Our Coat of Arms has the name " Ostoja ". It means stabilizer, protector, guardian. Its description follows:
The Ostoja coat of arms consists of a sword in the middle, with the point downward. It is flanked by two crescent moons, with the middle of their convex sides pointing horizontally towards the sword. Thus, it looks something like )T( . The background is red. Nowadays, the colors of the sword and moons traditionally are: sword silver and moons gold. However, it would make more sense to interchange these colors. Thus, within the memory of my Father, the sword is golden and the moons are silver. The moons, usually, are depicted as smaller than the sword.
The unadorned coat of arms may be granted to more than one family. The adornments are specific to the title that a particular family may posses. The adornment consist of a face-shield and a crown. The crown bears some berls (Polish " ber,la ") and optionally (at the discretion of the individual displaying the coat of arms) ostrich feathers. The amount of berls or feathers indicates the rank of the title. A berl is a rod "club", with a sphere at its top. Napoleon introduced the redundant ostrich feathers. Needless to say, the British do not recognize the feathers. But, the Polish, who idolized Napoleon, have adopted the feathers.
Our adorned coat of arms shows a forward facing face-shield. (A side-facing would indicate that the title had passed through a female, at least once.) The crown bears nine (9) berls; thus, indicating the title of Hrabia (Earl, in English). Our crown also bears five (5) feathers; thus, again, indicating the title of Hrabia. The feathers were introduced by Napoleon. Thus, since he was a hero to Poland, we employ the feathers. The British obviously do not.
The unabridged American Heritage dictionary, second edition, 1987, under "crown" shows an earl crown with five berls and a viscount with nine. My Father was aware of this discrepancy. He maintained that the Polish tradition was the opposite. Clearly, either the Polish or British has mutated. The Polish people living in Ukraina [English spelling is "Ukraine"] were oppressed by the Imperial Russian government for more than three centuries. During that time, there was ample opportunity for traditions to become obscured.
The kind of sword or shield and their realism and embellishment in the displayed coat of arms are up the the artistic discretion of whoever has rendered the particular drawing of the coat of arms. There is no heraldic significance to these details. The purpose of the enclosed illustrations is to indicate the heraldic essentials, in a minimum file size. They are not intended to be elaborate works of art.
My Father had painted our coat-of-arms in oil on a piece of plywood. He believed -- as I do -- that a realistic natural rendition would be representative of the original coat-of-arms. Thus, the moons are white, the ceremonial sword is gold, and the background is an earthen-red. On the other hand, we have a mail-order plaque -- of unknown origin -- showing both the moons and the sword in gold. The background is fire-engine red. I remember seeing once a rendition with a small sword, dwarfed by the pair of moons. There are many variations.
When this page originally was constructed and posted (in 1996), all of the information was from our family records -- oral and written. There was nothing available to me from elsewhere. Now, in June of 2001, each time I perform a search, new information becomes available. Here are some of the interesting links. It is a pity that none of these show an image of the original document. Now, that recently I have acquired a flat-bed scanner: I will post images of those that I have, as soon as I re-encounter them.
Since Roman times, Latin has been the universal language. Hence, many genealogical records are written in Latin. Heraldry came into existence about AD 1000; thus it also is written in Latin. Around AD 1600, French became popular. Many records henceforth are written in French. Since Polish, of course, is the native language of Poland, many records are written in Polish. Finally, Russian is the native language of Ukraine and Russia; thus, some records are written in Russian. Except where necessary to make my comments in context, I do not translate any of these into English. Let the reader observe the nuances of the original language. You do not know these languages? Learn!!
My cousin, Kaj Jaxa-Ma,lachowski, is a professional genealogist. He has assembled an impressive assortment of information -- including some on the 'Scibor-Marchocki family and its Ostoja coat-of-arms -- on his Web site. I believe that our closest common ancestors are the paternal great-grand-parents of my mother's mother: J'ozef herbu Gryf Jaxa-Ma,lachowski (circa 1790) x Zofia Gryza-Morawska (circa 1790). However, I have been unable to locate any specific listing of this couple on Kaj's Web site. Mayhap, the next time that he visits me, I may be able to pin him down as to the particulars of our relationship. :-)
Link rot -- the bane of webmasters! The Web sites are too ephemeral for me to keep up. Here, I just will remove (but, not replace) any dead links. Instead, pray, employ your favorite search-engine to find references to the coat-of-arms and the surnames:
If you are ambitious enough, try any of the other pairs of my ancestors.
