Polish Last Name..Putrykow?

Hello, I recently found out that I am 3rd generation American and that my grandmothers family is Polish, She is 85 years old and only remembers so much. However she said that their last name was Putrykow but I can not find that last name anywhere. Can someone help me? Thank You

maybe it's Petrikov instead?

No Putrykow in Poland. 8 people use Petrykow, more than 2,100 Petrykowskis.
Name's root is some from of Piotr/Pieter (Peter).

Yea sounds like a Polish spelling of a Russian name, maybe your ancestor was a Polish Russian. Like our footballer Michał Żewłakow last name, Zevlakov in Russian, or former minister of national defense Romuald Szeremietiew, from Russian Sheremetyev.

My great grandfather has on his WW2 draft card that he was born in Woleena State, Poland, Russia. Does that make sense? How can someone be born in Poland and Russia?

Maybe in Wołyń.
Before II WW it was polish territory, but after war it was 'given' to CCCP. Now it's mostly territory of Ukraine. So you can say that someone was born in Poland, CCCP(Russia, ppl often called all Soviet Union as Russia) and in Ukraine at the same time.

I had no idea that Poland has such a difficult history. But after this last week of trying to trace my family tree I have learned. The only thing I am sure of is that my great-great grandparents came from that area. I used to think it was just Poland, now I have no clue.

If you were to look at a physical map of Poland (shows topographical features) you would see that Poland was easy to invade from the east and the west (the lowlands), but difficult to invade from the south. That's because of the steep Tatra and Bieśczady Mountains in the south. The only passage was the "Moravian Gate" (a gap in the Tatra Mountains).

Another complex event was the three partitions of Poland that occurred in the late 1700s. The Prussian Empire got a chunk, Russia got a chunk, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire got the rest. Then Poland was off the map for 150 years. Whenever this sort of thing happens, it spurns mass migration, frequently, modification of surnames, and renaming of cities and towns.

Poland was invaded from the north, too- by the Swedes, who crossed thr Baltic in ships.