Genealogy Polish last names-- Bic/Bikowski/Byk

Family members have told me my great grandmother's last name was spelled Bić. (First name Mary) I have never seen Bić written on any documents (we don't have many) but have seen her last name written as Bikowski on American Catholic church forms. We found papers that said she was from Galicia. When I search the Galicia area of Poland, I can only find records of the last name spelled as Byk. Are these all variations of a name (sort of like Smith and Smythe)? Can someone give me some direction on where to go from here with this name? I know she immigrated in 1909 but haven't been able to find her on a ship registry or anything else. I don't know the specific town from which she came from Poland so I can't guess at which church she would have attended in Poland either.

Quick look at site moikrewni.pl/mapa/ and I've found just one person with name "Bić" registered in Poland - more precisely in Bytom - town less than 100km from Krakow in the west direction.

Surname Bik is far more popular - 1132 people have that name in Poland.
Other names like Byk, Bikowski also exist in Poland
Rare Polish surname beside Bić is Bic - but it's presented either on the list of surnames in Poland:


Probably. It happened often that Polish emigrants in America changed their names and surname "Bić" could be a good example - no "ć" in American alphabet, and very difficult pronunciation for Americans.

BIC/BIĆ: probably derived from bicz (whip); extremely rare - only one bearer each.

BYKOWSKI: root-word byk (bull); toponymic from such localities as Byków, Bykowce or Byki. (Bullvile, Bullton).

BIKOWSKI: toponymic from Bikówek or variant spelling of Bykowski.

If you want to find your ancestors in Poland you have to find more accurate information than Galicia. Poland does not have a good accessible database with the names of Galicia. The most complete data has a registry office - but the data younger than 100 years old are protected by law (access to a particular document are only relatives - need to demonstrate kinship). Older documents are in the archives (available to all), but there is not a full database indexes names.

If you want to find your real relatives, you need to know more. Find out everything that is written in the USA - death certificates, marriage certificates, information about siblings - or come alone or with a sibling. Next try to find the manifest. How do you manifest, you can try to find a place. In searching for Poland, the most important is to find a parish with which one came. When you find a parish, you can just start looking in Poland - either in the archive or in the parish. Here - not hide - handy someone who speaks Polish ...

Regards
Ewa

Thank you! I have since found a ship registry that says she came from a town called Srogow Dolny. I don't know what Church her family was affiliated with in that area but it was most likely Roman or Greek Catholic. Her parents were listed as Ewa Gida (sp.?) and Wasyl Byk in Massachusetts marriage records. Would records be kept at the church or in Sanok archives?