2024
52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks
Week 15
Prompt - Favourite Recipe - Part 2
There are a few more recipes that I received at that bridal shower so many years ago. I thought I would share them as well. I am just trying to get back on track with my weeks because I am slightly behind.
Wendy
2024
52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks
Week 14
Prompt – Favourite Recipe - Part 1
What can I say? Truly I have spent more than a week trying to figure out how to blog or even comment on this. There are no words....So I have decided to take them as a religious tongue-in-cheek advice recipes and, I guess, they are meant to be cute.
I wanted to find out who authored this
and when did it come out. I turned to google and really did not
expect to find much of anything. And as an aside and after the fact
I had some trepidation about entering it into google. Maybe it would
be interpreted as something as nefarious as preserving a “dead
husband”. Oi! I was surprised that there were so many entries in google. Here are a few that I had found.
I found a newspaper article from The San Francisco Call and Post dated Tuesday, January 17 1905, Page 8;“To Preserve a Husband”.
I found a blog by Susan Anthony called "How to Cook a Husband". She found this recipe in a cookbook called "Yankee Kitchen Cookbook" from the 1800's. She suggests he can be spoiled by mismanagement. Also she suggests you pick him out like shopping at a market for a mackerel or salmon. She also suggests that you don't stick him with any sharp instruments to see if he is tender. Then she states if thus treated “you will find him very digestible agreeing with you and the children”.
I found this variation of the preserving husbands recipe in a book published in 1887. It was called “The Jubilee Cookbook” On page 96 it can be found at the bottom of the page among 'Citron Preserves', 'Spiced Currents', and 'Quince Preserves”
 | |||
| Jubilee Cookbook 1887 |
A very similar recipe for preserving a husband was found in a 1911 cookbook called "250 Recipes for Everyday Use" and also another cookbook called "Food A' La Louisiane". One last cookbook I found was called "Recipes of Grandview Congregational Church" by the Ladies Aid Society. In one of these recipes it suggests that you; "wrap well in a mantle of charity. Keep warm with a steady fire of domestic devotion and serve with peaches and cream."
And if all that is not enough you could find this recipe on a wall hanging or a serving tray.
I can assure you that in the almost 49 years of marriage I have never needed to cook Bill. Neither pickle, stew, boil, roast, jam or simmer him in hot water. I have not needed to compare him to Mackerel or a Salmon. I have never stuck him with any sharp instrument to see if he is tender.
Bill and I did not have to work this hard to "manage" our marriage. We have mutual respect for each other. We work together as a team. We support each other and most importantly (and somewhat corny) we love each other more than the day before.
Wendy
2024
52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks
Week 13
Prompt – Worship
Worship is the act of showing respect, praise and love to a God that is similarly praised by others. As far as I know most of my ancestors' lives were shaped and existed based on their adoration and respect of their God. Religion shaped who they were, how they acted, and where they lived.
As I have mentioned before, my father and his ancestors were predominantly Mennonites. My mother and hers were Lutheran. Bill's paternal line was Catholic and his maternal line was Lutheran. All of these are considered denominations of Christianity.
The immigrants arrived at their settlements and after establishing their homes (shelters), they would build their churches or house of worship.
My maternal grandmother, Maria Katharina Krikau had a photograph of the church she and her family attended in Warenburg, Russia.
This grand Lutheran Church was built in 1843. I only know it as The Lutheran Church of Warenburg, Russia. More than likely my grandmother was baptized in this church shortly after her birth in 1903. It was likely the church she worshipped in until their immigration to Canada in 1911.
My paternal grandfather, Franz Peters was born in a Manitoba Mennonite colony called Plum Coulee. He was born 29 Jul 1876. Just 3 months later this Mennonite Old Colony Church was built and dedicated in Plum Coulee, Manitoba. Likely the place of worship for my grandfather, his parents and siblings. Mennonite churches were austere.
The Hoffart paternal line was mostly Catholic. Bill's paternal grandfather was Rochus Hoffart and he was born Malcoci, Tulcea District, Dobrudscha, Romania in 1889. Rochus Hoffart served 5 years in the military and once finished the mandatory 5 year service at the age of 24 in 1914, he immigrated to Canada.
