My family name is Dobromiski (or Dobromilsky). I'm a young man, my early twenties. But, given what my father has told me about our family name, I am under the impression that there was a province, a town, a something by the name of Dobromil in pre WWI Ukraine. I hesitate to say that we were pseudo royalty (partly because I have no idea and partly because it sounds incredibly egotistic), but my grandmother insists that she once looked at a map of pre WWI Ukraine and found some sort of geographical area called Dobromil (I assume that this is the correct spelling but I could be wrong). A family anecdote we have that supports this fact is that, when my great grandmother, living in Cleveland at this point, would bring up the fact that her last name was Dobromilski (or Dobromilsky), Eastern European immigrants would kiss her hand.
I've Googled it briefly and come up with these five Wikipedia redirects: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dobromil
I am, however, unsure as to where it was. I would presume that it was in Ukraine, which would be supported by these anecdotes. My great grandfather John Dobromilski's father had something to do with this dynasty from what I understand. I am currently trying to look up his name but don't know what it is. I will update this post as I find out more information.
This is one of the most stringently moderated subreddits that I know of, and, more importantly, one that pertains to my question. If any of you guys can help me out, I would appreciate it more than you can imagine. Please feel free to reply to this post or PM me. We really do have a lot of family history riding on this question.
The place names of Southern Poland have changed since the start of the 20th century. For example, the Austrian Hungarian city of Lemberg was called Lwow (pronounced Lvov) when Poland regained its independence in 1918, and had its name changed to Lviv when it was incorporated into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1945.
The town your family knew as Dobromil is now known as Dobromyl. The fifth one of the Wikipedia entries that Google helped you locate is almost certainly your best source to find out more about your ancestor's homeland. Particularly when you read the part about how Dobromyl was founded in 1374 and Stanislaw Herburt built his castle there in 1392. By the time Dobromyl was annexed by the Hapsburgs, during the first partition of Poland in 1772, the Herburt family had changed their name to the Dobromilski family.
Do you read Ukrainian, or know somebody who does ? Because there is a Dobromyl.org website and a Dobromyl facebook page. However, both of these sites are published in the Ukrainian language. They look like a small town newspaper and focus on local news. Dobromyl is very close to the Poland Ukrane border. It is 28 kilometers south of Przemysl Poland, which was the major fortress built by the Austrian Hungarian Empire, to protect their share of Poland. Dobromyl is also 109 kilometers west of Lviv, Ukraine, which is the closest large city to Dobromyl.