52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Week 7 Prompt - Unusual Source

 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 7

Prompt – Unusual Source

Most family trees try to put BMD (birth-marriage-death) events in place for each of their ancestors. These basic events outline our ancestor.  We want this framework to be correct and true.  The place and date also help prove that we have the right name.  This is particularly important when naming convention hands down the same name down through the generations.  For example in my tree I have 4 generations of David Peters (with no middle name) ranging from 1835 to 1985.

Sources are the evidence that proves our events.  In an ideal world a source would be original.  An original source means that the source was made at or close to the time of the event and recorded by a witness or participant.  Examples might be birth registration or baptismal certificate, death certificate etc.  Things like family stories, other people's family trees and oral histories are considered non original.  They are called derivative sources. I use both types of sources.

Some of the original records that I can look up on the internet are time dependent.  In Canada you can only view birth records that occurred more than 100 years ago; death records if they are older than 70 years and marriages more than 75 years ago.  Another words a generation or two of ancestors have to have passed before we can access their information.  And further new privacy laws are threatening these records completely.

Lately I have been trying to update and source my living immediate family.  It was surprising to me how little I knew.  In particular of the in-laws, nieces and nephews.  I barely remember their full names much less their birth dates.  What to do?   I could write them and ask for the information, but what fun is that?

This is when I thought of a source that I have that is, in my opinion, rather unusual. The annual Christmas letters!  Since their inception and up to recent years, I have kept all the letters.  I have gathered them and put them into page protectors and organized them into a binder according to the families that sent them. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 It is a treasure trove of information.   Who knew that one day my incessant saving of seemingly trivial things would be a help for me and my genealogy. The letters are fun to read and they give a snapshot of a year in their life.  I have used them to find out dates of certain family events such as baptisms, confirmations, graduations and house moves.  Also some of the letters are from family who are no longer living which makes them very special to me

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am not sure whether this source is original or derivative and it really doesn't matter. They are unique and a wonderful source of family information.

Wendy

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Week 6 Prompt - Valentine

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 6

Prompt – Valentine

I remember Valentine's Day in my grade school.   We made special decorated boxes to receive our classmate's valentines.  It was fun.  Fast forward to Valentine's Day of my children.   We would buy a box of valentines and then sit down with my children and their class list provided by the teacher. At that time you had to give everyone in their class a valentine because no child could be left without them. The teacher really wanted them to be filled in by the students as a practice writing exercise.   It was painful to sit with my children who were in kindergarten and grade 2 and help them address their valentines.  There was so much whining and they wanted to do anything but this.  And being the good mother I was, we left it to the night before it needed to be done.  Not so much fun.

Many years later it is just a fond memory.

Bill's maternal grandmother, Ida Jahnke; nee Bachmann had a postcard collection from her teen years.   I figure that must be about 1912 based on the fact that most of her other dated postcards are from that time.  These postcards are beautiful.  I found one Valentine postcard among her collection.   I would love to figure out who it was from and what it said.  However it was written in German.  Not only German but what I figure is the Old Script German writing, called Suterlin writing.  There are very few people still alive who can translate this writing. (Hitler banned this writing in 1941 in Germany).  I do make out that it was addressed to Ida Bachmann.  The content of the note and who gave her the Valentine is undecipherable.  It would be so cool to get it translated, but for now I enjoy making up all the scenarios that could be written to Ida Bachmann by her Valentine.

 

 

Wendy

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Week 5 Prompt - In The Kitchen

 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 5

Prompt – In The Kitchen

I have a recollection of a special soup that Grandmother Elisabeth Peters served or maybe it was her daughters Mary or Katie that served it.  I don't believe that our mother ever made it in our home; none the less it was a special treat for dad.  My sister, Betty remembers it fondly too.   I have this vague recollection that I tried it once as a young girl while visiting some relative.  It did not appeal to me at all.  It was a cold fruit soup and they called it Pluma Moos or maybe Plumi Moos.

I looked on line for a recipe. I found a blog called “Mennonite Girls Can Cook”. It's opening statement says this: “Mennonite Girls Can Cook is a collection of recipes which were posted daily for a period of ten years from 2008 to 2018. We have over 3,000 delicious recipes that we invite you to try.“

Their recipes were divine to read through.  Who would have thought about butter tart doughnuts?   They did have recipes for Plumi Moos which I will include here.  Again they are from their blog and not my recipes.  If one day you are standing in your kitchen trying to decide what to make, maybe this recipe will come to mind.  And if you make it please think of The Mennonite side of my father's family.

 

 

 

 

 

Wendy

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Week 4 Prompt -- Memories

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 4

Prompt – Memories

A few years ago I gathered my memories of my maternal grandmother, Elisabeth Dyck.  In part I had decided to write a cousin in Saskatoon to tell her what I remembered about my grandmother; her great-grandmother.  Like so many memories from a long long time ago, I discovered that they were quite faded.  I asked some of my siblings about her.  I got the most information from my oldest sibling, Betty.  She was a young teenager when grandma and grandpa Peters lived in Saskatoon and the family would visit them.

