Korwin-Szymanowski Family

'Szymanowscy' is the Polish plural of the name Szymanowski. It occurs in Northern Europe, from Russia, through the Baltic States and Poland to Germany, France and the United Kingdom. It is also found in the United States, Canada and South America. Alternative spellings are Schimanovsky, Szymanowsky.

The family name is of ancient heritage in Greater Poland. It is presently traceable to at least the fifteenth century, but may have roots further back in the kingdom of Hungary. Legend has it that genealogy connects it to a Roman tribune in the province of Dacia in the late Roman Empire. The Szymanowski name relates to a place identified as "Szymany". According to composer Karol Szymanowski's exacting biographer, Teresa Chylińska, Szymany is a village in the Szczuczyn district of the Podlasie region of Eastern Poland and the land is recorded as having been inherited by Mikołaj (Nicholas) Szymanowski who died before 1544. The family later moved to the Rawa Voivodeship. The first part of the name, Korwin, is a later 19th c. addition, shared by several other Polish families using the late medieval Korwin clan denomination, such as the Korwin-Kossakowski or Korwin-Piotrowski families. The use of the hyphen in Polish Double-barrelled names is a 20th c. development, hence prior to that names were not hyphenated.

Another distinguishing feature of the Korwin-Szymanowski family are its heraldic insignia. It is associated with two coats of arms, but significantly seldom with the one called "Korwin". It is commonly connected with Ślepowron and occasionally with Jezierza (). Both use raven like birds with their beaks facing the East, presumably towards Jerusalem. One explanation, as yet to be established, is that family members participated in the Crusades. The reason for two distinct coats of arms may be due to the geographic spread of the family and their enlisting in different army groupings.

The earliest written record of the family dates from the 15th century. In 1457 the knight, John (Jan (Korwin) Szymanowski), returned to a small village - "Szymany", from the Thirteen Years' War, also called the War of the Cities, fought between 1454–66 by the Prussian Confederation, allied with the Kingdom of Poland, against the State of the Teutonic Order. He is considered the founder of the family. John came from a clan bearing the coat of arms, "Jezierza", which has its beginnings among pre-Christian tribal warriors.

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