IN THE BEGINNING were the Old Prussians, an animist people related ethnically to other Baltic groups, such as modern Lithuanians. Archaeological evidence, as well as reports by early traders and explorers, demonstrates that the Prussians continuously inhabited what is now northeastern Poland and the Kaliningrad province of Russia since 1000 BC and profited from trading amber with distant lands.

By 1000 AD, the Slavs began to move in from the south and Germanic tribes from the west. This led to conflicts and raids on the edges of each group's territory. The Prussians, who were feared as great warriors, also valiantly resisted attempts to convert them to Christianity. When, at the request of Polish king Bolesław Chrobry, Bishop Adalbert of Prague showed up as a missionary in April 997, the Prussians told him he wasn't welcome. When he refused to leave after four days, they martyred him.

By the 13th century, cross-border raids, particularly with the Polish duchy of Mazovia to the south, had become common. Prince Konrad of Mazovia had so little success in combatting the Prussians, despite the assistance of troops from Silesia, Małopolska and Pomerania, that he called in outside help. In 1228, he invested the ORDER OF TEUTONIC KNIGHTS with the District of Chełmno. From this base of operations, the Teutonic Knights began their systematic conquest of territory in the region, baptizing the occasional survivor.

FOR OVER HALF A CENTURY the Prussians fought fiercely in bloody battles against the élite of European knighthood. The Teutonic Order constantly received reinforcements in the form of unemployed knights returning from the Crusades and others in search of wealth and power. In the end, the Prussians had to yield to the more modern weaponry and thorough organization of the Germans. At the height of this time of atrocities, virtually the whole Prussian tribeship was killed off. There remained only a dozen or so Polonized or Germanized families, including our ancestors, THE HOUSE OF KLEC (pronounced "Kletz"). To appease them, the Teutons granted them property, but in distinctly separated areas and as vassals of their bishops. In this way, the Prussian leaders could be kept under control and separate from their own people.

The main line of the Klec family became German and settled in Sztum County under the adopted surname von Stift. That line died out in the late 16th century, as did some secondary lines, such as the Polonized houses of Krzykoski, Łodygowski and Mortęski. It took centuries for these families to forget their Old Prussian origins as their branches were gradually absorbed by German and Polish society. The Old Prussian language died out by the 17th century. A vocabulary of about 1,500 words has been preserved in a prayer book translated from German; it contains a lot of words derived from Sanskrit.

THE VON PFEILSDORF / PILEWSKI LINE derives from the Klecs settled in Pilewice who, using military and diplomatic means and all their wealth, consistently supported the Polish cause in Prussia. This was done not to obtain advantages or honors, as these they did not seek, but instead to guard their people against annihilation and atrocities on the part of the Crusaders. A lack of consistency in and the weakness of the Polish policy on Prussian territory contributed, however, to impoverishment, decay and the family's flight from its own territories in the face of German persecution.

Today, there remain only two families in the world which are descended from the Old Prussians. These are the Pilewskis, whose 300 or so members are spread across Poland, the United States, Germany, Argentina and Canada; and the von Lehndorfs in western Europe, of whose line only three members remain.