Update:  Christmas 2007

It’s now been almost thirty years since Aunt Helen sent me the letter that began my long search into the origins of the Buryk family in America. Our Patch has been on the Web for ten of those years, but a lot has happened since it first came online during the Christmas season of 1998. Our family circle has grown by hundreds of close and more distant relatives from the Czerepaniaks, Gburyks, Hlibs and Romaniuks in Poland and Canada, Cherepanyaks in Ukraine and Swajlyks in New York State. Also Marchowskys from Massachusetts and Tympanicks from various states.  An interesting twist came from the Januszczak family of Great Britain which is not related to us, but to our Polish cousins Czerepaniak-Walczak. 

We’ve also lost quite a few of our closest family  along the way as well.  All the children of Julia Czerepaniak and Mikhal Gburyk (Buryk) have passed away leaving me here to tell the family story and keep it alive. My own mortality came under fire this past year, but I think I’ve successfully weathered the sudden coronary storm that came out of nowhere.

Some new sources of background information are now available for you to read.  The Ukrainian Weekly published my family history essay, "Shadows for Ancestors No More" in 2002. Two years later, I finally pulled together an article on digging for Lemko roots with sources available from the U.S. based on my twenty five years of research.  It's online here.  Also, an introduction to the Who's Who of 18th Century Lemko surnames complied by Ivan Krasovskyj can be found here.  Our Buryk (Hburyk/Gburyk) name is actually mentioned in the village of Siemuszowa (see 4th letter down, "H", which is the Ukrainian pronounciation for the "G" sound) confirming that our family history there goes back at least to the 18th century!   Ours was the only family with this name in Siemuszowa and only the second one in all of the Lemko region of Poland.  

Please take a look at this page from the Austrian Census of 1785-1787 conducted when the Polish Empire was partitioned by its powerful neighbors Russia, Prussia and Austria.  Look down the left-hand side and stop at number 30.  You will see the name Iwan Gburyk, our 18th century ancestor.  This is the oldest written record I've found of our family history.  Our name is also spelled as "Gbur" elsewhere in the census which suggests that this Iwan Gburyk's father was also Iwan (John) and he became know as "Gburyk" (son of Gbur) to distinguish him from his father.  Gbur was a name given in this area to an independent farmer to distinguish them from less well-off peasants.  It can be found up and down this region, but our family is only one of two or three with the Gburyk variation.  Grandpa Mike eventually dropped the "G" in America probably because it was too hard to pronounce the last name here. 

So come back and visit Our Patch in 2008 to catch up on all the family news.  We'll be here waiting for you…

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