Interesting tidbit - Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church - Wikipedia
I give you Prof. Josef Oleskow. See also.
My mom’s family has, as far as she knows, always been Roman Catholic - none of them funny crosses with extra bits. Uncommon there? (Or, less common than in the past - the guy in question would have left in 1888, after all.) And he definitely didn’t speak Russian. Of course, there was a long, complicated 20th century in between. I mean, anywhere else and I’d say there would have to be people in that little town related to us, but after two world wars fought pretty much right there, a few Soviet famines, and some communist social engineering, and who knows?
ETA - that bit about Dr. Oleskow is really interesting. It just kind of highlights how much we really don’t know about our frozen neighbor to the north down here.
Additionally, there are 863 Roman Catholic (Latin or Western Rite) communities, and 474 clergy members serving some one million Roman Catholics in Ukraine. The group forms some 2.19 percent of the population and consists mainly of ethnic Poles and Hungarians, who live predominantly in the western regions of the country.
So, yep - still some :).
Eastern Europe in general, but former Imperial Russia in particular, seems to be a bit of a black hole for genealogists. I have friends that can trace themselves back to, say, Moldavia and then the trail just fades away. Bad records, variable surnames and all the chaos of the 20th century rubs out all traces.
Both the book and movie Everything Is Illuminated is actually a pretty fun ( occasionally grim ) take on that, actually.
Actually, I don’t think they ever did speak a lot of Polish there, but rather a language that is referred to as Ruthenian (or: Rusyn), which might sound like the
that rocking chair describes. Nowadays, I think people (esp. older ones) might speak that language and also Ukrainian.
Poo-teen. At least, that’s how they say it in the Ukrainian-Canadian farming community where I grew up! 
There were a lot of factors. Clifford Sifton encouraged Ukrainians and Doukhobors to come to Western Canada. The Prairies have great farmland which encouraged farmers to come over, and the construction of the railroad also contributed. My grandfather came over from Ukraine, worked on the railroad and eventually settled in Saskatchewan because that’s where his family that also came here was.
So basically, the same ol’ “come for the chance at a better life” thing.
i spoke to a few ukrainians today. they suggest going to the nearest large ukraine city and try the travel agencies or universities for a guide. that way you would get a person who speaks english and knows the areas.
if you pm me on when you would go over there, i could get some names and numbers for you.
There were a lot more Poles in eastern Galicia before WWII. In 1920, according to Norman Davies
Between the wars, eastern Galicia was incorporated in the second Polish republic. After WWII, the Soviet Union took eastern Galicia from Poland and gave it to the Ukrainian SSR. They also took Silesia from Germany and gave it to Poland. Nearly all the Germans were expelled from Silesia, and many if not most eastern Galician Poles moved to Silesia. Wroclaw in particular received large numbers of Poles from Lwow.