Grandma (Busia)Sofia Zdyr, one tough little Polish Lady

I know very little about Busia's family except that her father was half Ukrainian and half Polish. She was born in Galicia, Poland which was part of the Austria-Hungary Empire. Galicia came to be after after Poland was divided up between the Russians and Germans. That technically made her an Austrian citizen.

 Sophia or Zofia was my Mother's mother. This tough little lady  was born in 1892 in a village near Lwow, Poland -- now Lviv Ukraine. She came to the U.S. to Glenville, Connecticut where a number of Polish ex pats from her region settled. She came alone as a young teenager around 1908 -1910. Her father, whose last name was Szkarbaluk came to the States in the early 1900s with the intent of getting a job and saving enough to bring the entire family over.

He never reached that goal. His loneliness, the looming war and civil unrest back home sent him back to be with his family. He had saved only enough to send one of his children to the safety of the U. S. Legend says he chose the brightest of his children ... little zofia. 
This is not verified, but it is quite possible he also put together a small dowry for his daughter and offered it to her soon to be husband, Josef Zdyr in an arranged marriage a few short years after she arrived in the Polish community in Glenvill CT.

The Bolshevik Revolution was in full force and the family lost at least one members who fought against the communist "Reds". The province of Galicia was taken from the Austrian Empire by the Russians and the history becomes confused at that point. Borders changed between the first and second world war. the country and the world was a mess.

She did tie up with cousins in Connecticut who had immigrated before her. After a time, during which she  worked in New York City as a domestic for a well to do Jewish family in the city, a marriage was arranged with Grandfather Josef Zdyr, who had left Connecticut for Detroit and the promise of Henry Ford's $5 per day paycheck before returning to meet his new bride-to-be for the first time.

The wedding took place at St. Paul Church in Grenwich Connecticut on May 23 1915. A short time later, the young couple came to Detroit, where Josef had moved to earlier attracted by the generous $5 per day pay at the Ford factory.  Her new husband had already built a house there.at 6943 Mercier. 

Jozef had earned enough to build  the home in Detroit's southwest side. The house is still inhabited by my Aunt Irene Zdyr, (until her death (in 2015) busia's daughter-in-law. It played a big role in the family's history. During the war years of 1943-1945, I lived there with my mother, grandfather, and my uncle Ben and Aunt Irene and my best friend at the time Cousin Butch and his sister Patsy. My earliest and happiest childhood memories come from those years... more about Zofia and the house on Mercier later.