The Pawłowicz in Lithuania

Combing through my mother’s family documents, I discovered not only copies of the hand-drawn family trees (Pawłowicz, Jełowicki and Orla-Salmonowicz) which my uncle, Leszek Pawłowicz,  completed in 1988 (dated and signed)  but also two narratives about the Pawłowicz family, who lived in Lithuania in the 19th century. (undated and unsigned)

The Pawłowicz Family Tree

The Pawłowicz family tree stretches back to 1641, but as many of the old family documents were burnt during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944, there is not much information left. I have taken the surviving names and dates, together with an update of the most recent generation and emailed the information to Mr Marek Minakowski in Poland, who studies genealogy and maintains an extensive GEDCOM database of Polish families called the “Genealogia Potomków Sejmu Wielkiego” (Genealogy of the descendants of the Great Sejm).

The Pawłowicz surname is very common in Poland, and Mr Minakowski’s database already includes 44 names to this date. Although many of them belong to our family, others do not.  Our family sports the “Przyjaciel” (Friend) coat of arms and its “przydomek” (cognomen?) is  Łukiański.

Narratives

Both narratives are in Polish and were typewritten by Dr. Vanda Daugirdaitė-Sruogienė, a renowned Lithuanian historian,  who was Bohdan Pawłowicz’s germane cousin and Balys Sruoga’s wife. I believe she must have sent these documents to her cousin, Bohdan or her nephew, Leszek Pawłowicz, probably after the 1960’s, when they were all already well-established in the US.

The first four-page typewritten document is called “What I remember about the Pawłowicz”. As the title indicates, it is Dr. Daugirdaitė-Sruogienė’s personal and informal recap of her childhood memories about the Pawłowicz family.

The second typescript, titled “The Pawłowicz Powyrwicie”, is a seven page narrative composed of fragments taken from  Mykolas Biržiška ‘s memoirs in Lithuanian:

Biržiška, Mykolas. 1938. Anuo metu Viekšniuose ir Šiauliuose (iš 1882-1901 m. atsiminimu̜, pasakojimu̜ ir raštu̜). Kaunas: [M. Biržiška].  [At that time in Viekšniai and Šiauliai  (From 1882 to 1901 m. Memories, stories and letters].

Dr Daugirdaitė-Sruogienė took the passages from the book that referred to the Pawłowicz family and  translated them into Polish, inserting some corrections (date unknown). This Polish translation, in turn, has 3 pages of comments and corrections at the end by Edward Pawłowicz (1881-1961), the youngest son of Edward Pawłowicz and Maria Szaniawska and Bohdan Pawłowicz’s uncle.

Comment on Translations into English

While translating both documents, I have kept the Polish names but added the Lithuanian equivalents in brackets. I have also linked these Lithuanian proper names to the English Wikipedia whenever possible so as to extend the meaning and provide a fuller picture for those interested in the subject. I have collated the annotations into a single set of footnotes, which refer directly to the text.  Dr Sruoga’s corrections to Mykolas Biržiška’s book appear inline in the original translation. Edward Pawłowicz’s comments on some of the paragraphs from the translated version are added to the end in the original translation. I have also included my own links and comments in the footnotes. To differentiate them, I have added the initials of each person at the end of every note. V.S. stands for Dr Vanda Sruoga, E.P. for Edward Pawłowicz and B.D. for Barbara Dieu.

While working on these translations and looking for the original names, I discovered a number of documents and photographs from Lithuanian sites relating to the narratives. Many use Biržiška’s memoirs as a source, adding one detail or another. There are also a lot of photographs of the Pavirvytės (Powyrwicie) estate and manor, which was bought and built in 1840 by Józef Bernard Pawłowicz and belonged to the Pawłowicz family until 1910.

 Barbara Dieu, January 2014.

3 thoughts on “The Pawłowicz in Lithuania

  1. Pingback: While we remember | The Pawłowicz Suitcase

  2. Sue Pavlovich

    Hi Barbara,

    glancing through a trove of names and references I chanced upon a reference to a Pawlowicz marrying Moscicki’s son. That was my aunt Cenia. My grandfather was Wladislaw Pawlowicz. He was an engineer who graduated in Civil Engineering in St Peterburg in 1900. The Pawlowicz family was Polish. My grandmother, Leokadia (nee Fanti) was a student of Music in St Petersburg. My father, Eryk Pawlowicz, was born in Wilno in 1903.
    My parents arrived in Australia in 1949.

    Look forward to your reply,
    Sue Pavlovich (my parents made my name easier for Australians to pronounce).

    Reply

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