Katherine emigrated to the United States in 1879 at age 4, and did not become a United States citizen until 1895.
986On 1 June 1900 Katie Patka, 25 and married for 4 years, and her first child Clara Patka, 1, live in Gilmanton Township, Benton County, Minnesota. John Francis Patka does not live with them. Two houses away lives a John Patka, born in 1840 with his wife Mary, and eight children.
984 Frank, and his family lived with Kate Patka in her home at 622 11th St. South in Virginia, Minnesota until Kate went to live with Jim and Bertha in Ely which is where she died.
1340per Sue Monahan:
Their mother, Casmira, was sensitive about her name. It was "Old Country" and unfamiliar to Americans. So she decided that she would be "Kate." And she was adamant that it wasn't "Katherine." However "Katherine" does appear in censuses, on her death certificate, and probably elsewhere as well.
Catholic families had to have their children baptized with a saint's name. St. Casimir is the patron saint of Poland and Lithuania. "Casmira" is the feminine version of the name. There are numerous St. Katherines from other countries.
I was 12 when great-grandmother Kate died, so I knew her in her latter years. She had a hard life.
Yes, you may use me as a source. Her father's name is known to us, but not her mother's. The family story says that Casmira's mother and sister died in Germany, so her father scooped up his remaining child and left for America. He remarried, and had six children with his second wife . I haven't looked for any European records for this family.
Sue Monahan
On 1 June 1880 and in 1895 John lived with his parents on their farm in Gilmanton, Minnesota.
700,994On 1 June 1900 Katie, 25 and married, and her first child Clara, 1, lived in Gilmanton Township, Benton County, Minnesota. John Francis Patka did not live with them,
984nor with his parents in Gilmanton.
996 After Benedict was born in 1905 the family moved, and in 1910 John, 39, lived in the Township of Morse, St. Louis County, Minnesota with his wife Kate, 33, and daughter Clara, 11, and sons Frank, 7, Benjamin, 5, and Theodore, 1. They had been married for 15 years, and had five children, 1 of whom was deceased.
985 On 1 January 1920 he lived at 622 South 11th Street, Virginia, Minnesota with his wife Catharine, 45, and children Frank, 16, Benedict, 14, Theodore, 10 and Joseph, 8.
986 On 1 April 1930 John, 60, lived in a house he owned worth $1000 at 622 Eleventh Street South, Virginia, Minnesota, with his wife Kate, 56, and sons Benedict, 24 and single, and Joseph, 19 and single. He was an edger man in a lumber mill.
988
Where is John in 1900? I can’t find him in USA census for 1900.