Week 8 of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Prompt - Heirloom

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

 Week 8 Prompt – Heirloom

When I was first married, my grandmother Mclaughlin (from previous blogs) was still living. She was quite lucid but did experience some forgetfulness from time to time. One evening while my husband and I were visiting for tea she noticed me admiring her china cabinet and her beautiful china with in. She pointed and talked about a few pieces of china when she decided to give me a tea cup and saucer which she said she had since she was first married to “Benny” and was a gift from him. The funny thing is that for the life of me I can't remember much about its design. I vaguely recall maybe a yellow rose design but not much else. Pity. I gingerly took home this almost 50 year old cup and saucer. She lived in Saskatoon and at the time I lived in Regina.

A few months down the road I receive a frantic call from my grandmother. First of all this was in the mid 1970's. I had never received a call from my grandmother ever before. Long distant phone calls were expensive and rarely done except in extreme circumstances. Grandmother was beside herself because she could not find her special tea cup and saucer that Benny had given her. She told me that she heard from one of my siblings that I had it. She really wanted to know why I took it and basically was accusing me of stealing it from her house. I was flabbergasted and bewildered. I tried to tell her that she had given it to me as a keepsake, but she was not buying it. Later that week my mother called me asking me what was going on with this tea cup and saucer. I explained the story and we decided that I would return it to her on my next visit to Saskatoon. My grandmother was happy to get it back and still had no recollection of giving it to me.

I have never seen the cup and saucer since that time. My mother died before grandmother. When grandmother died she had just her one son, Wally, living. He came to Saskatoon and cleaned out her home and very few heirloom type belongings were ever passed on to my siblings and I .

My dear grandmother was such a loving and kind soul. It did cause me to think about aging and losing one's memories. Further I wondered just how intricately one's memory is attached to physical things. In my grandmother's case the loss of a special tea cup and saucer must have seemed like a loss of someone she held near and dear to herself.

I may not have the physical “heirloom” but I do have one heck of a story and a memory that takes up very little physical space.

Wendy

Week 7 of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Prompt - Valentine

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 

Week 7 Prompt – Valentine

Benjamin Franklin and Maria Katharina McLaughlin
April 1 1932

The first thing that comes to my mind when I think of the word Valentine is love. I started looking through my pictures that I have scanned for an appropriate wedding photo. I think that your wedding day is the ultimate day for a couple in love and hopefully their portraits show that.

I found a lovely wedding picture of my maternal grandmother and her second husband. Mary and Benjamin McLaughlin. They were married on April 1, 1932.  Mary was in an earlier blog of mine. The blog spoke about her first husband, Pat Sullivan and all the woe he caused her. Fast forward 10 years after her first marriage and Mary finds love again. Benjamin was 32 years her senior. According to my older sibling “Benjamin worshiped the ground that she walked on and Mary said it was the happiest time of her life.”

Benjamin McLaughlin is not a biological ancestor but he does come with some interesting background.

Benjamin was a “foundling”. A foundling is an infant abandoned by it's mother / father and taken care of by strangers.

In the box of Mary's important papers was a birth certificate and an attached letter for Benjamin McLaughlin. He was applying for his birth certificate in June of 1939, but had never been registered as a baby and thus had to get his sister to write a letter explaining the story of his being found by her parent's neighbors who did not want to care for the child and how her parents took him in. I have included the letter for interest. His new family named him Benjamin Franklin McLaughlin. Franklin was named for the man of the neighbor that found him. Birth date was established as May 23, 1871.

The 1881 census shows Benjamin as one of 9 children and their parents were Marie and Thomas McLaughlin. Marie McLaughlin died in 1882 and Thomas in 1891. All of this in Ontario.

Benjamin and his older brother appear in 1891 census as farmers in the Pine Creek area (south of Calgary).  In 1903 Benjamin acquired some land in De Winton and farmed on his own. He then sold his farm and moved to Vancouver for 5 years. I do not know about his life in Vancouver during this time  He came to Saskatoon in 1912 where he remained until his death. He started to work at Saskatoon Quaker Oats in 1916 and stayed with them until his retirement in 1937.Benjamin died January 29,1945.

In the Saskatoon Henderson's Directory, Mary was listed for several years before their marriage as his housekeeper. I am presuming that this is how the two met and fell in love.  As a single mother of two children, an immigrant with no real formal education, and a bad marriage, Mary had up to this time had a rough life. I'm am happy that she found love.

Wendy

 Letter Re Benjamin Franklin McLaughlin, A Foundling

Week 6 of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Prompt - Favorite name

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Week 6

Prompt – Favorite Name

More than a few times I have got lost in the maze of same names in the family tree. You can't blame me because my “consistency checker” on my program is always pointing out my duplicate names in the same family. If you are from a German / Mennonite background, I think you can relate to this.

