My Family: The Popko Clan, Part 1

As a kid, it was kind of fun to learn that my paternal grandmother’s maiden name was something fun to say like “Popko”. Even funnier was her father’s name: Zigismund. Say it: Zigismund Popko. Doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, but it is fun to say.

Granted, it doesn’t end in “ski”, but it’s about as Polish as you can get. (Believe me. I learned as I got older and understood my grandmother’s odd sense of humor why people tell Polish jokes – which Polish people don’t understand.) Zigismund (born 1885) came from Poland sometime in the 1890s, not exactly sure when but he seems to have settled in Upper Peninsula Michigan by 1901. My research indicates that his future wife, Kamilla Kulik (born 1883) came from Poland in 1900. She settled in Chicago (didn’t nearly everyone who is Polish?). How exactly they met or when, I’ve no clue. But they were married in 1911 and settled in Michigan for the rest of their lives.

It was a year previous to that that they only other family member from that generation I know (well, have stories of as each of this generation died decades before I was born) was “Unc”, as he was called. Konstantyn Popko (born 1891) immigrated to America in the early 1900s and came to live with his older brother in 1910. He would join the army in 1917, serving mainly in Alaska during World War I. Like his brother, he mainly worked in the iron mines in the Upper Peninsula, although he left for a while to work at the Cadillac factory in Detroit before later returning to work for the railway until his retirement. He never married and died in 1961.

Meanwhile, Zigismund and Kamila bought a farm (although Zigismund would continue to mine and work for the railway company) and had a family of ten. Not a surprising number for a good, old Polish Catholic family. And once simply has to love the names: Eva, Monica, Francis, Julie, Paula Prudentia, Melania, Leo, Mary Magdaline, Theodolinde Gevnevieve and Clothilda Ann. Every one of them good, old Polish Catholic names.

Kamila would die in 1948, six years before my dad was born so he has no stories to tell of her. Zigismund would pass in 1960, when my dad was six, so he does have some memories of him. What I know of them is very little. My grandmother (the baby of the family) never spoke much about her mother, whom she didn’t get along with. Nor did she have a lot to say about her father, even though she apparently did get along with him. As the baby by at least 19 years, many of her siblings were quite a bit older and would leave home before she began to understand who they were. And, to be blunt, my grandmother simply did not have anything nice to say about some of her siblings. While others, because of who they became, she spoke of as if they were gods. Let’s just say I still have a rather odd, mythical idea of the Popko clan.

In 2000, I saw the family farm in Bessemer, Michigan for the first (and likely the last) time. I had heard much of it all my life, especially the fact that the 400 acre plot was evenly divided between the siblings and, so, my grandmother had land. And while it is a lovely piece of land, no one really wants to live in Upper Peninsula Michigan. Hence, why since the death of my two great aunts, it is simply that: a lovely piece of land. My grandmother always made it a point to tell us that her portion of the plot would go to her five kids. Which, I guess, they can give to their kids. Which starts to remind me of the Polish tradition of breaking a wafer between every member of the family at Christmas. My grandmother loved that tradition. I always wondered what was so special about the itty bitty sweaty pieces of wafer left in my hand by the time my generation got to partake. I was supposed to eat it?!?!? For it would seem that my allotment of 400 acres has become one acre. And what am I supposed to do with one acre of land in Upper Peninsula Michigan? Exactly.

Truthfully, I wish I did know more about Zigismund and Kamila. Supposedly, Kamila never learned to speak English (although she could understand it). Did she feel lost in this new world? Meanwhile, Zigismund apparently spoke many different languages and was considered very trustworthy and generous by his neighbors. What was it like to raise a family of ten in the tiny house I saw, especially in the very long winters of the Upper Peninsula? What had life been like in Poland? Why did they come here? Was America everything they thought it would be? But most especially, what did they think of their children and the choices they made? For the stories I have heard were usually told in bitter resentment…or godlike reverence. In short:

Eva: died young

Monica: aka Sister Mary Theolinde of the order of the School Sisters of Notre Dame

Francis: died before his mother, apparently a tragedy

Julie: the surviving sibling – now 99 years of age

Paula: the witch

Melania: aka Sister Mary Carlita who reverted back to Sister Melania of the School Sisters of Notre Dame

Leo: the surviving son

Mary: mentally disabled

Theodolinde (“Theo”): the normal one

Clothilda (“Clo”): my grandmother