52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks
Week 27
Prompt – Independence
As a natural way of things, I believe
we all strive to be independent. It occurs to me that our ancestors
wanted their independence. They went to great lengths to achieve it.
I surmise that often it was at great cost and risk. It occurs to me
that both sides of my tree followed similar paths to achieve their
independence and live the life they deeply believed was possible.
The Krikau's on my mother's side often
looked outside of the life they lived seeking a better way of life.
It began with my 5th Great Grandfather, Johan Georg
Krickau who was born in Germany in an area that is now 65 kilometers
northwest of Frankfurt. He was born about 1723 in a city called
Wolfenhausen. At this time this particular area was heavily
recruited by Catherine The Great to come to Russia on the promise of some travel
expenses, freedom of religion, freedom to build schools, no taxes for
a period of time, capital to start up costs on their free parcel of
land in Russia. Germany, was under some 2000
principalities creating very poor conditions and heavy taxes with less owned land. The 30 year war was
ending, but internal strife broke out with protestants fighting the
Catholics. Johan Georg Krickau must have thought that it was an
obvious choice. Thus Johan immigrated to Russia and was one of the
original colonists to Warenburg in the late 1700s.
On the Peters side of the tree, the
Mennonites were constantly moving away from persecution to a new land
that promised religious freedom among other things. They sought a
home that would allow their colony style living that allowed them to
follow their deep religious belief. They lived a Godly life
following the teachings of the Bible. They wanted to self govern
according to His word. They wanted to teach their own children in
their language and the teachings of the Bible not the worldly ways.
And one of the most recognized ways of life was pacification. As the
Russian revolution was ramping up the Russian government was looking for
healthy young men including the Mennonite men and boys. Ultimately
The Peters left the Russian situation for the promise of new
independence in Canada and in my case my family landed in Manitoba.
Canada promised them all of their independence to rule as they
needed. However before long Canada was insisting that the children
be schooled in more than their religious beliefs in their own German
language. The more deeply religious colonists could not tolerate
such a thing and again the Peters family moved from the West Reserve
in Manitoba to the area of Hague – Osler in Saskatchewan which was
set aside by the government for their privilege and independence.
Unfortunately it was just the beginning
of the assimilation to a Canadian way of life. Some Peters did go on
to move yet again to Mexico, Paraguay, Costa Rico ever hoping for a place to be Mennonite. My grandfather
Franz Peters and his wife Elisabeth decided not to join in on another
move and eventually they moved from Hague to Saskatoon where they
lived out their life as non practicing Mennonites.
Wendy
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