News - Noble Blinstrubs de Towtwil family

2025.07.12 In case you didn’t know, in 1958, a hoard of coins was found on the grounds of the Blinstrubiškiai (Viduklė-Paalsė) manor. Based on the period, it was buried after 1684, so it is most likely that it was done by the rebellious ID863 Boguslaus Peter Blinstrub de Towtwil. The coins are stored in the collections of the National Museum of Lithuania. To view a photo of each coin, first click on Group Exhibits at the top left. Language could be change to English at the top of right corner.
2025.05.05 As some Lithuanian municipalities digitized cemeteries, lists of graves became publicly available. We have created a list of the Blinstrub graves, with the name of the cemetery and the identification numbers of the graves in an Excel file, which can be downloaded from website’s Graves section.
2025.03.18 After a decade of searching, we finally managed to find a seald with coat of arms sealed by a member of Blinstrub de Towtwil family. Seal of ID847 Sebastian Blinstrub de Towtwil, son of Peter, was found in the deed of transfer of the Plūsčios manor of Kražiai county by Melchior Sudmantavičius to Wojtech Lukaševičius, dated 10 March 1586. The document is kept at the Aušra Museum in Šiauliai, which kindly agreed to provide a high-resolution digital copy to Blinstrub family. Sebastian acted in the document as a witness. D⁷⁹⁵
2025.03.08 Today’s discovery is the oldest survived metrical record, which mentions Blinstrubs. On 30 th. November of 1631, George Blinstrub Olsowski de Towtwil, secretary and courtier of King Vladislaus II Vasa, took part in Vilnius Reformate church, in baptism ceremony as godfather of son of Balcer Labecki Andrew. This also confirms that George was a resident or frequent visitor to Vilnius. It is also interesting how the surname is written in the record – Blindtstrup. The theory is gaining ground that our surname is a combined word, consisting of the Germanic words Blind and Torp (trup). The first one means blind, in the sense of ending at one point, leading nowhere further. The second one means a homestead, folwark. Which probably means a homestead, manor or folwark at the end of a road. Please look att Vital records section.
2025.02.28 The history of the Blinstrub family continues to reveal details about the still unidetified Blinstrubs. In 1817, the revision of Ukmergė county mentions 62 years old single Antoni Blinstrub, son of Andrew, living in Utena manor. It also mentions that in 1795 he was living in Alginėnai manor of Astravas parish (now Belarus), where he worked as manager.
2025.01.18 This week’s discovery is probably the oldest survived Blinstrubs church record of 16th June 1644 – the marriage of widow ID922 Eufrozina Blinstrubaitė Skinderienė, daughter of Calvinist, owner of Viduklė-Alsa manor Adam Blinstrub de Towtwil, to Alexander Puceta in Vilnius Reformat Church. Please look at Vital records section.
2024.11.26 Recently found historical records have revealed that the absolute record holder for marriages in Blinstrub family was ID859 Samuel Moses Blinstrub de Towtwil, Adam’s son. Born around 1600, probably in the manor of Viduklė-Alsa (Blinstrubiškiai), he was married 4 times. 2 of them rich widows. The first wife was Sofia Janzlauskaitė (married around 1634). The second wife, a rich widow and much older Anna Žaltytė Parčevskienė (first married in 1614, so she was at least 49-50 years old when she married Samuel Moses in 1643. She donate to Samuel Kulva manor). The third wife, a very wealthy widow, with whom the shortest life was lived together, was Alszka Vizgirdaitė Beinartienė. (Married in 1652, donated to Samuel the manors of Pajuostis and Panevėžiukas.) Fourth wife Katherine Sofia Galmantaitė (married in August 1655). He had no children with his second and third wives. Of course, he would not have married so many times, if the first three wives had not died. In addition, Samuel Moses, thanks to these circumstances, had become one of the richest members of the Blinstrub family, owning Plembork and Czechowo manors of Ariogala County, Pajuostis manor of Upytė County, Panevėžiukas manor of Vilkija County, Kulva manor and Dijokiškis and Barčionys folwarks of Kaunas County. Unfortunately, the story how this branch lost all mentioned property is even more painful if compared to the story of loss of Viduklė-Paalsė (Blinstrubiškiai) manor. All mentioned estates, due to different kind of unfavorable circumstances, passed to other owners and the branch of Samuel Moses’ descendants, seems to have disappeared completely.
2024.11.19 Historical sources section of Vilnius University Library is updated with copies of 15 new documents. The most interesting of them is probably the deed of gift of Alszka Vizgirdaitė Beinartienė, the second wife of Vitebsk wojski Samuel Moses Blinstrub, by which she donates manors of Panevėžiukas of Vilkija county and Pajuostis of Upytė county to her new husband, ID859 Samuel Moses Blinstrub de Towtwil, as a proof of faithful love. She also donates 4000 zloty from the manor of Pašiaušė. (D⁷³⁶). There are 747 historical documents in Blinstrubs website now. Once the number of historical sources reaches 800, there will be sufficient reason to begin to analyze and systematize them. Then we could begin to think about start writing a book about the noble Blinstrub-Towtwil family. 😊
2024.11.17 Blinstrub family website contains now 31 documents from counts Zabiello family fond of Central archive of historical records in Warsaw. The most interesting ones are royal privilege of King Augustus II the Strong to ID906 George Melchior Blinstrub de Towtwil (D⁷⁰³) and the testament of one of the richest among the ancient Blinstrubs, ID859 Samuel Moses Blinstrub de Towtwil, the owner of the Kulwa manor (D708).
