Folusz is a village near Pielgrzymka which sent more than 200 of its Rusyn inhabitants to America. Like the other villages in our ancestral cluster, it was populated by peasants who survived by farming, sheepherding and forestry. Old records indicate that the village also had a specialty and was known for the production of millstones.

Surnames on 18th century Folusz cadastral records include: Balun, Guresz, Huc, Zajac, Kril, Pawlak, Rak, Sawerda, Smarz, Smolej, Stec and Cap. These names are well represented on the lists of emigrants from the Peregrymka village area. (See Emigrants/Destinations section of site.)

In 1881, the Slownik Geograficzny cited that Folusz had a "district lending institution" and mountainous soil suitable for growing barley. Folusz did not have a church and the village's Greek-Catholic believers attended St. Demetrius the Great Martyr in nearby Wola Cieklinska. There were 458 Greek Catholics in the villages in 1840, 371 in 1959, 406 in 1879, 618 in 1899, 471 in 1926 and 564 in 1936.

Today, Folusz has an oil rig, a large old age home where Nykyfor, the Lemko primitive artist, died and a fish farm which has been in existence for generations.

Sources: Carpatho-Rusyn Knowledge Base (www.carpatho-rusyn.org)
Slownik Geograficzny, 1881, Vol.2, page 395