Help tracking down Piech ancestors in Poland/Ukraine

Question

Hello!

I've reached a brick wall when tracking my ancestors back to Galicia Poland.

If anyone has any leads on the surnames Piech, Stachurska, or Kovalczuk/Kovalcheck before 1900 (they immigrated to the US in 1903 and 1929), that would be awesome!

Cities of note are Zbarż/Zbarazh, Tarnopol/Ternopil, and Czernichowce/Chernykhivtsi.

I'm happy to provide any additional info I can!

Thank you :)

Answer 1

In geneteka you will find a lot of Piech, Pich, Piechowski in the "Province" Ukraina:

https://geneteka.genealodzy.pl/index.php?op=gt&lang=eng&bdm=B&w=21uk&rid=B&search_lastname=piech&search_name=&search_lastname2=&search_name2=&from_date=&to_date=&ordertable=[[0,%22asc%22],[1,%22asc%22],[2,%22asc%22]]&searchtable=&rpp1=0&rpp2=50

The towns you mentioned are belonging today to the Ukraine.

Answer 2

Hello!  I have Piechowski/a in my own family tree, though it is not an uncommon surname.  Kowalczyk is a name I'm also familiar with through my transcription work.  Stachurska may also be spelled differently as well.

I manage the Galicia Project and have quite a bit of information on the resource page: Galicia Resource Page.  See if any of that information can help you.

One of the best pieces of advice I can give you is if you have done your DNA, see if you can find common geographic locations with your Polish/Ukrainian matches (Kowalczyk can be either Polish or Ukrainian, Piechowski is usually Polish).  I did this and was successful in finding the right village before they moved to another village.

Comments

My great grandmother was Tekla Piechna but I believe Piechowski was in our line somewhere (can't remember where I saw it).  Tekla married Iwan Rak.  Iwan lived in Ternophil for a while (believe he moved around to Poland and Ukraine) He was married at least twice.  They had my grandfather Mikolaj Rak, and there were two other brothers (do not know names, but they were in US occupied Germany after WW2.  They also had two daughter by a Catherine Hysa.

I also have an aunt Aleksandra Smiarowska who married a Marcel Kowalczyk in 1920.  He was about 20 years older, and I don't know what happened to them, whether there were children or not.  They were in Poland.

Unfortunately, I don't have any documents on the Rak, Piechna family in Ukraine.  I did find two Piechna members came to the USA on the same ship as my grandfather in 1909.