Maria Jadwiga Minakowska (born June 13, 1972) is a

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

historian,

genealogist Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their Lineage (anthropology), lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family ...

and

demographer Demography () is the statistical study of human populations: their size, composition (e.g., ethnic group, age), and how they change through the interplay of fertility (births), mortality (deaths), and migration. Demographic analysis examine ...

creator of the Polish genealogy database ''Wielka Genealogia Minakowskiej'' (en. ''Minakowska's Great Genealogy''). In 2024 Minakowska announced her transition from male to female.

Biography

Minakowska was born as Marek Jerzy Minakowski in

Olsztyn Olsztyn ( , ) is a city on the Łyna River in northern Poland. It is the capital of the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, and is a city with powiat rights, city with county rights. The population of the city was estimated at 169,793 residents Olsz ...

into the family of Jerzy Minakowski and Wiesława, née Kraszewska. After graduating in philosophy from the

Jagiellonian University The Jagiellonian University (, UJ) is a public research university in Kraków, Poland. Founded in 1364 by Casimir III the Great, King Casimir III the Great, it is the oldest university in Poland and one of the List of oldest universities in con ...

, in 1998 she was awarded a PhD for a dissertation titled ''

Formal logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the study of deductively valid inferences or logical truths. It examines how conclusions follow from premises based on the structure o ...

prior to

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

'', also in

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

, under professor . In 2001, she founded the Polish genealogy website ''Wielka Genealogia Minakowskiej'' based on extant historical records and data submitted by correspondents. By 2022, the site contained details of around 1 million people with ties to

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. Based on the historic

Great Sejm The Great Sejm, also known as the Four-Year Sejm (Polish language, Polish: ''Sejm Wielki'' or ''Sejm Czteroletni''; Lithuanian language, Lithuanian: ''Didysis seimas'' or ''Ketverių metų seimas'') was a Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwea ...

of 1788-1792, by 2022 Minakowska had assembled details of over 130,000 descendants of the participants of partitioned Poland's outgoing parliament, some of whom have been scattered across the globe. Minakowska focuses on "mass genealogy" whose research results are published on line and in print editions.

Personal life

In 1994, being formally a male, she married archaeologist (born 1963) and had a daughter together. Minakowska’s second forename, Jadwiga, refers to

Hedwig of Silesia Hedwig of Silesia (also Hedwig of Andechs (, , ; 1174 – 15 October 1243), a member of the Bavarians, Bavarian comital Counts of Andechs, House of Andechs, was Duchess of Duchy of Silesia, Silesia from 1201 and of Duchy of Greater Poland, G ...

, to whom she is distantly related. She anticipates an era when women, no longer as burdened by child-bearing or rearing, will assume their rightful place in society.

Award

In 2016, in recognition of her work, she received the

Decoration of Honor Meritorious for Polish Culture The Decoration of Honor Meritorious for Polish Culture () or Meritorious for Polish Culture, is a Polish departmental decoration in Arts awarded by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland to persons and organizati ...

Publications

In Polish

* , ''Herbarz polski'', Kraków 2005 (CD-ROM) * ''Ci wielcy Polacy to nasza rodzina'', Kraków 2005 (CD-ROM), * ''Elita Rzeczypospolitej. Elita północnomazowiecka'' vol. I, 2011 * ''Elita Rzeczypospolitej. Elita wileńska'' vol. II, 2011 * ''Elita Rzeczypospolitej. Elita kresowa i smoleńska'' vol. III, 2011 * ''Elita Rzeczypospolitej. Elita krakowska senatorska'' vol. IV, 2012 * ''Elita poznańska senatorska z posłami ziemi wschowskiej: województwo poznańskie: rodziny senatorów oraz rodziny posłów ziemi wschowskiej'', Kraków 2012 * ''Elita ruska: województwo ruskie z ziemią chełmską i województwem bełskim'', Kraków 2013 * ''Elita łęczycka i rawska: województwa łęczyckie i rawskie'', Kraków 2015

In English

References

External links

Wielka Genealogia Minakowskiej

Nekrologia Minakowskiej

TEDxWarsaw – Marek Minakowski – 3/5/10
YouTube nglish
Marek Jerzy Minakowski at Ludzie nauki
nauka-polska.pl olish {{DEFAULTSORT:Minakowska, Maria 1972 births Living people Jagiellonian University alumni People from Olsztyn Polish women bloggers Polish genealogists 20th-century Polish historians Polish transgender women