Forum | PolishOrigins :: View topic - looking for help researching last name Wilczak

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jjbella1

Joined: 26 Mar 2014
Replies: 23

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Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2015 7:44 am Post subject: looking for help researching last name Wilczak

can someone please help me with information regarding my last name – Wilczak
thank you.
I have been stuck for many years now.
I know my great great grandfather was Jan Wilczak 1879-1945 and great great grandmother was Mary Koziol 1886-1956
John (Jan) was born June 24th in I believe Lipinki southeast Poland used to be Galacia. I know Jan changed our last name from Wilczak to Vilchock
and they settled in Pennsylvania.
I have all the information about my relatives in the USA from Jan and Mary down, but have NOTHING on their parents or brothers or sisters.

mcdonald0517
PO Top Contributor & Patron

Joined: 27 May 2012
Replies: 961

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Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2015 3:54 pm Post subject:

Hello jbella,

I found no online records for Lipinki in Galicia. Family search microfilms has records for 1826-1870 but nothing later. To get Jan's birth record and his siblings and parents, you will have to contact either the church or diocese directly. Assuming they were Roman Catholic, here is a link that provides contact information for the diocese of Rzeszow and the parish of Lipinki:

http://www.diecezja.rzeszow.pl/struktura/parafie/page/4/

The parishes are in alphabetical order so keep advancing to the "L" section.

Alternatively, you can contact the state archive by email. Not sure if Lipinki records would be in Rzeszow state archive office or Przemysl state archive office. I have used Google Translate to translate my emails into Polish so I can communicate with Przemysl and have successfully received my grandfathers birth record. It takes a lot of time and patience, but it can be done. I realize such software does not give the best translation, so I began each request with an explanation and apology for my lack of language skills and informed them I was using computer software for the translations. I also sent my email requests in both Polish (via Google Translate) and English in the same email in case someone at the archive understood English. Expect about a 3 month wait for each email reply. Once you get a reply, I found the folks in the PO forum to be very helpful in helping me to understand them. Oh, and when they reply, they assign a request tracking number and include it in their reply. Use that number as a reference for all follow on emails.

Rzeszow archive contact info
http://www.rzeszow.ap.gov.pl/kontakt/

Przemysl archive contact info
http://www.przemysl.ap.gov.pl/index.php?c=page&id=61

I hope this helps. Good luck in your research!
Cynthia

mcdonald0517
PO Top Contributor & Patron

Joined: 27 May 2012
Replies: 961

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Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2015 4:01 pm Post subject:

Oops, sorry, jbella. After I wrote my reply, I realized you wanted information on the roots of the surname. Please disregard my reply if it has no relevance to your search. I thought you wanted pointers on finding records.

I can't help with surname history, but perhaps others in the forum can.

Good luck!
Cynthia

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