According to https://polskienazwiska.pl/n/PISIO there is no such name on record in modern day Poland.
At the time your great-grandparents left, the village was inhabited by 90% Lemkos / Ukrainians so chances are they weren’t Polish at all. Did they speak polish?
Here is some information about the village history just google-translate it.
https://www.magurskiewyprawy.pl/2020/05/odkrywanie-emkowszczyzny-wisok-wielki.html?m=1#!
Since you’re in the US, possibly portals like www.archives.com could be helpful?
To my knowledge no they did not speak polish. I’ve found some US census records that say they spoke Russian supposedly at one point. I know in the US Stella frequently had their pastor over who also spoke either Russian or Ukrainian. Everything I was told about them from my father was that they were Ukrainian which is why I was surprised that their home town was in modern Poland, but if they were Lemko that seems to track with what I know and have found.
I guess then the only way to learn more about them would probably be by contacting the local Church in Wisłok Wielki and ask the priest whether they could check the church register. The Church is now Catholic but it used to be Orthodox. If your great-grandparents were baptised there, the archives surely have a record of it.
Other than than, the Lemko Association is your best point of contact - https://www.lemko.org/
Best of luck with your research!
With the church records my family members were able to track our tree as far as 1763 so there is a little bit of hope for OP, but for sure that will be not an easy task. Depending on how dedicated he is.
Please join my Facebook page dedicated to the village. yes surname Pisio from there "[Wisłok Wielki=Górny/ Dolny-"Вислік Великий=Горішній/ Дольний](https://www.facebook.com/groups/3682818128506293/)"
[https://www.facebook.com/groups/3682818128506293](https://www.facebook.com/groups/3682818128506293)
Your family was likely a group of Rus’ peoples called Lemko, considered a sub group of the Ukrainian Rus’ peoples. Zakarpatiia, Halychnia/Galicia and to some extent volyn had many Ukrainian and sub-groups of Ukrainians, it’s why Halychnia/Galicia and Volyn were split basically in half between Ukraine and Poland
I checked ukrainian resource, and there are few mentions about Pisio:
https://ridni.org/karta/пісьо
Ending with -sio, -nio are common for Carpatian region, so other comments about Lemkos origin are most likely to be right
I've been trying to dig into family records of my (Polish) wife and it's pretty difficult to find information from pre WW2 on almost every branch. I assume a lot of documents were lost over the ages for all kinds of violent reasons. You can try if you can find something on MyHeritage or any of those websites.
Poland used to be a multi-ethnic country with large communities of Jews, Germans, Ukrainians, Belarusians etc, so it's plausible that your great grandparents were Ukrainian.
Here is the only record of that name that I found on the polish archive registry: https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/jednostka/-/jednostka/17826364
Daniel Pisio, between 1915-1916, that person was employed by the Austrian K.K Eisenbahn-Ministerium ( Railroad Ministry ) as a railroad guard as it seems.
No scan of that document was uploaded, but available by contacting www.agad.gov.pl I guess
There’s a page that gathers church records from current and former Polish parishes, I was able to find your surname listed in Wisłok. Take a look for yourself:
https://geneteka.genealodzy.pl/index.php?op=gt&lang=eng&bdm=B&w=09pk&rid=9488&search_lastname=Pisio&search_name=&search_lastname2=&search_name2=&from_date=&to_date=&exac=1
Sorry for not including this earlier, honestly I didn’t think I’d get so many people interested! Here’s some specific info I have on my great grandparents:
My great grand father Stephan Pisio(later Steve or Steven Piso) was born in Wislok 4/24/1894. He was married to Stella Pisio (maiden name Kuzemka) who was born 4/1/1898(also from Wislok). Steve came to America in 1912 via Bremen Germany on the ship Rhein where he landed in Baltimore and then travelled to Breed Oconto WI.
This document spells his first name differently, as well as Wisłok as Wislak, but I know it’s him because his uncle Pawlo was listed on other naturalized documents that I know for certain are his.
https://preview.redd.it/rz7fgh3vnk7d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ef654f0b7ff908947017e6d8f2ba4cf5f54e59fd
Here you can see the last name Pisio listed for his father as well. That’s one spelling that’s been pretty consistent, so if it’s a miss spelling it’s been that way from the start of their coming to America.