Betty remembers visiting them quite often when Grandma and Grandpa lived on Avenue C in Saskatoon.  Betty's memories of their rented home were quite vivid.  She remembers it looking quite run down.  Our grandparents lived on the top floor of a two story home and you had to get to them by way of an outdoor staircase which Betty termed a “rattletrap”.   Betty said grandma and grandpa Peters were very poor and on welfare.  And apparently this was due, in part anyway, to The Hague Mennonite Colony and their fallen out which resulted in a colony split in half with one half going to Mexico taking all of the colony's money.  There is a grain of truth in this in that some of the colony did leave for Mexico.  They wanted to live in their old ways.  The government of Saskatchewan passed an act that all the colony children need to go to an approved public school taught by a qualified teacher and in English.  This was the exact opposite promised to them prior to their immigration to Canada.   However the money issue is something I have yet to discover as truth. It was costly for the Mennonites to go to Mexico via train.  Who knows how the communal property and monies were divided up when the colony split.   None the less my grandmother and grandfather were very poor.  I believe they left the colony around 1929.  Grandpa Peters Obituary of 1952 stated he was a resident of Saskatoon for 23 years. 

 Betty also thought that Frank and Elisabeth Peters' daughters; Mary and Katie (aka Shirley) lived with there spouses in Saskatoon at this time.  Betty remembers visiting them often and especially during the time that dad was away at war.  Mary's children, Alice and Ruby were about Betty's age and she remembers having a great time socializing with her cousins while the adults visited and spoke only in German.

Betty said that grandfather Peters loved sunflower seeds and always had them in his pocket. She remembers him as very tall and thin. He was very quiet. He rarely spoke English although he knew some English.

Betty thought that Grandma was not always blind. Apparently at the age of 42, Grandma caught measles which caused her blindness.

Grandpa Franz Peters died in 1952. Their is a family story that after his death, dad's siblings had a falling out.  Apparently my mom and dad were left to pay for the funeral expenses because  he was the only working sibling and deemed to be rich.  It was shortly after the funeral that most of the family moved to Vancouver.  That is all but my dad, Jake and Uncle John.   I guess things were never the same after that.

My recollection of Grandma was when we went to Vancouver to visit grandma, Mary, Katie and the and all their children.  The trip was long and dad was always uptight about driving in the huge Vancouver city.  We never knew where to find them as they were on welfare and were regularly evicted from their rentals.  So it was not uncommon for grandma to have two or three different addresses in one year  There was one family member that we had to call to get their latest address and directions to it. And I do not know who this one 'stable' relative was.  I do remember more than once dad drove down a one way street the wrong way.  In hindsight I hoped that dad's Saskatchewan license plate granted him forgiveness.

They lived in a very 'nasty part' of Vancouver and mom and dad kept a tight leash on us because of all the ne'er-do-wells out there.  Mary and Katie lived with grandma.  Mary was the one who took care of grandma after moving out to Vancouver and for the rest of Grandma Peters' life. 

Circa 1960's Lt to Rt. Mary Holding Unknown Baby, Elisabeth and Katie 

Finally we would arrive at Grandma's place.  Visits started out the same and that was with Grandma Peters “feeling us up” as my younger sister and I giggled through the whole thing.  She would have us stand in front of her and starting at our head she would feel our hair, face, shoulders, abdomen and sometimes our legs.  She would always be talking to my dad in German.  My dad like his father was a very quiet person who only spoke when spoken too.  Thus to see dad carry on a conversation and in German struck us dumb.  Dad was a different person when he was around his mother and siblings.  He looked relaxed, but that could be that he was on holidays. Dad also smiled and laughed with his sisters.  So nice to know this side of dad.

The last time I saw Grandma Peters, she was so frail, so hunched over and so so deaf. She sat next to the stove for warmth and had her radio blaring. Her most favorite thing to listen to was hockey games. Go figure. 

When it was time to leave Vancouver the grandchildren would line up in front of grandma who always gave us candy for our trip home – which was usually some very yummy salt water taffy.

Grandma died in in 1972. Mom and Dad went alone to Vancouver to be at the funeral. 

Grandma Elisabeth Peters Funeral - January 21, 1972. 

I knew she was buried somewhere in Vancouver but never really knew exactly where until a few years back.  My daughter lives in Vancouver and on one of my visits to her, I decided it was time to search it out and visit her graveside.  The office staff at City of Vancouver Mountain View Cemetery were so helpful.  They found her grave site and then said she was buried without a headstone because she was handled as a city case ( welfare recipient).  They then said they would put up a marker if I could come back a few days later and would be able to visit her exact location. 

2016 Fall - Grandmother Elisabeth Peters Unmarked Grave. Marked With the Yellow Flag. 

I didn't think it would be an emotional thing for me as I felt I hardly knew her, but it was.  I bought a couple of flowers and placed them on her grave site.  I was likely one of the few people who have ever visited her grave after she was buried.  It felt very right and I am so glad that my daughter helped me go after this information while visiting her in Vancouver.

These are most of my sisters and my recollections of our Grandmother Elisabeth Peters. I hope it sheds a little light on a small part of her life and that maybe some family members might have other memories they would like to share.  Sometimes it is the darnedest details that come to one's memory.

Today is February 2, 2021.  It seems fitting that I chose to blog about my grandparents this past week because Franz and Elisabeth Peters were married 119 years ago today on February 2, 1902. Franz Peters was 26 years old, a farmer who lived at Blumenthal Colony. Elisabeth was 21 years old spinster from Schoenthal Colony.  They were married at Blumenthal. Saskatchewan was actually not an official province thus they would have been married in the “NWT".  Their presiding clergyman was Peter Klassen from Neuanlage.  I wonder what their wedding day looked like.   Was their a banquet put on by the Mennonite colony?   Maybe it was only a blip in the day of a farmer's life on the colony.

The Rosthern Reserve of Mennonite Colonies.

Wendy H.