The village of Labenz, in what was then Pomerania, is the ancestral home of the earliest of our known Leistiko ancestors. Pomerania existed as a country from about the 5th or 6th century A.D. until World War II, after which it was divided between Poland, East Germany, and Russia. You'll find this brief History of Pomerania to be interesting reading.
Labenz is in the section of Pomerania that became part of Poland. At the time our Leistiko ancestors (then spelled "Leistikow") lived there, Labenz was in the County (Kreis) of Schiefelbein, named after the town of the same name. Schiefelbein, also spelled Schivelbein, is now the Polish town of Swidwin.
The first map shown below is a section taken from a map located in the Blackie & Sons Atlas (Edinburgh, 1882). You'll find Labenz just below (about 10 miles south of) Schiefelbein.
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The following map, covering roughly the same area as the one above, is the current map of Poland. Note that Schiefelbein is now called Swidwin. Labenz is not shown. Either it is too small, or it no longer exists as a village.
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Finally, it is known that Jan Fryderyk Leistikow married Luiza Rapsch, who was from Konin, Poland. They lived there, prior to emmigrating, and raised their family there. Shown below is a larger scale map of modern Poland, showing where Konin is located (near bottom, right of center) with respect to Swidwin (upper left). So far, we haven't discovered any information as to how Luiza and Jan met.
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