Jankowski
Encyclopedia
Jankowski is the 13th most common surname
in Poland (33,612 people). There are, in fact, 12 separate and unrelated families with this surname as the result of many village estates being named Jankowa or Jankowice in 13th and 14th century Poland. The owners of these estates took their surnames from them in the typical manner by adding the suffix '-ski', meaning 'of', to the estate name. These families each used an additional identifier signifying their armorial crest, or 'herb' (see Boniecki, "Herbarsz Polski"). These herbs are as follows: Amadej, Bialynia, Cielatkowa, Jastrzebiec
, Junosza, Korab, Kuszaba, Nowina
, Ogonczyk, Poraj
, Rawicz
, and Strzemie. Each denotes a separate family originating in one of the villages named Jankowa located throughout Poland. Each family has its own history and line of descent. With the partition
of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
, and the subsequent Polish diaspora, these secondary identifiers were largely forgotten and descendants may no longer know which family they are connected with. Furthermore, the surname Jankowski can be phoneticized in a number of different ways, with even the same family varying its spelling. This all creates a daunting, but not impossible, task for researchers who simply need to know the region of Poland from which their ancestors originated.
The complexity of the evolution of these families can be illustrated well by the Jankowski h. Jastrzebiec family which is initially of Polish origin but has subsequently major Byelorussian-Lithuania
n influences.
form Jankauskas and in the Russian Cyrillic form as Янковский. Progressive eastward migration was particularly prominent from the 15th century onwards, when the Treaty of the Union at Horodlo was signed, granting Polish nobility the freedom to settle in the vast underpopulated fringes of Lithuania and Byelorussia. This was further endorsed by the Union of Lublin
a century later. The 16th century was also in many ways the golden age of Poland with the rural agricultural economy booming especially with grain exports to central and western European markets as well as Britain. In this period the Jankowski family consolidated their position and expanded their lands and with surplus income educating their families in the Renaissance style. In the 17th century the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was now the largest country in the whole of Europe and the decentralised nature of the country's government relied on semi-autonomous distinct regional principalities. Therefore while members of this family were predominantly owners of farms of all sizes, some undertook executive administration for the regional states including posts as privy councillors, judges, army reservists and regional politicians. In the 18th century the rule of both Augustus the II and III led to external wars and internal chaos impacting on all but the largest magnates who further expanded their lands. As a consequence even the members of the Jankowski family as nobility with means 'middle szlachta' (termed szlachta zamozńa) would have struggled to maintain their lands. By the 19th century, things would get even worse as Poland had ceased to exist as an independent state and was under foreign occupation. The new administration was frequently harsh sometimes even repressive making the long established feudal agricultural economy even more difficult and even uneconomic. Furthermore exploitation of the abundant natural resources, as a consequence of the industrial revolution spreading from the West, was hampered by an inefficient infrastructure. A small proportion of the Jankowski family moved west into continental Europe in the mid 19th century, predominantly France due to shared cultural, religious and military traditions. However, the majority of the poorer members of the Jankowski family emigrated predominantly to America via German and English ports. In the early 20th century the remaining progeny of this family with sufficient means diversified into the professions including civil and industrial engineering as well as the medical sciences.
Jankowscy from various families including Jastrzebiec:
Polish name
A Polish personal name, like names in most European cultures, consists of two main elements: imię, the first name, or given name, followed by nazwisko, the last name, surname, or family name....
in Poland (33,612 people). There are, in fact, 12 separate and unrelated families with this surname as the result of many village estates being named Jankowa or Jankowice in 13th and 14th century Poland. The owners of these estates took their surnames from them in the typical manner by adding the suffix '-ski', meaning 'of', to the estate name. These families each used an additional identifier signifying their armorial crest, or 'herb' (see Boniecki, "Herbarsz Polski"). These herbs are as follows: Amadej, Bialynia, Cielatkowa, Jastrzebiec
Jastrzebiec
Jastrzębiec may refer to the following places:*Jastrzębiec, Włocławek County in Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship *Jastrzębiec, Sępólno County in Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship...
, Junosza, Korab, Kuszaba, Nowina
Nowina
Nowina may refer to:* the Nowina coat of arms*Nowina, Lower Silesian Voivodeship *Nowina, Czarnków-Trzcianka County in Greater Poland Voivodeship *Nowina, Piła County in Greater Poland Voivodeship...
, Ogonczyk, Poraj
Poraj
Poraj may refer to:*Poraj coat of arms*Poraj, Lublin Voivodeship *Poraj, Łódź Voivodeship *Poraj, Subcarpathian Voivodeship *Poraj, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship...
