This is a website dedicated to my descendants and lineage as a Giuliani-Brzezinski. The website includes family lines, information about hometowns, how I tracked our lineage, where to find information and a lot more…If You Are A Family Member, You Are Welcome To Add Your Story!

LAST NAMES

BREZINSKI (a.k.a.Brzezinski, Brzeziński Brzezinsky, Brezinska, Broza)BRZEZINSKI means ‘edge of the forest’ or ‘birchwood forest’

KARPINSKI (also Karpiński Karpinska)

GIULIANI (a.k.a. Guiliani, Juiliani)

VOLPICELLI (also Volpe, Alby).

In addition to these surnames – there is Dutkiewicz, Lukascewski, Lukashefski, Lukaszewski, Lukaszecwski, DiTullio, Tullio, Sinibaldi, Baiocchi, Bajocchi, Biaocchi, Baicchi, Cerbara, Collacchi, Giambalvo, Magnosi, Margalski, Gayeski, Rishkofski, Rishkowski, Symborski, to name a few…….

Every family has a story, many stories. This website is an attempt to tell some of the tales of the people, generations and events that subliminally influenced my heritage. Some are more overt and profound than others. There are a multitude of factors that provide the identifying features and fertile ground for the development of what we become. Ultimately, we are the masters of our own destiny through choices made consciously or through reaction of patterned upbringing. Some of these factors include: the nurturing, safe and supportive home environment (or its reverse); genetics; behavior and emotions, spirituality, mental capacity, courage, fortunes and the responses of elders to the unexpected like death or hardship, financial status, famine, drought, epidemics, disease, economic factors and other environmental influences. All combine to mold our heritage. It is what we choose to do with these influences that makes us who we are. There is no mold to fill or pattern to conform to within a designated framework. We make our own destiny.

Although many indigenous cultures place high value on those that have come before, Western culture, for the most part, has lost that connection. Our fate, the very reason we are where we are, for example, has to do with decisions made by grandparents and great grandparents. Both my paternal and maternal grandparents enabled me to be born a second generation US citizen rather than a European. Their remarkable journey and the willingness to take a chance in the New World of opportunity and remain through adversity, loneliness, despair, poor working conditions, death and other pioneering feats took unimaginable courage, tenacity, perseverance, stamina and character. Honoring their memory is the least we can do as citizens living in a mostly privileged age.

The site contains census records, ships manifests, obituaries, articles and various documents about the above families and their descendents in an attempt to locate family members across the globe especially those from Gavignano, Italy and the former Austrian Empire (Stara Sol, Galicia) as well as Russia and Poland (Nasielsk, Plock). In addition, there is an in depth history and study of the ecology, history, immigration and language of two geographical extremes of the Blue Ridge Mountains; Nanticoke and the Wyoming Valley, Pennsylvania and at the opposite end Charlottesville, Virginia both long time residences of mine. The family names of the Volpicelli, Giuliani family as far back as the 1600’s and the Brzezinski, Karpinski family from the early 1800’s and a current lineage on all family names (entered by MEMBERSHIP ONLY) is also included in hopes of finding additional information from website viewers.

This family genealogy is diverse and full of mysteries, twists and turns. Both the maternal and paternal sides of the family are recent immigrants entering the ports of New York at the turn of the last century late 1800’s to early 1900’s. Great grandfather Brzeziński came from Naselisk, Plock, Russland (now Poland) in 1886 meeting his wife Helen Lukascewski, an earlier arrival. His brother Teofil came a few years later meeting his wife Constantia Figalarski. Grandmother Antonina Brzezinski (Karpiński) came in 1914 with her sisters to meet her already arrived parents. Grandfather Vincenzo Guiliani came originally in 1913 returning several times to soldier in the Italian army. Grandmother Giovanna Guiliani (Volpicelli) came in 1919. Family members who voyaged across the ocean were greeted by the generations who had previous entered the country. As a youth, traveling to Forest City, PA to visit Karpinski’s, Scranton, PA to visit Giuliani’s, and visits from Karpinski/Brzezinski’s of Chicago solidified the family connection. This site is designed to reconnect with those extended family members. It is continually being updated by new information sent from around the world.