Buryk Family Branches

Trying to put together the Buryk family history over the last 20 years has been like putting together a large puzzle when you don't have all the pieces and you're not sure where to get them, or if they even exist! One of the major problems has been that by the time I was old enough to develop a real interest in the family history, all the Buryks or their spouses who came from Galicia had either passed away, or were no longer physically able to give me the information I needed.

Well then, what about the oldest descendents of the original Buryk emigres, surely they would know everything? Hardly! In the case of my own grandfather, Mikhail, he died in 1924 as a result of back injuries from a coal mine accident in Pennsylvania at a time when his oldest child was only 10 years old. In those days, the average 10-year-old never had the luxury of time to ask a father or mother where they came from. The demands of daily survival dictated little time spent discussing the past. In many other cases, the Buryk emigres wanted to forget the tortured past and start a completely new life in their adopted lands.

What you'll find on these pages is the result of many years of blind persistance when it seemed useless, a lot of dumb luck and the gracious willingness of people who did not initially know each other to share their family reminiscences in the hopes of making a connection to a past only dimly remembered. Who knows whether we are 2nd or 10th cousins, or if we all originally descended from one "Bury" family who travelled north from Slovakia into the Carpathian Mountains and beyond?

My hope in putting together this Web site is that all of you will contribute your own pieces to this Buryk family puzzle and help me fill in the gaps so our children can have a complete view of their rich, East European ancestry. Click here to see the major branches of the Buryk family which I have identified so far. Some are more complete than others. Consider this all a "work in progress" to which I will add more information as I receive it from wherever it can be found.

Copyright (c) 2007-2008, MtView Productions, Inc. - All rights reserved.