52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Week 14 Prompt - It's Complicated

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 14

Prompt – It's Complicated

In the past several months I have been updating my maternal grandmother's siblings and families.   It really was all straight forward if not tedious to fill in.  In the past week I decided to do the same thing but on my father's side.  That is I am looking into his mother's family, Elisabeth Dueck and her siblings.

Elisabeth Dueck was the 9^th child of 15 children born to Johann Leonhard and Helena Dueck (Nee Peters).  Johann and Helena were born in Mennonite colonies in South Russia.  They married there on Sep 2, 1866.  Their first 5 children were born in Russia.  They immigrated to Canada leaving Hamburg on July 2, 1875 and arrived in Quebec on July 19, 1875.  The two youngest Russian born children died on the same day 1 month after arriving in Canada.  Their 6^th child and first to be born in Canada was born two weeks after the death of its siblings.  Sadly this child also died one month later.

Their 12^th child died at 1 years of age.  Their 13^th child died at the age of 19.  What I am saying is that not all 15 children lived to adulthood.  None the less there is many siblings that I will work on.

I started with my grandmother's oldest sister, Helena Dueck born on May 12, 1848 in South Russia. Helena was 7 years old when she arrived in Manitoba, Canada with her family.

Helena's first marriage was to a man twice her age and on his 3^rd marriage.  They married on the 12 August 1888 in Rural Municipality of Rhineland, Manitoba, Canada.  Helena was 20 years old and Peter Braun was 41 years old.

In Peter Braun's first two marriages he outlived his wives.   I mention this because I presume Peter Braun's children from those two marriages would become Helena's concern.  Let's look into Peter Braun's first two marriages.

He married Anna Ginter on August 30^th, 1870. Their children are as follows:

1. Jacob Braun (1871- after 1903)

2. Peter Braun (1873-1873) XXXXX

3. Anna Braun (1875-1875) XXXXX

4. Peter Braun (1876-1945)

5. Anna Braun (1880-1926)

Anna Ginter died 5 months after Anna was born on Jun 23, 1880.

Peter Braun then married Anna Doerksen in 1881. Their children are:

1. Abram Braun (1882-Young) – before 1884 because name reused for next male baby. XXXXX

2. Katarina Braun (1883- about 1982)

3. Abram Braun (1884-1958)

4. Maria Braun (1885-1916)

Anna Doerksen died on July 1, 1888 in Rural Municipality of Rhineland, Manitoba.

Peter Braun then married Helena Dueck on August 12, 1888.  That is one 1/2 months after his 2^nd wife died.  As I figure it, Peter Braun brought 6 children into this marriage. Peter and Helena's children are:

1. Johann Braun (1889-1974)

2. Helena Braun (1890-1956)

3. Aganetha Braun (1892-1925)

4. Elisabeth Braun (1894-1979)

5. Margaretha Braun (1896-?)

6. Kornelius Braun (1897-1897) Twin XXXXX

7. Wilhelm Braun (1897-1897) Twin XXXXX

8. Agatha Braun (1898-?)

9. Justina Braun (1900-1979)

10. Wilhelm Braun (1902-1981)

11. Henry Braun (1904-1981)

12. Gerhard Braun (1906-1908)

13. Franz Braun (1908-1908) XXXXX

14. Gerhard Braun (1909-1966)

Peter Braun died on January 29, 1910. He fathered 23 children. 6 died soon after they were born.

 Helena Dueck then married Peter Klassen 5 months later on June 19 1910.  They had 1 child together:

1. Cornelius Klassen (1911-1985).

However Peter Klassen was married before marrying Helena Dueck. He was married to Helena Hildebrand in 1885.  Peter fathered 11 children with Helena Hildebrand.  Only 5 of these children survived infancy.

Helena Dueck had no more children.

Peter Klassen died on July 21, 1946.

Helena Dueck lived until March 17, 1951 and was 83 years old.

To say that this family is complicated might be an understatement.  It was the ultimate blended family situation.  The early years in Canada were rough and not only for infants and children but for the adults as well.   When a parent died it was expected that they would remarry soon after the death.

In my opinion, Helena Dueck, my Grand Aunt, was a super woman.  I cannot fathom the logistics of running a household this big.  Just imagine when her children married and had their own large families?

Wendy

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Week 13 Prompt - First Cousin Once Removed.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

 Week 13 

Prompt – First Cousin Once Removed 

 

John Richard Krikau; born 1 Mar 1935 in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois. 

