Katschke Lines

My line descends from Ludwig(1820?).

Some of the other Katschke lines that I have found information on include 

Charles(1823?), Edward(1852), Fredrick(1822), Fritz(1860), George(1860), Hanna(1831), Heinrich(1834) of Lissa, Heinrich(1834) of Köslin, Johannes(1855), Karl(1866?), Max(1874)  and an "Unknown"(1800)

Also, a listing of ALL Katschkes including miscellaneous information with deceased persons.

The Name

The Surname KATSCHKE may be a variant of the name KATSCH and the -KE is a Slavic suffix. The name KATSCH may be occupational in origin, derived from a trade or profession of an original KATSCH. If this is true, the name may be a derivative of the Polish word "tkacz" meaning a weaver. 

Hans Barlow, a noted Genealogist, suggests that the name indicates "from Katsch" a town in Prussia. I have not found any town or reference to anywhere in middle or eastern Europe by this name. But the name is believed to come from a prehistoric word "cat" or "cut" meaning "mud" or from the dialectic word "katsch" meaning "slime or mud". Although Germany is well drained today, it was originally a land of vast swamps and and as a result numerous place names are rooted in words denoting marshes, bogs and swamps. 

It is also noted that the word "KACZKA", which is pronounced the same as "KATSCHKE" in German (i.e., CZ = TSCH), is the Polish word for "duck" (the kind of duck that flies and lays eggs). Likewise the Hebrew word for duck is pronounced the same way. I have found one reference that suggests that during the occupation or colonization of North and Western Poland by Germans (Prussians), the "Germanization of Polish Names" changed the name "Kaczka" to "Katschke", but I have not found any specific cases of this happening.

There were some variations in spelling in Prussia, e.g. KATSCHKE, KATZSCHKE, KATZKE, KATZKA where the same person's name was spelled different in different documents. Usually this occurred with a married woman’s name and it may have occurred when an illiterate person reported their name phonetically and the recorder wrote the name as he heard it. In one specific case, in Gohra, Pommern, Andreas is shown as KATZKE in 1822, KATZSCHKE in 1835, and KATSCHKE in 1837. In America, we find variations, mostly in city directories (phone books before phones arrived) (KASKE, KASE, KATCHKA, KATCHKE, KATSCHKE, KATSCHKA, KATSCHKI, KATSCHKY, KATSHKE) and in some cases where the name was simply changed for various personal reasons, such as KASKY and KAE.

Speaking of pronunciation, all of the Katschkes that I have talked to in Canada, United States and Australia pronounce their name as "Catch - key". e.g. "If you throw key then I Katschke". In Germany the ending -KE is pronounced as -KA so that both the "A" and the "E" are pronounced as a short "A" in Father.

In the 16th and 17 century, the name KATSCHKE is found predominantly in Pomerania and West Prussia (formerly part of Prussia and now part of Poland) from the area around Lauenburg (now Lebork) to and including Danzig (now Gdansk). Some KATSCHKEs have also been found in Posen, Lisa and Brandenburg. The earliest KATSCHKE I have found was Regina KATSCHKE born 1681 near Schmiegel, Posen, PRU. Then Elizabeth Katharin Von KATSCHKE born about 1767 near Petrograd, Russia. From the late 1700's through the early 1900's I've found about 300 KATSCHKEs in PRUSSIA (again mostly in Eastern Pomerania and Western West Prussia).

Between the mid 1800s and early 1900s, forty nine KATSCHKEs immigrated to America settling mostly in Chicago, IL; Toledo, OH; New York, NY and one each to St. Louis and Fredericktown, MO. One immigrated to Canada and one went to Australia. I'm sure there were more but I have yet to find them. Today, there are over 200 KATSCHKEs in America, a few in Canada and a couple in Australia. And of course there are many in Germany (I have the names and addresses of 107 KATSCHKEs from German phone directories) and possibly some in Poland.

There may not be many in Poland. With the exception on one Jewish family that emigrated from Poland, every Katschke family that I have talked to, adamantly claims to be of German Lutheran ancestry. (The one Jewish family lived in Lissa, Poland where a KATSCHKE married a Jewish woman. Their children were Jewish, but I don't know if they claimed to be Polish Jews or German Jews. By virtue of the spelling of their name and the fact that they moved to Berlin prior to leaving Germany in 1939 suggests they were of German Ancestry.) When Germany lost the war in 1945, people of German ancestry were blamed for the war and the Holocaust. Many (if not most) Germans living in Poland were chased out of Poland (and other countries occupied by Germany). Many lost most of their belonging and many did not leave alive. I suspect that if any KATSCHKEs remained in Poland, they may have changed their name to KACZKA and/or disavowed any German affiliation. I would sure like to see a phone directory from Danzig and Posen to see what names exist there today.

I am continuing to research KATSCHKEs, anywhere, anytime. My primary goal is to identify the home of our immigrant ancestors and to see if I can establish any connections between the various KATSCHKEs in America. We have already linked the Australian KATSCHKEs to one of the New York KATSCHKE families. And I suspect some of the Chicago KATSCHKE immigrants are related.

If you are a KATSCHKE or a descendant of a KATSCHKE or you know anything about any KATSCHKE, I would very much like to hear from you. I can be contacted by:

Regular mail: Roy Katschke, 14413 NE 185th St., Battle Ground, WA 98604 USA

phone: (360) 687-7818

email: rkatschke@comcast.net