More Information on Mary Prondzinski Wika, wife of Vince Wika

The Winona, MN newspaper project lists the following information which can pinpoint the residences of Mary and Vincent Wicka in addition to what we know from the Census Records of 1920 and 1930.

In 1929, Mary Prondzinski traveled from Dodge to visit her daughter Celia Stritzel and then her brother, Joseph Prondzinki who was living in Milwaukee, WI

In 1939, Mary and Vincent Wicka were in Dodge, WI and had a dinner.  The invitees included:  Mr. and Mrs. Frank Wika, and children (that would be Barbara and Theresa), Mr. and Mrs Robert Wika, Angeline Przybylski, Adeline Wika, Florian Wika, and Hubert Klinesmith (spelling at that time).  This was prior to the marriage of Angeline and Florian and Adeline and Hubert.

In 1942, (four years prior to Mary's death, she and Vincent were still living in Dodge, WI), the paper noted that Mary traveled to Duluth, MN to visit her sister, Mrs. Mike Smegal, who was seriously ill in the hospital and her other sister, Mrs. George Doell

Tidbits Recenlty Learned from Ancester.com

Mary Prondzinski Wicka was born in Zelewo, Poland.  In an earlier post, I had misread the name from Mary's obituary of which I had a copy...the print was not that readable.  This is perhaps the reason I was unable to locate this on the map of Poland.  There are two provinces associated with Zelewo, Poland and as of today, I am not sure which one is the correct one.  

Per the 1920 and 1930 Census record, Vince Wika was living with his family in the Arcadia township.  My dad, Florian Wicka was with the family at the age of 8 in the 1930 census.   In 1930, my dad, at the age of 19 was listed as a lodger in Dodge Township.  Via verbal family history, I had heard the story that dad moved to Dodge to live with his brother Robert and family as he did not get along with his father.  The 1930 Census Records for Vince Wika and Florian Wika seem to support the oral history. 

Vince Wika's  (in the documentation found thus far, Vincent is listed as "Vince") mother was Mary and we believe her surname was Witkowski.  In the 1930 Census Record she was living with her son.  Her husband, Jan Wika had died in 1906, so it seems reasonable that she would have been living with one of her children. She is listed as being 85 years old with her birthdate being about 1845.  The 1930 Census Record indicates that she was born in Poland and her Immigration date is listed as 1860.

Ancestry.com recommended that the Wika spelling be used for the Family Tree.  At a later date, I may change family members starting with Florian Wika's children back to the Wicka spelling.

Kashubian Surnames

The Polish Genealogical Society, of America, PGSA, provides the following information about Kashubian Surnames. This post may seem to be premature to my documenting other historical data on the Wicka (Wika) family but I did not want to lose this thread. I remember vaguely that my dad, Florian Wicka, in the rare times he spoke about his Polish, claimed that others Poles not too distant away could not always understand his Polish. It is thought that our family were part of the Kashubians. In the following excerpt from the PGSA, it is noted that many of the Kashubians were located in Winona as well as Pine Creek, Wisconsin...locales where my father live. In another posting, I will share more about the Kashubians.

