They hanged him because he… – a surprising genealogical research

In our work, we are detectives on the trail. Using various sources, clues, and leads, we reconstruct the past of many families whose lives are often full of mysteries to be solved. Can the smallest clue lead to a shocking discovery? Find out more—genealogical research that ended in a tragic discovery…

*Names have been changed to protect the privacy of our clients.

Family secrets?

This year, we conducted an extremely surprising search. It concerned the Bobik family. While carrying out the assignment, we managed to trace their history – they first lived in Podolia and the vicinity of Chmielnik in Ukraine, and only later settled in the Ciechanów region. At first, everything seemed normal until we came across the marriage of Wanda and Wiesław Bobik. They were married in 1843, had children, and after living a long life, they passed away… There would be nothing strange about this, were it not for the fact that their last child was born in 1865, two years after the death of his own father… This was not the end of the shocking news, because Wiesław himself was listed as the person who reported the birth! His name and surname are clearly stated in the document, so we decided to check it out.

The shocking death of a father – a surprising genealogical research

We began an intensive search. We managed to find information confirming Wiesław’s death in 1863. The State Archives in Lublin, in the file of the Military Commander of the Lublin Division, contain a list of 727 people murdered in various circumstances by insurgents in 1863-64. It was recorded there that he was murdered because… he did not hand over his son to the gang!

This interesting entry read as follows…

Bobik Wanda VII. Płock Division Wiesław Bobik hanged in the forest near the village of Krasne for not handing over his son to the band. Widow Wanda Bobik, 40 years old, son Stanisław, 13 years old, Dionizy, 8 years old, Edward, 5 years old, daughter Leokadia, 2 years old, left behind by Wiesław Bobik. Compensation of 200 rubles per year in annual benefits.

It is worth noting that at that time there was no other married couple with the same first and last names. Now we can only speculate… who was the man who reported the birth of the last child? Or maybe Wiesław did not die at all? Will we ever find out the truth? Perhaps in a few months we will be able to answer this question. In our work, we have to be like detectives on the trail, using such clues to solve family mysteries.

​Tatiana Midura, Łukasz Kabziński