, Rawicz
Rawicz
Rawicz is a town in central Poland with 21,398 inhabitants . It is situated in the Greater Poland Voivodeship ; previously it was in Leszno Voivodeship . It is the capital of Rawicz County.-History:...
, and Strzemie. Each denotes a separate family originating in one of the villages named Jankowa located throughout Poland. Each family has its own history and line of descent. With the partition
Partitions of Poland
The Partitions of Poland or Partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth took place in the second half of the 18th century and ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, resulting in the elimination of sovereign Poland for 123 years...
of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was a dualistic state of Poland and Lithuania ruled by a common monarch. It was the largest and one of the most populous countries of 16th- and 17th‑century Europe with some and a multi-ethnic population of 11 million at its peak in the early 17th century...
, and the subsequent Polish diaspora, these secondary identifiers were largely forgotten and descendants may no longer know which family they are connected with. Furthermore, the surname Jankowski can be phoneticized in a number of different ways, with even the same family varying its spelling. This all creates a daunting, but not impossible, task for researchers who simply need to know the region of Poland from which their ancestors originated.
The complexity of the evolution of these families can be illustrated well by the Jankowski h. Jastrzebiec family which is initially of Polish origin but has subsequently major Byelorussian-Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
n influences.
Origins of Jankowski h. Jastrzebiec
It is possible that a direct kinship extends from the forebears of the earlier Jastrzebiec lineage which itself was formally founded in the middle of the 10th century. The Jastrzebiec clan is the oldest in Poland and has the largest number of derivative 'branch family' names associated with it. The subsequent families adopt the same crest of the Jastrzebiec clan which is the blue shield with a gold horse shoe encircling a 'Maltese cross' and a goshawk above. The name Jastrzebiec has several synonyms representing regional descriptors for a goshawk; Accipiter, Bolesta, Boleścic, Jastrząb, Jastrząbek, Kamiona, Łazęka, Lubrza. During the 11th and 12th centuries the Polish state was 'in fragmentation' amongst the competing Royal Dukes causing instability. The nobility (termed szlachta) including the Jastrzebiec, in turn formed a stable and successful semi-feudal backbone allowing a decentralised state to evolve. This subsequently resulted in many new branches of the szlachta, in the 13th century, which now comprised up to 10% of the population. For example the subsequent 'Jankowski branch' of the Jastrzebiec descendants (written Jankowski herbu Jastrzebiec) were probably resident in the region of Lomza (North Eastern Poland), from the villages of Jankowo Młodzianowo and Jankowo Skarbowo. In the following decades the immediate descendants of this Jankowski family also held lands further north and east, south of Vilnius (now Lithuania), west of Minsk (now Byelorussia), and near the town of Suwalki (still in Poland). The nobility including the Jankowski h. Jastrzebiec were given special impetus by Casimir III the Great in the early 14th century who formally adopted them as 'leaders of warriors' to replace the levée en masse used by previous kings. It is likely that a proportion of Jankowski lands were in part granted to family members by the Kings of Poland following acts of military devotion to the state against the many hostile invaders including Germans, Teutons, Russians, Mongols and Tartars.Migration of Jankowski h. Jastrzebiec
The Jankowski h. Jastrzebiec family members adapted to the local Eastern European customs and language and are now also known by the LithuanianLithuanian language
Lithuanian is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognized as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.96 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 170,000 abroad. Lithuanian is a Baltic language, closely related to Latvian, although they...
form Jankauskas and in the Russian Cyrillic form as Янковский. Progressive eastward migration was particularly prominent from the 15th century onwards, when the Treaty of the Union at Horodlo was signed, granting Polish nobility the freedom to settle in the vast underpopulated fringes of Lithuania and Byelorussia. This was further endorsed by the Union of Lublin
Union of Lublin
The Union of Lublin replaced the personal union of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania with a real union and an elective monarchy, since Sigismund II Augustus, the last of the Jagiellons, remained childless after three marriages. In addition, the autonomy of Royal Prussia was...
