On this page I hope one day to paint a more complete picture of Catherine "Katie" Kurlanski, my great-great aunt and first-born child of my great-great-grandfather, Louis Kurlandski.

Originally, her story consisted only of two census reports. The first is from 1910. (Katie in the 1910 Census)

In the census ten years later she is recorded as "Catherine Kurlandski," age 13. (Katherine in the 1920 Census)

There is no listing of her in the family's record in the 1930 census. Since there was never any mention of her in the family's oral history either, I concluded she died sometime after 1920.

The next piece of information came from Rene, my Great-Uncle Frank's daughter. She sent me an email mentioning a daughter that her grandfather, i.e. Louis/Ludwig Kurlandski, disowned because she married a Mason. Rene said her father, Frank, found Katie when Katie's husband passed away. Rene even has a vague memory of at least one time visiting her black sheep of an aunt.

Another piece of the puzzle was delivered to me by a distant cousin, Stan Piekarski:

Information on Katie is limited. She was the daughter of Ludwik and Katharzina Jasinska ( married in 1903). Katie was born 14 October 1906 and baptized "Cath. Helena (Teresian) Kurlandzka. My Piekarski grandparents were her godparents. She is listed in her father's obit in 1944 as Catherine Rath. (See Cousin Stan Piekarski).

Some questions that come to mind:

• Disowning one's daughter is serious business. Was it normal for Catholics to do this to daughters who married Masons? Perhaps it was more common in Poland?
• Was Katie easier to disown because she had no mother alive to defend her?
• Was it not Ludwig but Sophia, perhaps, who led the charge against her? Less of an inheritance for Katie would, mathematically, mean more for Sophia's own children.

These may not be very kind or flattering questions, but they are questions that must be asked.

Notes

Some of my information comes from FamilySearch.org. I provide more details about this website in separate notes.