I am Polish. Really Polish. Well, maybe not really, really Polish, but all my ancestors were from Poland--when there was no Poland.... Read on to find out more.
On my father's side of my family, both of his parents (my grandparents) were from.... well... they considered themselves Poland, but at the time they came to the USA, there was no Poland. My Dad's father came from a small town in the general vicinity of Poznań, the town of Pięczkowo. He came to the US in 1886 with his parents when he was 6 years old. What an experience that must have been! At the time they left "Poland," their area was occupied by Germany. Poland's history is complicated.
My father's mother, I learned recently, appears to have come to the USA from near Przemyśl/Rzeszow, from Wólka Niedźwiedzka. At the time she left there with her parents, it was a province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire known as Galicia.
So, my father is a first (or second, depending on how you measure) generation Polish American. His parents were both born in what is now (and once was) Poland. They are/were Polish.
On my mother's side, her grandparents (my great-grandparents) all came from "Poland" though at the time, it was known as Galicia, a province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
On my maternal grandfather's side, both of my great-grandparents were Górale--mountain people, or highlanders. They were from the far south-southeast of Poland, from Krauszów and Ludżmierz--the foothills of the Karpaty--the Carpathian mountains.
Om my maternal grandmother's side, things are a bit more complicated--at least to me. My mother's great-grandparents were both from a small town in what was then Galicia, was (during the interim between the two world wars) Poland, and is now Ukraine. They were both from the town known at that time as Faszczówka, now known as Faschivka, Ukraine. My grandfather was baptized in nearby Tarnoruda, a Roman Catholic church. That indicates that he was Polish. My great-grandomother, who considered herself Polish, was baptized in the nearby town of Łuka Mała, in the Greco-Roman Church--that indicates that by nationality she was Ruthenian, or Ukrainian. I have since learned from a person who knew my Great-grandmother, that she was indeed Ukrainian/Ruthenian. History and ethnicity is complicated.
And, some recent DNA tests indicate that I am largely eastern european in ancestry.
So that's a brief summary of me.... I am Polish.... mostly... I think.... But for sure, I am a proud Polak!