2024.04.15 Documents found during the last 3 visits to the Lithuanian Historical Archive have been uploaded to the Blinstrub family website. The most important of them are the last will of Johannes Blinstrub (ID2), owner of Pužai-Pabalčia manor of 2 September 1735, leaving all property to his wife Katherine Legačinskaitė de Siriat and children (D⁶⁵⁸) and the inventory of the manor of Pužai-Pabalčia of March 16th. 1728. The inventory of the Pužai-Pabalčia manor with the listed manor’s peasants, served as one of the main evidence in the process of the legitimization of Russian Empire according to the stricter procedure of 1831 which allowed Blinstrub family to maintain the status of nobility until the declaration of independence of Lithuania in 1918. Moreover, it confirms once again that ID2 Johannes Blinstrub de Towtwil was the King’s secretary. (D⁶⁹²). Currently, Blinstrub family website contains more than 650 copies of historical documents.
2024.04.14 After analyzing a large part of the Blinstrub family documents, it is important to notice that descendants of the Blinstrubs de Towtwil family of 19th.-21st. centuries consist of people descended from 2 different Johannes Blinstrubs – the royal secretary ID2 Johannes Blinstrub, the owner of Pužai-Pabalčia manor of Nemakščiai parish and the other one, ID1114 Johannes Blinstrub, the owner of Nemaršioniai manor of Viduklė parish. The manor of Pužai-Pabalčia was bought by Casimir for his only son ID2 Johannes, and the manor of Nemaršioniai, was donated to ID1114 Jonas by his aunt Elisabeth Rimšaitė Kelpšienė, sister of his mother Barbara Rimšaitė. The number of descendants of ID2 Johannes is much higher than ID1114 Johannes. The first one currently has 776 identified descendants and the second 197. The name of Pužai manor is also updated from now on – it was called Puze-Pobolcze by the ancestors, where the second part of the name reflects the name of the nearby river Balčia. The same naming system was used as in the name of the Vidukle-Paalsė manor by our the earlier ancestors.
2024.02.10 After recent visits to the Lithuanian Historical Archive, a new critical error in the Main family tree of the Blinstrubs de Towtwil has come to light. It turns out that ID672 Wojtech’s sons Casimir and Christopher had an interesting system of naming their sons and grandchildren by calling their descendants by the same names as other one. In such way, at the end of the 19th century, in the parishes of Viduklė and Nemakščiai, lived 2 different Thaddeuses Blinstrubs, who had parent Joseph, grandparent John and great-grandparent Casimir. Only generations differed. These two Thaddeuses lived 10-20 km apart from each other and if it not their different wives, death certificates and other details, they could not have been identified. Now, the error has been corrected and the latest version of the family tree reflects the correct Thaddeuses descendants and ancestors.
2024.01.01 This morning, our ancestors wanted us to learn about those Blinstrubs, who lived far away from their native Viduklė county. Far to the east. This is what I found today. I find out about ID144 Antoni Blinstrub from the village of Šukiškiai in the parish of Raseiniai, whose short life took him to the Russian city of Tomsk. There he married a Polish noblewoman from the Suwalki province, Vladislava Twarowska. But life in Russia did not end happily – Antoni died of pneumonia in 1910, just 10 months after the wedding. Then we travel to Ruthenia (Belarus). There, in manor of Tosin Stan (Тосин Стан) in Klimovichi county of Mogilev province, the town judge Joseph Blinstrub and his descendants lived from at least since 1780s until 1918. It is likely that he was the son of Michael Blinstrub, a member of the almost disappeared Kulva Blinstrub branch. And finally, news from ancient Blinstrubs, from far Volhynia (Western Ukraine) – a transcribed document dated 23 November 1579 from the court book of the Kiyv succamerarius court of 1584-1644, which revealed that Blinstrubs lived in the territory of Western Ukraine. More specifically, it refers to the famous officer of the Blinstrub family, the commander of his own Cossack regiment ID854 George (Yuri) Blinstrub, son of Kaspar Blinstrub de Twotwil and Bodgana, daughter of Michael. The book, published in 1991, as a publication of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, describes the privilege of King Sigismund Vasa to the Zaporizhzhya army’s ataman, knight Kirill Ruzhinsky, which granted him the town of Kotelnia (now Стара Котельня), near Zhytomyr, and mentione even the neighboring lands and their owners, including George (Yuri) Blinstrub. This fact reveals 2 important things: firstly, George resided in Volhynia, and secondly, it explains the origin of the non-Lithuanian name of George’s mother, Kaspar’s first wife Bogdana. She seems to have been ruthenian and it is likely that Blinstrub land may have been her dowry, after marrying Caspar.
2023.02.20 A new research, based on Polish and Lithuanian anthropony scientists and their works, has led to the conclusion that the lineal extrension “de Towtwil” means that our original family were descendants of Duke Towtwil, who later became Blinstrubs, which means that our family can de facto be called Dukes. More about this on the updated main page of the family’s website
2023.02.11 The Main Family Tree is updated for the first time this year. There are now 1049 people in the tree. This time, special attention was paid to Blinstrubs from Kaunas, Jonava and Ukmergė regions. We also managed to identify the exotic Brazilian branch of the Blinstrubs, to which the director and poet Vladislovas Algimantas Blinstrubas is also related.
