Volodymyr Antonovych, a 19th-century Ukrainian historian, argued that the family was descended from a Tatar named Kobyz, who was supposedly captured by Duke Vytautas in the battle of Kulikovo (1380) and put in the Castle of Mozyr.

[4] V. Antonowicz did not provide any reference to documented sources, but based his assumptions solely on his association of the family's name with the Turkic musical instrument kobyz.

Ustin Fiz Kobyzewicz (d. 1578) was the first in the family to have become a member of the upper chamber (rada) of the Kyiv city council (magistrat) (1564—1578).

[8] After his death, the estate passed down to his elder son, Kuzma, while all the rest, including his widow, Sofia, were left with small inheritance, mainly movable property.

According to V. Antonowicz, in 1572, during plague, Wasily Kobyzewicz (d. 1616) saved the daughter of the local wealthy merchant, Efrosinia Mitkovna, left alone with her little brother after their parents’ death.

[10] What she left to her other daughter Efrosinia and her husband Wasily Kobyzewicz was "Zankovskaya warehouse at the Kyiv marketplace and two silver chalices", as well as a fur coat, a few gowns, pearls and jewells.

[11] Moreover, by the testament, in case her son Fyodor died, all he inherited was to go to either of two sons-in-law, Ignaty Bogdanowicz Malikowicz (husband of her elder daughter) or Wasily Kobyzewicz.

[11] In the 1570s, Wasily Kobyzewicz seized the estates of Burgomaster Andrey Koszkoldeewicz (the father-in-law of his brother Fyodor) by court action: Basan and Bykov.

[9] In 1586 he purchased the village of Krenichi, near Kyiv, since when this branch of the Kobyzewicz family acquired the name of Krenicki,[9] also spelled as Krynicki.

[13] On March 27, 1589, at Warsaw General Sejm, brothers Wasily, Fyodor and Iev Kobyzewicz received the status of polish szlachta and a coat-of-arms for participation in the war with Muscovy of 1578—1581 during the reign of King Stefan Batory.

However, the Russian State Archive of Ancient acts has documents according to which Mozyr ziemianin Wasily Kobyzewicz sent two mounted servants to the troops, which was the privilege of Lithuanian and Polish landed gentry who did not wish to perform military service themselves.

The right for the status of szlachta (the family originated from the boyars) was challenged by Janusz Ostogski, who in association with the assistant of the Kyivan voivode and later the judge of the Kyiv Powiat, Jan Aksak, sued Wasily Kobyzewicz twice in 1609 and in 1615, in order to take over his estates by proving that his nobility was fabricated and accusing him of a murder.

[15] Yet, the Kobyzewicz-Krynicki family was officially confirmed as szlachta and their coat-of-arms was listed in the heraldic books, such as Poczet Herbow Szlachty by Wacław Potocki published in 1696.

[20] In 1652 the widow of Fyodor Kobyzewicz-Krynicki, Anna Sadkowska-Krynicka (daughter of Wacław (Stanisław) Sadkowski, Greek-Catholic (Uniat) suffragan bishop of Kyiv in 1616 - 1626[21]), escaped from Basan to Volhynia with her children.

[22] Kobyzewicz family armsThe silver seal of Wasily Kobyzewicz-Chodyka, stored at Sheremetiev Museum in Kyiv, features a shield with the letter M and a cross over it,[23] resembling the Masalski coat-of-arms.

[29] In 1434 Grand Duke of Lithuania Sigismund Kęstutaitis gave the Eastern Orthodox boyars the right to use Polish noble coats-of-arms.

[34] Amongst the documents he provided was a patent of nobility supposedly given by King John II Casimir Vasa to Cossack Colonel Ivan Lyzohub in 1661.

[35] Another document the Lyzohubs presented was a patent of nobility purportedly given to their assumed progenitor Ivan Kobyzewicz-Lyzohub by Jan Casimir Vasa in 1642.

[35] As for the paper dated by 1642, this particular ennoblement could not take place as King John II Casimir Vasa first entered Polish throne only in 1648.