a century later. The 16th century was also in many ways the golden age of Poland with the rural agricultural economy booming especially with grain exports to central and western European markets as well as Britain. In this period the Jankowski family consolidated their position and expanded their lands and with surplus income educating their families in the Renaissance style. In the 17th century the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was now the largest country in the whole of Europe and the decentralised nature of the country's government relied on semi-autonomous distinct regional principalities. Therefore while members of this family were predominantly owners of farms of all sizes, some undertook executive administration for the regional states including posts as privy councillors, judges, army reservists and regional politicians. In the 18th century the rule of both Augustus the II and III led to external wars and internal chaos impacting on all but the largest magnates who further expanded their lands. As a consequence even the members of the Jankowski family as nobility with means 'middle szlachta' (termed szlachta zamozńa) would have struggled to maintain their lands. By the 19th century, things would get even worse as Poland had ceased to exist as an independent state and was under foreign occupation. The new administration was frequently harsh sometimes even repressive making the long established feudal agricultural economy even more difficult and even uneconomic. Furthermore exploitation of the abundant natural resources, as a consequence of the industrial revolution spreading from the West, was hampered by an inefficient infrastructure. A small proportion of the Jankowski family moved west into continental Europe in the mid 19th century, predominantly France due to shared cultural, religious and military traditions. However, the majority of the poorer members of the Jankowski family emigrated predominantly to America via German and English ports. In the early 20th century the remaining progeny of this family with sufficient means diversified into the professions including civil and industrial engineering as well as the medical sciences.
World War II
In World War II, the members of this family suffered many military and ethnic-based casualties in the following incidents; the Polish Defensive War September – October 1939, Katyn and the related Smolensk region massacres, Nazi work camps, Soviet Gulags and military deaths in resistance movements or as anti-Axis members of the British, Soviet or French armies. This led to a collapse of the kinship by 20–50% in several branches of the family while some became extinct altogether. Furthermore, the loss of the heart of the Jankowski h. Jastrzebiec lands in the Polish Eastern borderlands (Kresy), to the Soviet Union, led to a large proportion of the surviving Jankowski descendants relocating west into new Poland. However, a second wave of emigration overseas also followed. This time, a sizable proportion went to the UK and its commonwealth, as many Poles including the Jankowski diaspora had fought with distinction in the Polish corps of the British Army during the war.Diaspora
There are now members of the Jankowski h. Jastrzebiec family distributed throughout the world, especially, in descending order of numbers, in Poland, Byelorussia, Lithuania, UK, America, Canada, France, Germany, South America and Australia. The Jankowski h. Jastrzebiec have over 1,000 years of documented history dating back to Eastern Poland.Jankowscy from various families including Jastrzebiec:
- Jan Stanisław Jankowski (1882–1953), Polish resistance leader in World War II
- Stanislaw JankowskiStanislaw JankowskiStanisław Jankowski, 'Agaton' was a Polish officer and architect.Student and assistant lecturer in architecture at the Warsaw University of Technology, Jankowski was mobilized as an officer during German invasion of Poland in 1939. He escaped after having been captured by the Soviet Union forces...
(1911–2002), Polish soldier in World War II - Henryk JankowskiHenryk JankowskiFather Henryk Jankowski was a Polish Roman Catholic priest. Member of Solidarity movement and one of the leading priests supporting that movement in opposition to the communist government in the 1980s, he was also a long serving provost of St. Bridget's church in Gdańsk...
(1936–2010), Polish Catholic priest - Horst JankowskiHorst JankowskiHorst Jankowski was a classically trained German pianist, most famous for his internationally successful easy listening music.-Biography:...
(1936–1998), German pianist - Lou JankowskiLou JankowskiLouis Casimer Jankowski was a professional ice hockey forward and scout who played 130 games in the NHL and had a prolific career in the WHL...
(born 1931), Canadian ice hockey player - Zenon JankowskiZenon JankowskiZenon Jankowski is a retired Polish pilot, colonel of the Polish Army and cosmonaut.Jankowski was selected as backup cosmonaut of Mirosław Hermaszewski for the Soyuz 30 mission.-External links:*...
(born 1937), Polish cosmonaut - Martin JankowskiMartin JankowskiMartin Jankowski is a German writer and poet.- Life :He grew up in Gotha and was part of the GDR's oppositional movement and the legendary Monday demonstrations of the 1980s in Leipzig as singer and poet. Besides numerous songs, poems and narrations he has also published texts for the stage,...
(born 1937), German writer and poet - Jadwiga Jankowska (born 1951), Polish film actress
- Roman JankowskiRoman JankowskiRoman Jankowski is a speedway rider active from the 1976 until 2006. He is a former Polish Champion, having won the title in 1981 and again in 1988....
(born 1957), Polish speedway rider - Janusz JankowskiJanusz JankowskiJanusz Jankowski is a doctor of Scottish Polish origin.He graduated from University of Glasgow in 1983. He undertook research at the University of Dundee and subsequently also at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Imperial College at the University of London...
(born 1961), British doctor and scientist