Over the years of adding names of families and their children and their children's children, I began to notice a pattern in my genealogy regarding names and naming practice. These patterns got me thinking that there has to be more to this than the random occurrence of the same name generation after generation. I mean I was aware that naming the oldest son after a father was quite common in my German family. But also I would notice that the children in one family would have the same middle initial. It took me a while but I realized that this was the first letter of their mother's maiden name. I thought that it was brilliant. If you were patient enough you could weave through and connect the dots.

 Example A is of my father's uncle, David M. Peters and his wife Susanna J. Goetzen. I pulled this off GRANDMA online which is a Mennonite data base and it stands for Genealogical Registry and Database of Mennonite Ancestry. I highly recommend it to all doing Mennonite Genealogy. They also have a unique number naming identification which I won't go in here, but it is a godsend to identification of right individual.

 

The second pattern I noticed, and more disturbing to me, was the re-use of baby names until it “stuck”. What I mean is that if a child was named and died in infancy, then that name would go on to the next same sex baby born. I read somewhere that families over a century ago expected one third of their babies to die in infancy. 

Example B is my second great grandmother Susana (Susanna) Klassen married to Klaas Peters. This poor soul bore 16 children and 11 died at birth or in infancy.

Judith Peters was reused once and neither of them survived infancy. Susanna was used three times. The first two died in infancy. Aaron was reused once. Jacob was used three times and none survived. I am not sure why the following males were not name Jacob. Her last four male babies were given different given names of which only one survived to adulthood.
 

The third pattern I noticed was the naming of children after grandparents, aunts and uncles. It was explained like this on a Internet site of German naming traditions as follows:

1st son after the father's father
2nd son after the mother's father
3rd son after the father
4th son after the father's father's father
5th son after the mother's father's father
6th son after the father's mother's father
7th son after the mother's mother's father

1st daughter after the mother's mother
2nd daughter after the father's mother
3rd daughter after the mother
4th daughter after the father's father's mother
5th daughter after the mother's father's mother
6th daughter after the father's mother's mother
7th daughter after the mother's mother's mother

I tried to find a good example of this in my family tree. The Klaas and Susana example shows some of these tradition but did not strictly follow the pattern. However I am sure that there are more exceptions to this convention. Of course after they immigrated to Canada there was a loss of tradition as they wanted to assimilate to their new country.

Moral of this story is to be careful with putting the right person in with the right family in the right generation. 

None the less my favorite names in my ancestors is Rochus – my husband's paternal grandfather. Wilhelmina – my husband's maternal great grandmother. And finally Johann said like Yo-han. I have so many Johann's on both sides of my family.

Wendy

Example A

Example B

Week 5 of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Prompt - In The Census

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 5 Prompt – In the Census

Recently I was working on my 3^rd Great Grandfather on my Father's side. His name is Aaron Peters He was born circa 1746 in Pietzckendorf, Pomerania, Prussia. He died January 1802 in Schoenhorst, Chortitza Colony, South Russia.

Aaron Peters was a Mennonite. I have found in my research that Mennonites have an exceptional track record for keeping records of their followers. I believe they call them “church records”.

These church records are kept of baptisms, marriages and funerals. Records of Mennonites in Europe can be found as early as 1500's. Their sole purpose was to list their citizens of God.

The first ever census of the Mennonite Population in Europe was done in 1776 in Prussia. In order to understand any census you should  know a little history of the place and time it was taken.

What was Prussia? Here is my greatly over simplified version.  It all begins in Poland in the 1700's. Our Mennonite relatives lived under the rule of Poland and were allowed to practice their religion as they saw fit. That included military exemption. Beginning in 1772 and until 1795 Poland was divided by the Austrians, Russians, and Prussians. In fact by 1795 Poland no longer existed as a country. Most of the Polish Mennonites ended up in Western Prussia under the rule of King Fredrick II, The Great. Under his rule the first annexation of Poland began. The king was interested in finding out how many Mennonites he now presided over in this West Prussian acquisition. Here is what I find out about Aaron Peters in that first census.

The # GRANDMA database Surname Code: 183

Last Name Head of the Family: PETERS

First Name Head of the Family: AREND

Location, Village of Family: Pietzkendorf

Congregation: Lad

Occupation of Head of Family: L.

Counts The Husband of the Family: 1

Counts the Wife of the Family: 1

Counts the Number of Sons: 0

Counts the Number of Daughters: 1

Counts the Male Servants in Household: 0

Counts the Female Servants in Household: 0

Land Indication Land Status of Family: E

Class, denotes how the Prussian officials

the family economically: S

Comments: 1733-1786 (Thag) d. in Stobbendorf

He was a Landmann by occupation which meant he was a farmer. He had 1 daughter and no sons at this point. He had no servants either female or male. Servants tend to be young orphaned children from the colony. The E indicates he owned his own land. The Prussians assigned 5 classes as follows; good, middle, low, poor and very poor. Aaron Peters was listed as low class however it is good to note that this was 75.8% of the Mennonites assessed.

