Looking for Ancestors Both Maternal Popielasz and Paternal Kubeja

When one is young, we don't think the past is important. It isn't until we grow up, get a degree along with employment, and perhaps start a family that our perspective starts to change. Whether single or married, we make a medical or dental appointment and discover that we are supposed to know things about the previous generations, like did they suffer from high blood pressure, or did they have cancer, any mental problems, etc.
And what if our grandparents or parents had died young? Who do we ask? Oh, dear, maybe I should have paid attention the few times I actually visited grandma and grandpa, or Aunt Stella, or Uncle Phil. OR, our own children or grandchildren start asking questions and we have no answers for them?
Yep. I fell into that trap just like quite a few others, though I do have some answers. This is what I know. My mother (Ladislawa Popielasz) and father (Walter Kubeja) met in Erie, PA and married on June 1, 1925. I do know that my mother's parents were from a little village outside (E or SE) of Lublin, Poland. Their names were Jan (John) Popielasz and Frances Stachal. They left Poland around 1912/1913 and initially immigrated to northern Brazil around the Amazon River basin. Two of my mother's sisters, Mary and Margaret, died there. My maternal grandmother insisted that they move someplace where they could attend Mass regularly (they only saw a priest every month or so). When John and Frances Popielasz finally left Brazil and migrated to the US, they settled initially in or around Latrobe, PA and then ended up living in Erie, PA. I am not sure if my mother was 8 years old when they initially went to Brazil or when they finally settled in Erie. Sometime after WWI, my mother's parents returned to Poland, where a few of my mother's sisters were born. My mother Lottie (Ladislawa Popielasz) and her older sister, Jennie Zimmerman, did not go back to Poland, but stayed in Erie.
Sorry to cut this short, but I will continue a little later.