Week 25 of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Prompt - Same Name

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Prompt – Same Name

Week 25

One of the hardest questions that I have been known to stumble on is; what is your mother's maiden name? In my younger years I was told her maiden name was McLaughlin because that was my maternal grandmother's current last name. As I got older I began to hear the stories. Grandma was married once before to a Sullivan. In one of my earliest blogs I tried to explain him as a man of many names. Pat or Patrick Sullivan, Bob Sullivan, Robert Sullivan, Bob Windsworth Sullivan or even Robert Wentworth Sullivan. None the less he was my mom's biological father and thus that made her legal maiden name Sullivan. As I have noted before Sullivan was essentially erased from my grandmother's life. My grandmother's second marriage was to Benjamin Franklin McLaughlin, but he never adopted my mom, but did adopt mom's sibling, Wallace. But that is another completely different story that someday I may get into. It was not just my grandmother's last name that gave me trouble. It is trying to figure out her correct first and middle name.

In genealogy one should show the sources of a any data or information put in the family tree. For example; birth certificate, confirmation certificate, marriage certificate etc. I would like to explore the difficulties I ran into when trying to nail down my grandmother's name using sources that are usually quite accurate.

The earliest document for her was a copy of a Parochialschein (Parochial certificates). This is an official document written by the Lutheran pastor from Russia for the immigrating family to take to their new church and pastor indicating that they are members in good stead.

This certificate states her name as Marie Katharina Krikau born June 8 but the year is not clear. I know it to be 1903.

The next official document is the Inspection Card from the Birma Ship upon landing in Ellis Island, New York. Her name is listed as Maria Krikau.

Ten or so years ago I was in contact with a relative who noted that the Krikau family had a failed crossing in 1913. When I went to Ancestry and plugged in the Krikau name nothing came up. I could not figure this out.

Ancestry teaches us ways to expand our search by using what it calls wildcards. Simply by using the * within the name it begins to search for all possible spellings or misspellings of the name. By entering Krika*, I got a return for Marie Krikan for the failed border crossing. It was likely a transcription error because when I look at the actual document I read Krikau. So according to this document she is Marie Krikan.



 

Similarly in the 1916 Canada Census of Manitoba, Saskatchewan Alberta the family is once again listed as Krikan and my grandmother is Marie Krikan.

On April 1, 1917 my grandmother was confirmed in Christ Lutheran Church in Winnipeg, Manitoba. I have her scroll which shows her name as Maria Katharina Krikau. At that time she was given an inscribed German religious book and the name although written in German Script reads Maria Krikau.

Then there is her marriage certificate to her first husband in this case he was Bob Windsworth Sullivan and my grandmother was written down as Mary Katherine Krikow.

 
 A few months following her marriage, the 1921 Canada Census was taken and she was listed as Mary Kathleen Sullivan.
On June 7, 1929 grandmother received her naturalization papers on which she is named. Mary Katherine Sollivan. 

On April 1, 1932 she marries Benjamin McLaughlin and her name on the marriage certificate is listed as Mary Sullivan.

In her daughter's wedding newspaper announcement that I spoke of in the last blog, grandmother was listed as Mrs. B.F. McLaughlin.

On October 4, 1960 my grandmother made her last will and testament upon which her name is listed as Mary Katharine McLaughlin and she signs it as Mrs. Mary McLaughlin.

Her funeral memory book made by Saskatoon McKague's Funeral Chapel she is listed as Mary Katharine McLaughlin. The newspaper obituary names her Mary Kathleen (Krikau) McLaughlin.

The last and final discrepancy I have found in her name was discovered when I went to visit her at her graveside in Saskatoon Woodlawn Cemetery. I did not remember where exactly she was buried. I stopped by the office and asked if they could look up Mary McLaughlin's grave site. At first they were unable to find her. I knew she was buried somewhere there as I attended the interment. After a bit they found a Mary McLauhlin (no “g”). And as it turned out that was indeed her. One final discrepancy in her name and this one was engraved in stone.

In my grandmother's case she has many variations of her name in her official documents. Some of them are made because of transcription error. For example from her census. The handwriting was not the best. I believe some of the variations were because of Mary being more Canadian than Marie or Maria. The name variations are many but really it is all the same person just not the same name.
So what is her real birth name?  I don't really know.
Wendy

Week 24 of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Prompt - Father's Day

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 24

Prompt – Father's Day

Progenitor is a direct blood line ancestor from which one has descended – our forefather so to speak. I thought that I would follow my father's line back to the progenitor. In this case it is as far back as I have been able to discover. Therefore until I can discover more he will be considered the progenitor of the Peters Line.

Aaron Peters, my third great - grandfather was born in Pietzckendorf, Pomerania, PRUSSIA about 1745 and this according to the 1776 census of Mennonites in Prussia taken just prior to them immigrating to South Russia. Aaron was married 3 times. His first wife is unknown but he did have two daughters by her of which one came to Russia with him as an original settler in their new colony in Russia. Aaron married his second wife, Helena Krahn September 14, 1780 in Prussia. They had 7 children together. Their  5^th  child, Klaas Peters is the child who is in my direct line. Helena died in April of 1801 and by July 1801 Aaron was married to his third wife who we know only as Kristina. They had no children together. This marriage ended 6 months later with Aaron's death on January 1, 1802. As a matter of interest he died the same day as his 11 year old daughter, Gertrude. What happened? Don't know. Maybe an accident or maybe a disease.

Klaas Peters (maybe Nikolaus) , my second great – grandfather was born March 14, 1797 in Schoenhorst, Chortitza Colony, South Russia. Klaas was married twice. I believe being a pioneer wife was hard and longevity was not the status quo. His first wife gave him 3 children of which one lived to adulthood. His second wife, Susanna Klassen bore him 16 children. We spoke of her previously in a blog. Only 3 or 4 of these children lived to adulthood. It must have been absolutely heartbreaking to lose so many infants.

Klaas and Susanna seventh child was David Peters and he was my great grandfather. David Peters was born in South Russia on April 18, 1835. On January 5, 1859 he married Katharina Mueller (Miller) in South Russia. 6 of their 16 children did not survive into adulthood. On July 19, 1875 they arrived in Canada aboard the S.S. Canadian. They were among the 7000 Russian Mennonites who immigrated to the Canadian prairies and in particular in Manitoba and what is now Saskatchewan. Canada had set aside two reserves in each province. David and Katharina settled in Ebenfeld, Manitoba – the West Reserve.

The first child of David and Katharina to be born in Canada was my grandfather, Franz Peters. He was born July 29 1876 in Plum Coulee, Manitoba. Franz, his siblings, and parents moved away from Manitoba in 1898. Families were growing and the land for them was getting scarce in Manitoba. Apparently the Peters family helped organize the village of Blumenthal, Saskatchewan. Franz Peters married Elisabeth Dueck (Dyck) on February 2, 1902 in Blumenthal. My father was 9^th of their 11 children. He was born in Hague, Saskatchewan on March 28, 1917. Jacob Peters married Lydia Vivian Sullivan / McLaughlin on November 20, 1938 in Saskatoon where they resided for the rest of their lives.. We heard their story in last week's blog.

To my father and all their father's before him – Happy Father's Day.

Wendy