The people of Snietnic and Stawisza needed their religious faith because Lemkovina was the poorest region of Galicia. Their plots of land were small and scattered and divided among family members. The plots in the hills were stony and infertile, which made them hard to till and not very productive. There was little money and no other jobs to be had. Many families were forced to take out loans they couldn't repay.
Lemkovina was a region in Galicia. Galicia was the name given to the part of Poland occupied by the Austro-Hungarian Empire between 1772 and 1918. It was made up of Catholic Poles in the western third, Orthodox Rusyns in the eastern third and a mixture in the middle. Large Jewish communities were scattered throughout.
Although Poland and Galicia were governed by Austria, the local government was in the hands of Poles who did everything they could to suppress the Lemko/Rusyn people and their eastern churches. The Poles with their power as the local landlords, police and tax collectors cheated, robbed and abused the peasant people at will. The peasants had no rights and no say about how they were treated. Then, between 1870 and 1910, there was a population explosion due to Polish colonization as Polish people were brought in and moved onto peasant land. This made food scarcer than ever.
At the end of the nineteenth century, the people of Lemkovina began to hear about a rich country far away over the ocean that needed working hands. German and Dutch shipping lines did their part by recruiting emigres in the villages. Soon people were selling livestock or land in order to buy a ticket to America. Both Sedor and Alexandra left for America at about age sixteen. Alexandra traveled with a cousin, her belongings wrapped in a mattress.
The people who stayed behind in Snietnica and Stawisza experienced both World Wars first hand. Many fierce battles were fought in the countryside surrounding the villages and locals were killed. Then, in 1947, Poland did some ethnic cleansing and moved everyone out at gun point. The people were given twenty-four hours to load a wagon and leave for either the Ukraine or western Poland. They weren't paid for their land. We hear that one family relation wound up in Krakow (or near Wroclaw).
Today, Snietnica and Stawisza are still tiny, rural villages. The rolling hills resemble the mountains of Pennsylvania. In Snietnica, only Polish people are left. The houses don't have indoor plumbing, there are no stores or hotels and the Russian Orthodox church is gone. Just a small cemetery remains. No trains or buses travel into the area. Visitors must rent a car in Warsaw or Kracow and drive. Although Snietnica doesn't have a hotel, it does have a hostel which caters to the many hikers who visit Jaliski Scenic Park.
(The above text was written by cousin, Kathy Ransdell, in preparation for our first family reunion in 2001. She researched the history of the Lemko people at the library and on the internet, weaving the facts into the story of our parents/grandparents. In reading this again, after our trip to Poland, it is very, very accurate! I will ask her to add a bit to this in the future, with the perspective of having actually visited the Carpathian Mountains and the beautiful region of Lemkovyna. - Claudia )