Cekcyn Rydzkowski Family History

Cekcyn parish records microfilmed by the LDS Church are from 1802 through 1909.  Theses records consist of births from 1802 through 1890.  There are also marriage records from 1839 through 1909.  Death records exist from 1830 through 1886.  This family history is based upon these actual parish church records.

Earliest Generation

  With the earliest Cekcyn marriage parish records through LDS beginning in 1839, it is not possible to find the marriage of this family lineage of Rydzkowski.  Research also shows a commonality of first names used, suggesting that this Rydzkowski line is much older.  I also believe that almost all of the Ryckowski names in surrounding towns and villages are all cousins.  Early Cekcyn appears to be a farming community with scattered houses on farms.  Using baptism records, the earliest identified Rydzkowski is Francis who married a Marianna Chylewski.  Their marriage produced ten children.  Parish baptism records for only a 3-year period also showed house numbers in Cekcyn.  These same records show Francis and his family living in house #7 in 1827 and house # 3 in 1829.  Francis was a farmer, but a record from 1825 list him having a farm and business on his owned land.  Such a business in a growing farm community in this time period suggests that it was most likely be, in order, a tavern, inn, or store.  This business would have been built on the farmland alongside the most traveled road of Cekcyn.  Below is their family tree verified by parish records.  Francis and Marianna are my great, great, great grandparents.

Second Generation

Paul Rydzkowski was the 5th child of Francis and Marianna Rydzkowski.  He would later marry Marianna Chmara on January 19, 1846.  Parish records always list him as a farmer.  Paul and Marianna had six children before his death in 1865.  The family tree below shows two verified marriages of the children.  It also shows son Stephan who later would immigrate to the US and the city of Chicago in March of 1880.  Paul and Marianna are my great, great grandparents.

RYDZKOWSKI NAME VARIATIONS

Research of Cekcyn parish church records yielded the same two variations as seen in US documents, such as Rydzkowski and Ryckowski.  This is most likely due to the fact that this area of Poland for about two centuries was under Prussia.  All of the parish records found, mostly in ledger format, are in German.  As for first names, they appear to be written more like American, showing the influence of German immigration within the US today.  My great grandfather, who immigrated to the US in 1880 is listed in Cekcyn records only once in Polish as Pawel, but numerous times in German as Paul.  This Rydzkowski surname appears to be the basic Polish spelling, written mostly in earlier records.  During the 1850's and 1860's the name slowly changes to Ryckowski.  In the Cekcyn parish marriage ledger for the years of 1830 to 1848, the surname is constantly written as Riczkowski.  Also seen in this ledger the town of Cekcyn is also written as Cekcin, which is close to the official spelling for that town at that time of Cekzin.  Below are the digitized photos of the official parish's seal stamped in the beginnings of the Cekcyn marriage ledger beginning 1830 and the baptism ledger beginning 1849 respectively.