Galicia ethnicity question

James84179

This is probably a dumb question, but I have an ancestor that lived in Galicia (specifically the village of Rydoduby, Bezirk Czortków in the 1890s.

He was a Roman Catholic and had a last name of Borowski, his mom's last name was Zimbrowska. Still working on the exact transcriptions of his grandparents and great-grand parents, but current best guesses are Szmadylo, Senek and Thorowska. (Side note, does the ending -ski or -ska change depending on if the person is male or female??)

Does that would point to his family being Polish, but living in Galicia and under the rule of Austria Hungary?

And if he was greek catholic, he most likely would have been Ruthenian (ie Ukrainian)?

And if he was jewish, then jewish.

And I guess there were some germans in that area as well? Any other potential possiblites to be aware of?

Christopher Kovach_1

The names are Polish.

The endings -ski and -ska are gender-specific, -ski for males, -ska for females.

If they were Greek-Catholics they would be Ruthenians(aka Russyn), but not necessarily Ukrainian.

I think if they were Jewish, they would most likely have a German-sounding name.