Family:Carl Polkow and Fredericka Unknown (1)
 
Carl Polkow
b. Oct 1837 Prussia, Germany
d. 1914
 
Fredericka Unknown
b. Apr 1834 Prussia, Germany
d. 28 Feb 1903 Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States
m. Abt 1866
Facts and Events
Marriage[3] Abt 1866
Residence[1] 1870 Thornton Township, Cook, Illinois, United States
Residence[2] 1880 Thornton Township, Cook, Illinois, United States
Residence[3] 1900 Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States
Children
BirthDeath
1.
Mary Polkow
1867 Illinois
 
2.
John C. Polkow
1869 Illinois
 
3.
Sophia Caroline Polkow
8 Oct 1870 Thornton Township, Cook, Illinois, United States
28 Mar 1952 Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States
4.
Minnie Polkow
2 Dec 1875 Thornton, Cook, Illinois
11 Dec 1893 Chicago, Cook, Illinois
5.
Louis Polkow
1879 Illinois
 
Add child

Carl and Fredericka were both born in Prussia. They married about 1866[3]. It's not clear whether they married and then came to the U.S., or if they married just after they came. The 1900 census lists their immigration date as 1862[3], four years before Carl and Fredericka were married. This does not agree with other records which have an immigration date closer to the date of their marriage. Carl's 1892 voting record[4] states he had been in the country for 26 years, which would put the date at 1866, around the time they married. They settled in Thornton, at the time a rural community south of Chicago. Today it is a suburb of Chicago.

Their first three of their five children, Mary, John, and Sophie, followed quickly after their marriage, all born in the first four years. Youngest daughter Minnie came five years later, and finally son Louis rounded out the family 3 years after that.

Sometime between 1880 and 1892 the family moved from Thornton to Chicago. In 1892 they lived at 754 W 19th St, Chicago, Cook County, Illinois.

Daughter Mary married Charles Thimian in 1887. John married Teresa Schuld in 1889. Sadly, Carl and Fredericka lost their youngest daughter Minnie to typhoid fever in 1893. She was 18. Sophie married John Becker two years after that in 1895. Son John married Selma Steinberg in 1901. The couple enjoyed many grandchildren before Fredericka's death in 1903 at the age of 68.

Daughter Mary and her family moved to Milwaukee sometime after 1900. Sometime after Fredericka's death Carl moved to Milwaukee to live with them.

Great-Grandson Lewis Russell Ahner Jr remembers that the Polkows came from a region in Germany near the Polish border. He remembers going to visit Polkows in Ohio as a boy.S5 Further research has shown that this was his Uncle Louis Polkow, in Mahoning.

References
  1. ↑ 1870 US Federal Population Census: Thorton Township, Cook County, Illinois
    1870.
  2. ↑ 1880 US Federal Population Census: Thornton Township, Cook County, Illinois
    1880.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 1900 US Federal Population Census: Thornton Township, Cook County, Illinois
    1900.

    They were listed as being married for 34 years

  4. ↑ 1892 Chicago Voter Registration: Carl Polkow. (Chicago Voter Reigstration, 1892)
    1892.
  5.   Lewis Ahner Interview. (Lewis Ahner, 1999).
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