The Earliest Polish Immigrants to Calumet

For more than a year I have been researching the earliest Polish immigrants to Calumet, Michigan. I have used every resource that I could find and combed the microfilms from Salt Lake City. This summary file shows those Poles who were in Calumet as early as 1870 to 1874. While it is certainly subject to corrections and additions, I have made every attempt to make it as thorough as possible. I have not included the children of families that immigrated unless a son or daughter married in Calumet in these early years.

The chart includes this information for each person. (1) The earliest record located which is usually the immigration record. In some cases it was a marriage or birth record or another source. (2) The 1874 Michigan State Census and the 1880 U.S. census and whether each person appeared on the record. (3) The date and place of marriage when I was able to find that. The book “ A History of the Poles in America to 1908” by Waclaw Kruszka and James S. Pula (Catholic University of America Press, 1998) stated that the first Poles in Calumet came from the towns of Bnin, Kornik, and Poznan in the Poznan/Posen province of Poland. (4) The St. Stanislaus Kostka Society was formed in 1874 and articles of incorporation were signed in 1875. (6) The ship for each immigrant and the route traveled is included.
The Earliest Polish Immigrants to Calumet Chart
I have written two articles about several of these families with more detail. “Some Poznan Families Immigrated to Calumet, Michigan” about six of these families was published in the Spring 2009 issue of Rodziny, the Journal of the Polish Genealogical Society of America. “Early Polish Immigrants Settled in Southern Illinois” traces seven Poznan families who first settled in Calumet and then moved to Jefferson or Washington counties in Illinois. The article will appear in the Fall 2009 issue of the Quarterly of the Illinois State Genealogical Society.

Joseph F. Martin

Romeoville, Illinois