Lyakhovichi’s Polish Jurisdictions
between 1921 and 1945
By Deborah G. Glassman, copyright 2004

Successful research is conducted jurisdictionally. Where were civil cases tried? Where were court decisions filed? Where would a professional certificate for teaching be on record? If you know which District Court held records you need, then you may be able to track them into a particular archival found today. You may find that records were transferred to places where different access policies make them more readily available, and you may find that a document that you never believed you would uncover is there to be found.

In 1921 the nation of Poland was reconstituted after disappearing from the map for over 125 years. Lyakhovichi became part of the new nation. Poland set up local governments very practically, trying not to reinvent the wheel. Lyakhovichi, which had been an important small town with railroad stations, telephone connections, and a telegraph office, was designated as a central town for a number of small villages without those services. Baranowicze which had been Lyakhovichi’s larger near neighbor became the local court town and one of seven “powiats” in Nowogródek Województwo. Nowogródek city, an ancient seat of the larger local area, was designated the chief town of Nowogródek Województwo, just as it had been before the Russian Empire had swallowed up the Polish-Lithuanian Republic 150 years earlier.

Lachowicze was a miasteczko (small city) and gmina town, seat of council office of Lachowicze with the dependencies - Koniunchy, Mysloboje, Paszkowce, and Zubielewicze. It was the seat of the Justice of the Peace with the justice court in Nowogrodek. The 1928 population was 2,819. The railway line was Luniniec-Baranoweize. The post office, telephone, and telegraph were in Lachowicze and Baranowicz. The town had a council office, one Catholic church, one mosque, and one Orthodox church, a health clinic, an Association of Merchants, and an Association of Artisans.