52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. Week 34. Prompt - Chosen Family

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 34

Prompt - Chosen Family

I know very little of The Dueck Family Ancestry.  Elisabeth Dueck is my father's mother's maiden name.  There seems to be many ways to spell this name.  Alternatives include:Dyck, Dück, Dick, Dieck, von Dyck, van Dyck, von Dick, van den Dyck.  Apparently Duck (should have umlauts over the U) is German slang for shirker or cheat. Not in my family!

 

The Dueck line in this case begins with Jacob Dyck born about 1729 in The Vistula Delta, Poland. During his life, Poland was subdivided and the area he lived in became West Prussia.  According to GRANDMA Online, (Genealogical Registry and Database of Mennonite Ancestry) he died April 18, 

1792 in Neustaedterwald, Gross Werder, Prussia.

 

Jacob Dyck married someone known only as Sara and they had 6 children.  Their second child named Leonhard Dyck was born 1790 and in Neustaedterwald, West Prussia.  This is Elisabeth Dueck's 2 times great grandfather.  Leonhard Dyck married Katarina Rempel.  They married August 1,1801. Leonhard was 30 years old which seems older than usual for a man's first marriage.  This was Katarina's second marriage.  She had 3 children from her first marriage.   Leonhard and Katarina had two children together.  Leonhard Dyck died August 18, 1810 at the age of 40 years and just 9 years after being married.  He died in Stobbendorf, Gross Werder, Prussia.  These places are quite close together and about 40 kilometers south east of present day Gdansk. On the above Map of The Vistula Delta these two places are in Rosenort. 

Leonhard and Katarina Dyck first born was Leonhard Leonhard Dyck and his birth is listed as “abt. 1802” which is based on the marriage date of 1801. Again I presume he was born in Stobbendorf, West Prussia given that is where his father died 9 years later.

Leonhard Leonhard Dyck married Justina Hiebert. The 1835 Molotschna Census lists him at Lichtenau #27, and says he came to Russia in 1829. He was the Dueck / Dyck who immigrated to Russia from West Prussia. He moved to Molotschna colony.  This colony was the second Mennonite colony in Russia which began in 1804.

 Leonhard Leonhard and Justina had 7 children.  Their youngest child was Johann Dueck / Dyck born April 16, 1844.   Johann married Helena Peters September 2, 1866 in Russia. They had 15 children.  The first 5 were born in Russia.  They immigrated to Canada.  Their departure was from Hamburg on July 2, 1875 and they arrived in Quebec on July 19, 1875.  They travelled on to their colony in Manitoba.  The youngest two children died on the same day, August 18, 1875.  Just one month after arrival.  Their 6^th child was born in Manitoba on September 6, 1875.  He died less than one month later on October 1, 1875.  So tragic.  Johann Dueck died November 17, 1909 in Saskatchewan (Swift Current Colony).  Helena died March 3, 1918 in Saskatchewan.

Johann and Helena's 9^th child was Elisabeth Dueck / Dyck.  She was born January 11, 1881 in Manitoba. Her birth place has been listed as Borden, Manitoba and West Reserve, Manitoba.  This is my paternal grandmother.  However in this Dueck Ancestry line she is the first Dueck / Dyck in my ancestry line. 

                                      Elisabeth Dueck (1881 - 1972) 

 Elisabeth Dueck married Franz Peters on February 2, 1902 in Blumenthal, Saskatchewan, NWT.  This was in Hague, Saskatchewan.  They had 12 children.  My father, Jacob Peters was their 9^th child born March 28, 1917 in Hague, Saskatchewan.

Elisabeth and Franz moved off the farm and into Saskatoon in the late 1920's.  Franz Peters died April 15, 1952 in Saskatoon.   Shortly after he died, Elisabeth and a few of her children moved out to Vancouver.  Elisabeth died January 16, 1972 in Vancouver.

I chose to explore the Dueck / Dyck family because it is a branch of my family that I know so little about.  I want to go back over this family line and learn more.  There is always more to learn.  This is just a synopsis.

