Genealogy discoveries – work also passion

Looking for ancestors of our clients in the parishes of Cracow, we often accidentally come across the records of people of merit for the city and having a permanent place in the history of Poland. 

Interesting example of genealogy discoveries

While looking through the marriage register of St. Stephen’s Parish recently, we came across the marriage certificate of Karol Roman Kremer and Stanislava Kopff, which took place on February 21, 1858. Karol Kremer was an architect and conservationist. His father Joseph Krämer came to Cracow from Opava in Bohemia after the third partition of Poland. Among the most important conservation achievements of Karol Kremer, the neo-Gothic reconstruction of Collegium Maius and the reconstruction of the Franciscan Church in Cracow after the great fire of 1850 should be mentioned. Unfortunately, Karol Kremer died two years after the wedding – on 28 January 1860. Stanisława Kopff was Karol’s second wife. The architect’s first wife was Julia Grabowska, daughter of Ambroży Grabowski, a famous Krakow historian and antiquarian.

Interestingly, a few months later – on the 1st of May 1858 – Karol Estreicher and Stefania Grabowska, the next representatives of Kraków’s scientific community of the time, got married. Karol Estreicher is called “the father of Polish bibliography”. He deserves particular credit for compiling an almost complete monumental bibliography of Polish prints published in Poland and abroad, covering the years 1470-1889. Karol’s ancestors also came from Moravia; his grandfather, Dominik Oesterreicher, a painter, came to Krakow from Iglova. Karol was a son of Alojzy Estreicher, professor of botany and rector of Jagiellonian University in 1831-1833 and Antonina Rozbierska, whose father Antoni was a professor
at the University of Lviv. The scientific tradition of the family was continued by Karol’s sons, Stanisław and Tadeusz, and grandchildren, Karol and Krystyna. Karol Estreicher’s wife Stefania was Ambroży Grabowski’s daughter and Julia’s sister, Karol Kremer’s first wife.

Discovering our clients’ ancestors gives us pleasure, even more so if we also find records of famous people who co-created Polish culture.