52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Week 27 Prompt - Solo

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 27

Prompt – Solo

Circa 1890 - Wilhelmina Fesser.

This is Bill's maternal great grandmother.  That is his mother's, mother's, mother.  Wilhelmina was born to Daniel Fesser and Karolina Mueller in Theodorshof, Austria on December 7, 1870. Wilhelmina was the oldest sibling of 8 children.

Wilhelmina was profiled in a newspaper article in their towns local newspaper called the Melville Advance. The article was dated January 22, 1958 and written by Paul Ballendine.   In that newspaper article she explains her life living in Austria.

“Her early life in that free country involved the regular routine of growing up, and attending the village school, gaining the highest standard of education in that country.”

Wilhelmina Fesser immigrated to Canada in April of 1889 when she was only 18 years old.   Bill's mother, Clara, told me that Wilhelmina came to America by boat to New York and then on to her final destination of Winnipeg, Manitoba on train all by herself.  A solo trip for a young women in the 1880's would have been unthinkable in my opinion.  However Clara was adamant that she came across all by herself and that she only spoke German made it all the more remarkable.

Wilhelmina explains in the newspaper article about how she came to come to Canada. 

Because I now know when she arrived and on what ship she arrived on, I went to Ancestry to find her on a passenger list.  Although it is difficult to read, I found that Wilhelmina Fesser was not alone on her solo trip to Canada.

 Her father, Daniel Fesser was also listed on the passenger list just above her name. Her father accompanied her to America. I told Clara about this find and she found it hard to believe. After all it was a family story repeated down through the years. These are the transcriptions of the above New York Passenger List. 

Wilhelmina Fesser did go on to the German Consul in Winnipeg. Perhaps the train portion of the trip to Winnipeg was a solo trip.  Within two weeks she found a job as a maid servant to a German Winnipeg Furrier family.  It was Clara's cousin, Harvey Jahnke, who told me that it was indentured work.

Wilhelmina was the lone member of her family in Winnipeg and had to wait until October of 1891 before she was reunited with her parents, sisters and brothers in Winnipeg.  She had described it as one of the "happiest days of her life."

Wendy