2023.01.29 Growing number of digitized cemeteries allowed us to update Blinstrubs Graves section with new photos.
2023.01.06 Copies of all historical documents found in the State Historical Archive during 2022, have been uploaded to the Blinstrub family website. Over 600 copies of different documents are currently available on the site.
2022.11.16 Last visits to Lithuanian State Historical Archive gave an opportunity to find some information about important Blinstrubs patrimony – Pužai manor. You can read about it in Pužai manor section.
2022.11.14 A terrible proof found that there was a very big chance that entire Blinstrub family could not reach nowadays. In the 1712-1717 Raseiniai Land Court book there is a court decision (D⁶⁵²) dated 18.01.1716, which mentions that after the death of Elena Jautakaite, the first wife of ID2 Johannes Blinstrub de Towtwil, all their children died during the Great Plague in 1710. Then, it turns out that ID2 John Blinstrub de Towtwil not only lost his children from his first marriage in the Great Plague, but also his recently married second wife Elisabeth Janavičiūtė. It is written in her testament of 6 September 1710, found in the book of the Raseiniai Castle Court of 1711. It’s interesting how John managed to survive the plague, losing his wife and children at the same time. If John had also died during the plague, the Blinstrub family would not have existed at this time (just as many other prominent noble families have not survived the plague)☠️
2022.05.05 The main family tree of the Blinstrubs de Towtwil has been updated after a half-year. Now it contains over 1000 people. In addition, dates of death began to be added and male descendants, whose lines interrupts, are marked.
2022.01.02 A new section on the website dedicated to the Blinstrubs of the USA has been added, listing all identified progenitors of the Blinstrub community in the USA and including a map of the places they lived in.
2021.11.15 After last visit to the Historical Archive, we found an evidence who was the progenitor of the other Blinstrub family, coat of arms Wreby. We find out that the family originated in the second half of the 16th century from Urban Chrzczon, who probably married a daughter of one of Blinstrubs de Towtwil. It is interesting that, it was the wife’s family name that was chosen as the first surname. Perhaps it was normal at the time to choose the surname of a more influential family as the main surname, despite the fact that it belongs wife’s family?
2021.09.02 The systematization of the data from large Žemaitija metrics research resulted several changes in family trees. The branch of Francis and Magdalena Petkevičiūtė was separated from the Main Family Tree and placed into a separate tree, as there is sufficient evidence that it was placed there by mistake and Francis father was the as yet unidentified Ignatius. The Main Tree includes now many descendants of Blinstrub ancestors who emigrated to the USA. In addition, Persons section contains now separate a list of not real Blinstrubs, i.e. Blinstrubs not related by blood ties, who received the Blinstrub surname after 1863 under various circumstances.
2021.08.18 After more than 1.5 years, a great genealogical work was completed – research of all the metrics books of birth and marriage of Great Samogitia (to the west of Nevėžis) for period 1794-1900 was completed. It made possible to find all the descendants of the Blinstrub family who moved a lot in the 19th century and to identify several branches of false Blinstrubs. At the same time, the Main Family Tree was updated, which contains now the absolute majority of Blinstrubs de Towtwil lived in the 18th and 19th centuries. More than 99% of them have found birth metrics, copies of them are uploaded to this website as well.
2021.08.15 In 24th.of July 2021, in Blinstrubiškiai took place solemn a ceremony of opening and consecration of monumental stone to thee memory of all Blinstrubs de Towtwil. The stone was built in fall of 2020. Photos of the ceremony has been uploaded to website’s Photo section.
2021.05.25 The noble Blinstrub de Towtwil family exist more than 460 years. It survived wars, plague, cholera and other epidemics, occupations, exiles and different calamities. Blinstrub family still exist and its members are involved in further development of modern society. However, we, the descendants of the noble Blinstrub de Towtwil family, do not forget our roots and our ancestors. Paying the utmost respect to them, in fall of 2020, in the middle of raging pandemic, we, Blinstrubs, arranged a fund raising, donated funds and built a monumental stone to thee memory of all Blinstrubs. The one thing still remain undone – the stone needs to be officially opened and consecrated.
Therfore, on July 24th at 13:00 , we invite Blinstrubs and their family members to gather in Blinstrubiškiai, in Dvaro st. and participate in the solemn stone consecration ceremony.
The program:
13:00-13:30 we gather on the lawn near the stone
13:30 – We begin the solemn ceremony, thank the donors and ask the priest of Viduklė Church to consecrate the monumental stone.
14:00-15:00 Musical-poetic program by actor, musician, bard Giedrius Arbačiauskas.
16:00 St. Mass for Blinstrub family in Viduklė Church of St. Cross (S. Stanevičiaus str. 1).
