The parents of Catharine Reck Batke

On July 14, 1937, Catharine Reck Batke filled out an application for a Social Security Number. She was living at 714 Vine Street in St. Joseph, Michigan and working at the Berrien Packing Company, also in St. Joseph. She stated her birthday as October 14, 1891 on the typed copy, however in the section which reads: "subject to later verification" the year is corrected to 1890. This later date is consistent with Catharine's other documents. She also notes she was born in Russia. The SS# provided her is: 367-12-0849.

Best of all, she lists her father as John Reck (you can see the correction from Rek to Reck) and her mother as Renata Shirk.

An email note received from Don Fredrick, grandson of Catherine Reck Batke, shared the following information on March 11, 2011 to Elaine Beaudoin:

In a note recently discovered from a visit to my grandmother Catherine Batke, wife of Henry Batke, by the Don Fredrick family before she died and while she was in the nursing home, we find that Renata Scherk, Shierk, Shirk was mentioned by her as the wife of her father John Reck.  We assumed at the time of the visit that John and Renata, according to Catherine, did not leave Germany to come to Canada or the US.  We wrote down on our note at the time that the spelling was Scherk, not Shirk.   Are you sure about the spelling of Renata "Shirk"?

Until more proof is provided, all the spellings -- Scherk, Shierk and Shirk -- should be researched.   Thanks Don for the note.