Ignacy Łukasiewicz was born on 8 March 1822 in Zaduszniki, near Mielec, Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria in the Austrian Empire (after the Partitions of Poland) as the youngest of five children.

[1][2][4] His parents were Apolonia, née Świetlik, and Józef Łukasiewicz, a member of the local intelligentsia nobility entitled to use the Łada coat of arms and a veteran of Kościuszko's Uprising.

The family rented a small manor in Zaduszniki, but soon after Ignacy's birth financial difficulties forced them to relocate to the nearby city of Rzeszów.

Toward the end of his life, Łukasiewicz often described his childhood as happy; the home atmosphere was patriotic and somewhat democratic, and he commonly recalled his first tutor, Colonel Woysym-Antoniewicz, who resided in their house.

In 1845 he met diplomat and activist Edward Dembowski, who admitted Łukasiewicz to the illegal "Centralization of the Polish Democratic Society", a party that focused on radical policies and supported a revolt against the Austrian government.

However, on 27 December 1847 Łukasiewicz was released from prison due to lack of evidence, but for the rest of his life he was regarded as "politically untrustworthy" and often observed by local police that was in possession of his records.

While oil was known to exist for a long time in the Subcarpathian-Galician region, it was more commonly used as an animal drug and lubricant, but Łukasiewicz, John Zeh and Mikolasch were the first to distill the liquid in Galicia and in the world and were able to exploit it for lighting and create a brand new industry.

After pharmaceutical methods and processes the purified oil was obtained and sold in the local pharmacies, but the orders were small due to high prices.

Ignacy Łukasiewicz died in Chorkówka, Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, on 7 January 1882 of pneumonia and was buried in the small cemetery at the nearby (3 kilometers) Zręcin, next to the Gothic Revival church he had financed.