The Chodakowski family (Lithuanian: Chodakauskas) is a Polish-Lithuanian noble family. They originated in Mazovia in the Kingdom of Poland. The family was known to be in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania since the 16th century.[1] They use the Dołęga Coat of Arms.
The family may have originated in Chodaków, a village near Sochaczew in central Poland.[2]
The Chodakowski family can trace their ancestry back to Mikołaj Chodakowski (born c. 1510) who was granted Lichosielce Manor with a land property by Privilege on September 4, 1532, by Sigismund I the Old, the Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of Poland.[3] [4]
In the Lithuanian Metrica, Mikołaj is mentioned as Vawkavysk's deputy mayor and local lord. He participated in the examination of some cases with other representatives of the court.[5]
For the following five generations (1532-1807) the family remained in the Vawkavysk area of present-day Belarus.
On July 19, 1565, Jan Chodakowski, son of Mikołaj Chodakowski, the clerk of the Vawkavysk County Land Court of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1565, sent two horsemen to the Grand Ducal Lithuanian Army and an additional one for Sigismund II Augustus.
In 1792 Jakub Chodakowski took part in the Battle of Mir in the war between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Russia. After the 3rd Partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, he was appointed a judge of Grodno-Vawkavysk.[6]
It was not until 1807, when Antoni Chodakowski (1784-1831) joined the 1st Light Cavalry Lancers Regiment of the Imperial Guard, that the family would eventually find itself in Vilnius[7] and later in northern Lithuania.[8]
The family was confirmed as nobility on:
The Chodakowski family were instrumental in the creation and running of interwar Lithuania.[11]
The family remained in the area of present-day Lithuania until World War II when many fled West, to settle in the USA and Canada. Some branches of the family remained in Lithuania during the Communist occupation.
The family are now predominantly in Lithuania, Canada and the United States.
One of the branches of the family once owned Bobolice Castle near Krakow, Poland.[12]