Kurnatowski

The Kurnatowski was a noble family within Poland and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from the 14th century into the 20th. The family was part of the Łodzia clan and were participants in politics, arts, military endeavours, and Calvinist clergymen. As magnates and members of the nobility, the Kurnatowskis had extensive land holdings which were all confiscated during World War II and especially during the Soviet occupation of Poland from 1939 to 1990.

The title of count (hrabia in Polish) was bestowed by Papal edict in 1902 to one of the branches of the family. Another line allegedly received the title of "count" in 1916 from the Tsar Nicholas II. Some of the Kurnatowskis were ardent members of the Polish Reformed Church, or Calvinists, producing a number of clergymen, although the Duisina and other family lines have remained Roman Catholic since at least the 13th century.

Notable members

The more public members of the family include:

• Zygmunt Kurnatowski: 1778 - 1858, hrabia, Polish general, aide-de-camp to Napoleon Bonaparte, involved in the November Uprising and in the Polish-Russian War of 1831.

• HrabiaEryk Kurnatowski: October 8, 1883 - February 23, 1975, born in Kolwica, Poland and died in Warsaw. Count (since 1916), Polish Senator, established Poland's premier horse-breeding facility on his estate at Łochów

• Konstanty Kurnatowski: 1878 - 1968, born in Birze (Lithuania) and died in Germany. Descended from a line of distinguished Calivinist cleargymen, was himself a pastor in Kielmy, and later the General Superintendent (bishop) of the Lithuanian Brethren, and from 1938 till 1940 of the Polish Reformed Church.
• Hrabia Kurnatowski of Lodzia. Zygmunt (son of Stanislaw and Eleonora Potworowska) (born 1858) obtained the hereditary papal title of Count from Pope Leo XIII on 30 September 1902 (succession by male primogeniture). Count of Galicia. See Counts of Galicia and Poland