Pielgryzymka, called Peregrymka by our Rusyn ancestors, was in existence by the fifteenth century. It is the largest of our four ancestral villages. Parish and cadastral records describe a village with approximately 600 to 1200 inhabitants from the late 1700's to the late 1930's. In addition to the occupations which were the mainstay of our ancestors-farming, forestry and sheepherding, Peregrymka was known for the manufacture of brooms.

Village surnames taken from 1785 cadastral records include Hruby, Dudka, Kanczuga, Kulenicz, Musjala, Olenicz, Pawlak, Senio, Serniak, Smerek, Smolej, Telep, Fecyna, Cap and Jurkowski. Over 200 emigrants from Peregrymka are listed in the Emigrants/ Destinations section of this site.

A valuable addition to our site, an 1821 property inventory, divides the village inhabitants into kmiecie (peasants), zagrodnicy (small farmstead owners) and komornicy (tenant farmers). Surnames on this inventory include: Balun, Capicha, Dragan, Dudko, Dziadosz, Fecina, Glodko, Goresz, Fundalewicz, Goresz, Gunia, Guzy, Jurkowski, Kanczuga, Klimas, Kulenicz, Luczyczyn, Musiala, Nycz, Olenicz, Pawlak, Pejko, Popiwiczka, Premus, Rozdielski, Senio, Serafin, Serniak, Smolen, Stachurski, Szlachta, Szwed, Telep, Tomaszewski and Wasylec.

The Slownik Geograficzny (1887) describes a village near "extensive forests in which can be found oil springs." It describes a village of 167 homes, 830 Greek Catholics, 67 Roman Catholics and 10 Jews. The geography also contains the history of village ownership by Polish nobles.

We are fortunate to be able to include a fascinating, recently translated 1908 description of the village from Opis Powiata Jasielskiago, containing much previously unknown information about Peregrymka.

At the entrance to the Pielgrzymka road is a Talerhof Memorial, commemorating the Rusyns who lost their lives in this early internment camp. It is one of several in Lemkovyna. Inscribed upon the monuments are the words, "During World War I the Lemkos had to flee Austrian repression. Almost 2000 people were arrested-mainly priests, teachers and civil servants and deported to Talerhof-Graz Camp not far from Vienna. A large number never returned."

The village church, St. Michael the Archangel, Greek Catholic at the time of our grandparents and great-grandparents emigration, also served the villages of Klopotnica, Huta SamoKleska, Mrukowa and Zmigrod. In 1887 there were 1125 parishioners. Fifty years after the deportations, ten families remain in St. Michael's, now an Orthodox church. Our site (See Introduction/ St Michael the Archangel) contains an appeal to support its current restoration and a description of the historical support of the church from American descendants of village immigrants. Numerous photographs of the church and its cemetery are spread throughout this site. There is an interesting connection to a family of Polish nobles. Liturgical garments (phelons) from a member of this family, Merina Mnishev, who for a brief period was Tsarina of Russian, were gifts to the church.

Merina Mniscek

Merina Mniscek, daughter of the Polish noble family who owned Pielgrzymka, benefactress of St. Michael the Archangel, is known equally to opera buffs and to students of Russian history. Merina is a major character in the famous opera, Boris Gudonov which was first staged in 1874. Based upon a drama by Alexander Pushkin, Mussogorsky's opera takes place from 1598 to 1605 during the reign of Tsar Boris. In an early act of the opera, the ambitious young Merina Mniscek is encouraged by the monk Pimen to seduce Dimitri, a pretender to the Russian throne, in order to lead Russia to Roman Catholicism and away from the Orthodox faith. At the opera's end, Tsar Boris, haunted by his role in the death of the true Dimitri, dies in madness, clearing the way for Merina's "false Dimitri" to enter Russia with his Polish army and ascend the throne.

For historians, Merina plays a significant role in sorrowful Russia's "Time of Troubles." The real Merina Mniscek in fact was married to two "false Dimitris" and twice was a short-lived tsarina of Russia. For two weeks, she was the tsarina-bride of the first Dimitri before he was overthrown and murdered. Following Dimitri's cremation, legend tells that his ashes were loaded into cannons and fired toward Poland.

The still-ambitious Merina married a second "false Dimitri"who ascended the throne for two years before he too was assassinated. Merina later attempted to place her young son Ivan on the throne and the child was murdered in 1614. She is believed to have died in prison soon after---her ambitions leading only to the grave.
But, perhaps not. Merina was believed to have the sorcerer's power to turn herself into a magpie or crow. There is a Russian legend, that finding her deeply asleep in the Moscow tower in which she had been imprisoned, her jailers quickly brought in priests to sanctify the windows and doors so she could not assume the shape of a bird and escape. What they did not realize was that Merina was not asleep, but dead, and that her soul was flying above Moscow in the form of a crow. By sealing her escape routes with ritualistic prayers, the priests had prevented her soul from ever returning to her body. Merina's trapped soul is still present today in all the crows that fly over Russia.

Another 1941 description of Peregrymka was featured in a RBO (Russian Brotherhood Organization) publication, TRUTH, which illustrates elements of its history. The article charmingly begins: "Perehrymka is the loveliest village in all of Lemkovina."

A hand-drawn map showing Peregrymka in 1945 is another valuable addition to our website. Created by Stefan Olenich and Olga Olenich Kratchuk, deportees from Peregrymka to Ukraine, the map shows the southern half of the village at the time its Rusyn inhabitants were being coerced to leave.

Another valuable addition to our Pielgrzymka history is a list of the 1945 village residents. These records are an important clue to researchers who are attempting to find family dispersed by the 1945-1947 deportations. The overwhelming majority of our ancestral families left the villages in 1945 (see next page) with the coercion of uniformed Communist officials. These "delegates" promised land and farms in Ukraine for villagers who agreed to leave "voluntarily." Although a great deal has been written about the final 1947 akcja wisla deportation to eastern Poland, the search for dispersed family members from our villages is far more likely to lead to Ukraine.

By far the most exciting records that have been found in our research to date (thanks to the work of Father Roman Dubec), are those listing the 1945 village deportees. It had been our understanding that no records of the 1945-1946 "voluntary" deportations existed. By contrasting these lists with the pre-deportation list on the previous page, researchers can learn if their ancestors who were deported to Ukraine. There were very few Lemko peasants remaining in our villages by the final 1947 deportation to Silesia in the west. Exceptions were made for those married to Poles or for those willing to convert to Roman Catholicism.

Sources:
Carpatho-Rusyn World Knowledge Base (www.carpatho-rusyn.org)
Opis Powiata Jasielskiago, Ks. W. Sarna, Jaslo, 1908
Russian Orthodox Brotherhood Organization (RBO), Truth, vol. 102, No.8, 8/2004 Slownick Geograficzny, 1887, Vol. 8, p. 86 =