18:00 Dinner for the families of the donors
Contact information: info@blinstrubas.com
2021.03.20 Letters of ancient Blinstrubs found this week in Warsaw archive have much greater historical value than expected. The most valuable of them are fourteen letters of future royal secretary (ID857) George Blinstrub de Towtwil (D518) to his patron, Duke of Grand Duchy of Lithuania Krzysztof Radziwiłł młodszy, describing his academic journey to reformat cities Frankfurt, Sedan and Amsterdam. The content of the letters will certainly be examined, but many important historical details have already emerged. It seems that thanks to Radvilai family, George later became the secretary of kings Vladislaus and John Casimir Vasas. Because of efforts of reformats Radvilai George became an educated reformat. And of course, he can be considered as most educated representative of ancient Blinstrubs. The letters revealed another pleasant fact as well – after one and a half year abroad and after knowing French nobles, in the letter of 1622 November 28th George signs for the first time using the second family name ′′de Towtwil′′ (z Towtwila)
2021.01.10 The main family tree is updated again. Probably few people know that one Blinstrubs branch continued military traditions of family’s ancestors until XXth. century. Children and grandchildren of Samogitian Rothmaster ID15 Francis Xavier Blinstrub served as officers in military service of Imperial Russian and Polish armies. The most famous among them probably was Lieutenant of the Imperial Russian Navy and Commander of the Polish Navy ID87 Wladyslaw Blinstrub https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/W%C5%82adys%C5%82aw_Blinstrub Here is a list of all branche’s officers – IID15 Francis Xavier Blinstrub – Samogitian Rothmaster
ID76 Humphrey Barnabas Blinstrub – Officer of the Imperial Russian Army, Border Regent of Trakai District,
D80 Boleslaw Matthew Blinstrub captain of Izmailov 205th Regiment of the Imperial Russian Army
ID81 Joseph Blinstrub – officer, Captain of Kaunas 110th Regiment and Jelgava-Saransk 180th Regiment of the Imperial Russian Army
ID87 Wladyslaw Blinstrub – Lieutenant of the Imperial Russian Navy, Commander of the Polish Navy
ID1002 Juliusz Blinstrub – Lieutenant of the Polish Army
It was very difficult to identify branch’s children’s birth places because they depended on their father’s military service place.
2021.01.06 From now in family’s website you can find more than 550 copies of Blinstrubs metrics. This is means more than 90 percent of Blinstrubs born in 18-19th. centuries and identified in main family tree. 440 birth and 110 marriage metrics files will allow you to track down historically proven development of own branch and understand how and where the branch was raised and progressed. At the same time many living places have been corrected in the tree and metrics files
2020.12.14 Family trees of Blinstrubs de Towtwil and Blinstrubs de Chrzczon was updated for last time this year. It’s a great pleasure to know that two progenitors of Chicago Blinstrubs de Towtwil branches were identified
2020.11.01 It is possible that the Blinstrubs lived in Viduklė county already in 1536, during the ruling of King Sigismund I. In Lithuanian Historical Archive keep the case of two nobles – Michael Airimowicz and Johannes Pacewicz on donating their lands, peasants and a manor to Viduklė church (D466). In this case two nobles, brothers Simon (Szymko) and Gregor (Hrycius) Towtwilowicz are mentioned as witnesses. It’s big chance that they are progenitors of Blinstrubs family in Lithuania. This theory also strengthens by the fact that some of the ancient Blinstrubs signed documents as Towtwilowicz.
2020.10.05 Today is a big day! A little more than a year after the family meeting, the project to build a Blinstrubs monumental stone has been realized. The stone was placed in front of the former place of Blinstrubiškiai (Viduklė-Alsa) manor palace. It will remind current and coming generations about noble Blinstrubs family, lived and prospered once in Viduklė county. This project would not be realized without help of a team of enthusiasts and donors. Big thanks to all who worked on this project – to project’s engine Mr. Juozas Kazimieras Blistrabas, to Bronius, Adelė, Vaida and Mindaugs Blistrubiai for all practical and organizational work they has done, to Vincas Blinstrubas, a member of Raseiniai District Council for coordination works, to chef of Blinstrubiškiai social care home Rasa Šebelskienė for kind permission to place a monumental stone in the territory which belongs to the social care house, to farmer Algimantas Ivancevičius for donating the stone, to Stasys Greivys for engraving the text, Darius Steponkus and Sigitas Dargis and to Šarūnas Blinstrubas, family historian and genealogist, for the idea and the text. We also thank to all donor whose list will be announced a little bit later. Official opening celebration, unfortunately, cannot be planned for now, because of pandemic, but they will certainly happen someday. From now on, we can be even more proud to be the descendants of noble Blinstrubs family! We believe that thanks to this stone, the memory of our family will remain for a long time and this place, will become a common place for all Blinstrubs scattered around the wide world.
2020.09.12 The noble Blinstrubs family has been living in Lithuania for more than 460 years. During this long period, it almost disappeared several times due to wars, diseases and other reasons, but it’s history continues. History that has been hidden for more than a century in historical documents, has come into the light and reached the descendants of the family. The main task of our generation is that the memory of the noble Blinstrubs family do not sink into oblivion again. During the last meeting of the Blinstrubs family, we voted yes to proposal to build a memorial stone on the site of former Blinstrubiškiai (Viduklė-Paalsė) manor, which going to remind about our family a hundred or two hundred years later. It’s also going to be a common place for all Blinstrubs who will be able to bring their relatives or friends to the place and tell about Blinstrubs family history and people.A team of family enthusiasts – mr. Vincas Blinstrubas, mr. Juozas Kazimieras Blistrabas, mr. Bronius and Adelė Blistrubiai with daughter Vaida and family genealogist and historian Šarūnas Blinstrubas is working to realize this project. Algimantas Ivancevičius, a farmer from Gintalai village of Varniai eldership, donated the stone to the family. The estimated cost of the project is about 1500-1600 euros, which includes crane and truck transportation to the stone workshop and to Blinstrubiškiai, text engraving, preparation of the ground and consecration of the monument. You can see in the attached visualization how the stone is going to look a like in Blinstrubiškiai. In order to realize this project, donation of funds is necessary. An approximate amount of donation could be about 50-60 euros (60-70 $) per family.The names of all donors, regardless donated amount, will be published on this website, in donors list. Once the stone is laid, all donors will be able to receive a detailed summary of project costs.
