The earliest knowledge I have of our family begins with great, great grandfather Wojciech Re~bisz from a village then known as Nart Stary in southeastern Poland which at the time was occupied by Austria and named Galicia. He married Jadwiga Miller.

One of their children, Walenty Re~biz married Wyktorya Krawiec in 1883. They had 14 children; 4 died as infants, 3 remained in Poland, 4 emigrated to the United States and 3 emigrated to Canada. My grandfather, Jan Re~bisz was one of his children who settled in the United States in 1909. He married Katarzyna Koc and had one child. After Katarzyna died, he married my grandmother, Wyktorya Chrzastek in 1913 in Passaic, New Jersey.  My father was born in 1916. All together Jan and Wyktorya had 7 children, 3 who died as infants.

Researching information from Nart Stary, Poland has been extremely difficult. Ever since its beginning, Poland has been constantly under one country's control or another.  Austria, Hungary, Germany, Russia as well as others have occupied Poland. During World War II, Nazi Germany built a rocket factory in the forests surrounding Nart Stary and burned Nart Stary to the ground.  The area where the rockets were built was known as the 'Forbidden Zone'.  The inhabitants of Stare Nart may have been forced to work in labor camps. After the war, Nart Stary was rebuilt by the surviving villagers. 

Nart Stary is located 138 miles SSE of Warsaw and 65 miles east of Krakow.

These ancestors who came to America have my greatest respect.  They arrived in a country under extremely difficult conditions.  They couldn't speak, read or write English. They had very little money, education or skills. They were shunned by the citizens where they settled, yet they survived! They were able to raise families and provide them with the education and opportunities which have allowed us to prosper.  Bardzo dziekuje!
 

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