Herbarz, in Polish, means "a record of the coats-of-arms", a heraldry. In one such heraldry, there are several coat-of-arms related to our family. This heraldry has the title "Spis 71 herb'ow rycerstwa plskiego na Zamku w K'orniku" (= A list of 71 coats-of-arms of knights polish on [should have been "w" = in, instead of "na" = on] the castle in K'ornik). It has an entry for Ostoja, which shows five feathers; but, does not show any berls. (The five feathers imply the heraldic title of Earl; but, the entry does not so state.) It describes the Ostoja as "a polish family which is loquacious and most-intelligent or arrogant". It lists Marchocki (the second word of our surname) and Roguski (My mother's father's mother was Eleonora Roguska, 1819-1897.) as bearers of this coat-of-arms. In a second paragraph, it adds Ma,lachowski (My mother's mother was Jadwiga herbu Gryf Jaxa-Ma,lachowska, 1863-1916.). It also has an entry for Poraj, which lists Mniszek as a bearer of this coat-of-arms (My father's mother was Marjia Dorota Hrabia herbu Poraj Burzeni-Mniszek, 1869-1949.). And also under Gryf, it lists both Jaxa and Ma,lachowski as bearers of this coat-of-arms (My mother's mother was Jadwiga herbi Gryf Jaxa-Ma,lachowska, 1863-1916). Finally, under Lodzia, it lists Czarnecki (My father's mother's mother was Marja herbu ,Lodzia Czarnecka, ? - ?.).
A few days ago, I had located another heraldry. You will have to follow these items: --> ciekawostki --> herby --> Windows. There are entries for Gryf, ,Lodzia, Ostoja, and Poraj. These are the same coats-of-arms as in the foregoing. However, they are rendered somewhat differently. Please keep in mind that the actual archival heraldry never showed any drawings -- they only had a stylized written description, which is quoted at the top of each of these entries, on the Internet.
Another heraldry is available from the Genealogia Dynastyczna (dynastic genealogy). It provides only black-and-white drawings of each coat-of-arms; but, without any description. It has an entry for Ostoja, which lists Marchocki (including the probable variant spellings Marchowicki and Marchowski), Maleczkowski (probably a variant spelling of Ma,lachowski), and Rogulski (a probable variant spelling of Roguski) as bearers of this coat-of-arms. It also has an entry for Poraj, which lists Mniszek. Also under Gryf, it lists both Jaxa and Ma,lachowski as bearers of this coat-of-arms. Finally, under Lodzia, it lists Czarnecki.
Yet another rendering of the Ostoja coat-of-arms is at the Web site of Tumilowicz hr. Ostoja. Here is a heraldry that has become available eary in 2006. This coat-of-arms depicts the Napoleonic ostrich feathers. Also, gold for the moons is illogical. The moons must have been silver and the ceremonial sword was gold-plated. The origin of "Ostoja" presented therein is just one of the several legends.
Here is a new heraldry. It ascribes Ostoja to, among many others: Marchocki, Rylski ('Scibor Rylski is a distant relative of ours), 'Scibor.
Here is a list of the Polish Earls. It includes Czanecki, Ma,lachowski, Marchocki-Scibor [sic. transposed], Mniszech [obviously, a variant spelling of Mniszek], Pruszynski, Tiesenhausen. This last one, Stanis,law Tiesenhausen, had married one of our relatives (see for explanation). Obviously, this site is a work-in-progress. Hence, many of their internal links do not work, as yet. It will be most informative and interesting when they develop this site some more.
