Piłsudski family

The Piłsudski family is a family of nobility that originated in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and increased in notability under the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Second Polish Republic.

The family was Polonized Lithuanian nobility that over time became part of the Polish nobility (szlachta); it has been called either a Polish noble family or a Polonized Lithuanian noble family. Its most famous member was Józef Piłsudski, described variously as a Pole or as Polonized-Lithuanian noble.

The Piłsudskis date back to pagan times in Lithuania and are recorded from the 13th century.

The family took its name in 1539 from the Samogitian village of Pilsūdai (Polish: Pilsudy), now in Lithuania's Tauragė district, where the family ancestor, the Starost of Upytė, Baltramiejus Ginvilas (Polish: Bartłomiej Ginwiłł), established himself.

The earliest notable members of the family include Roch Mikołaj Piłsudski (late 16th – early 17th century), Stolnik of Vaŭkavysk. His marriage to Małgorzata Pancerzyńska—whose brother, Karol Pancerzyński, was Bishop of Vilnius—raised the wealth and prestige of the Piłsudski family.

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