Ludzie i miejsca w świetle Pamiętników Heleny Romer-Ochenkowskiej

Abstract

This article discusses the manuscripts of Memoirs by Helena Romer-Ochenkowska (1875–1947), a writer, publicist, social and educational activist. They belong to the archival heritage of the Romers and are currently kept in the Manuscripts Department of the Wróblewski`s Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences. The focus is on “Notebook 1” of Memoirs, unjustly ignored by re-searchers, which is entirely devoted to the atmosphere of the family home in Karolinów in the Vilnius region, and the neighboring houses of the immediate family – the manor house in Surwiliszki, the estate of Celina née Sulistrowski and Ignacy Czechowicz, as well as the manor house in Wiszniew, the property of Irena née Sulistrowski and Jan Karłowicz. The author discusses the contacts between the Jan Karłowicz family and Eliza Orzeszkowa. Romer-Ochenkowska devotes a lot of attention to her memories of numerous cousins, the children of Celina, Irena and Adela, her mother’s sisters, Wanda née Sulistrowski. She evokes several legends related to the Sulistrowski family and many anecdotal situations from her childhood. She also conveys the atmosphere of the environment in which her personality grew and was shaped. Through the prism of the memories of the author of Memoirs, one can see, among other things, an interesting picture of borderland courts and more or less known people from her family and surroundings.