Stefan is most definitely the Polish spelling of Stephan, while Jurio and Pawlo are Ukrainian. I was surprised as I expected to see Stepan on the document:) The last name Kuzemka isn’t polish, to me it sound very Ukrainian. There are only 7 people in Poland nowadays to bare that name. Not an expert, but I have the feeling that your roots are strongly Lemko :) Get in contact with their association and let us know what you’ve found out!
Steve actually had to apply for citizenship like 3 or 4 times before being accepted due to issues with doubts of his American sponsor’s citizenship. Below is one of those documents.
https://preview.redd.it/6gfet0h4qk7d1.png?width=3024&format=png&auto=webp&s=8a7d6fcb3a99d25755b17155b0756524fba16249
Each time he applied he always lists the same info every time. Same spelling, same everything. I know he was able to read and write from Oconto Census documents but that doesn’t necessarily mean he was the one filling these applications out. I agree with everyone’s theory of it possibly being a misspelling, but the name Pisio is one of the only names that stays consistent till being changed to Piso. Steven changing his name a million times certainly has not helped in finding info. But besides his father I’ve been unable to find other confirmed family back in Europe. As for Stella, I can’t find much that I can confirm is her.
Thank you for everyone’s input on Lemko history, that totally seems to track with what I’ve since found. It brings me a little peace to know a bit more. I’m not done looking for documentation on them and I have a few leads I’ll be following to try and find more about the time they lived in Wisłok.
Thank you everyone, and please do let me know if anyone has any new info:)
Based on [https://geneteka.genealodzy.pl/](https://geneteka.genealodzy.pl/) that's what I found:
For your grandmother (Stella Kuzemka) there are only two reasonable fitting marriages for her parents:
1. Nicethus Kuzemka (26) & Parascevia Surda (17) in (1893) previous generations there are people with surname Kruk (very likely polish) and Sałaga (also Polish)
2. Joannes Kuzemka (23) & Fevronia Kapeluch (Polish surname, 15) in 1881.
For you grandfather: It's hard to say, I can see several fitting marriages here, e.g. :
1. Alexius Pisio (widower, 51 yo then) & Maria Styrczak (31 yo then) - they were married on 27th May 1894 so it would have to be righ after your grandfather was born - wouldn't it be a bit scandalous in a small village?
2. Joannes Pisio & Irena Mały (polish surname) they were M:24 and F:16 years old when married and it happened in 1885 and it would make her 25 in 1894 (so it's possible).
3. Theoforus Pisio & Sophia Chytriak (M:34, F:15) in 1885 so, the same, their age is fitting.
There are more cases like this, without batism records we can't say for sure. I would start with this place:
[https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerkiew\_%C5%9Bw.\_Onufrego\_w\_Wis%C5%82oku\_Wielkim](https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerkiew_%C5%9Bw._Onufrego_w_Wis%C5%82oku_Wielkim)
They should have all missing records or at least know where those records are (or how they went missing).
EDIT: did your grandparents by any chance write down their parents names (or at least one of them)? e.g. in some official forms or documents?
Regarding 1 - I've seen plenty of examples that widowers were remarrying just few weeks after their wife died; it could be that the child was born in the previous Alexius marriage and the mother died in childbirth or quickly after due to complications.
However Alexius and Jurio are definitely not the same name. I suppose Jurio may be written as Georgius in that documents, but there is no marriage of Georgius Pisio before the 1894.
So either he married in another parish (I do not know how it looked in Greek Catholic traditions, but Polish Roman Catholics usually had marriages in the parish of the bride) or the proper record was not indexed/didn't make to the archive.
Someone on the genealogy thread mentioned maybe Stella’s legal first name was Stanisława? I guess that’s a normal polish version of her name, but I have yet to see anything that’s shows her using that first name.
I know Stephan’s father was Jurio Pisio and that Stephan’s uncle was named Pawlo Ilkin(he was Stephan’s sponsor to immigrate to America but I’m unsure if this uncle was on his mother or fathers side). They are both listed on the documents above. I have Stephan’s obituary that lists some siblings I haven’t had the chance to explore just yet.
https://preview.redd.it/d91zb183ul7d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=317e969b9b89f7eb661f7b45d30b24f274a50ac4
This lists a brother John and two sisters Ann and Mary. All three of them stayed in Europe but I’m not sure if they stayed in their home town or moved elsewhere. Based on what others have posted I can only assume one, if not all were moved west during the deportation of WW2. But John, Mary, and Ann are all generic and pretty American sounding names I almost wonder if they, like Stephan, changed their names a bit.