Malcoci Catholic Church
2024
52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks
Week 12
Prompt – Technology
I have lived through some of the most amazing technology inventions. Each new thing would slowly drag us forward to the next big thing. I grew up with the black and white t.v. with two channels. Our radios were plugged in or sometimes could run on batteries. Vinyl records which I realize has made a big comeback. A single family phone that was attached to the wall or sat on a table with a rotary dial to dial the number. Information was gotten by going to the public library and looking up in a card catalogue the book you needed to find the information. We went out to the theatres to watch the latest movie. Anyone under 16 used bikes or a bus as their transportation. We weren't hard done by because that was how it worked. And it was all good.
Slowly technology wandered into our home, work and leisure activities in an orderly fashion that just made it feel seamless to accomplish.
Bill Hoffart's Office Fish Phone.
My husband, Bill was an electrical engineer working for Sask-Tel in Research and Development. I will admit that I really didn't know what he was up to; he rarely talked about his work and I rarely asked about it. “How was your day? Good” we would say.
Therefore when I found this newspaper article about him, Sask-Tel and his work I was really surprised. I do not recall seeing this when it was first published in The Regina Leader-Post on February 8, 1984. Maybe I seen it but I don't recall it. I guess life was busy without technology, a job, and two small children and their activities and a home to keep up with.
Sask-Tel Employees Bill Hoffart (left) and Simon Shum demonstrate Chinese - English Translator
I read the article just recently and I thought – huh?! What the heck did this mean? Anyone who knows Bill, knows how easy it is to get lost in his conversations on most topics. I asked him to explain it to me. I had no idea of the technology he was into in the early 1980's. This was in the pre home computer era. Now don't quote me on this but what I heard was; It had something to do with Canada's Communication protocol. They were developing a “modem” box and databases that could transmit some data over telephone wires to a person's T.V. There were no computer screens at this time in homes. They set about a trial with some residents and businesses in Regina. They wanted to know what people wanted to see. For this trial they had the daily newspaper and weather radar. The data that showed up on the tv was not optimal due to it's lack of resolution. But at the time this was an exciting step towards data transfer to homes. It was clumsy and slow. They realized that fibre optics would be a better fit for the data transfer. I asked Bill if Telidon ever went anywhere with this and he said yes – the internet. He clarified that it was but one very small step in a series of steps to get to the internet that we have today. Bill and his boss realized the million dollar potential for this and his boss presented it to the Board of Directors. The board nixed it and well Sask-Tel missed an important opportunity.
I believe it was 1988 when we got our first home computer. It used a modem and the input was in basic code using a keyboard. I knew of the great big office size computers that used punch cards for input of data. However I could not think that this little desktop machine was anything of such consequence. Bill was very excited to have it. I admit that I did not possess the future sight that Bill had. Bill was always upgrading or adding on to our home computer when new things were developed such as more memory would come available. I seen the inside of a computer too often. Several times he brought our computer back to life when it died in what we called a”the blue screen of death”.
I remember that one Christmas I received a “CD Rom”. Once it was hooked up to our home computer it would accept Cd's. I remember placing a CD in and it had the whole Encyclopedia from A to Z. I was wowed and truly amazed. I finally imagined the possibilities.
Bill was never content to just buy computers. He would assemble them from parts he bought from the different computer shops here in Canada and the United States. Motherboards and goodness knows what else. He built it and we rarely needed to buy another computer because he could just upgrade it by inserting a new part.
We have always had a home computer since 1988. Gradually over the years as they became more sophisticated it became an integral part of the home. I believe it was in the early 1990's when the world wide web became available to the general public. We became connected to the world.
It was at this time that phones became mobile. The phones were no longer attached to the wall or phone desk. I remember my first “mobile" and I think they call them “brick type phones”. It was large and really didn't slip into my purse. I got one for safety because I worked night shifts and my car was not very reliable. I hated that Volare.
The mobile phone technology became smaller. They would fit into the palm of your hand. They were able to do more than be only a phone. Texting became a thing replacing the phone call.
As the phones were unattached from the home, the computers detached as well. Something called laptops. The big clunky home computer was now being replaced by a foldable, thin computer. It had the screen on one side and keyboard on the other and somewhere in between was all the inner computer parts. It was folded in half protecting the screen and keyboard. It was mobile and easy to carry in a case like a brief case. Before long it became a necessary part of University students school life and soon after high school children and most recently almost all children in school. Text books are becoming a thing of the past.
