Leszczynski surname, Balcerzak

Ziemowit, you are right... the only descendants of King Stanislaw is the offspring of Louis XV and Maria Leszczynska. But, King Stanislaw had one more legitimate daughter (older than Maria). She died unmarried aged 18.

Polonius3 would happen to know who is researching Rybinski (see Stefan Rybinski - 1910 thread)

would you happen to know anything about Rybinski research


rozylowicz.com/pdf-files/recollections_of_poland_2007_5.pdf]

Lol. Many a family tree was made by grafting.

Hi my name is name was Liszczyna .until I married. Spelled the Polish way when translated from Ukrainian on arrival It is a Ukranian Polish Name. It means a Hazel Tree/Bush in WIkipedia too Spelling is translation ,Find relatives and then write

My great grandmother's name was Caroline Leszczynska. She married my Lithuanian great grandfather who lived near Kaunas. She was Polish, according to my grandmother, and she was also related to the Radziwills of Poland, according to my grandmother. She would have been born sometime after the middle of the 19th century.

We have no way of verifying who she was, whether she was from Leszno, Poland, or not. I wonder if anyone on this thread has any knowledge of Leszczynski as a Polish or Polish Jewish name, since an early ancestor of this family in Poland was Jan, who gave land for a Jewish settlement near Leszno during the Protestant Reformation. He also gave refuge to a Protestant sect from Czechoslovakia. Thus the people who took his name who were from Lezno could have been Polish Catholic, Polish Jews or even Czechs.

I would appreciate any information anyone might have.

My great grandmother married a Lithuanian name Kongelaitis who had land near Kaunas in the 1800s. Her name was Caroline Leszczynska. I know nothing more about her.

My maternal great grandmother was Caroline Leszczynska, who married a man surnamed Kongel in Kaunas, Lithuania. I know nothing about her, except that her daughter (my grandmother) told me that she was from a noble family. Whether or not that is true or an affectation, I do not know. I presume she was from the family that founded Leszno/Lissa in Poland. Caroline, I believe was the middle name of Maria Leszczynski, daughter of Stanislaus. However. my great grandmother must have been from a parallel line of descent. In Europe, including Lithuania, people usually handed down first names in families. Surnames were late developments, except for nobility, who took their names from the places they owned.

Leszno was a haven for Unity of the Brethren Protestants during the Reformation religious wars. Jews were also invited to found a settlement there. Some Jews must also have taken their surname from the place and become Leszczynskis. Thus, it is difficult to know from which community my family is descended. In more recent centuries, Poland reverted to Catholicism and became very anti-Semitic. Unraveling the ancestry of my great grandmother would reveal the history of this conflicted part of Poland, (especially since it became German (Lissa) in the 19th century). It would also help this Catholic learn if she has Protestant or Jewish ancestry!

How did Leszczynskis get to Lithuania?

Doesn't ring a bell, a very atypical name. Are you sure you got it right?


Could you give us a timeframe? was it in 1910, 1930 or 1940? She could be from a noble family or not. You're right that many Jews converting to Catholicism took as their surnames the place they came from or a region hence Mazowiecki or Leszczynski could be a name of a Jewish origin.

On the other hand Leszczynski is a well know noble family from a region called wielkopolska that came to prominence in the beginning of the 18th century - briefly. Hard to tell really.

Also it doesn't necessary mean that Leszno has been founded by the Leszczynski family. They could drive the name from the main property they owned. A one thing is certain they are connected to the place and their are an old (ancient Polish noble family).


WTF? Poland had been funded on the Catholicism and European Christian culture. That had been a basis that formed Kingdom of Poland and later Commonwealth - a tolerant Polish culture rooted in Catholicism, a branch of western civilization in eastern Europe.

Growing up as an Anglophone you have picked up will nilly Protestant based anti-catholic propaganda and more than few prejudices produced by so called enlightenment age (18th).

By the way define VERY anti-Semitic? That somehow baseless statement is being repeated all over by people who really a VERY vague idea about history and no notion of historical truth.

I personally found VERY anti-Semitics certain circles of Polish-American, some of their views on the Jews expressed freely would have shocked an averaged out of the mill person in Poland. Not to mention views on Jews coming from a Palestinian community.

