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Other Bearers of the Name

Because the name is so rare, anyone who carries it is, statistically, more likely than not to share some distant common ancestor. But “likely” is not “proven”, and this page keeps the two apart.

Scope
Historical and living bearers
Rule
Connection flagged in each case
Standing invitation
Get in touch
Last revised
May 2026

Evidence Claims on this page are marked Documented, Family memory, or Inferred. The marks are explained on the Sources page.

IHistorical figures

Rev. Nikodem Czerniachowicz

A Roman Catholic priest active in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the Russian Empire, in the Diocese of Kherson and Tiraspol. Independent sources confirm a Fr. Nikodem Chernyakhovich who, from around 1880, raised funds for St Joseph’s Church in Mykolaiv and built a parish school and shelter there in 1900; during the First World War he is noted heading a hospital section for the Polish community. The older claim that he was made an honorary canon and papal prelate I have not been able to confirm. A real and notable figure, then, though his link to my own line is not established.

Rev. Nikodem Czerniachowicz. Tied to St Joseph’s Church, Mykolaiv, which he helped to fund and build out, with a parish school and shelter added in 1900. SourceTo be confirmed; provenance and rights pending.
St Joseph's Church, Mykolaiv. The parish Nikodem Czerniachowicz was tied to, which he helped fund and build out. A school and shelter were added in 1900. SourceWikimedia Commons.

Antonina Czerniachowicz

Confirmed in a parish record: she appears in an 1883 marriage at Tarczyn, in Mazovia, as the mother of the groom Władysław Zalewski. Her appearance so far west may point to internal migration or marriage ties beyond the eastern heartland. Link to my line unknown.

Józef Czerniachowicz (b. 1918, Bronica)

Said to appear in interwar Polish military records, born 1918 in Bronica in the Wołyń Voivodeship. The specific record has not been located, so for now this rests on earlier secondary citation rather than a source I have seen.

Witold Czernichowicz (1916–after 1948)

A Polish airman who flew with 300 Dywizjon Bombowy (300 Polish Bomber Squadron) in the RAF. Born 12 May 1916, he served as a bombardier from September 1940, flying Wellington bombers on operations over occupied Europe. On the night of 2–3 August 1943 his aircraft, Wellington X HF605 (BH-P), was hit by flak over Hamburg and then forced down by icing. Two crew members were killed; Witold survived and was taken prisoner of war. He was awarded the Krzyż Waleczności (Cross of Valour) and the Medal Lotniczy (Air Medal). After the war he settled in Middlesbrough, naturalised as Witold Carmichael on 1 November 1948, and is listed in the London Gazette of 17 December 1948 with a cross-reference from his Polish name. His service record survives in the Lista Krzystka; his RAF casualty file (AIR 81/23482) and naturalisation register (HO 334/222/48131) are held at The National Archives, Kew. No link to my own line has been established.

A Wellington of 300 Squadron. The type Witold Czernichowicz flew on operations from 1940. His aircraft, HF605 BH-P, was shot down over Hamburg on the night of 2–3 August 1943. SourceTo be confirmed.

Earlier records

The deepest documented uses of the name sit well away from Volhynia and are almost certainly not my direct line, but they show how old and how scattered it is.

  • Katarzyna Czernichowiecka, born 1724 in Dereczyn (Belarus). The earliest record of the name found anywhere.
  • Tomasz and Justyna Czerniechowicz, who baptised five children at the Mariacki parish in Kraków between 1690 and 1699. This is the earliest record of the name in Poland proper.
  • Jacenty Czernichowicz, married 1682 in Radom.

IIVictims of repression (wider branches)

Several people bearing the name appear in Soviet repression databases. Those who are likely, but unproven, relatives of my own household are discussed on The Krasna Słoboda Household and the Repression. A few others recorded under the Cyrillic form belong to clearly separate branches.

  • Valentina Vasilyevna Chernyakhovich (b. 1908), listed in the Crimea Book of Memory as a victim of Soviet political repression. Crimean databases have been out of reach since 2014, so this rests on earlier secondary citation. A distant relative who stayed in Soviet territory, in all likelihood, but unconfirmed.
  • A scattering of others across Podolia and the Kyiv region, documented as victims but not tied to my line.

IIILiving bearers

A handful of people carry the name today. None has been shown to connect to my line. They show the modern spread of the surname and nothing more. But each is a possible research contact, and I would be glad to hear from any of them.

  • The Stąporków cluster (Świętokrzyskie, Poland). Several Czerniachowicz-named people and businesses at a single address, including Jacek (an aikido sensei and building-materials business), Anna Czerniachowicz-Piskorska (a pharmacist), and Agnieszka. Almost certainly a post-war Volhynian repatriate family hub.
  • Dr Barbara Czerniachowicz. A management professor at the University of Szczecin, and the most prominent living bearer of the name.
  • Dr inż. Kateryna Czerniachowska (Wrocław University of Economics). The first confirmed academic using the Ukrainian feminine form of the name.
  • Other individuals in Wrocław, Kraków and elsewhere in Poland.
  • Contemporary Ukrainian Chernyakhoviches. City councillors in Zhytomyr, and clusters around Letychiv. This is a living thread of the name in the very region the family came from.

IVA standing invitation

If you carry the name Czerniachowicz or Черняхович and recognise anything here, a village, a date, a story passed down, please get in touch. With a name this rare, coincidences are few, and even a single shared detail can join two halves of a family that history pulled apart.