52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Week 42 Prompt - Adventure

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 42

Prompt – Adventure

Andreas and Maria Krikau - My Great Grandparents

I think that it would be easy to say that all my immigrant ancestors had a sense of adventure. However I believe the adventure was more a by - product of the necessity of sustaining a quality of life in difficult times.

Andreas (1879 - 1946) and Maria (1879 - 1953) Krikau, my maternal great grandparents came to Canada in October of 1911. Their daughter (Mary McLaughlin nee Krikau – my grandmother) explained the reason for coming to Canada as this.

I suspect my great grandparents' immigration to Canada was more about the rising political unrest and the beginnings of a revolution in Russia at that time. Food shortages were starting to affect everyone. All those things that brought them to Russia just a little over a hundred years before were slowly going away. My great grandfather probably read the proverbial writing on the wall. He read, with hope, the letters of his cousins about the opportunities in Canada, the free land and freedoms.

As I understand it, he was the only one of his siblings, half siblings and his parents who left Warenburg, Russia. What made him decide to emigrate and not other family members? I think it would be incredible difficult to leave your family especially with a very young family of your own to start all over again in an unknown inhospitable land. He hoped that his family would have a better life in the new country. His decision was based only on the words of friends and cousins. Did he weigh the pros and cons? Was there a discussion?

I would think that a daring sense of adventure would never be the driving force for him to leave Russia. Adventure is risky and I think one doesn't risk their family for the sense of adventure.

None the less once the decision to emigrate was made and the sad farewells given; there was a world of adventure for him and his family to experience.

Their adventure began leaving Warenburg, Russia to Libau Port on the Baltic Sea which was over 2000 kilometers 

It was probably farther than any of them had ever traveled. I assume they made their way by train. Once at Libau there would have been a waiting period at immigration sheds sometimes for days or weeks until paperwork, examinations, inoculations and just waiting for the next ship to arrive. I can imagine my 8 year old grandmother (Mary)  trying to pass the time with all the other children on a similar adventure to a new homeland.

The Krikaus  boarded the ship Birma on October 3, 1911 and were in steerage until it landed in New York City, Ellis Island on October 17, 1911. It was not much of an adventure in the overcrowded below the deck passage. I have blogged before about the Ellis Island ordeal. I guess that my great grandparents and their children made it through the same day they arrived as the inspection card of my grandmother - Mary McLaughlin nee Krikau shows the Canadian Railway Stamp for October 17, 1911.

 I do not know how long their train ride to Rosthern, Saskatchewan was. I do not know if they had to take a wagon for part of the trip into Rosthern.  I do know that they lived only a few years in Rosthern before my great grandfather decided that farming  was not for him. Although he did build a few homes while he lived in Rosthern.  

On August 29, 1913 Andreas and family attempted entry to the US with the intended destination of Sangar, California where they were joining a friend, Jacob Smith.  The family was denied entry by the American authorities upon examination in Winnipeg.  Documentation show that while tickets to Sangar had been paid for by Smith, Andreas did not have sufficient cash to satisfy US requirements.  My grandmother, Mary McLaughlin explained it this way in her oral history. 

The family remained in Winnipeg. The 1916 Canada Census shows the family as residing in Winnipeg at 107 Eaton Street. Andreas' occupation was listed as "laborer". 

In May 1924 my great grandparents - Andreas (Andrew) and Mary, their children Eliza, Georg, John and Henry left Canada for Oshkosh, Wisconsin.  Their last permanent address was given as Elmwood, Manitoba which is a suburb of Winnipeg.  They were going to join an aunt - Mrs. Adam Grasmick at 792 Pearl Street, Oshkosh, Wisconsin.  They intended to return to Canada.  The immigration entry notes their intent to remain in the US for six months and claimed they had no intention of becoming US citizens.  Andreas and son Georg Friedrich received Canadian Naturalization on February 29, 1924.  I am not sure why they became citizens of Canada just before leaving for United States.  Andreas and family resided in Oshkosh until 1926 when they moved to Riverdale in Cook County, Illinois.   

Their eldest son Andreas Krikau preceded them, entering the US in April of 1924.  Daughter, Maria (my grandmother) was married by this point and living in Saskatoon with her husband.  My grandmother was the only member of Andreas and Maria's family to remain in Canada.  Georg Friedrich remained in Canada for a few years beyond 1924 but ended up in the US applying for permanent residency in 1946.  

My great grandfather, Andreas received US Naturalization on September 26, 1934 in Chicago.  His wife, my great grandmother, Maria received her US Naturalization in 1941.  

Andreas lived out his life in Cook County, Illinois.  He died December 29, 1946 in Chicago.  Maria remarried. She married a Phillip Hartwig.  Maria died July 21, 1953 in Scott's Bluff, Nebraska.  However she was buried in Cook County, Illinois. 

My great grandparents lives began in Warenburg, Samara, Russia and ended in Cook County, USA.  The time between their beginning and end was their adventure.

Wendy