SHORT HISTORICAL OUTLINE   The materials compiled and presented on the Wilczewski's family webpage should be treated as an attempt to complete and put in order the documentation regarding the undertaken subject. In particular, it applies to documenting the beginnings of our family lineage and the origin of our family name.   Sometime in the 1970s the older generation of the family got interested in the family's origins and started discussing over salvaged historical documents that belonged to the family ancestors.  It turned out that the family has its roots in former Royal Prussia. The Wilczewski surname is not very common, and people with this surname were mostly related or descended from common ancestors.   Intriguingly, the Wilczewski surname simultaneously occurred in Royal Prussia, Podlasie, Podole, as well as Mazowsze, and this fact needed some explanation. These families, as documented by old birth certificates and other documents and found notations, came from the same ancestral trunk and used the same coat of arms and, in many cases, the same nickname.   Source information allowed for many interesting conclusions. First of all, the Wilczewski family was numerous in Royal Prussia from 1507 to about 1800. Their primary center was Wilczewo near Sztum. From 1700 to 1800, the Wilczewskis lived in Sztum and Malbork county in at least ten places (Wilczewo, Chojno, Lipiny, Serock, Łąkie, Bągart, Gilb, Zajezierze, Sztum, Januszewo, Klecewo, Michorowo, Mirany, Montki).   The next significant center of the family was Podlasie, and more precisely, the areas of Bielsko, Grajewo and Wizna (Topczewo, Czerniewo, Wierbołowo). In the Mazowsze region they lived in the area of Węgrowo and Paplin (Liw, Stoczek, Wieliczna, Zgrzebicha). The significant family center shifted to Podole after 1775. At first, the Wilczewskis settled in Orynin, Rzepińce, Kutkowce and Jaczespol, then, after 1800, in Kużelowa region (Kużelowa, Wielka, Kużelówka, Sieniakowce).   After 1920, all these families emigrated to the regions of independent Poland. They mostly settled down in West Podole and Wołyń, and partially in the Vilnus area. The Wilczewskis from Podlasie moved to Warsaw and Kalisz. After 1945, with the establishment of new country borders, they migrated again, particularly those from the Podole branch of the family. They represented mostly the younger generation, which settled down in the area of the so-called Regained Land – the area of former Prussia (East and West), Upper and Lower Silesia, Cracov region and Central Poland (Warsaw, Płock, Lublin). In this way, the historical circle of the Wilczewski family migration was closed. Further family history is known to the currently living family members. Known facts should be gathered, and the next pages of the family history should be written.   In conclusion, as a fragment from the article "Each of us has ancestors" published in "Verbum Nobile" (No. 1/1992) says:             "Each of us has ancestors.             Each of us comes from somewhere.             Most of us remember our home. We remember our parents, grandparents. We know about them. How many of us, however, particularly in recent years, do not have any knowledge reaching beyond the generation of our parents and grandparents, sometimes great-grandparents. We do not have any knowledge about older generations. We do not know who they were, how they looked. What was their life like, their joys, their tragedies.             Each of us has ancestors, but not all of us have knowledge about them. There are no older or younger families. The term "old family" or "old dynasty" means only that a given family has retained the memory about its members, and about its ancestors. For some of them it was fairly easy task, because they started to collect the data early on. But there is always a beginning for such collection; somebody had to start it. Somebody stopped the very rapid process of forgetting. Somebody has written down what was told by older family members.             The history of nations was written by chroniclers. The nations remember them with respect. Each family has its own history; however, not each has its own chroniclers.             We are encouraging you to try to be the chroniclers of your families, or to find such chroniclers among yourself.             You can search family's desks, attics, find old pictures, ask the oldest family members who are the people in those picture, what kind of people they were, what kind of life they lead, and anything else they could remember.             One of my colleagues, a history teacher in high school, gave his students preparation of their genealogy as a home assignment. He was overwhelmed with materials brought by his students. And parents of his students thanked him for the discussions that this assignment provoked at their homes, and the interest of the children in such important matters. There is a deep need for reaching back to our roots.             We often become interested in these matters when we are in our older years. But then, most of the time, there is nobody around to ask questions."