52 Ancestors #3 and #4: Szymon Walczyk and Marianna Bęben

Having skipped last week's 52 Ancestors post, this week I shall write about two of my ancestors: Szymon Walczyk and Marianna Bęben. Szymon and Marianna are my 4th great grandparents (see pedigree chart) and the earliest ancestors I have found in my Walczyk line.

When and where were they born?

Szymon Walczyk and Marianna Bęben were both probably born in Czermna (map). Unfortunately, there are no baptism records for the years 1721-1776 in this parish, so I do not know the exact dates or even the correct years of their births.

However, I do have their marriage record. Szymon and Marianna were married on 4 November 1794 in Czermna, in what was then the Galicia region of Austria. He was 28 and she was 20. It was the first marriage for both.

excerpt - Szymon Walczyk - Marianna Bębnionka marriage
Czermna, 4 Nov 1794 (2nd row)

If the ages in this record are correct, then Szymon was born in about 1766 and Marianna in about 1774. Interestingly, this means that Szymon was born in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, before the First Partition of Poland occurred in 1772. Marianna was born after Galicia was annexed by Austria. Thus it is possible they were born in the same town but in two different countries.

Children of Szymon Walczyk and Marianna Bęben

Szymon Walczyk and Marianna Bęben had at least five children who lived to adulthood, including my 3rd great-grandfather, Józef. All five of these married in Czermna and had children of their own.

• Marianna Walczyk (~1799-) married Anton Ignarski (or Lignarski)
• Jadwiga Walczyk (1802-) married Piotr Wierzgacz
• Anna Walczyk (~1805-) married Marcin Duda
• Józef Walczyk (1811-1883) married Tekla Lech
• Wojciech Walczyk (~1812-) married (1) Katarzyna Pers and (2) Petrina Janusz

All of Szymon and Marianna's children married quite young -- their three daughters at age 15, their sons at 17 and 20. Even for the time and place, marrying that young was not the norm. It was especially unusual to see a young man marry at 17. This suggests that the family may have been quite poor.

What was the Walczyk family's social status?

I have found eight parish records describing Szymon Walczyk's status or occupation between the years of 1803 and 1840. Unsurprisingly, all indicate he was a peasant.

The Name Game: Kunkel vs. Konkol

What's in a name?

I won't go there with the quote. But our ancestors' names can actually tell us a lot. The name can reveal or disguise ethnicity, point to (or at least hint at) geographic origin, and even offer clues about the family's religion.

Anna Pionke (née Kunkel) was my great-grandmother. Her descendants spell her maiden name KUNKEL and some are rather adamant about this. But the name was not always spelled this way. I have seen all of these variations in different records: Kunkel, Konkel, Konkol, Kąkol, and Kunkol.

It's spelled KUNKEL! It's literally carved in stone!!

Kunkel or Konkol – what's the difference?

So, who cares how they spelled it? What difference does it make? It matters when the name helps define ethnic background. KUNKEL is a German name and KONKOL or KĄKOL is a Polish name.

KUNKEL - Recorded as Kunkel, Kinkel, Gunkel, Kunkler and others, this is a German surname. It derives from the word "kunkel", and ultimately from the Latin conicula, meaning a spindle, cone or peg. The surname is therefore a metonymic occupational name for a spinner or a maker of spindles.[1]

KONKOL - nickname meaning ‘corn cockle’, a weed of cereal crops, Polish kąkol ... hence a topographic name for someone who lived on a weed-covered plot of land, or a nickname for a poor farmer or someone who was not highly thought of.[2]

Complicating matters, spelling was not standardized at the time. It is possible that a family's name was Kunkel, but came to be spelled Konkol by the Polish priests. Likewise, perhaps the name was originally Konkol, but came to be spelled Kunkel as the family became more Germanized.