I tried to understand stuff from this link and Im trying to understand what you are on about, but have a problem.
As for the link you gave, the first sentence sounds false to me:
Grandfather Stephen F. Payer had a good education in Europe before he departed for the USA as a fifteen year old in 1882. So he was able to speak, read and write at least five languages in addition to American English
A good education in Europe by the age of 15 and emmigration to USA working in coalmines?
I think the history is a bit exaggerated here.
about Slavs start here:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavic_peoples
The problem for many Americans, is that families' stories are very sketchy, exaggerated and in many cases just tell-tales.
Immigrants, be it Polish, Russian, German etc created a culture within a culture, mixed things together and any American may be lost because there are no borders between truth, fantasy and a completely new tradition which has been created in this mixing process.