2020.08.10 The Case of Pašaltuonis-Kulvertiškiai manor (D⁴⁵⁸) has provided even more impressive discoveries. It turns out that:
1. In Batakiai eldership inventory of 1558 (D⁴⁵⁹) from a case of Pašaltuonis-Kulvertiškiai (later Rimšai) manor in Viduklė county, Blinstrubs are mentioned for the first time. It means that Blinstrubs already lived in Samogitia under Grand Duchy of Lithuania period under ruling of king Zygmunt II August 2. Pašaltuonis manor seems was the first Blinstrubs patrimony lying between Šaltuona and Upė rivers and Butkaičiai and Eržvilkas villages. Please see attached map with approximate territory of the manor. Viduklė-Alsa manor could also exist as Blinstrubs manor at the same time but there are no evidences on that yet. 3. Blinstrup is mentioned as an owner of the manor in the inventory, It once again strengthens the theory that our family’s name is Danish origin. It is likely that mentioned Blinstrub was Simon Blinstrub, father of Peter and Caspar. Peter adn Caspar as well as their children owned lands of the manor later. 4. If someone hesitated if Blinstrubs were really noblemen, in the inventory they mentioned as Noblemen of his his royal highness king (Bojar Korolia Jego krolewskej milosti). Copies of mentioned documents can be found in LSHA sources page
2020.08.06 Main family tree is updated. From now, all identified Blinstubs de Towtwil blazon Swan, including ancient Blinstrubs, are included in one family tree. In addition, research of various historical documents revealed new mistake – in russian family tree scheme branch of Joseph and Apolonia Pacevičiūtė Blinstrubs was connected to Raseiniai Gabšiai manor Blinstrubs branch. As it turned out, Joseph’s parents were other people. Joseph’s parents were Joseph and Agata Rimkevičiūtė from Šaukėnai parish, so for this moment this branch is removed from the tree, at least until we will be able to identify them.
2020.07.11 Today is a great day – after 5 years of research we finally managed to find out who was our oldest ancestor of our branch. It was Simon’s son, Stanislaus father, Peter Blinstrub Alsizki. Also, we find out that Blinstrubs owned two manors called Pašaltuonis. Our branch oldest patrimony was Pašaltuonis Kulvertiškiai manor which later became Rimšai manor (current Rimšai village near Eržvilkas). Final evidance was found in Kulvertiškiai manor case of 1663 found in Lithuanian Historical archive Together with other documents, we have got a complete picture. In document D⁴³⁰ (LSHA 284-1-51) Casimir, the son of Vojtech, the father of Johannes, mentions that he is selling the land of Pašaltuonis manor received from his father, which have border with noblemen Rimša lands. In the case of Pašaltuonis Kulvertiškiai (D⁴⁵⁸ LSHA 1282-1-10968) manor David Rimša Peter’s son mentions that Pašaltuonis Kulvertiškiai manor was received from Vojtech Stanislaus son and his wife, later David’s mother Anna Bartališkytė Blinstrubienė, later Rimšienė. The sons of Vojtech, Gregor and Casimir are also mentioned in the document. D330 document, in which Stanislaus, Peter’s son, donates a third part of Pašaltuonis manor to his wife Maryann Dabkevičiūtė (D³³⁰ VUL 7-14635, 214) is also mentioned. In this way we find out that Peter, Simon’s son, had a son Stanislaus which had a son Vojtech which had two sons Gregor and Casimir. Casimir had one son Johannes who later bought Pužai-Pabalčia manor.
2020.06.22 The Main family tree is updated, 836 people in the tree. The biggest difference is that all known marriages are included in the tree for the first time. Also, progenitors of Australia and England branches and their decestors are included in the tree. Now we know that until the beginning of II World War 6 Blinstrubs branches abroad started by people of Ukmergė district. Three Josephs started Germany, England and Australia branches, Solomon Blinstrub one polish branch and cousins Alexander and Casimir two branches in US Massachusets. Blinstrubs in Samogitia were not so active in far migration. For this moment we know that Sylwester Blinstrub from Veliuona parish started one branch in US Connecticut and New York and one ST60 John Blinstrub from Girdiškė parish, who in fact was the first Blinstrub who arrived to USA in 1886, started US Illinois branch.
2020.05.02 The motivational story Blinstrubs family legitimation case is published on the family’s website’s Other historical sources section, where anyone who can read in Russian can easily read on what basis and which Blinstrubs were legitimized as nobles in the Russian Empire. It alsobecame clear who was the main initiator and enthusiast of legitimization of Blinstrubs family in Vilnius Governorate’s noblemen’s deputies’ council. It was Viduklė nobleman ID103 Stanislaus Blinstrub, who less than a year before his death, legitimized 32 oldest Blinstrubs and laid the ground to known russian genealogical scheme of Main family tree, approved by the assembly office on December 1, 1833. We must be grateful to him that his enthusiasm allowed his descendants to discover this tree and use it in order to update it.