The PGSA says, "This collection of Kashub names is written mainly from the viewpoint of the Barry's Bay, Wilno, Renfrew settlement of Kashubs in Ontario, though it has a lot of information about Kashubs in Poland and in the Stevens Point, Polonia regions and the Winona, Pine Creek areas of Minnesota and Wisconsin areas in the U.S.A. These are by no means all the Kashub names that exist. There are dozens of other names, especially in the Stevens Point area phone directory, which may be either Kashub or Polish, but I am not familiar enough with them. Stevens Point region seemed to be the largest Kashub settlement in the U.S.A. The Barry's Bay area has 3 Kashub Polish parishes; the Stevens Point area must have 10 or 12 quite large parishes, e.g.: Stevens Point, Polonia, Rosholt, Bevent, Torun, Fancher, Guster, Hatley, Galloway, St. Casimir's, Hull, Heffron. ***In Poland, Kashubs living 30 miles north and northwest of Lipusz generally have completely different surnames with very few ending in "Ski". "By 1900, there were 10,000 Poles, mostly Kashub in the Stevens Point area of Wisconsin, 5,000 Kashubs in the Buffalo metropolitan area, 5,000 Kashubs in the Detroit metropolitan area, 5,000 Kashubs in the Winona, Minnesota region, ranked fourth after Stevens Point, 90,000 Kashubs in U.S.A. by 1900; more than 10 times the number in Canada at that time. About 600 families in the combined Sturgeon Lake, New Brighton and St. Paul, Minneapolis areas in Minnesota." (Information from article: "They Chose Minnesota: A Survey of the State's Ethnic Groups" by Frank Renkiewicz) By 1900 there were more Kashubs in the Winona area alone than in Renfrew County today. Four-fifths of the Polish people in the Winona region were Kashubs. The same would apply approximately to the proportion of Kashubs to other Poles in the Stevens Point region and in Renfrew County, Ontario. Emigration of Kashubs to the U.S.A. seemed to start about four years earlier than to Canada, beginning about 1855. But the villages of emigration named in documents are about the same as those mentioned emigrating to Canada. Thus: Wiele, Lipusz, Le~sno, Brusy, Sierakowice, Ugoszcz, Borzyszkowy, St~e~zyca, etc., from the southern edge to Kaszuby (Cassubia). You will notice that in the U.S., the Poles stuck as closely as possible to the original spelling of their names where as their Canadian cousins have anglicized their names much more. A further variation in the Canadian names is that most of them have added an "e" to the "ski" in their name, e.g.: Olsheskie, Chapeskie, Sernoskie, Recoskie, Kedroskie, Gutoskie. To avoid complications, I only entered the "ski" as it came from Poland, understanding that many, maybe most of the people presently add an "e" to the "ski". "

Vincent Wicka (Wika)'s Immediate Family

Vincent Wicka (Wika) was born in Pine Creek, Wisconsin. He was born on December 4, 1867 (One record gives the date of 1865). The information which I currently have on Vincent is at best sketchy, incomplete, and may be inaccurate but it is a start. His father was John (Jan) Wicka (Wika). Jan's gravestone is written in Polish. I think it says that he died in May of 1906 at the age of 77. That would mean he was born in 1829.

Vincent siblings include a Rose, wife of Edward Klake from the area of Hawkins and Ladysmith, Wisconsin; a Mrs. John Wierkus (first name unknown) and Philip Wicka who died in May of 1942. He was from St. Phillippis, Montana. (Philip's son, also a Philip was from Wilbaux, Montana) (I do know that my father, Florian Wicka had relatives in Wilbaux, Montana.)

Vincent Wicka married Mary Pronzinski on January 30, 1894. Other tidbits of information include the following. Vincent operated a meat market in Winona, Minnesota for a time. In 1909 he returned to the farm where he was born, a branch valley off of Latch Valley, near Dodge, Wisconsin. He retired from the farm in 1941.

Florian Bernard (Joannes) Wicka's immediate family

My father's parents (my grandparents) were Vincent Wicka (Wika), born on December 4, 1867 and died on July 14, 1948 and Mary Prondzinski born on November 20, 1876 and died on January 10, 1946 in Dodge, Wisconsin . She had resided in the Dodge vicinity for 38 years. (I was two plus years old when my grandmother died but I have absolutely no recollection of her.) My grandmother's obituary in the Winona Republican Herald says that she was born in Zelewc, Poland. (Though this is the quest for Wicka roots, I note that at the time of her death, my grandmother had these siblings: Mrs. Michael Smegal, Viriginia, MN, Mrs. Anna Janaszak, Hibbing, MN, Mrs. Agnes Rirchell, Richmond, CA and Mrs. George Doell, Duluth, MN. The names I recollect from my youth are the Smegal and Doell surnames.)



My grandparents had nine children: Celia born on October 24, 1895, Veronica born on July 6, 1897, Robert born on May 24, 1899, Martha born on Jan 30, 1901, Frank born on August 4, 1904, Rose born on March 11, 1907, Florian born on Dec 27, 1911, Edward born on September 26, 1913, and Adeline born on May 20, 1919. (For the longest time, I held the incorrect notion that my dad, Florian, was the youngest of his family. Martha died at the age of four before I was born. Edward was born disabled and lived most of his adult life in a Sanatorium in Whitehall, Wi.I remember going with my dad to visit him. I remember that we always bought a watermelon and all of us ate it while we were on the grounds of the Sanatorium.)

