Migration of Jankowski H. Jastrzebiec
The Jankowski h. Jastrzebiec family members adapted to the local Eastern European customs and language and are now also known by the Lithuanian form Jankauskas and in the Russian Cyrillic form as Янковский. Progressive eastward migration was particularly prominent from the 15th century onwards, when the Treaty of the Union at Horodlo was signed, granting Polish nobility the freedom to settle in the vast underpopulated fringes of Lithuania and Byelorussia. This was further endorsed by the Union of Lublin a century later. The 16th century was also in many ways the golden age of Poland with the rural agricultural economy booming especially with grain exports to central and western European markets as well as Britain. In this period the Jankowski family consolidated their position and expanded their lands and with surplus income educating their families in the Renaissance style. In the 17th century the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was now the largest country in the whole of Europe and the decentralised nature of the country's government relied on semi-autonomous distinct regional principalities. Therefore while members of this family were predominantly owners of farms of all sizes, some undertook executive administration for the regional states including posts as privy councillors, judges, army reservists and regional politicians. In the 18th century the rule of both Augustus the II and III led to external wars and internal chaos impacting on all but the largest magnates who further expanded their lands. As a consequence even the members of the Jankowski family as nobility with means 'middle szlachta' (termed szlachta zamozńa) would have struggled to maintain their lands. By the 19th century, things would get even worse as Poland had ceased to exist as an independent state and was under foreign occupation. The new administration was frequently harsh sometimes even repressive making the long established feudal agricultural economy even more difficult and even uneconomic. Furthermore exploitation of the abundant natural resources, as a consequence of the industrial revolution spreading from the West, was hampered by an inefficient infrastructure. A small proportion of the Jankowski family moved west into continental Europe in the mid 19th century, predominantly France due to shared cultural, religious and military traditions. However, the majority of the poorer members of the Jankowski family emigrated predominantly to America via German and English ports. In the early 20th century the remaining progeny of this family with sufficient means diversified into the professions including civil and industrial engineering as well as the medical sciences.
Read more about this topic: Jankowski