My Dedicated Genealogy Laptop
Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) . I-Pods, digital cameras, scanners, I-Pads rolled out in quick succession. The objective. in my opinion.was smaller physical presence with more computing power. I could hardly keep up with what each was and what could it do. If that was not bad enough, they updated them every year. For example the initial one was called 1st Generation, and the next year the 2nd Generation would roll out with just a few more bells and whistles to entice the consumer to want or need the new one.
Around 2005 the remarkable Apple product called an I-Phone rolled out. It was a phone, camera, a photo keeper, TV screen, music keeper, calendar, event keeper and believe it or not a computer. I can't remember my first I-Phone I owned. I got it because of the Face-time ability. Ring someone up and watch and talk to them in real time. The funny thing is that I remember as teenager we were told that one day we may have a phone watch that we could call up someone and see them while talking as if they were in front of us. It was unbelievable – science fiction!
The I-Phone is presently in its 15th Generation. I believe I have made it to the 12th Generation. Bill finally gave in a few years back and got a I-Phone. He took my old one when I bought the new one. The world outside was depending on everyone having a mobile phone to conduct business transactions.
Our ultimate technology acquisition is our Tesla. Sometimes called a laptop on wheels. We have had it for 3 years this spring. People are curious but really not sold on the idea of electric vehicles. I wonder if this is what Bill's maternal grandfather experienced when he bought his Model T in 1915?
2021 Model 3 Tesla
Bill's grandfather, Arthur Jahnke's 1915 Model T
Wendy
2024
52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks
Week 11
Prompt – Achievement
In this blog I chose to talk about Mennonites' achievements as a group. My father's line is Mennonite. Mennonites tend to share their land, work, money and daily life. Thus I think the achievements of the Mennonites as a whole is achievements of the individual Mennonite people.
The following was written in The Brandon Mail (Newspaper) on April 6 1893.
“Early in 1872, after the transfer of The Northwest territories to Canada, when the government were looking abroad for settlers to turn our great inheritance of prairie into practical use as a field for settlement, attention was called to the fact that an isolated people in Russia, The German Mennonites, a race of farmers were casting their eyes to the far west were looking just for such a place as we had, and with their wives and little ones to be able to live in peace and quietness, which was no longer to be vouchsafed by the government of the czar.
An agent was sent to Russia to confer with these people, and they were requested to send delegates to Manitoba, persons from among themselves, in whom they had confidence, to see the country and to judge of its resources. This they did in 1872 and in 1873 with the result that in 1874 a large number of families came out and settled in what is known as the eastern reserve, just southeast of Winnipeg. These were fairly well supplied with money, and thus were able to settle without assistance, but there were hundreds of others desirous to follow who were deterred from being stranded in a strange country without the means of settling on the lands. At this juncture the Waterloo society was formed, consisted of 150 well-to-do Canadian farmers of German extraction in the area of Waterloo, Ont., who offered themselves and their farms to the country as security for the repayment of any money which the government might be pleased to advance to these people in way of a loan to these people to assist them in settling in Manitoba. On the strength of this security, the government advanced a principal sum of $96,400 dollars, on the understanding that no part of the principal or interest was to be collected until the Mennonites that the money was advanced to get a fair start in their new homes. This branch of the Mennonites Colony settled in Townships immediately north of the International boundary and lying between the Red River on the East and Pembina Mountains on the west. At that time it was a treeless prairie, rich with the exception of timber, in everything which contributes to agricultural land desirous of settlement. The settlement of this area was commenced in 1875, and for the first few years brought under cultivation was small, the labour in preparing shelter for the winter and the difficulties of getting supplies of all kinds very great.
The first year crops was injured by grasshoppers, and the two or three subsequent crops by excessive rain, but the people never lost heart. Each years saw new additions to their numbers, and a larger area under cultivation. The villages grew in size and numbers, they built roads and bridges and each year witness such an advance compared to the previous years, that today what was seventeen years ago a treeless prairie without a solitary settler, is now perhaps a thickly populated piece of farming country in the Northwest. Not only, however is it thickly populated, but it has begun to overflow.
A new generation of Canadian birth has grown up with a thorough knowledge of the climate and language of the country and the agricultural methods best suited to the soil; and it is very pleasing to learn that their knowledge and experience lead them invariably to seek out homesteads for themselves in Manitoba and Northwest Territories.