Wendy

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Week 33 Prompt - Trouble Maker

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 33

Prompt - Trouble Maker

In general I do not think of Mennonites as trouble makers.  Their strict religious beliefs hardly leave room for troubles.  Further, Mennonites use a very effective tool in the way of punishment and that is 'excommunication”.  Upon excommunication, the errant member is excluded from all services of the church.  This includes communication with church members and often includes their own family.  They are shunned (boycotted) and not helped as they had been in the past in their communal colonies.  For example harvesting their crops alone without the use of communal harvesting machinery could cause them to lose the crop. Their businesses are boycotted which often meant that their business would surely fail.

This Newspaper Article from The Regina Leader Post on November 13, 1914 gives us a bit of insight of one cause and fall out of the excommunication of Jacob J. Heinrichs. He is not my ancestor as far as I know. 

Jacob J. Heinrichs used the court system to collect on business debt, failing to obey the Mennonite church rules by using a legal system outside of the Mennonite colony. But this excommunicated Mennonite trouble maker took it one step further by suing the bishop who excommunicated him.  What did he have to lose?  He was already excommunicated!  I am not sure of the outcome of this case.

The Mennonites keep only those individuals who obey and commune in social harmony with their colony.  The misbehaving heretical individuals are swept away in order to keep the Mennonites homogeneous in their beliefs with no room for individual interpretation.

This happens less often now but certainly it was a thing at the end of the 19^th and beginning of the 20^th century.  Despite the colony and their bishops best efforts their members slowly assimilated to the world outside of the colony.  This resulted in “The Old Colony Mennonites” of Saskatchewan to once again pack up and move south to Mexico in the 1920's.  Just like the move from Prussia to Russia and then on to Canada; they were in search of religious freedom that allowed them to speak their German and more importantly, teach their own children in their language and with their own curriculum as set out by the Mennonite Teachings. 

My father and his parents were not among the group that moved on to Mexico.  My father and some of the family eventually moved to a house in Saskatoon.  I am not sure The Mennonite religion played a part in their lives afterwards.

Wendy

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. Week 32 Prompt - Small

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 

Week 32

Prompt - Small

You know a place is small when you send a postcard and just address it to a person and their village name!

 

Killaly is a village in Saskatchewan where Bill's mother, Clara Carolina Jahnke was born.  She was actually born on the farm but her birthplace is noted by both Section,Township, Range, and the village of Killaly.  She was born March 11, 1928 to Ida (nee Bachmann) and Arthur Jahnke.  Ida Bachmann was born in Winnipeg. 

                          Ida and Arthur Jahnke - Circa 1920

 Ida's parents were August and Wilhelmina (nee Fesser) Bachmann.  Wilhelmina Fesser was born in Theodorshoff,  Austria and immigrated to Winnipeg through New York in 1889.   August Bachmann was born in Magdeburg, Germany and immigrated to Winnipeg in 1887. 

In 1958, The Melville Advance did a district profile of Wilhelmina Bachmann for the local newspaper.  She described her new home of Winnipeg like this. 

 

Wilhelmina and August met through the Lutheran Church they both attended in Winnipeg.  In the same newspaper article she described how she met her husband. 

 However after 6 years, August Bachmann grew weary of “city life” and they bought a farm east of Winnipeg where they lived for the next 5 years as they started their family.

In 1905 The Bachmann's sold their farm east of Winnipeg and moved off to Killaly, Saskatchewan. Apparently when they arrived by train in 1905 there was only 40 people who lived there.  Mostly immigrants from Austria, Germany and Russia looking for homesteads.  Melville was non existent.

I wondered why they chose Killaly?  Clara's 2^nd cousin (remember Harvey Jahnke who was also her 3^rd cousin) stated that Wilhelmina's father, Daniel Fesser was already homesteading in the Killaly area . Daniel Fesser's wife, Karolina was running a boarding house out of Neudorf.   Neudorf is a small village just 14 kilometers west of Killaly.   Also Wilhelmina's younger sister who was married to a Peter Wendel was homesteading land in Killaly.  Wilhelmina's brother, John Fesser was also in Killaly building homes among other buildings.   It was a family thing I guess. I understand this.

