents, but I knew Marianna's father's name was Joannes.  Marianna was 18 years old at the time of her marriage to Adalbertus.  Her calculated year of birth would be about 1788.

Again, I searched through the Łęki marriages starting with Marianna's baptism date of 2 February 1788, looking for the record of Joannes KOTLARZ and Lucia ŁADOWNA.  I didn't find one....  I did however find the following record:

I looked to see if I could find another Joannes KOTLARZ.  There were none in this time period.  The name "Lucia" is not a very common name in the Łęki records.   The question is how does the name ŁADOWNA become  OLSZOSZCZONKA?  Currently I do not have any theories.  However, based on information from the baptism records for the siblings of my 3rd great grandmother Marianna KOTLARZ, and for some of her first cousins' records, I believe Lucia ŁADOWNA and OLSZOSZCZONKA are the same person.   The baptism records I found for children born to Joannes KOTLARZ and Lucia ________ all reference house number 217. 

Connecting with Cousins

On 2 March of this year (2006) I received an e-mail that began

Dear Marge, I found Your website when I searched for informations about Łęki-village and about my family name. My name is Paweł Bandur and I live in Poland.... My family comes from Łęki Dolne.

Paweł's grandfather Józef was born in Łęki Dolne on 3 March 1895, a son of Józef BAŃDUR and Marianna nee  AUGUSTYN.  In 1920/1921 Józef and his brother Franciszek emigrated from Łęki Dolne to Michalcze, near  Horodenka, in what is now the western part of the Ukraine.  Paweł was interested in tracing his BAŃDUR roots in the Łęki village.  Warsaw is currently  the only place in Poland that has a Mormon Family History Center.  Even though Warsaw is several hours distant from his home, Paweł ordered the Łęki Parish microfilms that I had listed as sources on my webpages.  He wondered if I could give him some tips on how to use the Mormon microfilms to document his family lines.

I have copies of the Łęki Parish microfilms on extended loan at my local Family History Center here in Omaha, Nebraska USA, and I offered to help extract some of the records for Paweł's BAŃDUR family until he could view the films himself in Warsaw.  I first looked for the birth/baptism record of  Paweł's grandfather.


Interesting - I thought.  Josephus' paternal grandmother was a GALUS, which is my maiden name.  His maternal grandmother was a PODRAZA, also one of my ancestoral lines.  I continued tracing Marianna GALUS' line to see if I could connect her to my GALUS family from Łęki Dolne.  I could not.  Imagine my surprise when I discovered that Josephus' mother,  Marianna AUGUSTYN, was my second cousin three removed!  As I continued taking this line back, I found that Paweł and I are 5th cousins through our KOTLARZ lines.  We are both descended from Joannes KOTLARZ and Lucia ŁADOWNA.


Marianna's mother was Thecla PODRAZA, who was a daughter of Matheas PODRAZA and Salomea nee KOTLARZ.  Salomea was a sister of my 3rd great grandmother, Marianna KOTLARZ GALUS.


In September 2006 my cousin Paweł Bandur visited the parish priest in Łęki Górne to find the death dates of some of our ancestors who died in :Łęki Dolne.  We have not been able to find microfilmed death records for the Village of Łęki Dolne after 1898.   The source referenced by the parish priest: Death Book, Łęki Dolne 1898- ...till today.

Paweł found the death dates for his great grandparents, Josephus and Marianna AUGUSTYN BANDUR.

Sources / Resources

LDS Microfilms

For a more detailed description of each microfilm visit the LDS web site at http://www.familysearch.org/

Roman Catholic parish register of baptisms, marriages, and deaths for Leki / Leki Gorne / Leki Dolne, Galizien, Austria; now Poland. Text in Latin.

FHL INTL Film 1898738 Birth records
FHL INTL Film 1898739 Birth, marriage and death records
FHL INTL Film 1898740 Death records
FHL INTL Film 1899056 Death records
FHL INTL Film 1899057 Death records

Other

Timeline of Polish History https://sites.rootsweb.com/~polwgw/history.html