52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Week 46 Prompt - Rich Man

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 46

Prompt – Rich Man

Financially rich? I know very few if any financially rich people in my family tree. My grandparents and great grandparents were immigrants. 

Circa 1940's. My Mennonite Grandparents.

My father's family are Mennonites. In the past Mennonites did not believe in gathering wealth. The colonies worked together to distribute wealth equally among their members. If wealth happened it was to be given to the needy. 

Circa 1935. My Great Grandparents Andreas and Maria Krikau.

My maternal great grandparents were Volga Germans who lived in Warenburg, Russia. My grandmother, Mary McLaughlin said that her parents were rich. Andreas Krikau owned his own land. He was a miller and had people working for him. Grandmother remembers their fruit orchards. She remembers camel caravans and windmills, presumably the ones attached to her father's mill. In the turn of the century in Russia these things would be consistent with being in a higher class than it's agrarian fellow villagers.

According to family lore my grandmother also said that her father was considering taking The Titanic to cross to America. However it was much closer to go through the Black Sea and Mediterranean than to get to England to travel from Southampton to New York.

Could they afford a ticket on the Titanic? According to Titanic FAQ online this was the cost of a one way ticket on The Titanic in US Dollars.

"The first class tickets ranged enormously in price, from $150 (about $1700 today) for a simple berth, up to $4350 ($50,000) for one of the two Parlour suites. Second class tickets were $60 (around $700) and third class passengers paid between $15 and $40 ($170 - £460)."

Andreas and family travelled on the steamship Birma to New York in steerage class as far as I can ascertain. I searched the ship's manifest and could not see any specific designation on the passenger list. However I did read somewhere that only steerage passengers went through Ellis Island. The fist and second classes left through more private and discreet examination process.

The apparent average price for a one way steerage ticket on a steamship from Europe to New York was 30.00 US dollars. Surprisingly the same cost as steerage on the Titanic. I can not say for sure but I would think that children would need a paid ticket as well as the adults. An example I found online showed a railway ticket from New York to Minnesota was between 20 and 30 dollars. If this was the case it cost Andreas approximately 420.00 US dollars to come to Canada. That is in the US dollars of 1911. $1.00 US in 1900 was equivalent to 28.57 US in the year 2016. Simple math would tell you that would be close to 12,000 dollars in today's money (in US dollars.).

Was Andreas Krikau rich? I don't know for sure but certainly rich enough to afford the cost of immigration for himself and his family. Starting over in a new land with no money would have been frightening for those individuals who were wealthy in the old country. Unlike the Mennonites who travelled together as colonies and thus had each other to lean on for physical and emotional support. Also the Mennonite Church arranged loans for the new immigrants to set up on their new land.

I am thankful that my grandparents were able to leave Russia when they did. For those left behind faced famine, revolution, poverty and eventually banishment to Siberia.

Wendy