I am lead to make these observations by the fact that during the year the last farthing of the advance made to these people has been repaid including not only the $96,400 of principled borrowed but $33,986.50 of interest as well making the total return $130, 386.58, and the account of the Waterloo Society is closed. The history of this country, does not afford, I undertake, a case in which an obligation to the government on the part of any society, individual or company has been fulfilled with greater faithfulness than this, and on the principle “honour to whom honour is due” the facts of the case cannot be to generally known to not only the Mennonites of Manitoba but of the Waterloo Society as well. The distribution of the loan, its collection and its payment to the government, were entrusted to Mr. Jacob Schantz, the secretary of the Waterloo Society.....”
Just 8 years later the Mennonites were still being praised in the local papers for their prosperity and achievements. In the Free Press Prairie Farmer dated January 10, 1901 (page 4) an article, named Mennonites in Rhineland was printed as follows:
The praises of the Mennonites would soon sour over the next few decades.
Wendy
2024
52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks
Week 10
Prompt – Language
I wish I knew German. Many of my older family documents are written in German.
My paternal grandfather, Franz Peters was German speaking. In fact Franz and Elisabeth Peters spoke German at home. I am not 100% sure but I believe my father, Jake Peters' first language was German because of the fact that his parents spoke German. However growing up in Hague, Saskatchewan, it is possible he learned English for school despite the home language spoken was German.
GRanDMA is the Genealogical Registry and Database of Mennonite Ancestry. GRanDMA is the database that is searched with GRanDMA OnLine.
And from this database I got the following individual profile of my grandfather, Franz Peters. It shows the sources used for Franz Peters. The one I was most interested in was: Die Mennonitische Rundschau, Published in Elkhart, Indiana 1880-1908; Scottdale, Pennsylvania 1908-1923; Winnipeg, Manitoba 1923-2007 [7 May 1952, p11]. This was a German Newspaper with information from their homeland and individuals living in Canada. Of course it was written in German
This is the article that I found at The Saskatoon Mennonite Society. They have every newspaper of the Die Mennonitische Rundschau, I photocopied it thinking it would be easy to take home and translate. Not only is it in German but in a style called Sutterlein where the alphabet does not look like many letters of our English alphabet.
There are many many genealogical sites that have tutorials on translating documents from this obscure German script to English alphabet. I even noticed that there is an “ai” program that will decipher old script German documents to English.
The newspaper article has some bits of
information that I can read because I know when he was born and
married. Those dates are easy to pick out. However there is a lot of the article I haven't translated.
I did have fun inputting my name and have it written in Sutterlein Script.
2024
52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks
Week 9
Prompt – Leap Year
I think that just 3 out of about 4000 individuals in my family trees seems particularly low. I asked myself if the idea of a leap year was relatively new. No not really considering it was Julius Caeser who introduced it about a millennia ago. I guess it was tweaked a little during the Gregorian age. And thus far the calendar years align with the astronomical year, thank goodness. I wouldn't want to be celebrating Christmas in the middle of a summer season in the northern hemisphere.
The individual who is a leap year baby on my side of the family tree is still living so I cannot give his name. He is my 1st cousin, 1x removed. He was born in Lloydminister, Alberta, Canada in 1968.
Bill's living individual leapling is a second cousin born 1952 in Regina, Saskatchewan. Bill's other leapling is his 2nd cousin 2x removed who lived and died in the United States.
He was: Vitalius William Blotsky
1912-1995
Birth 29 Feb 1912 *Raleigh, Grant, ND, USA
Death 12 Mar 1995 *Billings, Yellowstone, MT, USA.
I did wonder if there was negative superstitions associated with the date. I could possible surmise if this was the case that the parents chose a date (Feb 28 or Mar 1) to avoid a birth date of a leapling. I am thinking that this could have happened a 100 or more years ago where babies births were registered after the birth in town at the register or church, sometimes months later.
If I were so inclined I could do further investigation. That is I could look up all the February 28 or March 1 babies born in a leap year. But even at that it would be hard to prove if the date was switched. These are things that I think of when seemingly normal events such as leap years cross my genealogical path.
Wendy
2024 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Week 15 Prompt - Favourite Recipe - Part 2 There are a few more recipes that I received at that bridal shower...
