Early Pionke and Pionek Families in Chicago and Wisconsin

This post is the first in a series examining the early Pionke, Pionk, Pionek, and Piontke families in Chicago, Wisconsin, and South Dakota.

Joseph Pionke c.1908

When my sister and I began researching our ancestor Joseph Pionke, we soon learned there were other Pionkes in Chicago. Naturally, we wondered how they might be related to each other, and to us. It was tempting to guess that these other Pionkes - of the same age range, living in the same neighborhood - were Joseph's siblings.

And then we discovered the Chicago Catholic parish records on microfilm. There were far more Pionkes or Pionks than I could have guessed. Fortunately, most marriage records included the names of the bride and groom's parents, which helped me to sort these Pionkes into family groups.

As I got deeper into Pionke research, I came across a few claims that all Pionkes in Illinois and Wisconsin are related. But is that true?

It is true that some photos of various Pionke and Pionek ancestors seem to share a resemblance. And it is true that most of these Pionkes settled in the same areas when they first arrived here - specifically, Chicago's St. Stanislaus Kostka and St. Josaphat parishes, and Portage County, Wisconsin.

Is there a family resemblance? See for yourself!

A few Find A Grave members have been kind enough to include photos of their Pionke or Pionek ancestors. Do they all look like cousins to you? Here is Leon Pionke (group 1), my great-grandfather. And this is Martin Pionek (group 2), his second cousin. Finally, another Martin, this one a Pionke (group 9).

However, there were actually at least NINE different Pionke family groups in Chicago and/or Wisconsin in the late 1800s. There were Pionks and Pionkes, and then later Pioneks and Pionkeys. Some were clearly close relatives; others were not. These families are outlined below.

Return of the Blog!

Hello, friends and family!

After a lengthy absence, I have decide to resume blogging. If so inclined, please commence the dance of joy.

Updates

In the year and a half since I last posted here, my sister and I have made many advances in our family research. We have discovered several more generations back on our Wacławik line and found our very first Polish 7th-great-grandparents: Józef and Salomea Łysak, and Jan Sławieński.

We are also working on finding our ancestors' death dates and more of their children's names on our Walczyk side.

On our Kashub side, I have broken through a few brick walls and found new information, new documents, and "new" ancestors on our Konkol/Kunkel, Abraham, and Freibis lines. When I last wrote about Joseph Freibis, I had not yet found his parents; now I know the names of his grandparents and even some of his great-grandparents and beyond - including a marriage record from 1720!

And I am happy to say that, on both sides, we have fun new discoveries about a few of our ancestors' occupations. Not all of them were simply peasant, laborer, farm laborer, day laborer... etc., etc.

Our DNA tests have also yielded many exciting matches which have given us clues for even more discoveries. Matches include new-found cousins on our Pionke, Abraham, Klawikowski, and Eland lines.

Changes

Because of this long absence, some features on the blog need to change. Unfortunately many parts of the How To section are no longer correct, thanks to changes on Ancestry and Blogger. If you are unable to leave a comment, please email and I will try to figure out the problem.

But on the positive side, we have more names to add to the Surnames page.

And although I loved the idea of the 52 Ancestors Challenge, we will no longer attempt to follow this fun group challenge. Instead, I may introduce an Ancestor of the Week feature.

Another new feature (which begins today!) will be Pionke Fridays. This title is a play on words: Pionk sounds like Piątk, the Kashubian word for Friday. Over the years, I have researched several Pionke families in addition to our own, and I will use this format to share that research.

Over the next month or two I will update these and other components of the blog, so please be patient if you notice outdated links, etc.

Thanks for reading!

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