2020.04.01 The census of the parishioners of Viduklė parish of 1865 revealed us who lived in Blinstrubiškiai manor (D⁷⁸⁸) at that time and at the same time revealed how rich and organized the manor was. In addition, a couple of secondary things has been revealed: 1. Blinstrubs still felt nostalgia for the old manor. A couple of them managed to get a job at the manor. Nobleman George Blinstrub (unidentified single, died in 1878) worked there as manciple and after his death ID106 Michael Stanislaus Blinstrub continued the job until death in 1886. 2. In the census, the manor is named as the manor of the head of the nobility of Raseiniai county., It shows its exceptional status among other manors of Raseiniai county.
Below is a list of Blinstrubiškiai manor residents.
1. Wife of a nobleman, owner, widow Casimira Burbaitė Janczewska
2. Wife of a nobleman Anna Blus
3. Vogt (manager) Franz Butinevičius
4. Clerk Constant Volotk
5. Manciple George Blinstrub (single, d. 1878)
6. Bailiff Geronimo Petrusevičius
7. Gardener Anthony Girkont
8. Assistant Cyprian Radavičius
9. Cook Anthony Narkevičius
10. Lackey Ignatius Puišius
11. Carter Joseph Juozaitis
12. Gatekeeper Alexander Drukten
13. Chanceloir Dominic Žukauskas
14. Credensor Dominic Klemdov
15. Seamstress Julia Kovalevska
16. Maid Barbara Truskovska
17. Hofmistress Paulina Butovskytė Krasovska
And more than 70 workers.
2020.03.17 A second visit to the Lithuanian Historical Archive allowed us to confirm the facts we learned from the St. Petersburg legitimation case and discover new ones. Highlights are:
1. The act of purchase of the Pužai-Pabalčia manor of 1681 (D⁴³⁴) and several other documents related to the manor of that year (D⁴³³, D⁴⁴¹) were found, confirming that our previous progenitor‘s Johannes father was Casimir and grandfather Vojtech. There are some indications that Vojtech was the son of ID6 Stanislaus, but more evidence needs to be found for final confirmation. We also learned who were Johannes first wife, uncles and cousins and that before Pužai manor, our patrimony was Pašaltuonis manor in Viduklė county, which Casimir sold on October 24, 1681, after he purchased Pužai manor for his only son ID2 Johannes (D⁴³⁰).
2. We find out interesting fact that one of Blinstrubs daughters also became on Blinstrubs wife (see picture). In fact, probably there was no incest. Just ID15 George daughter, Theophilia Blinstrubaitė de Towtwil got married to orphan W6 Christopher Blinstrub de Chrzczon , in other words to Blinstrub, but from another Blinstrubs family – Urbanowicz Blinstrubs de Chrzczon.
3. It turned out, that the Blinstrubs of the Blinstrubiškiai manor were closely related to the noble family Uvainiai, whose representative, Boguslav Uvainis received Blinstrubiškiai from George Merkel Blinstrub after his death. Two daughters of king’s secretary ID857 George Blinstrub, Dorota and Potentia, were married to Uvainiai family members (D⁴¹⁸, D⁴²⁷).
4. We found a testament of Katherine Legaczinska de Siriat, the second wife of a former family‘s progenitor ID2 Johannes, written in 1765. In the testament (D⁴⁴³), she leaves the Pužai Legotiškė Pabalčiai manor to her son ID4 Bartholomew. As we know since earlier, son ID5 Peter had already received Gabšiai manor in Raseiniai county, while the oldest son ID1 Joseph probably received from his parents Macaliai manor near Nemakščiai.
All the family trees were updated as well.
2020.03.15 Both, the First and the Second world wars, had a big impact for some Blinstrubs families. Josef Blinstrub (ID218) not only survived the Second world war, but was forced to join military Hitler youth organization and then was forced to organize anti-tank defense in Western Poland in the last months of the war. Josef’s granddaughter Petra Blinstrub pursued him to put memories of his life and magical survival into a book. The book “My Memoirs” is written in German and English, so if you speak these languages, we invite you to download the book from Other historical sources page and read it. A big thank to granddaughter Petra Blinstrub for the inspiration, Josef’s daughter in law Elizabeth for translation into English and grandson Jason Blinstrub for book’s design.
2020.02.25 Family’s website have got a new page called Photos. There you can see photos of various family members. If you want to share photos of your Blinstrubs ancestors, you are welcome to send them to us or post on the Facebook page
2020.02.20 A four-day visit to the Lithuanian history archive allowed to reveal a lot of historical facts related to main Blinstrubs de Towtwil patrimony – Blinstrubiškiai manor and most important to know the circumstances how and when Blinstrubs lost this manor. According to this information, Blinstrubiškiai manor page on Blinstrubs website has been update. We invite you to read it.
2020.01.22 The creation of Blinstrubs website, from structural perspective, is coming to an end. Here are the latest news.
