Chodakowski Family
The Chodakowski family (Lithuanian: Chodakauskas) is a Lithuanian noble family. They originated in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and increased in notability under the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the First Republic of Lithuania. They use the Dołęga Coat of Arms. History. The family may have originated in Chodakow, a town in south central Poland. The Chodakowski family can trace their ancestry back to Mikołaj Chodakowski (born c1510) 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. In the  , the Court Case Book of Lithuania, Mikołaj is mentioned as Vaŭkavysk's deputy mayor and local lord. He participated in the examination of some cases with other representatives of the court. For the following five generations (1532-1807) the family remained in the Vaŭkavysk area of present-day Belarus. On July 19, 1565, Jan Chodakowski, son of Mikołaj Chodakowski, the clerk of the Vaŭkavysk's County Land Court of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1565, sent two horsemen to the 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-Vaŭkavysk. It was not until 1807, when Antoni Chodakowski (1784-1831) joined the Polish Lancers in Napoleon's Imperial Guard, that the family would eventually find itself in Vilnius and later in northern Lithuania. The family was confirmed as nobility on: The Chodakowski family were instrumental in the creation and running of the First Republic of Lithuania. 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.