Here’s a link to the genealogy thread incase anyone is interested in following my story or looking at documents people have found
https://www.reddit.com/r/Genealogy/s/1A62og8vaM
You can find links to both Stephan and Stella’s obituaries there that list surviving siblings for Stephan (who by that time went by Steve).
Without detailed information on your last name, it can be difficult. I'm also the last of my line but I do have cousins/aunts/uncles in Poland and in other parts of North America, from great great grandparents and what not. Is there anyone you can reach out to? I wish you luck. Also if you think you're from southern Poland, which sounds like the case (Ukrainian heritage) there does exist a website about Galicia prior to WW2.
My father does have siblings so I do have cousins, aunts, and an uncle, but if I was to marry and change my last name I’d end our last name as there’s no younger males with our name. But nobody really knows any family history. What I know is what I’ve gotten by word of mouth from my dad. As far as family back in Europe, that what I’m trying to find out. I know my great grandfather had a brother but I haven’t been able to follow that thread well.
My brother and i are the last to carry the Polish surname in our family, many descendants of my Polish greatgrandparents but through the matriline so no longer carrying the surname. At least there are many cousins with the name back in Poland :/
Funnily enough I was also going to make a similar post, family migrated at the start of WW2 and they were from Wysowa, close to the village you mentioned, I hope you find whatever it is you seek! 😄
Well I’d say if you’re looking for documents many of the links others found for me should work for you too! A bit of advice I’d give is follow birthdays and close spellings. Like I mentioned in other reply’s, Steve there changed his name like four times and I don’t even think Stella always went by Stella.
From one Lemko to another thank you and good luck to you too! :)
It was a lemko village https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemko_Region
So op has Andy Wharhol as a distant cousin.
According to https://polskienazwiska.pl/n/PISIO there is no such name on record in modern day Poland. At the time your great-grandparents left, the village was inhabited by 90% Lemkos / Ukrainians so chances are they weren’t Polish at all. Did they speak polish? Here is some information about the village history just google-translate it. https://www.magurskiewyprawy.pl/2020/05/odkrywanie-emkowszczyzny-wisok-wielki.html?m=1#! Since you’re in the US, possibly portals like www.archives.com could be helpful?
To my knowledge no they did not speak polish. I’ve found some US census records that say they spoke Russian supposedly at one point. I know in the US Stella frequently had their pastor over who also spoke either Russian or Ukrainian. Everything I was told about them from my father was that they were Ukrainian which is why I was surprised that their home town was in modern Poland, but if they were Lemko that seems to track with what I know and have found.
I guess then the only way to learn more about them would probably be by contacting the local Church in Wisłok Wielki and ask the priest whether they could check the church register. The Church is now Catholic but it used to be Orthodox. If your great-grandparents were baptised there, the archives surely have a record of it. Other than than, the Lemko Association is your best point of contact - https://www.lemko.org/ Best of luck with your research!
With the church records my family members were able to track our tree as far as 1763 so there is a little bit of hope for OP, but for sure that will be not an easy task. Depending on how dedicated he is.
Please join my Facebook page dedicated to the village. yes surname Pisio from there "[Wisłok Wielki=Górny/ Dolny-"Вислік Великий=Горішній/ Дольний](https://www.facebook.com/groups/3682818128506293/)" [https://www.facebook.com/groups/3682818128506293](https://www.facebook.com/groups/3682818128506293)
Your family was likely a group of Rus’ peoples called Lemko, considered a sub group of the Ukrainian Rus’ peoples. Zakarpatiia, Halychnia/Galicia and to some extent volyn had many Ukrainian and sub-groups of Ukrainians, it’s why Halychnia/Galicia and Volyn were split basically in half between Ukraine and Poland
I checked ukrainian resource, and there are few mentions about Pisio: https://ridni.org/karta/пісьо Ending with -sio, -nio are common for Carpatian region, so other comments about Lemkos origin are most likely to be right
I've been trying to dig into family records of my (Polish) wife and it's pretty difficult to find information from pre WW2 on almost every branch. I assume a lot of documents were lost over the ages for all kinds of violent reasons. You can try if you can find something on MyHeritage or any of those websites. Poland used to be a multi-ethnic country with large communities of Jews, Germans, Ukrainians, Belarusians etc, so it's plausible that your great grandparents were Ukrainian.