1. The main website’s page has been updated with new information, according to the latest historical discoveries.
2. Family Urbanowicz Blinstrubs de Chrzczon got their own page.
3. As Blinstrubs owned different manors at various times, it is not easy to find out what manor and when they have owned. To make it easier, a list of Blinstrubs manors with dates is added to Manors section.
4. Skaidrė Blinstrubaitė de Chrzczon from Spain, kindly shared with us one of the first family tree of Urbanowicz Blinstrubs de Chrzczon created in 1798. It’s copy is uploaded to the section of Various historical sources. In addition, legitimization case from Saint Petersburg archive gave us a possibility to update Urbanowicz Blinstrubs de Chrzczon family tree in Family tree section. We invite you to visit.
5. LSHA historical sources section updated with a list of different disappeared documents.
2020.01.04 Website’s VUL historical sources page updated with more than 40 copies of different Blinstrubs documents of Raseiniai land court from Vilnius university library. Among them, one document concerning the progenitor of Main family tree Wojcech Blinstrub de Towtwil.
2020.01.02 As expected, the beginning of New Year brought very interesting historical surprises and discoveries to Blinstrubs. Receiving from St. Petersburg a copy of legitimation case of Blinstrubs of Russian Empire’s ruling Senate’s Heraldry Department (D⁶³⁸), brought a lot of useful information and allowed some serious errors to be corrected.
1. Finally, we’ve got an answer who was father and grandfather to John, the progenitor of Main family tree. John’s father was Casimir and grandfather Wojtech Blinstrubs de Towtwil. Wojtech is already mentioned in documents of Raseiniai Land Court and named as Stanislaus’ son. It’s probably the son of ID839 Stanislaus of Ancient Blinstrub tree.
2. We find out that some important mistakes took place in known Russian family tree scheme of 1866. There children of ID6 Ignatius are assigned to ID7 Mateus Thadeus, children of ID7 Mateus Thadeus assigned to ID14 Joseph and ID14 Joseph’s only son Joseph is assigned to ID13 Andrew’s children. These major mistakes are fixed now and updated tree has already been uploaded to the family site. Do not be surprised if your branch is in a different place in the Main tree since now.
3. The case of the nobility revealed that after July 1833, when the requirements for the legitimization of the Russian Empire’s nobility were tightened, Blinstrubs had a problem on proving nobility under the new law. The new law required not only to be named nobleman in old ancestral documents, but also to prove that at least one manor with owned serfs was in possession.
In 1780 the raging fire in Raseiniai burned at least 20 different documents of Pužai manor kept in Raseiniai court (as described by the inventory file of burned documents in Raseiniai castle court, dated April 29, 1781, D⁵¹⁰), and therefore to find an evidence on possessing serfs in Pužai manor was difficult. Blinstrubs finally found an inventory of 1728 of Pužai manor in Trakai Castle court (D⁶⁹²), listing the serf families belonging to the manor and thus definitively confirming the status of family’s nobility in the Russian Empire.
2019.12.22 In the end of the year, we want to share some latest historical discoveries related to Blinstrubs family.
The first of them – we find out that other Blinstrub family, which use suffix “de Chrzczon” and blazon “Wreby” were people from Chrzczon family who probably became Blinstrubs. Oldest Blinstrubs accepted this fact without any problem and had friendly relationship with them, sold to each other manors, lands and lived in neighborhood. The only one small inconvenience for old Blinstrubs was that they have had to start using the suffix “de Towtwil” in order to not be confused with Blinstrubs de Chrzczon. In Blinstrubs de Chrzczon section you can see a snippet of the document of 1648 February 9 th. in which W42 Magdalena Blinstrubaitė de Chrzczon confirms to brothers Stanislaus Casimir and Christopher, that she received her part of legacy, perfectly confirm this theory.
The second discovery – we find out that Blinstrubs, since oldest times, had at least three patrimonies. First one, was Viduklė Alsa (later Blinstrubiškiai), second one, was in the neighborhood, between rivers Alsa and Alsaitis (Plačiuva), called Rowle-Numgaliai-Kempaliai including Mikolajiškiai folwark and third one, between rivers Šaltuona and Bebirva, called Pašaltuonis-Žvirblaukis-Dūdiškės. All in Viduklė county.
The third discovery – because both Blinstrub familes lived in the same neighborhood and managed same lands in the same area in XVI-XVII centuries the entire area of these lands were called Blinstrubai (Blinstrubs).
2019.12.19 Website’s LSHA historical sources page has been updates with copies of more than 110 historical acts of Raseiniai land court from years 1586-1674, which describes and reflects many life events of Ancient Blinstrubs. The most important and interesting of them are various testaments and fundation act of Viduklė zbar Calvinist Chapel, in the land of Viduklė Paalsė, by ID860 Johannes Blinstrub de Towtwil of 1645.
2019.12.17 The website’s section of historical sources of Vilnius University Library has been updated with several, one of oldest Blinstrubs documents. Among them, the most interesting document probably is the document written in 1588 June 28th., remembering times when Blinstrubs were not only landlords or politicians, but also war heroes. In the document Dorothy from Moscow, captured under the Pskov siedge of Livonian war in 1582 by ID854 George Blinstrub, who led own regiment in Poland’s king Stefan Batory army, pledges not to run away again and truly serve George’s sister Anna Blinstrubaitė Radavičienė (D²⁴¹).
2019.11.16 The last few months have been full of important historical discoveries related to Blinstrubs family. We want to share with you some of them.