All in all Some Jews are giving a tit for tat if not more...

I have no way knowing your age. You could be 20 or you could be 60 that would place your ancestor in a different timetable and in different circumstances. You need to give me a date, approximately, and I'll tell you ( approximately) what your gran have been doing in Lithuania.

You can try to look for her birth certificate or check the Leszczyński family tree. If she came from that noble family, her name was well recorded.

Did Kongel also come from a noble family? He would have if he had wanted to marry an aristocrat. Otherwise it would have been a mesalliance.

Consult a genealogist.

Leszczynska is the female spelling (ends in a) of the surname Leszczynski. There were three brothers, one of whom was Stanislaw. They were the rulers of Leszno, Poland. During the 15th or 16th century religious wars, they gave refuge to Hussite Protestants, and the brother who ruled became Protestant. He also started an academy of learning there. The family invited Jews to settle in Leszno around the same time. Stanislaw was deposed twice as king of Poland, because he was supported by Sweden, which was an adversary of Russia. Russia won the great battles during his reign. France welcomed him and made him ruler of Alsace-Lorraine. His daughter Maria Caroline became the Queen of France. Stanislaw also founded an academy of learning in Alsace-Lorraine.

I'm trying to find out where my maternal great-grandmother came from. Her name was Caroline Leszczynska, and she married a Lithuanian named Kongel. They lived near Kaunas, Lithuania. My family is Catholic, but Jews were persecuted in the latter centuries, and there is a reason why one might not identify as Jewish. How she wound up in Lithuania, I don't know. Apparently others with the same name went to Lithuania also. At one time Poland and Lithuania were the same kingdom with the same king and the empire extended from the Baltic to the Black Seas.

This flat, forested area of northern Europe was a prize fought over by Russia, Prussia and Sweden for a long time. There is a mixture of ethnicities--Scandinavian, Slavic, and Germanic. That is all I've found out so far.

I guess I'm still looking for answers. I don't know where the name Kongel came from either, although it could be Danish or Finnish in origin. As far as dating her birth, I would guess it was between 1850 and 1860 with some possible years on either side, but probably around 1857.

Does anyone know how Leszczynskis settled in Lithuania?

I'm afraid you didn't understand me.

If your ancestor had come from that noble family, her birth and marriage would have been well recorded in the family's history. She also would have married an aristocrat/a nobleman.

You can consult a historian/genealogist about that.
Kongel was one of the families that used the Nieczuja coat of arms - you can look it up on Wikipedia.
Poland and Lithuania formed the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth for centuries so that was basically one state. How did they settle in Lithuania - a historian may know.

Still no one here will be able to tell you if your ancestors came from a noble family. You need to do proper genealogical research.

Does anyone know of any Leszczynskis in Vilnius, Lithuania. My great grandmother, Carolina Leszczynska married a man named Kongelaitis (Kongel) there in the 1800s.
I'm trying to trace her back to someplace in Poland.
Thanks for the information. We don't have records, due to migration.

It is a common name in Lithuania but spelled Lescinskas - there will be hundreds of them using this Lithuanian form

Actually Leščinskas

there were two other brothers of the king. what became of their descendants. the king had another daughter named anna, but she died at the age of 18.

There are roughly 25 thousand users of this surname in Poland nowadays. I doubt all came from the noble family.
Check the records. Start with what you have in the states. Look for their immigration papers.

My family are direct descendants of King Stanislaw Leszczynski. My grandfather Peter Leszczynski changed our name to Leeds in the 1960s for his Broadway career.

My father has some of our ancestry documented. My sister, cousin, and I are currently doing more research.

Most of us are in Michigan and Colorado now.
If any distant relatives find this and want to connect email me here: ashleighalyn@gmail.com

That surname is very common.
You may or may not be a descendant.
Do your research carefully.

Stanislaw Leszczynski had two daughters. His older daughter, Anna, died at age 18 and he told his daughter, Maria, never to utter her name, because he mourned Anna for the rest of his life. His descendants did not carry on his surname, because Maria married the King of France. Many of his descendants became members of various royal houses of Europe.