I am skeptical of any purported etymology, unless it is thoroughly documented. For instance, our Family tradition has it that our name 'Scibor derives from 'scina'c (= to cut, in Polish) and arbor (= tree, in Latin hence also in Polish). Thus, 'Scibor would mean one who lumbers, a lumberjack. This explanation is too pat. It attempts to construct an etymology for the present spelling of the word. However, since the original spelling was different, this purported etymology is dubious. On the other hand, the dictionary of names [in French] (scroll way down to Scibor) "Ancient name of people Polish formed from the roots czic (= adorer, venerer) and bor (= combat)." -- hence, belligerent --, does not document how the name might have evolved from the Czcibor to the present spelling 'Scibor. The Bazy Wiedzy Hoga (= basis of knowledge provided by Hoga, in Poland) does link (but without any documentation) the various spellings of our name. The abbreviation w,eg. is of w,egierski (= Hungarian). Note: This site is very slow in responding -- your browser may time-out repeatedly. :-) A very large (thus slow-loading) Ksiega Imion lists 'Scibor as a variant of Czcibor. Here is another etymology reference to Czcibor, Prince of Poland.
There are several historical excerpts already posted on the Internet that mention our name in passing. Search for cibor within each link. It will catch both Czcibor or 'Scibor. Here are several links, in chronological sequence. These are disjoint fragments. They probably refer to our relatives; but, not necessarily to our direct ancestors.
Historia Polski w Zarysie mentions Czcibor is at Cedynia in 0972. For several more references to this individual, please see the discussion in the genealogy section.
Herbarz Polski by Kasper Niesiecki, S.J., Lipsk edition, 1839-1846, under J, mentions that 'Scibor was the voivode of Leczyca in 1242 and says that an extensive discussion was presented in volume one. Later on, it says that twelve of his twenty sons were various castellans. Annual records of Bohemia, 1196-1278, mentions that Czibor is at the Petrzin mountain in Jauary of 1250. Napisa,l Pawe,lek mentions 'Scibor, in 1271, at the seashore..
:History of the city Stary Sacz (English or Polish, which is more detailed) mentions, circa 1410, that, descendent from the locality Kujaw, 'Scibor ze 'Sciborzyc (= 'Scibor of the locality whose name is 'Scibor) as a knight in the service of Zygmunt ,Luksemburski, the king of Hungary. The polish roots mentions, circa 1413, 'Scibor of Sanchocin. Herbarz Polski by Kasper Niesiecki, S.J., Lipsk edition, 1839-1846, under J, mentions that Mikolaj 'Scibor Szarley was voivode of Inowroc,law in 1457.
Herbarz Polski by Kasper Niesiecki, S.J., Lipsk edition, 1839-1846, under Ba, mentions Mikolaj Bazenski as a son of Scibor and Castellan of Gdansk circa 1500. Farther down in the document, it also mentions that a 'Scibor was governor of Prussia; but, it seems that 'Scibor was his given name.
On the Web site of Tumilowicz hr. Ostoja, he provides an excerpt from 1765, which mentions His Lordship ,Lukomski (My mother's mother's mother's name was Leonida ,Lukomska, 1829-1926).
According to a legend in our family, Stanis,law Earl Tiesenhausen married one of our relatives -- I no
longer remember which -- around 1900. He became interested in genealogy. It is said that he traced back and documented our ancestry
unbroken to Czcibor, Prince of Poland, 0928-24 June 0972.
The First World War interrupted his genealogical research. After the War and the Russian revolution, he considered himself fortunate to have
survived; but, all of his genealogical documents perished.
Do I believe this story? As most legends, there is an element of truth, much exaggeration, and some falsehood. As a wealthy noble, he
had the time and financial resources to indulge his interests. Undoubtedly, he traveled wide in search of documents, which he had had
transcribed. Thus, he would have had extensive documentation for any genealogy which he researched. The main question is how far back
did he succeed in tracing and how completely? It is conceivable that he indeed did trace back a thousand years circa 0972; but,
probably with some breaks. That was circa 1900. Now, a century later, circa 2000, much has happened. Each of
the two World Wars, Hitler, and communism have destroyed much of the social knowledge and records. All that has passed to me is an unbroken
record back to circa 1404; but, without any documentation. On the other hand, the Internet is beginning to provide a cornucopia of
knowledge.
So, do I believe? Perhaps. At least enough to attempt a continuing genealogical search myself. It will be interesting to see what
turns up. If anybody has any contributions to make, please e-mail me and mention "genealogy" in the
subject-line.
Dukes and kings of Poland shows Czcibor, circa 0972, as a son of Siemomys,l Duke of Poland, circa 0950. Mieszko1 shows his dates as (0928-0972).
