Punsko krašto bajorai

ENThe article describes the nobility of the Punskas region. The nobles are legally privileged caste of the noblemen in the Kingdom of Poland, later in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and in the Republic of the Two Nations. This caste had civil and political rights. All the representatives of the nobility were theoretically legally equal. After the rebellion in 1831 the nobility faced with the elimination of their caste. All those who could not prove having belonged to the nobility were deprived of their privileges. The nobility list of 1838 – 1860, found in the documents of the Suvalkai State Archive, includes 469 noblemen. In 1897 there were 3666 noblemen in the province of Suvalkai, 760 in Marijampolė, 210 in Suvalkai, and 421 in Seinai. 147 nobles studied in the Seinai Seminary in 1826 – 1914. It is unknown how many nobles there were in Punskas. Since 1808 until 1815 in the margins of the documents personal status was marked: a nobleman, a burgher, a peasant, a Jew. The noblemen were the mayors, governors, squires, economists, clerks, etc. Among the nobles of the Punskas region there are Kazimieras Birgelis, a landowner from Cirailiai (1787), Leonovičius, who lived in the Punskas Rectory (1808), Jokūbas Olševskis, the vicar of the Seivai economy (1809). Two pastors of the Punskas parish were noblemen, one of them was pastor Antanas Laurinavičius. In the Punskas parish, only a few descendants of the noble birth have survived to this day, including Sigitas birgelis from Punskas.