The Kizior's of Zasow Poland

The Kizior's of Zasow Poland

I first came across the handwritten name of Zasow while looking through the various papers, pictures, and documents that I received from my grandmother. I didn't know what it meant nor the significance of it at the time, but when I finally got around to researching the Kizior family line I quickly discovered that Zasow is a small village in Poland. It's located south and east of Kracow and north of the Carpathian Mountains. The closest "big" cities are Tarnow and Debica. At this point I assumed Zasow to be the birth place of Agnes Kizior, my great grandmother.

At the time Agatha was born, the village of Zasow, Poland was part of the Austrian Empire, an area known as Galicia. You see references to Austria and/or Galicia in immigration records, in census records, or other documents of the time. When I first found Agatha (or Agnes) in a census record her native country was recorded as Austria which had me a bit confused. But rest assured, she was from Poland. There were 3 partitions of Poland over the course of recent history. For most of the time frame in which I am dealing with, Poland was divided between Germany, Austria, and Russia. The Kozlowski's for example came from the German partition of Poland.

Also at this time, the area was still very much ruled by nobles that owned the land on which the farmers had to work as a form of payment to live there. In fact, in 1846 just 42 years prior to Agatha's birth, local peasant farmers attacked nobles planning a revolt to free Galicia from Austrian rule. Manors were burned and nobles murdered in Zasow and Straszecin Parishes in the Debica-Pilzno area. For more information about Zasow follow this link, lots of good information and it's a favorite in my explorer links: http://spuscizna.org/spuscizna/zasow.html

The Family History Center

Enter the Church of the Latter Day Saints. Their genealogical library in Utah is the largest in the world and they are constantly working to expand a database that includes all vital and/or genealogically related materials from around the world. It turns out that they have a near complete collection of Church Vital records from the numerous parishes in Poland. There is a Family History Center in Worcester located on Chester St. From this center you can order microfilm and microfiche from the massive library in Utah to be delivered to your local center. That's exactly what I did. A few weeks later I received a call that some of the film I ordered was in.

I was totally unprepared when I got to the center on Tuesday evening. I did not know what was recorded on the films, if I would be able to read the data, or if I would find anything useful at all. When I got there, 3 rolls were in the drawer with my name on them. Since I didn't take the description of the rolls that I ordered with me, I had no idea what I had received. Note to self: bring film descriptions with me next time. So the computer scientist voice in my head told me to grab the roll with the lowest indexed number on it and have at it. (It turns out that college education was good for something after all..)

Film # 1959127 - Ksiegi Metrykalne 1784 - 1942

This film contains Roman Catholic parish registers of baptisms, marriages, and deaths for Zassów, Galizien, Austria; now Zassów (Dębica), Rzeszów, Poland. Text in Latin. Partially indexed.

The portion that I looked through contained baptismal records. Since I had Agatha's birth date (from her marriage certificate and death certificate), I wound the film to the year 1892 and started looking at each name. The name of the baptised appear in a prominent column in the register and contains the first name only. So I started looking for Agatha or variations of that name. Within 15 minutes I found our Agatha Kizior.

Agatha was born on February 13, 1892 and was baptised the following day on the 14th. Her father was Stanislaus Kizior her mother, Thecla Szymanski. Her paternal grandparents were Tomasz Kizior and Helen Madura. Her maternal grandparents were Maciej Syzmanski and Katarzyna Marek. I also found Agatha's brothers Peter and Frank but I did not find her sister Julia. I'll go back on Tuesday evening to do some more searching.

On a related note, the Szacik's came from Wiewiorka, a small village located next door to Zasow. Sort of like Dudley and Webster but smaller. It turns out that the parish in Zasow was the parish of record for Wiewiorka as well so I will be able to search for our Szacik relatives as well.
Here's a scan of the baptismal record for Agatha Kizior (2nd from bottom), enjoy....

The Proof is in the Pudding