[Denbob55]

Hello all.

I've enjoyed reading about the family searches which has inspired me to do the same.

I don't pretend to know how to do this, so I've decided to try to locate my father's family first. What I've discover, that you all probably already know, is that the only thing consistent in searching in this part of the world is that nothing is consistent.

So far, if I've come to realize that it is true that Ellis Island officials truely did write whatever the heck they wanted to. Our name is now Lapic, but relatives I've located from ship manifests have their names written as Lapitowski, Lopitowski, Lapica and more. There's even one entry where the name Lapica is written and then overwritten as Lapitowski. The more I search the more variations I find. Unfortunately, I've found everybody on the manifests but my grandfather. I suspect that his name is nowhere near any of these spellings since he was one of the earliest immigrants.

As for the towns, I've found several possible spellings. Some are Austrian names, and others appear to be phonetic spellings of Ukraine names or at least near spellings. Here's some of the town names of the various relatives. A Jendrzej Lapica, who may be the brother of my grandfather, Michael Lapica, is listed on a manifest as being from a town that appears to be Zsidowicze or Zristowscze, Austria. These town names are from a 1907 document.

Other town names I've come across are Radowice Austria, for a woman that may be a great aunt named Anastasia Lapitowski. Her's was the name that was overwritten on the name Lapica. In another place the town is spelled Ratowice.

I've got other names and towns, but I was hoping that I could at least get one town located before I move onto other towns for other relatives. I once found a map on line that had towns in the Lviv area from the Austrian area when Lviv was called Lemburg. But I still couldnt locate any of these towns on that map let along the correct surnames.

I'm starting to ramble, but if anyone recognizes these surnames or towns, I would greatly appreciate it. And yes, I would love to visit in the coming years.

Thanks in advance for any help

Dennis