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    The name Tobinski comes from the first name Tobacz, Tobiasz, Tobias or "Toby" in English.
Tobias can be translated from the original Hebrew as "God is good". Tobinski would mean more or less "kin of Tobias" or possibly "one from the place of Tobias". It is safe to say Tobinski would be a variant form of the name; we often see names with -inski have variations with -ienski due to slight regional differences in pronunciation. (see: Prof. Kazimierz Rymut book 'Nazwiska Polakow' [The Surnames of Poland])

    Polish spelling says -sky is not correct, it should always be -ski, so Tobinski would be the standard correct spelling of the name. In old records it's not unusual to see -sky, even if it's not "correct"; one of the reasons may be that the Lutheran Church records that recorded most of the earlier birth were written by German speaking priests that did not speak polish. Tobinski of it self is a variation of Tobaczynski. 

    The Polish Nobility was an exclusive class in which all members were considered equal. Membership into this elite group was attained through either 'valorous deeds on the field of honor' or by adoption. After the 1410 war against the German Teutonic Order, many valorous Polish and Lithuanian clans were raised to status of nobility. The Prusy and Prusowie clans, the ancestors of the Tobinski or Tobaczynski family, became nobel in 1413. Their Coat of Arms was recorded in 1431. Once ennobled, the Coat of Arms bestowed and the property and lands given to a knight became hereditary to all descendants, both legitimate males and lineal females. All members of an extended family carried the exact same arms and were considered closer than brothers.

    A Polish nobleman carried a linked surname , a surname hyphenated with a Coat of Arms name. So, Tobinski may have been Tobaczynski-Prusowie or Prusy. Nobility was reflected in the suffix tagged to the end of the surname: cki or ski, wich equated to the German 'von', the French 'de', and the English 'of', denoting ownership of that village, estate or farm.

    Several clans were also linked together. These clans used three variants of the Coat of Arms; one variant had only the cross in the shield, one had the cross with two scythes blades and the third had the cross with only one scythe blade in a blue and red shield. The difference in clan names may have come from the fact that they received lands in more than one place. (see "Armorial Polonais, Page 67").

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    In the 10th century, the region of East Prussia was inhabited by pagan tribes of Baltic ethnic backgrounds of Prussian and Lithuanian clans. In the year 966 AD, Mieszko I, chief of the Polanie, embraced Christianity, forsaking his Pagan Gods for the protection of the Holy Roman Empire.
The coronation by the Church of Boleslaw Chrobry (the Brave) as King of Polandin 1024, established Poland's right as an independent kingdom. Pagan Prussian tribes to the North blocked the desired excess to the Baltic Sea.

    In 1226, the Polish Duke Konrad of Mazovia invited the Teutonic Order, an order of German knights and sword bearing monks that had been established during the Crusades in Palastine, to help combat the Prussian Pagans. In time this Teutonic Order turned on the Poles and began to grab large areas of Polish territory. The Order invited German farmers and craftsmen to settle the Northern country. Many German villages were established in the 14th century in the country to the North.

    By 1370, Casmir the Great (Kazimierz Wielki) built Poland into a major Central-European power, increasing the territory 2.5 times, but the German Teutonic Order ruled the North country and access to the Baltic Sea.

    In 1386, the Polish Princess Hedwig, a relative of Casimir III, gained the throne of Poland. Her marriage to Jogaila, pagan Grand-Duke of Lithuania, baptized as Wladyslaw Jagiello, initiated a Lithuanian union inspired by the common purpose of resisting the Teutonic Order. In 1410 at the Battle of Grunwald or Tannenberg , Wladyslaw Jagiello crushed the Teutonic Order with an army of Catholic Polish knights, Lithuanian pagans, Orthodox Christians, Lithuanian Muslim Tartars and heretical Bohemian Hussites. The victory helped strengthen the bond between the Poles and the Lithuanians and in 1413, let to the Treaty of Union at Horodle. The region North was renamed Royal Prussia. The German Teutonic Order although defeated, kept the Eastern parts of Prussia as a vassal of Poland.

    During the Reformation, the Order was secularized and its German Great Master began to rule his fief as a prince, hence the territory was called Ducal Prussia. The princes became more and more powerful and during the 17th and 18th centuries they also began to rule Brandenburg, Pommerania and Silesia to the West.

    In 1945, East Prussia was divided between Poland and the USSR. German inhabitants of East Prussia either escaped in 1945 or were expelled from there afterwards. Only a part of the Polish-speaking population from the southern districts remained. The Polish Nobility also lost their lands and property to the Soviet type government.

    As you can see on the map below, Lipowo or Liprode or as the German called it Liebrode, was very isolated located in a forest. The Tobinski occupied this farm for a very long time coming from a Noble Polish line not commonly known because of there isolation. As the German Nobility began to rule East Prussia again after the Reformation, the German zu Donna family gained control of much of the land and the Estate Liebrode. The Tobinski family was kept as Managers of the Estate. Sometimes after 1900, the Damerow family became managers of the Estate. Rudolf Amling leased the Estate in 1927 and shortly after purchasing it. The Amlings had to leave the Estate to the Communists in 1945. There after, the farm was run by the Communist Government for a while and then turned over to other Polish families which have no recall of the original owners.

    The place is quite 'run down' at the present time. The place consists of a large brick estate building which had been stuccoed white at one time, a very large brick barn also stuccoed the same as the estate building, and three duplex apartment building build with bricks and stuccoed. The estate building and one of the duplex buildings is not occupied as of July 2000. The 1/4 mile of road to the main road and some sidewalks between the building is made of concrete but has weeds growing in the cracks of the concrete.

    The so called main road leading from Lipowo North to what used to be called Fuerstenau and the road South to Breunicken or as it is called now Bronki, is nothing more than a very narrow cobble stone road that had been build almost a hundred years ago.

    The Tobinskis would go to Deutschendorf now Wileczeta to the Lutheran Church to have their kids baptized and get married in that village. Some of the Tobinski descendants moved to Deutschendorf and Fuerstenau (now Ksiezno).

    Fuerstenau also had an estate named 'Gut Fuersten Walle'. this estate also became property of the zu Dohna family after the Reformation and here too the Tobinski's managed this farm for the Count zu Dohna. The location of this estate is just North of the junction of the small road coming from Lipowo and the main road leading into Fuerstenau. Fuersten Walle was destroyed during the Second World War.

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Main road in Bronki (Village 3km South of Lipowo)                 Leaving Bronki going North
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Road to Lipowo (Tobinski farm on the right)                          The Tobinski farm, servant quarters
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                            The estate building on the right and the big barn on the left.
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The estate building                                                              The barn
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                                                                 The estate building
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                                                          The servant duplex buildings
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                                                  The duplex on the right is falling apart
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                                                          Front of the estate building
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                                                                    Leaving the farm
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North of Lipowo                                                             Junction to Fuerstenau, turn right
                                                                                      The Tobinski estate Fuerstenwalle used to be straight ahead
                                                                                      by the distant tree line, a road used to go from this junction
                                                                                      to the estate, you could see the buildings from this point.
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                        Going into Fuerstenau