Genealogy / Information on family name: Berizko [11]

Zoya/Zoia changed her name multiple times so it could have different spellings for the same person. I'm not sure what she goes by now.

My mother is and always was spelled Zoja. That being said, it depends which one you're referring to. My mother I have contact with, the other one I don't unfortunately.

If you're referring to Józef (look at me, I figured out how to use Polish programmers keyboard so I can type this stuff now), he passed away unfortunately.

Genealogy / Information on family name: Berizko [11]

...and I was born in California! That's them, we are related! I have their documents now. They were from Nowosiółki district of Hrubieszów. They were both born in Nowosiółki. I'm going to private message you.

Genealogy / Information on family name: Berizko [11]

Yes, it seems popular which makes it quite difficult to track down the exact place in Poland it came from for my family. It could be anywhere.

Just as the name has been falling out of favour in the west. It was very popular when I was born.

I don't mind at all, ask me anything. They were very devoted Roman Catholics.

Genealogy / Information on family name: Berizko [11]

You're right, it doesn't look Polish to me either. I'm thinking Ukrainian, which was part of the СССР at the time.

You bring up a good point, Poland became an independent state in 1918 and he was born in 1923, 5 years later. It seems all I have are questions at this point. An interesting point to note is that his obituary described him as a "native of Poland". It also metions me.

Nowash looks like a bunch of useless nonsense to me, but what do I know? It could've just been something they wrote down based on what she said without having any understanding of Polish spelling. It does list it as being part of Poland, however. Olga was born in 1919 with the maiden name Zayac, which is a lot more Polish sounding to me.

The other names are Zoja and my name Stefania (westernised/anglicised to Stefanie), which as far as I can tell with my limited knowledge of the Polish language, are spelled correctly as well.

I know it seems strange to have so many questions about family that were alive so recently, but whenever they were inquired or tried to learn what they were speaking they said they didn't want to talk about it and that we're Americans now. Understandable, I suppose, considering everything that happened to Poland at that time.

I submitted a search for their records with the immigrations department of the US. Hopefully I'll get some more solid information from that. I have their alien registration numbers, at least. I'll post as soon as I find anything out!

Thank you for helping put together my thoughts.