Sierzputowski, finding villages in Poland, Lomza region.

Hello, I looking for some answers about my families history. My great grandfather, Marcel Sierzputowski, immigrated from Poland in 1910. On his Declaration of intention he wrote down Baczach, Lomzgnskie Poland as his home. I can not seem to find a town or village named Baczach. I know it my be a missing spelling, but any guesses on where he meant? Also he marked that that his wife, Bronislawa, was from Ochanki. I do not know where that is either.

Also it says that when he first came over his name was Marzell Scherschputowski. I have a feeling that was an Ellis Island worker spelling it phonetically, I just want to make sure. He settled in Cleveland Ohio and had 6 children. He might have had a brother or two. I am not sure of this. I know my grandfather change the name Sierputowski for some reason, but now sure why.

There's a place called Bacze quite near to £omża, about 10 miles South East - in fact there are two - Bacze Suchy and Bacze Mokry. They are both absolutely tiny, just a few houses. Baczach could make sense grammatically here, especially since there are two Baczes and -ach is a plural ending (people from Katowice don't say 'in Katowice', they say 'in Katowicach').

Have a look at Bacze on the map. Interestingly there's also a couple of places (also tiny) a couple of miles South West of town called Sierzputy - your roots in £omża could go very far back indeed.

The trick is to know a bit about Polish grammar. If he was writing the declaration in English style, but with correct Polish spelling, that would be: "born in Bacze, region of £omża."

He used Polish style using declensions and referring to the region of £omża using the adjective "łomżyńskie".

The name Bacze is derived from the verb "baczyć" - to watch, to pay attention, to see, to forgive.

There is a village Bacze Suche ("Dry Bacze"), municipality of £omża (gmina £omża), £omża County (powiat), Podlaskie Voivodeship, in north-eastern Poland.It lies approximately 10 kilometres (6 mi) south of £omża and 71 km (44 mi) west of the regional capital Białystok.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacze_Suche

There is also a village Bacze Mokre ("Wet Bacze"), same gmina, but different county (Zambrów) - 10 km away from Bacze Suche by road.

And finally, there is also a settlement Bacze-Lipnik, the same gmina, 8 km to Bacze Mokre.

One more village - "Bacze" is located about 140 km west of the three villages mentioned above, so forget it.

The names are butchered


I found some villages which might be what you are looking for, but I can't be sure
1. Barszcze, gmina Zbójna, powiat łomżyński
2.Bacze - Suche, gmina £omża, powiat łomżyński
3.Bacze - Lipnik, gmina £omża, p. ł.
Here is link to site where you can search villages in Poland:
wsiepolskie.pl/powiat/131/lomzynski

thanks for all the help. I'm trying my hardest to find out everything I can. there were two other men, Lukas and Peter who moved to Cleveland around the same time, they both had a form of "Bacza Morke" as well. Now I would like to find out what, if any, relation they are.

Bacze Mokre, not Bacza Morke. Pay attention, you are screwing one of the most important details in your search.:-(

Bacze is a plural noun - ending with "e", Mokre is a plural adjective, matching the noun, also ending with "e".

Other than that, good luck with your further search. :-)

I wrote it that way because that's how one of the other men spelled it in 1920something. i also saw it spelled "booka moorka" on an immigration form. When I type a polish city in quotes that is how I saw it spelled, even though I know it's not the right way. :)

This indeed is a small village.


That might not be so easy. There are still villages in Eastern Poland where most people have the same surname - I can think of two places like that off the top of my head. Of course they could be family members, but it's just as likely they're very distant cousins.

Does anyone know what kind of records Churches in the area's keep? how far back they can go, of Birth's and what not?

acts of the church's announcements, records of birth, marriage, death, lists of parishioners, loose attachments (extracts, certificates), correspondence...


The oldest parish church's acts date back to XVI c. You will find them in Archiwum Główne Akt Dawnych in Warsaw.
In some parishes you will find acts dating back to XIX c., in others to the beginning of XXc. Earlier books were probably taken to Warsaw, because of consolidation of archives in the beginning of XXc. Unfortunately during WWII Germans intentionaly destroied big part of Polish archives and libraries (including National Library in Warsaw in 1944).

If you have some spare money I recommend you to hire professional genealogist in Poland.

In addition to what Aligator said, there are several ways to look for various certificates (birth, death, marriage), specifically to £omża:

+ National Archive in Białystok, £omża branch. Covers several faiths (Evangelic-Augsburg, Roman-Catholic, Greek-Catholic and Jewish), various periods. Part of those archives are on microfilms. Contacts provided. You may start with this:

The database "Pradziad",
baza.archiwa.gov.pl/sezam/pradziad.php?l=&miejscowosc=%A3om%BFa&gmina=%A3om%BFa&wojewodztwo_id=0&wyznanie_id=0&rodzajaktu_id=0&search=szukaj

+ If this is not enough you may contact £omża Diocese Archive, Roman Catholic data only I believe.
kuria.lomza.pl/index.php?wiad=354

(This web page is only in Polish). Some archives are microfilmed but it looks like you would need to get the appointment first by phone and then be there in person (or nominate someone to do it for you).

+ Not all certificates have been sent to central archives and are still kept in parishes.

It appears that the archives from before partitions are quite complete. But the first few decades of the partitions were messy - administration wise, so there might some holes at the first half of XIX c.

Wow. I really can't thank you guys enough for all of this information. I really do appreciate it.