Category: Wąbrzeźno

Depkowski or Deptowicz?

Wąbrzeźno (Briesen) in West Preussen, 1920
From my last post about Franciszek Deptowicz we know that Deptowicz family lived in Wąbrzeźno in the years 1750-1800. So why were their successors named Depkowski? When did they change the name and why?

Józef Deptowicz born about 1754

I’d read the registers of Józef Deptowicz.

  • 1775-11-29 in Wąbrzeźno Józef Deptowicz married Marianna Jankiewicz
  • 1776-03-04 in Wąbrzeźno was born a daughter of Józef Deptowicz and Marianna b. Jankiewicz (no name in the document?)
  • 1778-02-19 in Wąbrzeźno was born Mateusz, son of Józef Deptowicz and Marianna b. Jankiewicz
  • 1783-03-11 in Wąbrzeźno was born Katarzyna, daughter of Józef Depkowicz (!)and Marianna b. Jankiewicz
    • 1782, Prussish soldier
  • 1785-08-21 in Wąbrzeźno was born Marianna, daughter of Józef Deptowicz and Marianna b. Jankiewicz
  • 1788-02-22 in Wąbrzeźno were born Piotr and Franciszek, twin sons of Józef Deptowicz and Marianna b. Jankiewicz
  • 1791-02-14 in Wąbrzeźno was born Walenty, son of Józef Deptowicz and Marianna b. Jankiewicz
  • 1793-05-26 in Wąbrzeźno was born Franciszek, son of Józef Deptowicz and Marianna b. Jankiewicz
  • 1796-03-03 in Wąbrzeźno was born Józef, son of Józef Depta (!) and Marianna b. Jankiewicz

In 9 registers Józef is Deptowicz, Depkowicz or Depta. Three variants!
The registers were created during over 20 years by different clergymen. In all documents Józef was specified as a soldier (Latin miles or militis). The most probably he was illiterate – as most of the people those days. If a clergyman wrote Józef’s name with an error, nobody could check it or correct it.

In the following years the borders of Poland changed, in 1807 the Duchy of Warsaw was established, after the Congress of Vienna in 1815 the Kingdom of Poland was created. Wąbrzeźno still belonged to Prussia and was called Briese.
Then son of Joseph – Walenty Deptowicz – moved from Wąbrzeźno 60 km south – to Polish Lipno.

Walenty Deptowicz 1791-1859

Let’s look to registers of Walenty Deptowicz – Deptewicz – Depkowski:

    Lipno’2010,
    old shoemaker workshop

  • 1791-02-14 in Wąbrzeźno was born Walenty, son of Józef Deptowicz and Marianna b. Jankiewicz
  • 1815-11-14 in Lipno Walenty Deptowicz married Urszula Urbanowicz
  • 1828 (about – I didn’t find a doc) in Lipno was born Wiktoria, daughter of Walenty Deptowicz and Urszula b. Urbanowicz
  • 1832-06-24 in Lipno Walenty Deptewicz (shoemaker, 41) was a godfather of his nephew Jan, son of shoemaker Józef Deptewicz and Teresa b. Piotrkowska (grandson of Józef Deptowicz and Marianna b. Jankiewicz)
  • 1832-07-20 in Lipno (after Urszula death) Walenty Depkowski (!) (shoemaker, 41, born in Wąbrzeźno, son of Józef & Marianna) married Antonina b. Cywińska, I voto Śliwińska
  • 1835 (about) in Lipno was born Feliks, son of shoemaker Walenty and Antonina b. Cywińska (no document)
  • 1837-08-06 in Lipno was born Roman, son of shoemaker Walenty Depkowski (40) and Antonina b. Cywińska
  • 1840 (about) in Lipno was born Agnieszka, daughter of shoemaker Walenty and Antonina b. Cywińska (no document)
  • 1859-11-21 in Lipno died shoemaker Walenty Deptowicz, husband of Antonina b. Cywińska
Branch of Walenty Deptowicz changes name for DEPKOWSKI. (click to zoom)

Probably other branches – successors of other Józef & Marianna children – still use name DEPTOWICZ.

Research is ongoing – – –