Was Franciszka Czenstkowska of Kashubian Gentry / Minor Nobility?

[Превед]

Interesting German genealogical site about her home hamlet: http://pom-wpru.kerntopf.com/ortedetails/ort_borreck.htm

The site says the following about Borreck / Borek (including Borrowilaß / Borowy Las and Wilhelmshöhe / Wydmuchowo) in 1905:

Unter der slawischen Bevölkerung hatte sich der kassubische Kleinadel weitgehend erhalten. Augenscheinlich hatte er sich bei fortgesetzten Erbteilungen sehr vermehrt. Davon zeugen die unzähligen Ausbauten, die sich über die gesamte Feldflur von Borreck erstreckten. Es scheint so, als wenn beim Anteil C von 1773 der Besitz immer in derselben Familie geblieben ist. Ein Besitzer von Dombrowski wohnte noch in einem Abbau nördlich von Borreck, direkt an der Gowidlinoer Grenze, und betrieb eine gutgehende Landwirtschaft. Andere Vertreter des Kleinadels, die in Borreck wohnten: von Pichowski, von Dullak, von Daleki, von Mach, von Domaros, von Jerzewski, von Czenstkowski, von Chrzanowski, von Gruchalla, von Wyszecki, von Lublewski;

Compared to other countries, Poland had a very high percentage of nobles among its population. In the immense Russian Empire half of the registered nobility were Polish szlachcice, often quite impoverished ones.

According to the clan-based Polish heraldry, Czenstkowscy can claim the Pobóg* arms: http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pob%C3%B3g_%28herb_szlachecki%29
(* The meaning of the armorial clan name kind of reminds me of the typical Anglo-Norman noble surname Bigod!)

In contrast the local lords of the manor of Wilhelmshöhe (today: Borek Kamienny / Kamiany Bórk), perhaps Franciszka Czenstkowska's first glimpse into the world of the real, affluent gentry, were bourgeois Germans called Müller, Putzig and Strehlow.

[Forum Admin]

The family, up to 1914 and onward, used Czenstkowski as the spelling of their name. Franziska changed this, attempting in 1915 to leave behind her eastern origins when living in Germany, and adopted Schanzkowsky. The family had been granted use of the honorific "von" a few hundred years earlier, but it was Franziska's father who finally abandoned it.  She was born in West Prussia, and raised in Pomerania. The places are now in modern Poland but at the time of her birth-and for hundreds of years before-had been entirely in German hands.

For the most complete research into her family origins and background, I highly recommend "Resurrection of the Romanovs" by King & Wilson, which once and for all finally revealed much of the truth behind her.

[Превед]

Interesting info. I will check out the book. Finally a reason to take an interest in the poor pretender - the irony of her being nominally noble when so many others connecting themselves to the Imperial legacy pretended to be noble is too funny.

[TimM]

I highly recommend "Resurrection of the Romanovs" by King & Wilson

I concur.  It's a great book.