King Fredrick The Great died in 1786. His successor, King Friedrich Wilhelm II, was not as tolerant towards the Mennonites and their exemption from military rule. He ordered a census which kept track of and recorded where they lived and how much land they owned as well as whom they were selling the land to. The Prussian army was based on landowners resources and manpower. Of course the Mennonites had military exemption and this worried the army as the Mennonites increased their land holdings further decreasing the military land base. Thus King Friedrich II issued an edict of 1789 which regulated and limited Mennonite land ownership. This edict required any Mennonites purchasing land from non Mennonites to get a government permit. Or agree to take part in the Prussian army like any other land owner. In order for the government to track the sales of property they had to know what lands the Mennonites owned and thus came the census of 1789 whereby they wanted to know only who owned land and how much they owned.  

The 1789 results for Arendt Peters is as follows.

 In Pitzkendorf; Peters, Arendt has l2 Morgen in land holdings. Morgen is a unit of land that I have trouble equating to acres.  

Aaron Peters immigrated to Russia that same year 1789. He was among 228 families that made up the Chortitza colony in Russia.
The first Chortitza census was October 14 1797.  I found Aron Peters listed as family 27 in the village of Schoenhorst. There are 5 males, 4 females.  He has one house.  He has 4 horses, 20 cattle, 8 sheep and no pigs. It is amazing to me that I have this information and have a better picture of Aron Peters and his family life in 1797.
Census is taken for different reasons.  By looking into the history of the place and time we can figure out what different information is taken.  Aaron Peters lived in an interesting historical time under different rulers, country realignment and rescinded promises which led to a brave but necessary start in a new country at the invitation of Catharine The Great of Russia.
This is the way I find Aaron Peters journey from Poland to Prussia to Russia.

Wendy

Week 4 of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Prompt - Invite to Dinner

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Prompt - Invite To Dinner

I would invite my fifth great grandfather on my maternal side. Johann Georg Krikau. He was born circa 1723 in Wolfenhausen, Hesse, Germany.  It is near the present day city of Limberg about 40 miles northwest of Frankfurt.  Apparently the State of Hesse was the region where the most German colonists were recruited by Russians.
This was a time of the Seven Year War (1756 -1763) involving European powers and their colonies.  In Germany there was some 2000 principalities and each with its own ruler.   The peasants were treated as serfs and forced to fight for their rulers.  Life was constant battle with little return.  They did not own the land they worked on.  Often this strict unjust government wanted more despite crop failures followed by years of hunger.
After the Turkish Wars, Russia had acquired more land in Southern Ukraine, Catherine the Great needed to colonize this area to work the land and thus produce more revenue for Russia.  Catherine the Great issued her Manifesto of 1763 inviting all foreigners to settle in this area.  She added incentives such as traveling expenses and means for traveling to the area, freedom of religion and ability to build their churches and schools. They were exempt from taxes for some number of years.  They were given parcels of land. Of course many of these incentives were not realized by the colonists and in fact they were mostly revoked by the mid 18th century, but none the less the Germans immigrated to Russia.
The 1798 Warenburg census shows only one Krikau family. Johann Georg Krikau was one of the original settlers to this new land.  He was a grain farmer.
I would lead the after dinner conversation to this historical account of life at that time.  I would need to hear from my fifth great-grandfather if this was a true accounting of his time.  Was he in search of a better life in this new country?  Or was it in part "wanderlust" that I feel runs in this side of my family?  As the incentives were not realized did he regret leaving his German homeland?  Did he see a good future in Russia despite all of this?  I would ask him to recount the actual trip from Wolfenhausen to Saratov along the Volga River where he settled. Was it smooth sailing?
I am told that for the first settlers life was near unbearable in Russia as no construction material or tools were ever brought to them that first year.  As the Russian winter approached many were forced to dig mud caves along the Volga riverbank for some protection.  Did he live in one of these abodes?  I would have him explain how through all this his faith grew stronger.  I would want to know about his wife and children.
Mostly I would let him know that his descendants thanked him for  his courage and sacrifice to take the chance to move to a new country.  I would let him know that he was not the only Krikau to move away from home in search of a better life in another country.
I would let him know that I was a proud descendant of The Volga Germans from Russia.

Wendy

This is the Lutheran Church in Warrenburgh. This picture was owned by my grandmother Maria Krikau born in  Warrenburgh, Samara Province, Volga Valley, Russia on June 8, 1903. The picture was gifted to her nephew who paid for a researcher to follow the Krikau line back to Johann Georg Krikau.  This was the church in Russia where my grandmother was baptized. This was the same area that Johann Georg Krikau settled in some 200 years earlier.