Information on family name: Berizko

I have some questions that are as of yet unanswered and I'm hoping maybe someone can give me some insight into my research.

First off, I've seen a seemingly more phonetic variant of this name spelled Boryzcko. Is it possible they changed the spelling to try to make it easier to pronounce? I've extended my search to this spelling but haven't come up with anything so far.

Some things I do know about them are:
My family immigrated to the US in 1951 and were listed as being Polish.
Their names were Szymon, Olga and Jozef (Berizko).
Olga's birth place is listed as Nowash. I can't find anywhere in Poland with that name. Does anyone know what place that might be referring to?

Szymon is listed as being born in Nowosiolki T, Soviet Union which I've come up with "Nowosiółki, Tomaszów Lubelski" County as my most likely answer. Does that sound reasonable?

Lastly, the spelling of this name would appear to be Ukrainian. Are the origins of the name Ukrainian or Polish? Where does it come from, what does it mean, etc. etc.?

Any help would be very appreciated!

Neither Berizko nor Boryzcko look Polish. They seem to have been misspelled. There are several surnames that sound similar, though: Bereszko, Boryczka, Boryczko. There are also some people born in Russia with similar names like Jana Berezko-Marggrander or Jurij Bieriezko.

There are 12 villages called Nowosiolki in Poland, 7 in Belarus, 5 in Ukraine, 1 in Lithuania and there were several places of this name in pre-war Poland. If Szymon's Nowosiolki was located in the USSR, it won't be in present day Poland.

Nowash doesn't look Polish either.
But all the first names are spelled correctly. So they might have been Poles who had been living in Kresy - part of pre-war Poland that was incorporated into the USSR after WW2, parts if present day Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania.

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.

Olga's maiden name must have been Zając (literally hare) - quite a popular surname.
Stefania was popular in the past but Zoja is extremely rare - probably more frequent in the former USSR.
Do you mind asking what religion they were?

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.

Stefanie it sounds like we might be related? Maybe it's a coincidence but my grandmother is Olga, her maiden name is Zajac, and her married name is Berizko. I was told they were Polish and Ukrainian. Her son, I always knew by the name Joe. They immigrated to America after WWII. Then they had a daughter named Zoia. They later moved to California.

...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.

Anyone know how to contact Zoya or Joseph Berizko? I believe their parents were friends with my parents, Nick and Natalie Nidunow(original spelling Najdunow) who emigrated to US after release from concentration camps.

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.

My parents were good friends of Olga and Simon Berizko when they lived in Lafayette, Indiana. They used to come to our house and we went to theirs too. They had two children Joe and Zoya. Please contact me at chmath65@comcast.net if you are related to them. I would love to hear from them

My mother was from Pedlepki Poland and her name was Natasha Reshytelio, she had siblings and half siblings. Her fathers name was David and the siblings names were Hanna, Nadia and Tanya and Philip. She was taken from her home when she was 19 and taken by train to be in the German labor camps. Does anyone know of these names or town? Looking for relatives