BACKGROUND:
When we started planning our trip to Poland, I had hoped to visit the village from which my grandfather immigrated in 1908. My expectations were boundless, but my ability to make this happen was limited (“How hard could it be, we have Google Maps….”). Did I mention we do not speak Polish? My grandparents did not volunteer much information and my grandmother refused to tell us the name of her village. Over the years we found only one original document confirming that my grandfather, Michael Bialko was born in Wisloczek, Poland. With that information, I was sure we could rent a car in Krakow and drive the three and a half hours east to the village and visit his birthplace. My grandmother, Maria Szubiak was more of a mystery and all we had to go by were a few distant DNA matches, with the same last name on ancestry.com. Her (possible) village, Wola Nizna, Poland was only an hour away from Grandpa’s village. I had seen a few on-line genealogists specializing in areas of Poland and thought I might see if they could give me hints on how to find more information, but then a Polish friend suggested I contact an organization called PolishOrigins. This was a game changer! Although PolishOrigins offers many genealogy tours in Poland, they also offer private tours focusing on finding/visiting your ancestral sites. These people are researchers as well as tour guides.
TRIP PLANNING:
We contacted PolishOrigins and were pleased at the quick response and efficient outline of questions pertaining to our request. They suggested an itinerary and referenced areas/places which housed records pertinent to our search. I liked the itinerary and listed my goals/hopes for our tour:
- Visit Wisloczek, the village where my grandfather, Michael Biawko was born.
- His family lived in House # 124, which is no longer there, but I would like to find the site of the house.
- Find family members in the area. This was a unique challenge, as both grandparents were confirmed as being of an ethnic subgroup in Poland, known as Lemko. The population of Lemko were forcibly relocated to Ukraine or the Polish NW territories in 1946-1947. No one remained in the area.
2.Visit Wola Nizna, the village where my grandmother, Maria Shubiak was (probably) born.
- On-line birth records in that area were notably missing for the years surrounding her birth in 1895. I had hit a dead end and hoped a local visit could at least confirm she was born here and the names of her parents. We had always been told she was an orphan and lived with an aunt and uncle until she immigrated to the US in 1908. I would like to find any information on Maria Shubiak.
3. Visit the cultural sites suggested by the researchers at PolishOrigins.
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- Much to our surprise, there was an open-air folk museum which preserved buildings and cultural items from the inhabitants of the area. We were able to visit preserved Lemko dwellings and churches and see the conditions and challenges faced by our grandparents. I am convinced their move to America saved their lives and made ours possible.
OUR ADVENTURE:
JUNE 2026
Our tour guide and driver, Zen, picked us up at 9:00 AM at our hotel in Krakow. We headed out of the city. He first asked us if we would like to take the freeway or a little longer journey of country roads. Country roads of course!
We headed to Wisloczek, by the “short cut”. No big ugly commercial tour buses on this route. It was wonderful!
During our drive to Wisloczek, Zen was able to bring us up to speed on some of the pre-trip research he did on our behalf. He knew of a local historian, who shared information with him about a man named Ivan Bialko, who was interviewed in Podhajce, Ukraine back in 2013. Ivan was the son of Gregory Bialko, who served as mayor of Wisloczek from 1935 to the resettlements. Zen suspected this man was related to our grandfather and planned a stop at one of the local state archives during our visit to confirm the connection. An interesting note: Gregory Bialko (Mayor of Wisloczek) was nicknamed “the American” because he had visited the US on three separate occasions. This rang familiar to us, as our father told us Grandpa had a brother who visited him in America, but returned to Galicia when WWI broke out, never to be heard of again……..the plot thickens.
Now, back to finding Grandpa’s house. Another bit of indispensable research by PolishOrigins was to locate the cadastral map of Wisloczek from the 1850’s. This showed the location of House 124 and from there, they were able to locate the site on a current map.
With maps in hand, on the road less traveled, we arrived in the outskirts of Wisloczek.
With Zen (in the white shirt) acting as interpreter, we met the dairy farmer, whose family moved to the area in the 1970’s. The farmer said none of the Lemko families had returned to Wisloczek. After explaining we wanted to visit the site of our grandfather’s house, which was probably on his land, he gave us permission and did not at all seem put out by the request. Although we did not speak the language, but growing up on a farm, we do speak “farmer” and this man seemed like one of the good ones.
Off we go to the other side of that tree line with Zen’s words of caution. “Watch out for snakes.”
It seems they have adders in that part of Poland…….
Just past the tree line, we came out into a beautiful rolling pastureland – the former site of House #124. Can you believe this?
My grandfather stood in this very spot well over 100 years ago, pondering his future.
The weather was perfect and we spent a good amount of time, just milling around the site and drinking it in. Zen, understood the importance of the moment and let us just be there.
The Lemko people had/have their own traditional music and at one point, Zen played some recordings of the traditional songs during our visit to that beautiful meadow. Bringing it all home.
Still on the quest to locate any living relatives of Michael Bialko, we went to the Sanok State Archive. Here we were able to confirm that Gregory Biawko, known as “the American” was indeed our grandfather’s brother.
This information would open the door to find living Bialko relatives.
In his pre-tour research, Zen came across a recently posted on-line database called The Book of Remembrance of the Lemko Region 1944-1946. This site was created to make the deportation records available to those looking for relatives and to aid future historians in research. The website is Ukrainian and documents the names of the deportees, their home village and destination in Ukraine. The Bialko’s (Biawko’s) from Wisloczek were in the database. Grandpa Bialko’s remaining relatives had been deported to Ukraine in 1946. The historical accounts describe the Lemko bringing their belongings in handcarts to the station where they were loaded onto the trains taking them East for resettlement.
As a post-tour follow up to the search for the family of Michael Bialko, Zen provided the name, address and phone number for what would be our fathers first cousin living in Podhajce near Tarnopol, Ukraine. To finally know the story of the Bialko family is priceless. We will make plans to contact our Ukrainian Bialko cousins.
Author: Janis Bialko
Read part two HERE.