My grandfather, John Biega arrived in America in 1907. He was born 1881 in Dziewietniki, a village about 23 miles (48km) south of Lwów in Galicia, at that time a province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire since the partition of Poland in the late 18th century.
My grandfather's father Matthew was born in the early 1850s and had two brothers, Anton, and Ivan. My grandfather was one of six children. He had five siblings (Theodore 1873), Katarina (1878), Vasyl (1884), Michola (1886) and Michylo (1892). I have general information that one or more of my grandfather's siblings settled in Philadelphia but, have not been able to recover any information to support that speculation.
He returned to his village in 1910 to bring his wife Mary (Skrutt) Biega of Austrian descent back to America. They lived in Northumberland, central Pennsylvania, where he worked as a Dyer in a textile mill. He became a citizen of the United States in 1926.
They had three sons - Michael, William and Stephen. Mary died in the influenza epidemic of 1918. Shortly afterwards John remarried, also Mary, but they had no more children

     Michael Biega, born 1912, was a Chef at the original Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida. Then he owned a restaurant in Brooklyn New York and semi-retired as the Head Chef at the New Jersey State Police Academy. Michael lived in Lakewood, N.J.
     William Biega, born 1914, until recently, lived in Central Pensylvania in the town of Sunbury. He served in the Army, in the Pacific, under General McArthur and was his personal MP body guard for a time. William, a 32nd Degree Mason, was one of two principles of King Construction in Sunbury. He married Arlene Keyser. He died in 2006 at the age of 91.
     The youngest son Stephen, born in 1916, is my father. My mother is Gladys Musser, whose parents were Robert Musser and Elsie Snyder.