Determining the origins of a priest is an integral part of biographical and more broadly prosopographical research on the clergy, hence it is important to demonstrate the degree of reliability of the sources that are used in such research. The descent of Józef Tocki, a Catholic priest who worked in the town of Zduńska Wola near Łódź, Poland, in the years 1834-1862, was verified in the article. He was born in 1805 in Gdańsk Pomerania in the seaside village of Kolibki. He was the son of a teacher. The noble origin declared in the priest’s biography, however, was not reflected in the parish registers, describing his relatives as “honest”. Of his seven sisters, four lived to adulthood, two of whom married teachers, and the eldest married a nobleman. The border between partitions limited contacts of the family members. Having achieved professional stability as a parish priest, Józef Tocki had an influence on the fortunes of his younger sister, who became his housekeeper. Other sisters’ marriages maintained and probably raised the family’s position in terms of connections and wealth. Their brother’s priestly duties also affected the social advancement of the schoolteacher’s children.
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