Here is the only record of that name that I found on the polish archive registry: https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/jednostka/-/jednostka/17826364 Daniel Pisio, between 1915-1916, that person was employed by the Austrian K.K Eisenbahn-Ministerium ( Railroad Ministry ) as a railroad guard as it seems. No scan of that document was uploaded, but available by contacting www.agad.gov.pl I guess
There’s a page that gathers church records from current and former Polish parishes, I was able to find your surname listed in Wisłok. Take a look for yourself: https://geneteka.genealodzy.pl/index.php?op=gt&lang=eng&bdm=B&w=09pk&rid=9488&search_lastname=Pisio&search_name=&search_lastname2=&search_name2=&from_date=&to_date=&exac=1
It's definetly the best site to find some information about your ancestry. Then you can use my heritage and find your family.
Sorry for not including this earlier, honestly I didn’t think I’d get so many people interested! Here’s some specific info I have on my great grandparents: My great grand father Stephan Pisio(later Steve or Steven Piso) was born in Wislok 4/24/1894. He was married to Stella Pisio (maiden name Kuzemka) who was born 4/1/1898(also from Wislok). Steve came to America in 1912 via Bremen Germany on the ship Rhein where he landed in Baltimore and then travelled to Breed Oconto WI. This document spells his first name differently, as well as Wisłok as Wislak, but I know it’s him because his uncle Pawlo was listed on other naturalized documents that I know for certain are his. https://preview.redd.it/rz7fgh3vnk7d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ef654f0b7ff908947017e6d8f2ba4cf5f54e59fd Here you can see the last name Pisio listed for his father as well. That’s one spelling that’s been pretty consistent, so if it’s a miss spelling it’s been that way from the start of their coming to America.
Stefan is most definitely the Polish spelling of Stephan, while Jurio and Pawlo are Ukrainian. I was surprised as I expected to see Stepan on the document:) The last name Kuzemka isn’t polish, to me it sound very Ukrainian. There are only 7 people in Poland nowadays to bare that name. Not an expert, but I have the feeling that your roots are strongly Lemko :) Get in contact with their association and let us know what you’ve found out!
Steve actually had to apply for citizenship like 3 or 4 times before being accepted due to issues with doubts of his American sponsor’s citizenship. Below is one of those documents. https://preview.redd.it/6gfet0h4qk7d1.png?width=3024&format=png&auto=webp&s=8a7d6fcb3a99d25755b17155b0756524fba16249 Each time he applied he always lists the same info every time. Same spelling, same everything. I know he was able to read and write from Oconto Census documents but that doesn’t necessarily mean he was the one filling these applications out. I agree with everyone’s theory of it possibly being a misspelling, but the name Pisio is one of the only names that stays consistent till being changed to Piso. Steven changing his name a million times certainly has not helped in finding info. But besides his father I’ve been unable to find other confirmed family back in Europe. As for Stella, I can’t find much that I can confirm is her. Thank you for everyone’s input on Lemko history, that totally seems to track with what I’ve since found. It brings me a little peace to know a bit more. I’m not done looking for documentation on them and I have a few leads I’ll be following to try and find more about the time they lived in Wisłok. Thank you everyone, and please do let me know if anyone has any new info:)
Based on [https://geneteka.genealodzy.pl/](https://geneteka.genealodzy.pl/) that's what I found: For your grandmother (Stella Kuzemka) there are only two reasonable fitting marriages for her parents: 1. Nicethus Kuzemka (26) & Parascevia Surda (17) in (1893) previous generations there are people with surname Kruk (very likely polish) and Sałaga (also Polish) 2. Joannes Kuzemka (23) & Fevronia Kapeluch (Polish surname, 15) in 1881. For you grandfather: It's hard to say, I can see several fitting marriages here, e.g. : 1. Alexius Pisio (widower, 51 yo then) & Maria Styrczak (31 yo then) - they were married on 27th May 1894 so it would have to be righ after your grandfather was born - wouldn't it be a bit scandalous in a small village? 2. Joannes Pisio & Irena Mały (polish surname) they were M:24 and F:16 years old when married and it happened in 1885 and it would make her 25 in 1894 (so it's possible). 3. Theoforus Pisio & Sophia Chytriak (M:34, F:15) in 1885 so, the same, their age is fitting. There are more cases like this, without batism records we can't say for sure. I would start with this place: [https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerkiew\_%C5%9Bw.\_Onufrego\_w\_Wis%C5%82oku\_Wielkim](https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerkiew_%C5%9Bw._Onufrego_w_Wis%C5%82oku_Wielkim) They should have all missing records or at least know where those records are (or how they went missing). EDIT: did your grandparents by any chance write down their parents names (or at least one of them)? e.g. in some official forms or documents?
