Family Book of Leisnitz / Lisięcice

Church records, families, and local history since 1689

From the village's centuries-long connection with the Hospitaller commandery of Gröbnig to the church and civil records from which its families are reconstructed.

Welcome to the Family Book of Leisnitz / Lisięcice

Leisnitz, today Lisięcice, lies about 8.5 km northeast of Leobschütz (today Głubczyce), in Głubczyce County in the Opole Voivodeship of Poland. For many centuries its Catholic parish was closely connected with the Hospitaller commandery of Gröbnig (today Grobniki).

Leisnitz and Lisięcice are different names and chapters in the history of the same place.

For genealogical reasons, this family book focuses primarily on the families who lived in Leisnitz up to 1945. The village itself, however, did not end in 1945. After the Second World War it became part of Poland and today bears the name Lisięcice. The village now belongs to the urban-rural municipality of Głubczyce and is home to its Polish inhabitants. Its history continues under changed political, linguistic, and cultural circumstances. This page therefore seeks to document the earlier history of Leisnitz without losing sight of the present-day Polish identity of Lisięcice.

Parish Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in Lisięcice

Parish Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in Lisięcice, 2016. Photo: Juandev / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0. Image source.

The family book

The Leisnitz family book includes entries from church registers and civil registers from 1689 to 1945. It incorporates the church books microfilmed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Family History Library / FamilySearch), the duplicate church registers from the Olomouc archive, and additional church and civil-register material from the State Archive in Opole that has been examined for this project.

Earliest sources from 1689 The earliest duplicate church registers used for the OFB come from the records of the former Archdiocese of Olomouc.	Church records 1717–1945 Baptisms, marriages, and deaths preserved on FHL / FamilySearch films were compared with the other surviving series and incorporated into the OFB.
Opole duplicate registers 1836–1862 The duplicate church registers preserved in the State Archive in Opole supplement the other ecclesiastical records.	Civil registration 1874–1910 The civil registers of Leisnitz that are available online were also used in compiling the OFB.

Wherever possible, individual persons have been linked together into families. Some entries may still remain unconnected and may be joined later as further evidence becomes available. Family names have generally been standardized to one spelling, with alternative forms noted where possible. Especially rare surnames and place names are not always easy to decipher in the older handwriting, so occasional reading errors cannot be entirely excluded.

Questions, corrections, additions, and other information are always welcome. Family documents, photographs, and additional details can help resolve connections between individuals and families that are still uncertain.

History of the village

In his 1956 Chronik der Gemeinde Leisnitz O/S., Albert Mucha gives several medieval forms of the place name, including Lysintiz, Leisentitz, and Leistnitz. He derives the name from the personal name Lysota or Lysata. Such interpretations of the earliest history of the village rely in part on older local-history traditions and should therefore be read with appropriate caution.

The close connection with the Hospitaller commandery of Gröbnig is, however, well established. Already in the Middle Ages Leisnitz belonged to the sphere of the commandery. In a record from 1318, the village is mentioned in connection with the Hospitallers. Its subsequent development remained closely linked with Gröbnig for centuries.

1549 — division of the hereditary village judgeship.
The hereditary judgeship of Leisnitz was divided between the brothers Bartolomäus and Andreas. From then on there were an upper and a lower hereditary judgeship. In wartime each hereditary judge was required to provide a fully equipped horseman. From 1709 the upper judgeship remained for a long period in the possession of the Spiller family.

Leisnitz and the commandery of Gröbnig

Economic and legal ties to the commandery shaped everyday life in the village for centuries. Some compulsory labor was performed on the Gröbnig estate, while other services were owed to the Kreuzwald outlying farm that belonged to the commandery. Gardeners and cottagers were permitted twice a week to gather wood in Kreuzwald for their own needs.

