The Polish Coats of Arms & Nobility system

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Aug 14, 11, 00:28 #1

Hi all

Can someone explain about the Polish Coat of Arms system?

My grandfather talked about his grandmothers family been nobility and she used to come to town when he was a child on a droska and the locals used to line the streets to see her.

Now, her surname would of been either Malowany or Radzikowska (unsure which grandmother he would of been reffering to). I have seen on various websites that Radzikowski(a) belongs to the Ogonczyk coat of arms but what does this actually mean? Does every polish family with the name Radzikowski use this coat of arms or is it specifically given to individual families etc etc? Is there a way to trace which Radzikowski families were given the COA?

I know uts probably a really simple answer but Im just getting confused!

Thanks
Rich

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Aug 14, 11, 05:57 #2

Poland’s heraldic/clan system began emerging in the 13th century. A knight, or more rarely non-combatant, usually was ennobled by the king as a reward for some feat of battlefield valour. That meant that he was granted a coat of arms and started his own clan. That clan-name (which was also the name of the coat of arms) indicated the clan someone belonged to through patrilineal inheritance (from one’s father’s line), adoption or marriage, and many variously surnamed and unrelated individuals shared the same clan-name. The Ogończyk c-o-a is shared by the noble lines of 318 different families from Afri to Żółtowski.
The term ‘Radzikowski herbu Ogończyk’ meant nothing more than ‘Radzikowski of the Ogończyk clan.’ The clan-name also became part of its bearer’s signature, so a nobleman baptised Stanisław would have signed himself Stanisław Ogończyk-Radzikowski. Often colourful medieval legends surrounded the emergence of noble clans and the coats of arms they identified with.
The Ogończyk legend goes back to the 13th century, when a brave young knight named Piotr of Radzików (Piotr z Radzikowa, subsequently Piotr Radzikowski) wrested the kidnapped only daughter of a local aristocrat named Odrowąż from the hands of a pagan invader. He was rewarded with the daughter’s hand in marriage and the crest, a modified version of the Odrowąż family coat of arms. The protruding hands apparently symbolized the knight’s hands which pulled the maiden out of the pagan’s clutches (or those of the maiden reaching for help). The white design on the red shield itself is supposed to symbolize a moustache impaled on an arrow, alluding to an earlier legend of a Polish knight ripping off a pagan enemy’s moustache, nose and all.
Actually there were 4 noble lines amongst the Radzikowskis. The others were Rawicz, Rogala and Wieniawa. On average, from 10-12% of Old Polish society was of noble rank, meaning that the vast majority were commoners, but that differed according to the name. The adjectival -ski ending (and its variants -cki and -dzki) were the most common noble names. The second most common Polish surname Kowalski had 12 separate noble lines, but the most common Nowak – only one.
You may view many Polish coats of arms at:
http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herby_szlachty_polskiej_(galeria)#Herby_r od.C3.B3w_szlacheckich
To find out if your family line was of noble ancestry would require a full-blown heraldic/genealogical search. If interested, perhaps the following may be able to help:
Institute of Genealogy: www.instytut-genealogii.

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