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Records that may be of interest for people seeking Radzimski/Radziemski's ancestors:

Through an mutual effort and close collaboration with Bernard Radzimski from Opole, we were able to assembly several lineages with hundreds of records, that are going back to period from ~1750 to 1800. Those are genealogical trees listing descendants of:

These lineages are supported with original documents related to birth, marriage or death of the ancestors. These lineages were identified using church and most recently on-line records being provided by the Polish government. 

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Record Examples: 

Pawel mariage



Marriage record in Latin from Sługocinek dated November 12, 1786 of  Pawel Radziemski and Elżbieta Mikołayczak. Please note that this record lists only first names, that is typical for this period of time.


1834 ur. Jadwiga Radzimska





Birth record in Polish from Linne near Dobra dated September 17, 1834 of Jadwiga Radzimska.

1873 zm. Barbara Radzimska






Death record in Russian from Dobra near Turek dated August 24, 1873 of  Barbara Radzimski. 





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Radzimski, Radziemski, or maybe something else? 

Registration of births, marriages and deaths in Poland in earlier times was done mainly by the Catholic Church. Unfortunately written documents were not issued to families so all the facts, including names, were mainly remembered phonetically. During a registration, a priest or designated person recorded the names as they were told. As a result, a name was written in different forms depending on who wrote it. In addition, our ancestors didn’t know how to read and write, therefore could not validate the record. We can find many examples of this in genealogical trees of Radzimski and Radziemskis’ families. Here, we  illustrate this case using Mikołaj from Mikulice near Dobra in Turek county.  

1839 malz. Mikolaj Radzimski





In his marriage recordings from 1839 his name is Mikołaj Radzimek. 



1842 ur. Magdalena Radzimska







A few years later in the 1842 birth record of his daughter Magdalena he is listed as Radziemski. 





1862 ur. Maryanna Radzimska 810695 copy



In 1862 he is Radzimski in the birth record of another daughter Maryanna, but in 1865 his name is Radziemek in the birth record of his son Tomasz. 




1827 ur.Nepomucen Radziemski





A similar story is with his descendants. Their names changed often until 1902, when Stefan was born who is Mikołaj’s grandson and son of Tomasz. He was recorded as Radzimski and since then the entire family is using this last name. 





In conclusion, it was most likely a simple coincidence that this last name was recorded at the times when first certificates were issued to the families. 

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Chasing the origin of the name Radzimski having the coat of arms Napiwon:  Can we find Radzim? 

Following historical documents, it can be said with certainty that the surname Radzimski is associated with the town of Radzim and that it was established at the end of the fourteenth century. The same documents link Radzim with the estates received by the Borek family from King Łokietek and King Kazimierz Wielki. These included, among others, the city of Gostyń and 40 villages, among them Koźmin, Pleszew, Raszków, Potaszyce and Radzim, all in close vicinity of Kalisz. While most of these places have survived to this day and can be easily identified, finding this particular Radzim poses some difficulties. According to the Geographical Dictionary of the Polish Kingdom and other Slavic Countries published in 1880, there were at least ten localities in Poland called Radzim or similar, such as for example, Radzimie, Radzimia or Radzimin. If we narrow down our search to the areas located in Wielkopolska near towns belonging to the Borek family, then we are dealing with three candidates: Radzim near Pleszew, Radzim near Rychwał and Radzyń near Rdutów. Interestingly, it is in this region in Poland, where the most Radzimskis and Radziemskis live today.


To narrow our search, a fragment from the Polish Armorial of Kasper Niesiecki published in 1841 may be helpful. We read in it that, "Maciej, (the eldest son of Marcin Borek Gostyński, heir in Gostyń and Loszakowice) took part of Pleszów, Raszków, Potarzyce with twelve villages, among them Radzim, where he took residence and named himself Radzimski. ... his son Piotr, ... left his son Wojciech, a knight, husband of Dorota Mycielska. ... Their second son Stanisław, ... became the professor of philosophy, presided over the college ..."  The last sentence is about Stanisław Radzimski, a Jesuit, who was born in 1565 in Zacharzewo in the Wysocko parish in the Kalisz province. He was the son of the mentioned above Wojciech Radzimski and Dorota Mycielska from Mycielin of the Dołęga coat of arms. At the time, Wojciech and Dorota lived in Zacharzewo with his family. Stanisław Radzimski can probably be considered the most famous member of the Radzimski family. Educated in many European cities, he became famous as a theologian, missionary and author of many scientific papers, politician and founder and rector of many schools, including the Jesuit College in Braniewo.

As for Mycielski’s, they came from Wojciech Mycielski from Mycielin. He was mentioned in Poznań town registers in 1496 as the Konin mayor and the Kalisz region. His wife was Małgorzata Starogrodzka. Dorota Radzimska was their granddaughter. The Mycielski family was one of the most powerful, especially in Greater Poland. Mycielski's served in the peasant's infantry in the 15th century and fought at Grunwald. 