1. The privilege of 1644.01.02 King Vladislava IV Vasa to Samogitia and it‘s nobility, legalising the rights and freedoms perpetius temporibus (forever). The privilege of being ratified in Vilnius Praesenti Ordinis Equestris (in the presence of noble nobility) – representatives of Samogitian kingdom John, George, Samuel Moses and David Blinstrubs de Towtwil, the Duke Janusz Radzwill, Samogitia elder John Alfons Lacki and 30 other nobility with kind participation of bishops and other nobility. (D³⁰⁸) In this privilege, the procedure of election of Samogitian elders was established for the first time as well as the procedure for convening of Samogitian Sejm. Blinstrubs participation between Samogotian representatives in the ratification of the privilege confirms that in the XVII century Blinstrubai played an important role in ruling of Samogitia and Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
2. In 1631 transactions of real estate of ID860 Johannes Blinstrub de Towtwil (D165, D175) revealed that Johannes was not only a royal secretary to the Polish kings and the Grand Dukes of Grand Duchy of Lithuania Vladislav IV Vasa and John Casimir Vasa, but was also a royal secretary and rotmaster to their father, King of Poland and Sweden, Sigismund III Vasa.
3. Blinstrub real estate transactions of 18th. century (e.g. D³⁰⁴) revealed that even the oldest Blinstrubs of the Main family tree used the title suffix “de Towtwil”, so it became clear that all Blinstrubs in the tree are descendants of Blinstrubs de Towtwil and can use this suffix in the surname.
4. In the 18th. century, Blinstrubs still tried to find a way for repossesion of the lost manor of Blinstrubiškiai (Viduklė Paalsė). Evidence of this is (D280) the transfer act of the claim of 1775.02.04 of ID914 Rafael and ID915 Peter Blinstrubs concerning new owners of Blinstrubiškiai manor Uwojn family, to W14 Raseiniai rotmaster Norbert Blinstrub, in which theiy mentions that their father and grandfather ID870 Johannes Carl, the son of David, never received a promised 3000 timfs compensation for his right to a part of Blinstrubiškiai manor from Boguslav Uwojn, nor from his son Anthony Uwojn. By this document Rafael and Peter transferred the right to seek a compensation to W14 Raseiniai rotmaster Norbert Blinstrub.
Another document witnessing same efforts is (D²⁸⁷) Summons of 1783.05.21 to Kaunas court, of ID896 Anthony Blinstrub, Judge of the Tribunal of Grand Duchy of Lithuania, to Catherine Uwojn Micevičienė, regarding Blinstrubiškiai manor and John Przelgowski, regarding Čėkuva (Chechov) manor. So far, it is unclear what exact for Catherine Uwojn Micevičienė was called the court, but it seems concerning the same issue. As we already know after Uwojn family, the manor was temporarily owned by Micewicz family.
2019.11.14 Website’s NLL historical sources section is updated with a collection of documents copies related to Kulva manor Blinstrubs, originally stored in Lithuanian National library. You are welcome to read them.
2019.09.11 Family’s website’s VUL historical sources section has been updated with one of the oldest historical documents concerning Blinstrubs, stored in Vilnius University Library. We would like to highlight the testament of Martin Blinstrubowicz (another family name form) and Sebastian Vaitkevičius pledge act of Pamedžiai manor lands to Kaspar Blinstrub in witch manor called Blinstrubai is mentioned (one of the evidence that another manor called Blinstrubai existed before Blinstrubiškiai manor in Viduklė ditrict.
2019.03.27 You probably know that in this website you can find a page called Persons where we try to list all known Blinstrubs. Also, there you can find 70 unidentified Blinstrub couples. Please let us know if you want to add some name or find some familiar names.
2018.08.15 After two years of intense work, a new Blinstrub family site was launched. The site is dedicated to the memory of the noble Blinstrub family, spreading of information about the ancestors, dead and living representatives of the Blinstrup family, as well as functioning as a social-informational portal for the purpose of bringing together Blinstrubs scattered around the world. The site is not finished, it will be constantly updated, and the goal is to fill it with all the possible information about the family and to fill the family tree as much as possible. Stanislovas Algimantas Blinstrubas from Šiauliai, Viktoras Blinstrubas from Vilnius, Joseph Montvydas Blinstrubas from Germany, Kempten, Vaida Blistrubytė from Varniai, Juozas Kazimieras Blistrabas from Kuršėnai already contributed to the new site in one or another way, but in order for the website to be fully completed, help from living Blinstrubs, who use the internet, is needed. The site has a built-in social networking feature that allows all Blinstrubs and people whose parents or grandparents were Blinstrubs to create an account and share information or photos about their entire branch of the family completely independently. We invite everyone to do this!
The English version of the site is not completely up-to-date because of the lack of time, so it would be great to find good English-speaking volunteers who could help translate it fully.
The site also has its Facebook page on the web http://www.facebook.com/blinstrubs Please click Like if you have not already done so.
We also invite you to spread the message about the site to other Blinstrubs, especially those who use little of the Internet.
Let’s get together! Thank you!
2016.10.08 The page about famous Boston Blinstrub’s Village club is ready both in english and lithuanian. Enjoy.
2016.09.11 A new version of family tree of Noble Blinstrub family is uploaded to the website and is available for viewing and downloading in section Family tree.