Searching for my father's relatives. Family names of Foroszowski and Makar in Moczary, near Jalowe.

My grandmother's WWII German Workcard/papers say she was from Moczary, Lisko District, Sanok Circle. Her name was Anna Foroszowska, her parents names were something like Michaelis (Michel, or Michael or Micolay?) and Mariae (Mary or Maria?) with maiden name of Makar. Anna, born 1921 or 1922, was Greek Catholic and also had a brother.

Anna had a son, Micolaj (my father) while living in a DP camp in Bonn, Germany in 1946.

Can anyone help me search for relatives in the Moczary area with the Foroszowski and Makar surnames? Additional spellings could be: Forszowski, Forszowska...

According to a records search in the Genetika database, there were several Foroszowski children born near Jalowe in 1882 thru 1893 (these are the only online records I can find for this area), including: Bazyli, Anna, and 2 Michal. Parents were to Grezgorz, Michal and Teodor Foroszowski, and to spouses with surnames of: Myczkowska, Zozulak, Szklarska. Also, found records for early births in this area of Makar children named Teodora, Anna and Maria Makar to Teodor 2, and a Justyna Makar with spouse surnames of Papidocha and Ridosz.

Do families with these surnames still live near Moczary Poland?

@LianeSekhar

Good news is that Foroszkowski is an exceedingly rare surname, and that anyone with that name is almost certainly related to you. Froszkowski may be a variant, but you will need documentation to prove any ties to that surname or any other variants.

Bad news is that Makar is an extremely common surname used by many different families, not only in Poland, but in Just about every other Slavic country, especially where the Orthodox Church and the Greek Catholic Church are found. You can count on not being related at all to by far most people with that surname.

Both names are distinctively "eastern". If your family were considered "Ruthenians" or Ukrainians rather than ethnic Poles, then they might have been forced to leave the Sanok area during Operation Vistula:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Vistula

Thank you so much for your reply DominicB!
Do you know of any online phone book or resident searches I can use to potentially find decendants that may still be living near, or have returned to Moczary (even after a forced removal during Operation Vistula)? I was only able to find phone records for a few businesses near Moczary...no residential phone or address listings, but, I'm not sure what could be available there or if I'm searching for the right thing.

On the Genetika.genealodzy.pl database, not many records seem to be available online for this area of Poland yet, but, I was able to find birth records in Jalowe (a few kilometers away from Moczary) only for the years: 1882-1893, and there were 8 birth records from 3 families with the Foroszowski surname. Two of the births were for Michal (my grandfather's name), and they are 30 and 32 years prior to the birth of my grandmother...so potentially my great-grandfather. Also found was a record for a Maria Makar in 1892...so she would have been 30 at the time of my grandmother, Anna's birth...perhaps my great-grandmother? I don't know where to go from here.

Also, on FamilyTree. I found many listings for a surname of: Foryszewska/Foryszewski. Do you believe this could be a variant of Foroszowski? Also, a signature on one of my grandmother's documents looks like she was trying to sign her name as Foroschwiska. Are the Polish pronounciations of these name similar?

I don't know the ethnic origins of our family surname (Polish?, Ukrainian?, Russian?, Hungarian?), however, my grandmother was sponsored by the Ukrainian Refugee Organization to relocate to the US from a DP camp in Germany after WWII. I'm guessing she identified as Ukrainian. Any ideas here?

No such thing exists. That would be illegal in Poland. Use Google and Facebook. How good is your Polish?


You would need solid documentation to determine that.


Ethnic identity in that region was very complicated and not clear-cut. Three brothers could identify with three different ethic groups, and often did. It may be impossible to determine with people who are no longer alive.