My Immediate Family Information

My father is Florian Bernard (Joannes?) Wicka. He was born on December 27, 1911 in Pine Creek, Trempealeau County, Wisconsin. My father died on March 2, 1984. He resided most of his adult life in Winona, Minnesota. His birth record shows his name as "Wika".

My mother is Angeline Barbara Przybylski who was born on January 4, 1919. She, too, spent most of her adult life in Winona, Minnesota. My mother died August 31, 1996. My parents were married on June 25, 1940 in St. Stanislaus Kostka Catholic Church in Winona.

Their offspring included five children: Daniel Francis born on July 27, 1941, William Florian, born on October 6, 1942, Judith Barbara born on October 23, 1943, Sandra Kay, born on March 29, 1948, and Charles Edmund born on January 15, 1950. William died on March 20, 1993 and Charles died October 20, 1987.

Recollections and Regrets

The Background for this Journey

Recollections:

One of the very few recollections I have as a child are of my grandfather, albeit it is just a glint of a memory. I think I would have been four or five years old. I remember my grandfather at my aunt Rose's home in the east end of Winona, Minnesota. It was a long narrow brick home with an equally long narrow path leading to a side door in the back. It was this door that we usually entered. I remember this particular door because it was through this door, years later, that I first set eyes on my first dog, a puppy. We named the puppy , Timmy only to learn years later that Timmy was a female.

I remember my grandfather was in a dark suit, perhaps black. He was sitting in a chair in what seemed to be a formal living room. He had a full set of white hair and a white beard. He held a cane in his hand. I think it was just my dad and myself who came to visit. I often accompanied my dad to visit his sister though I remember few of those visits. It never felt like a warm friendly or welcoming home. I can't telll you why, I just remember feeling "stiff" and very "shy" while I was there.

Another recollection is one of "dread". I remember the knocking at our porch door of our house on Hamilton Street in Winona and the bustling of several older women with funny hats and lots of rouge on their faces. It must have been winter because I remember large dark colored coats with fur collars. There were strong perfumy smells, too. But mostly I remember not wanting to be there to greet these women. They spoke a funny language which I did not understand. I remember bashfully withdrawing lest they come near to give me a kiss as a greeting. They were my dad's sisters. While they would speak at times in heavily accented English, when they saw my dad, they would switch languages and I felt strangely left out. My younger sister would cringe and hold on to my skirt.

Once inside our home, one of my dad's sister, my aunt Verna would solemnly take off her hat and coat and I would be surprised to see that she was wearing not one, but sometimes three dresses at the same time. (Many, many years later when I visited Poland in the late 1970's, I saw many Polish folks dressed the same. This was what we know as the "layered" look. The Polish folks put on layers of clothers to keep warm because they did not have outer wear such as coats and sweaters like I was familiar with.)

Regrets:

I often ask myself why I didn't ask my dad to help me understand what he and my aunts were speaking about. I shyly felt I was respecting their privacy by not asking. I would have loved to know what they were laughing about, but I did not ask. (Several years ago, I started a Polish class and think how easy it would have been to learn the language as a child. Is it ironic or not that in college and post-graduate work, I majored in language with Spanish as the core language but also studied, Latin, Portuguese, French, and Greek Roots?)

I regret not asking my dad to tell me stories of his parents, his homeland, his culture, his food, and his language. I thought it all strange and felt frankly embarrassed by the differences. (Another irony, I wrote a paper which won a scholarship to study in Mexico for both graduate and post graduate work. The central them was that to understand a languge one first had to understand the culture of a country, everything from hand signals, to cooking, to geography, to customs and dress.) I was exposed to the bits and pieces of culture but I never tied it to language or used it to better understand my own family and that is a major regret. I regret that I have only one memory of my grandfather. I do not know if he ever held me or called me by name. Did he ever call me grandaughter in Polish and why didn't I call him grampa in his language? Where did my grandfather live; where did he come from; who were his family, how did he earn his living; what were his interests, what were his dreams or his disappointments?

I regret that I have so few recollections. I regret not starting this search sooner and I regret that I know oh, so little. It is my hope, that any one out there who is seeking his or her family history or joins me in the search of the Wicka family, that you start now, not tomorrow, or a year from now. Just do it as I intend to do. Join me in my quest for the Polish Ancestry of the Wicka family.