In addition to money payments and deliveries in kind, there were labor and carting obligations. Old field names such as Hofäcker and Zehnthof preserve traces of this former economic order. With the secularization of ecclesiastical lordships at the beginning of the 19th century, the centuries-long dependency on the commandery also came to an end. Around 1810 the commandery property was taken over by the state; the Gröbnig estates subsequently passed to Friedrich Wilhelm Bernhard von Prittwitz. The remaining ground rents, deliveries in kind, and compulsory services were gradually redeemed during the first half of the 19th century.

The village and its inhabitants

For 1723, the village is recorded as having two judges, one miller, 49 farmers, and 43 cottagers. In 1783 there were 49 farmers, 10 gardeners, and 38 cottagers. By the early 20th century the village had grown considerably. The population is given as 979 in 1783, 1,672 in 1855, 1,884 in 1890, and 1,829 in 1910. Leisnitz was therefore one of the larger rural communities of the Leobschütz district.

During the 19th and early 20th centuries, transport and communications improved considerably. A paved road connection to Leobschütz existed from 1882, to Oberglogau from 1883, and toward the Cosel district from 1900. A postal agency was established in 1865. The village also had a number of associations and institutions, including the veterans' association (1842), the volunteer fire brigade (1889), and the savings and loan association (1893).

Among the mills, the Richtermühle, situated on the Straduna, was especially remembered. It originally belonged to the lower hereditary judgeship. Several windmills also existed but gradually disappeared by the beginning of the 20th century. According to local tradition, an old quarry on the slope toward Berndau also supplied some of the building stone for the former town wall of Leobschütz.

Church and parish

A church existed in Leisnitz long before the Reformation. According to the local chronicle, a large part of the population followed the Protestant faith from about 1530 to 1658. Following the Counter-Reformation, pastoral care again became Catholic. Because the village belonged to the commandery, a Hospitaller priest initially administered the parish. Only after the dissolution of the commandery in the early 19th century did Leisnitz again have independent parish priests. The Kreuzwald outlying farm southeast of the village also belonged to the parish.

The present Roman Catholic parish church is dedicated to the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (Podwyższenie Krzyża Świętego). Its present appearance largely reflects the rebuilding after a fire in 1666, while older parts of the structure were retained. The presbytery was enlarged in 1714. Another fire in 1812 damaged the upper part of the tower, which was subsequently altered. The church received its slate roof in 1855.

Notable furnishings

Among the notable furnishings are a stone baptismal font dated 1589, an 18th-century pulpit, and a chalice said to have been donated in 1523 by Commander Hans Nimce. Several Leisnitz families helped finance the 19th-century furnishings. The high altar was made in 1887 by the cabinetmaker Ondrusch of Leobschütz; additional altars, statues, and Stations of the Cross were added toward the end of the 19th century.

Sources used for the family book

Duplicate church registers from the Olomouc archive: Leisnitz from 1689; baptisms and marriages from 1689, deaths from 1714, with differing chronological ranges among the individual series; material used through 1852.
Leisnitz church registers, Family History Library / FamilySearch: baptisms, marriages, and deaths, 1717–1945, with gaps. FHL films no. 937095, 937096, 2067486, 2067487, 2161903, and 2161904.
Archiwum Państwowe w Opolu (State Archive in Opole): duplicate church registers, especially 1836–1862, insofar as used for the OFB.
Leisnitz civil registers, Family History Library / FamilySearch: births, marriages, and deaths, 1874–1884. FHL films no. 2035199 and 2035200.
Archiwum Państwowe w Opolu (State Archive in Opole): Leisnitz civil registers, 1874–1910, insofar as available online and used for the OFB.

Literature on local history

Albert Mucha: Chronik der Gemeinde Leisnitz O/S., Taufkirchen/Vils 1956.
Robert Hofrichter: Heimatkunde des Kreises Leobschütz. Geschichtliches der einzelnen Ortschaften des Kreises Leobschütz mit 111 Abbildungen und Plänen, Leobschütz 1914.
Georg Beier: Die Dörfer des Kreises Leobschütz, Dülmen 1990.

Further links

Historical place names are given according to the language and period of the respective sources. For the present-day village, the official Polish name Lisięcice is used.

Local heritage book of Leisnitz