In 1856, August Klafka was born to Joseph (Klafk) Klafka and Francisca (Gaffk) Gawka in Poland. At that time, the area was not Poland, but West Prussia, so the town was called Lessnau. See the map of West Prussia above. An except from August's birth record is shown below. You can see the full record by clicking on the image.

 

In 1879, August married Apolonia Nikrandt, and the following year August and Apolonia came to America. 

By 1900, August and Polly had nine children, Anna, Johan, Mariana, Lena, Aloysius, Frank, Rosa, Bernard, and Clara. They lived at 383 Lincoln Avenue in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and August was a tavern keeper.

Frank Klafka married Monica Szpera in 1915, daughter to Anthony Szpera and Mary Turczyn. They had eight children, August, Dorothy, Leonard, Jean, Norbert, Florian, Ray and Ralph.

Leonard Klafka married Florence Anna Korzeniewski, daughter of Anton Korzeniewski and Veronica Hordyk, at St. Gerards Catholic Church in 1946 on 16th Street and Oklahoma Avenue, about two miles from where August Klafka lived in 1900. Leonard and Florence had seven children, Susan, David, Richard, Dennis, Steven, Patricia and Jeffrey. Click here for a picture of them all.

And that is how we came to have this web page.