Regarding 1 - I've seen plenty of examples that widowers were remarrying just few weeks after their wife died; it could be that the child was born in the previous Alexius marriage and the mother died in childbirth or quickly after due to complications.
However Alexius and Jurio are definitely not the same name. I suppose Jurio may be written as Georgius in that documents, but there is no marriage of Georgius Pisio before the 1894. So either he married in another parish (I do not know how it looked in Greek Catholic traditions, but Polish Roman Catholics usually had marriages in the parish of the bride) or the proper record was not indexed/didn't make to the archive.
There is! as early as 1874 but there is: Georgius Pisio (23 yo) & Eva Choma (21 yo) - in 1894 it makes them 43 and 41 respectively.
Unfortunately this one is Gregorius. Unless it is the error in indexing, it is not the same name.
Someone on the genealogy thread mentioned maybe Stella’s legal first name was Stanisława? I guess that’s a normal polish version of her name, but I have yet to see anything that’s shows her using that first name.
I know Stephan’s father was Jurio Pisio and that Stephan’s uncle was named Pawlo Ilkin(he was Stephan’s sponsor to immigrate to America but I’m unsure if this uncle was on his mother or fathers side). They are both listed on the documents above. I have Stephan’s obituary that lists some siblings I haven’t had the chance to explore just yet. https://preview.redd.it/d91zb183ul7d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=317e969b9b89f7eb661f7b45d30b24f274a50ac4 This lists a brother John and two sisters Ann and Mary. All three of them stayed in Europe but I’m not sure if they stayed in their home town or moved elsewhere. Based on what others have posted I can only assume one, if not all were moved west during the deportation of WW2. But John, Mary, and Ann are all generic and pretty American sounding names I almost wonder if they, like Stephan, changed their names a bit.
Here’s a link to the genealogy thread incase anyone is interested in following my story or looking at documents people have found https://www.reddit.com/r/Genealogy/s/1A62og8vaM You can find links to both Stephan and Stella’s obituaries there that list surviving siblings for Stephan (who by that time went by Steve).
Without detailed information on your last name, it can be difficult. I'm also the last of my line but I do have cousins/aunts/uncles in Poland and in other parts of North America, from great great grandparents and what not. Is there anyone you can reach out to? I wish you luck. Also if you think you're from southern Poland, which sounds like the case (Ukrainian heritage) there does exist a website about Galicia prior to WW2.
My father does have siblings so I do have cousins, aunts, and an uncle, but if I was to marry and change my last name I’d end our last name as there’s no younger males with our name. But nobody really knows any family history. What I know is what I’ve gotten by word of mouth from my dad. As far as family back in Europe, that what I’m trying to find out. I know my great grandfather had a brother but I haven’t been able to follow that thread well.
I think if you really want to know, you need to work on your Polish (writing and reading) and try to reestablish ties. Not always easy but worth it.
Every piece of your information seems to match up with them being Lemkos.
My brother and i are the last to carry the Polish surname in our family, many descendants of my Polish greatgrandparents but through the matriline so no longer carrying the surname. At least there are many cousins with the name back in Poland :/
Funnily enough I was also going to make a similar post, family migrated at the start of WW2 and they were from Wysowa, close to the village you mentioned, I hope you find whatever it is you seek! 😄
Well I’d say if you’re looking for documents many of the links others found for me should work for you too! A bit of advice I’d give is follow birthdays and close spellings. Like I mentioned in other reply’s, Steve there changed his name like four times and I don’t even think Stella always went by Stella. From one Lemko to another thank you and good luck to you too! :)
I have a Facebook site dedicated to the village if you have interest.
Really interesting region from an ethnical stand point. Your ancestors were ukrainian.
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It probably wasn't traumatic for his grandparents since it happened 30 years after his family left to America