Family of Franz SLIPKA and Mary BURESH

Franz SLIPKA  Father Mother ? SLIPKA .

Mary BURESH  Father Mother John BURESH Mary

Married:

Children:

Francis SLIPKA	b. 1856	Bohemia	d. 16 November, 1849
Joseph Herman SLIPKA	b. 12 March, 1857	Bohemia	d. 23 April, 1930
John SLIPKE	b. 21 July, 1890	Bohemia	d. 15 September, 1925
Mary SLIPKA	b. 1861	Wisconsin	d.
James SLIPKA	b. 1863	Wisconsin	d. 9 January, 1891
Henry Slipka	b. 1868	Wisconsin	d. circa 1904

Immigration to the United States We found a passenger list in the book Germans to America (Glazier & Filby, Vol. 14,) showing a SLIPKA family arriving in the port of Philadelphia aboard the bark Washington on 29 July, 1861, from the port of Bremen, Germany. This index gives the names, ages and occupations of the passengers. The father is listed as Franz Slipka, age 33, a countryman (farmer), his wife Marie, age 31, sons Franz, age 6, Joseph, age 5, and Johann, age 9 months. An exact copy of the passenger list shows that they came from the town of Neplachov, Bohemia, about 60 miles south of Prague and about 10 miles north of Ceske Budejovice. Traveling with them is also listed a Johann Slipka, age 30. This person must have been a brother of Franz. There are numerous families by the name Slipka in the United States so some of them may be descendants of this brother. The given names of Franz, Marie, and Johann were probably Americanized to Frank, Mary, and John. Their ages on the passenger list agree, with minor discrepancies, with those known from other documents. On his marriage certificate, John Slipke gave his birth year as 1861, although if he were nine months old when the family arrived in America, he would have been born in 1860. The Slipka family first settled in Wisconsin, probably Milwaukee. By going through the St. Paul, Minnesota, city directories from 1883 to 1890, we began to gather more information on the Slipka family. Listed in the 1885 directory is "Mary Slipka, widow of Frank." Because she is listed as a widow, we assume that the father, Frank, died before the family moved to St. Paul. A later search of the Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1870 census confirmed that Mary was a widow by 1870, and the two youngest brothers, James and Henry, and sister, Mary, were born in Wisconsin, probably in Milwaukee. This leads me to believe that the family moved directly to that state when they arrived in America. In 1884, or a few years earlier, Frank and Joseph Slipke moved to St. Paul, Minnesota. The following year they were joined by their mother Mary and brothers John, James, and Henry.

Franz and Marie Slipka? This photograph was taken in Philadelphia, possibly shortly after Franz and Marie arrived there. The people in the Photo were not identified. Photos were often sent back to relatives after immigrants arrived in the new country as proof of their health.

The Slipka Family in St. Paul, Minnesota, circa 1884 Top row: Henry, John, James, Bottom row: Frank, Marie, Joseph Identities were not given on the photograph. Identities shown were by guessed by ages and similarities in other paragraphs.

Marie Slipka, the Mother While tracing the Slipka family through the city directory in St. Paul, it was interesting to note that the mother of the family was listed as "Mary, widow of Frank" each year except for the 1888 to 1890 editions when she is listed as "widow of Fredrick." This of course, could be a typographical error similar to the occasional spelling of the surname in these directories as Slipke instead of Slipka. Mary's name disappeared from the directory in the 1892 edition so it was assumed that she either died or moved away. Later we found a marriage license for Mrs. Mary Slipka and John Masek, issued in 1892. By following names and addresses in the St. Paul city directories we found that Mary Slipka and John Masek married and moved to 187 Colborne Street, just a block away from where he operated a grocery store with his brother. By 1900, John Masek had died, leaving Mary a widow again. She continued to live at the Colborne Street address with her late husband's son and his family until 1918, when she moved to her own son Joseph's residence and there died on September 14, 1919. The death certificate gives her age as 80, however she was older, for in the 1900 census she gives her birth year as 1833 and the passenger log of the ship she immigrated to America on indicates she was born in about 1830. It is more likely she was 86 to 89 years old when she died. The Slipka Siblings Frank Slipka was the eldest of the five, born in Bohemia about 1855. Until the exact date can be located, we can only calculate the date of his birth using his age given in the passenger list of the ship on which he came to America. He was employed as a box maker, and later his occupation was listed as carpenter. Records show that he married Josaphine, (maiden name unknown), probably before moving to St. Paul, Minnesota. I have not located their marriage record. They had four children: Amilia and Mary Slipka, and two others that died as babies. Frank died at the age of 38 on November 16, 1894, of "pulmonary hemorrhages," which was probably tuberculosis. His widow Josaphine remarried to Franz Horeisk in 1898. I have not traced the two daughters. Joseph Herman Slipka was also born in Bohemia on March 12, probably in 1854. The date of his birth is given as 1868 on his death certificate but this is an error, as the 1920 census he gave his age as 63 and the immigration ship passenger list indicates he was born in 1854. The St. Paul city directory gave his occupation as a box maker. On January 12, 1884, Joseph Slipka and Rose Bernatsky applied for a marriage license; but as the license was not completed we do not have the exact date of their wedding. They had six children and their descendants are mostly living in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. Joseph died of myocarditis (an inflammation of the heart muscle) on April 23, 1930, and his widow Rose, lived on to 1953, when she died at the age of 89. John Slipke was born in Bohemia in the fall of 1860. He was only 9 months old when he immigrated to America with his family. His family first settled in Milwaukee Wisconsin. At the age of about 24, after his father died, he moved to St. Paul, Minnesota, with his brothers and mother. Mary Slipka - We have not found any information on the daughter, Mary, other than she was born in Wisconsin in 1863. She would have been in her 20s when the rest of the family moved to St. Paul, so she could have been married at that time and remained in Milwaukee. James J. Slipka was born in Wisconsin in 1863. The only document we have showing his age is the 1880 census in which he gives his place of birth as Wisconsin and his age as 17 years. We may not find a birth certificate for him, as in those days a birth usually occurred at home and the event often went unrecorded. According to the 1880 census he was working as a farm laborer in Saline County, Kansas. We found him listed in the 1884 city directory in St. Paul, Minnesota, employed as a trunk maker. He was living with his mother and brothers on Colborne St. and on September 25, 1888, he married Agnes M. Beranek. They had two children, Christine, and John. James died of tuberculosis on January 9, 1891, at the age of 26. His widow, Agnes, did not remarry. The 1920 city directory still listed her as "Agnes Slipky, widow of James J." It is interesting to note that James spelled his name Slipky, not Slipka, and his widow continued with that spelling. The daughter, Christine, married John Bilek. We have no information on the son, John. Henry Slipka, the youngest son, also was born in Wisconsin, in 1868. He is listed in the 1884 St. Paul city directory, employed a helper at the "C, St. P, M & O" railroad shop. He would have been only 16 years of age, but at that time it was not uncommon for schooling to end early and for children to go to work. On July 30, 1888, he married Mary Louise Honsa, with whom he had four children. Descendants of this union live in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Colorado. We have been told that Henry died in a railway accident, probably about 1904, but we have not been able to locate a record of this event. His widow Mary did not remarry and died in 1951.

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