While conducting my family research I have been provided much information pertaining to both of my lineage surnames, Iwaniw and Tyzbir. I have been able to identify at least 2 other families in America with the last name of Tyzbir and I have been told of another one.
The 2 families I came upon were Tyzbirs of Vermont and the other were the Tyzbirs of Nevada. The other that I have been told about was Tyzbirs of Connecticut/Rhode Island. Neither of which are connected to my family line that I can find. In discussing this with my cousins in Ukraine, they inform me that there were three other Tyzbir families in the city they lived in and they were not related.
As for the Iwaniw lineage, that’s another story. If you’re on Facebook you just need to search on the surname of Iwaniw and you’ll be surprised on the number of Iwaniws that are found just on Facebook. Are we all related? Not that I can document. Although there are a few duplicate on the list and a few that I am fairly sure are related via other documented means, I don’t know where in the collective tree is the common ancestor is located. But then how can there be so many just on Facebook? A few years back when I was starting my family research I received an email from a researcher/historian named Maciej Augustyn (vbroda@poczta.onet.pl). I have misplaced the actual email but I had the foresight to print out a hardcopy of that email.
In that email, they were responding to a collaboration request I had posted regarding the Iwaniw Family in Lutowiska. I am going to transcribe what was in the email exactly as they wrote it:
“Mister Iwaniw!
My name is Maciej Augustyn. I’m historian!
Iwaniw was typical farmer family in Lutowiska.
In my archiv is list of voter from 1870. In Austriatime in Galicia voter was only head of family.
In this list write
Stefan Iwanow number of home 28
Fedio Iwanow number of home 17 (name Fedio = Fedor = Teodor)
Mikolaj Iwanow nr of home 111
Stefan Iwanow nr of home 16
In this time write another version You name Iwanov = Iwaniw.
Maciej Augustyn
Ustrzyki Dolne”
What I make of this is that the Iwaniw (Iwanow) surname was a fairly common name in the area. Similar to Smoth, Jones, or Brown in America.
So, without proper, legible documentation it is difficult to determine the relationship between different Iwaniw families that lived in Lutowiska, Lisko district in Poland. I had previously posted an update about my grandfather, Michael Iwaniw. But there was another Michael Iwaniw from Lutowiska. It was estimated that they were both born around 1880’s. The difference was that my Michael Iwaniw was married to Matrona Smolii and the other Michael Iwaniw was married to Kasia Iwaniw. My Michael Iwaniw had a son in 1918 but passed away in 1919 in Lutowiska. The other Michael Iwaniw had a son that was born in 1924 who then subsequently emigrated to Australia. Both of our families were resettled in 1951 from Lutowiska to Dudchaney Ukraine. That is where the other Michael Iwaniw died and was buried.
In conclusion, there are a few Iwaniw families in the world but I have no idea if we are related or not. I would love nothing more than to be able to document the relationships. These families are:
- >Iwaniws that emigrated to Australia – 2 different Michael Iwaniws born around the 1880’s and from the same village.
- >Iwaniws that emigrated to the State of Michigan, USA.
- >Iwaniws that emigrated to Wilkes-Barre, PA, USA – there is a strong indication that there is a family connection but nothing that can be documented with any certainty.
- >Iwaniws that emigrated to Argentina.
- >Iwaniws that emigrated to Great Britain. I use to communicate with the one family member that was their family historian/researcher but he passed away many years ago. We were never able to make a genealogical connection.
So, if you believe that we’re related we should communicate and compare notes. To contact me click on the Contact link above.