In the book “The Ties That Bind Melville'83” the following excerpt is written about The Fesser / Bachmann's family ties in Killaly.

 What is it about fire in the small Saskatchewan villages and towns?  They are resilient if nothing else.

August and Wilhelmina's children grew up in the small village of Killaly.  The first school was built in 1905. It was a one room school.  August Bachmann was on the Killaly school board as Secretary of the school. In 1912 a 'teacherage' was added and 1916 the second room was added.   In 1926 the high school room was added to complete The Killaly School.   It stood as the school until a new 3 room school was built in 1954.

The first Lutheran Church was built in 1926.  It became the Evangelical Lutheran St. John's Church of Killaly.  Among the 12 charter members of this church, there was August Bachmann and his son in law, Arthur Jahnke.  Arthur married August's daughter, Ida Bachmann.  Arthur Jahnke served on the church council for 27 years.  Arthur and Ida Jahnke are Bill's grandparents.  Due to dwindling population in Killaly, better means of transportation and better roads, St. John's Killaly closed in 1968 and demolished several years later.

Bill's sister, Norma tells the story of the day their family went to Killaly to pack up Grandpa Jahnke and his belongings to move him to live with them in Saskatoon.  It was around 1974 or so. His wife, Ida Bachmann died and 1972 and Clara wanted her dad to be with them.  As they were loading the car with Arthur's belongings and getting ready to depart Killaly, workers were in the process of tearing down St. John's Church.  Arthur was taking a last look as the top of the church came crashing down breaking the cross that had stood at the top of the church.  Arthur said to the family that now he definitely had no reason to stay.  Oh the heartbreak!  They sold the scraps of the church for 500.00 dollars.

Villages come and go.  In 1958 according to that same newspaper article on Ida Bachmann, the village was about 200 people.   The Ties That Bind written in 1983 states that Killaly population was gradually declining to it's present population of 300.  Using google I found the following chart on it's population.

 Killaly was and still is a very small village.  Yes it still exists.  The village of Killaly was incorporated in 1909.  Bill's maternal ancestors were there from the start.  I have been their twice.   The first time was for Arthur Jahnke's funeral in May of 1979.  The second time was in 2008 when we took Bill's mother back to Killaly and area so she could show us her first home and village.

Wendy

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Week 31 Prompt - Large

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 31

Prompt – Large

I have two paid genealogy databases.  My Heritage was the first one I got.  I won a 6 month subscription from a genealogy conference I attended.  I loaded that up onto my computer and started using it to build my tree.  I still have My Heritage and my tree is almost 2900 people.  However I have found many mistakes in this tree.  I find I use it less often because of this.  However I still find the odd gem.

My second paid database is Ancestry.  I received it as a Christmas gift several years ago.  I love it despite its cost.  I have it renewed each year.  The hints are good but still need lots of scrutiny to get through them.  I have built this tree to about 3700 people.  I have 7425 hints waiting to be looked at in Ancestry.  They will wait until I get to them, if I get to them.

Finally I have a software program called Legacy.  This is the program where I enter all the names of my family tree that I feel confident are true to my ancestors.  I have entered 2148 names.  It is a software with more bells and whistles than I will ever use.  My Legacy family tree is the program that helps me put together my actual tree.  It helps me organize large quantities of facts and individuals into a family tree that may help me present it in some kind of beautiful tree.

These two databases have made my family tree so large; maybe too large to handle.   I am learning to focus on those hints and people that are important to my family. The following is a display I put together while playing in my Legacy Program. 

It is Wendy Kathleen Peters Father's Tree

This is Wendy Kathleen Peters' Mother's Tree.

I have to remember to focus on those individuals who are central to my Peters Family Tree. 

Wendy