St. Adalbert's Cemetery

St. Adalbert's Cemetery is south of the city right off of 6th Street at a slightly higher elevation than downtown. So looking back you get a great view of the city. It is also an enormous cemetery - the photo above is only showing one small section.

STEFANSKI

George 1917-1969

Josephine 1915-2002

Together in Loving Memory

George Stefanski is Walter Stefanski's youngest son. His wife was Josephine Dziedzic. Unfortunately this isn't a very good picture - I should have gently pushed down the flowers so as to read the entire thing. But the main problem was the sun - it was directly behind the stone making it hard to get a good shot.

DZIEDZIC

Matka Ewa 1885-1984

Ojciec Jozef 1884-1940

"Matka" is Polish for mother. "Ojciec" is Polish for father. Josephine Stefanski (listed above) is a Dziedzic and these are her parents.

1900 Father Ben Kaffka 1988

Monte J. Kaffka 1931

Ben Kaffka is the oldest child of Marianna Stefanski and Franz Kaffka. He was born in West Prussia and came on the ship to America with his parents as a very small child. I believe he is their only child to have stayed in Milwaukee. Monte J. Kaffka, I believe, is the son of Ben Kaffka and Louise Damitz.

Irene Kaffka

1907-1980

Irene Frankowiak married Ben Kaffka. I do not know yet if they were married before or after Ben's marriage with Louise.

Matka S.P.

Michalina Konkol

1861-1925

Michalina Kozlowska married John Konkol and is the mother of Antonina Konkol who married Joseph Stefanski. John died prior to 1900 (don't know yet where he was buried) and so Michalina was listed for many years in the City Directories as the widow of John.

After writing down the letters at the top of the grave, I had no idea what it was. But then, looking around, I noticed that many of the graves in the area had the same phrase of Matka S.P. Returning home I discovered the meaning of the phrase. "Matka" is Polish for mother. The meaning of S.P. on a Polish tombstone is probably "swietej pamieci",which means "the late" in English.

This is one of the chapels in the cemetery. I was curious about the ENORMOUS graves surrounding it - literally five to six feet tall. Any guesses who they might be? They are all for the Reverends and Fathers of the church.