It is the story of Stanisław's parents that gives us clues to identify Radzim in the Maciej’s story. We believe it is the village of Radzimia near Rychwał. This village was located on the Pokrzywnica River, it had a mill and it could have been a great place for Maciej, who chose it for residences several decades before the birth of Stanisław. According to the Geographical Dictionary of 1880, this village had over 30 ha and was probably much larger when Maciej inherited it. The fact that Mycielin is located about 12 km from Radzim near Rychwał, allows us to draw the conclusion that Wojciech most likely visited Radzimia or even lived there for some time. Wojciech Radzimski and Dorota Mycielska, being neighbors and people from the same social class, could meet and got married. 


It should be added, that it is difficult to find today Radzimia on the map of Poland. It became part of the village called Wola Rychwalska and is listed in some current documents of Turek County. It is also difficult to find additional important historical facts about the Radzimski of Radzim. As Seweryn Count Uruski mentioned in his Armorial from 1904: “despite of highly respected origin, this family (Radzimski), having declined in value, never had much significance even in its province”.  The conclusions presented above would have to be confirmed by additional documents. One of the sources may be the diocesan archive of birth, marriage and death certificates from the Rychwał commune. An analysis of these documents confirms the presence of the Radzimski family in Rychwał in early 1700, but further searches from an earlier period are necessary to establish the connection with Maciej’s family. 


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Is there a specific region in Poland where Radzimski/Radziemski family lived? 

Analysis of historical documents shows that the surnames Radzimski or Radziemski, with the coat of Arms Napiwoń, come from the town of Radzim in the Wielkopolska area. DNA tests of a group of people with these names allow us to postulate that there could have been at least two other locations with similar names in different areas of Poland. To support this statement one ought to find evidence in civil files. Unfortunately, most of the documents can only be found since the early 1800s. It was when all citizens were obliged to register births, marriages and deaths, regardless of religion, according to law based on the Napoleonic Code from May 1, 1808. Earlier, the recording system was not properly regulated which had a strong effect on frequency and quality of records. To study the origin of surnames Radzimski / Radziemski, we decided to analyze civil documents issued in the years from 1790 to 1830 and available on the largest archives available in Poland, i.e., szukajwarchiwach.pl and geneteka.genealodzy.pl. We expanded the range to 1790 to assure some continuity of names and places. The majority of documents (~80%) were found after year 1808. Therefore, we selected the year 1830 to assure that we would obtain a large enough sample. We have expanded the search to any surnames with the root Radzim or Radzin, such as Radzimiński, Radzimowski or Radziński. Our goal was to investigate whether there are cities or regions in Poland with an increased population of people with the names of interest. We identified a total of 650 records with names related to Radzim involving 287 persons.


Our research shows that most people with the surname Radzimski / Radziemski (plus their female counterpart) were found in the current region of Wielkopolska, particularly near Konin. The second largest region is in the area between Tuchola and Skórcz in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship. In addition, the surname Radzimski / Radziemski can be found in Płock in the Masovian Voivodeship. The map in Fig. 1 shows the places where more than four people with Radzimski or Radziemski names were found in the period indicated above. 

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Fig. 1. Map of Wielkopolska and Kuyavian-Pomeranian region with places (marked in red) where more than four people with Radzimski/Radziemski names were found in civil archives from 1790 to 1830. In blue are the names of potential places from which surname was adopted.


The surname Radzimiński can often be found in the Łódź and Masovian Voivodeships. Another example of a surname with the root Radzim is Radzimowski. It occurs in small quantities in the Pomeranian, Łódź and Świętokrzyskie Voivodeships. It is also interesting that the surname Radzim appears with a surprisingly high number only in the town of Węgleszyn in the Świętokrzyskie province. The map of Poland in Fig.2 shows areas where we identified more than four people with a surname related to Radzim. 

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Fig. 2.  Map of Poland with places where more than four people with surnames related to Radzim were found in civil archives from 1790 to 1830.

Can a concentration of a given surname point to a potential origin of that surname from that region? Let’s consider the surname Radzimski / Radziemski. We know that they are associated with the place called Radzim. The above analysis indicates that most of identified people lived in the eastern part of Wielkopolska, near Konin. Interestingly, this is also the place where Radzimia is located, the most probable place from which Maciej, of the Napiwoń coat of arms, took the surname Radzimski. 


The Kuyavian-Pomeranian region is the second in respect to the concentration of Radzimski/Radziemski families, especially the areas between the towns of Tuchola and Skórcz. In this region we find a place called Radzim near Tuchola. It is then very plausible to assume that it is another place, besides Wielkopolska, where a branch of Radzimski/Radziemski started. 


A similar approach will point us to Radzymin near Ciechanów as a probable origin of the surname Radzimiński of the Lubicz coat of arms. On the other hand, families with the surname Radzimowski occur in several different regions across Poland and often in areas inhabited by Radzimski or Radziemski. The Radzimowski families used the Dołęga coat of arms and could have diverged from the Radzimski and Radziemski families through name changes. 


In summary, the above analysis adds new elements to our attempt to describe the history of the names Radzimski, Radziemski and variations. Many elements of this story require additional evidence and clarification. We invite everyone interested in this story to share comments, especially critical ones. These types of evidence will help a lot in making more definitive conclusions.