Scott Grifka, Family history

Hi,my name is Scott Grifka and im looking for info about how to search for possible family there still. im 50% polish, my dad 100% and my busha. I was born in and still live in USA :( hehe. If you know a good site or free site about this stuff please let me know. I greatly appreciate it an hopefully one day come and visit there.

busha is grandma or babcia

moikrewni.pl/mapa/kompletny/grifka.html

Really rare name, doesn't sound polish to me :)

BUSIA/BUSHA:What's with this anti-busha (busia) thing anyway? It's simply a Polish-American reigional variant for grandmother, just as the Québecois French contains many words not known in France. Busha is no more idiotic than some of the idiotic things people in Poland say like sorki, wow, spoko, nara, pozdro, piona, ziomal, etc. Why don't you post-PRL-ians start criticising that nonsense you hear all about you these days?

GRIFKA: only 11 people use this surname in Poland and all live in the Szczecin area suggesting they are descendants of post-WW2 repatriates. Probably the original spelling was Grywka which looks to be the eastern (Ruthenian) version of Polish grzywka (mane).

Because at least it's real Polish rather than made up nonsense. There's no seperate Polish-American dialect that's recognised by anyone, so :)

Au contraire, already Prof. Witold Doroszewski back in the late 1930s hopped on a motorcycle and toured the Polish and Kashubian enclaves of Wisconsin and other states. He was equipped with a wire-recorder (the predecessor of the tape recorder) and produced volumes of materials on the Polish-American language.

BTW, by what stretch of the imagination can wow, sorki and spoko be regarded as 'real Polish'?

Why do you expect Polish people (in Poland and from Polonia group ) to know what's busha or busia; simply the word doesn't show Polish or Polish/ English connection with proper word "babcia" as grandma.

For me it looks more like a connectin with English word "bush" , in Polish means "las/busz" not babcia.
Same with "busia", looks and sounds similar to Polish "buzia" which means "face"


Stop that "PRL-s" thing, it's boring and nonsense is to use busia/busha when you mean "babcia".

In Polish we have 4 simple words to name our closest family and if you are Polish you supposed to know that, there are no excuses:

mama - mum
tata - dad
babcia - grandma
dziadek - grandad

Primarily because it's a moronic word created in the US (my country) by Americans of Polish heritage who now wonder if it's a Polish word after all? Well, the simple answer is that no it isn't. Just like Dżordż £aszington isn't an American name.


No it's not. It's a female relative of George Bush

I want to learn more. Alot of people here dont think of thier roots and too busy with their life. I like to know and hopefully come there and visit.

Scott, I'm sad that some PFrs have been critical and less than helpful. Polonius' comments are right on--busia is a not-uncommon term used in areas of the US and probably was a term in use by our ancestors over 100 years ago.

There are several free genealogy websites and resources. You could start with the Polish Genealogical Society of America website, Family Search (the LDS church site) and use your surname to search. Ancestry.com is another resource, but it is expensive. It would be helpful if you know from which villages or areas your family departed.

Best wishes on finding your Polish roots!

Grifka could of been changed. I dont know. trying to find out if it was. I know im polish for a fact. Need to get some more info from my babcia

neat family history :)

GRZYWKA: This was probably the original form of your surname which got simplified (Americanized) to aid pronunciation. Grzywka is a mane so it probably originated as a nickname for someone with a bushy shock of hair.