He is Mary McLaughlin's (my maternal grandmother) nephew. 

He is my mother's (Vivian Peters) cousin. 

He is my first cousin once removed. 

John Richard Krikau Circa 1940.

This is the gentleman who mailed my Grandmother McLaughlin asking for some history of her family that became a treasured 2 page oral report.  In February of 2007, I emailed him asking him if he had any other Krikau history or stories to share.   He was one of three relatives who had paid a genealogical researcher that traced our Krikau family back to 1723.   John Krikau also kindly shared all of this information with me.  At the end of his email he included a short paragraph of himself.

 “I am now retired and live with my wife Barbara in Florida during the winter months.   I taught chemistry at the high school level for many years in Elgin.  I have three children, two of whom are married. I now have seven grandchildren.” 

Circa 1999 - John and Barbara Krikau With 6 Grandchildren.

This was the extent of my knowledge of my first cousin once removed.  In recent weeks I have been  updating and sourcing all my information for my grandmother's siblings, their children and grandchildren.  That brought me to John Richard Krikau.  Most of the events that I have for him were school yearbooks hints from Ancestry.  I originally chose to ignore them and not include them in my tree.  However as I looked closer at them, I realized that they told a story of his life that otherwise I wouldn't have ever known. 

In 1950, John was a freshman (grade 9) in Thornton Township High School.  In the same year he was in the “freshman Senate”.  I have to think it is the same as student council 

In 1951 John attended the same high school.  He was a member of the freshman – sophomore football team.  His team had 4 wins, 1 loss and 1 tie.  John Krikau was also in the swimming club called “Merman”!

In 1952 he was in his junior year of the same high school.  He belonged to a group called The Hallguards.   He was on a successful Junior Varsity Squad for track. 

In his senior year of high school, John attended the same school.  He belonged to the Senior Hallguard group.  John was treasurer of The Letterman's Club.  Also he was on the Senior Varsity football club. 

In 1954 he becomes a freshman at Illinois State Normal University in Normal Illinois. Once again he joined the squad football team. 

In 1955 he was in his sophomore year of University. 

1955 - John Richard Krikau

In 1958 he entered his junior year at Illinois State Normal University. 

1958 - John Richard Krikau

In 1959 he entered his Senior University Year.  States his major was “physical science”.

According to the 1960 Elgin, Illinois City Directory, John Krikau is married and is employed as a teacher at Elgin High School. 

I next pick up John Krikau in the 1981 School Yearbooks where he is listed as a Science Teacher in Larkin High School in Elgin Illinois. 

1981 - John Krikau, Science Teacher

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the 1985, 1986 and 1988 School Yearbooks he is listed as a Assistant Principal at Larkin High School. 

1988 - John Krikau - Assistant Principal

I feel that I know so much more about John Krikau due to his school yearbooks.  He was athletic showing up on football, track and swimming teams.   He participated in school councils and Hallguards.  He participated in a religious club- Lutheran Club.  John Krikau was a Democrat, at least in his last two years of University.  He achieved a university degree and taught chemistry to high school students.  Later on in his career he was an assistant principal at a high school level.  His university was 2 hours from home and his schools where he taught were within 50 miles of where he grew up. 

Today he is 86 years old and I believe he is still alive.

Wendy

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Week 12 Prompt - Loss

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 12

Prompt – Loss

My mother-in-law, Clara Hoffart has many photo albums.  She inherited two beautiful velvet covered photo albums from her mother, Ida Jahnke (Nee:Bachmann).  The photographs inside are studio portraits of “family”.   I love the photographs.  They are mostly taken around 1900.   They are from studios in Germany, Chicago, and Winnipeg according to the back of the photograph. 

The first time I looked through the photo album, I asked Clara to tell me who these people were.  She said to me that she wished she could tell me, but doesn't really know.  Her comment was; “Oh gee I wish I would have paid attention to my mother when she told me who they were!”

Like most of us, we did not have the time or patience to look at the photographs that our parents or grandparents lovingly put into their photo albums.  Sadly the loss is ours.  She has a photo album of exceptional studio photographs that may never be identified.  I know that if there was a studio photograph of my great grandparents, grand uncles or grand aunts that I would love to have them and keep them as the treasure they are.

These are just a few of the photographs that I find intriguing.

This is the first photograph in the album.  We are sure that this is August Bachmann.  Bill's great grandfather.  He is the one who immigrated to North America from Germany.

 

 

 

 Is this August Bachmann too?  He looks similar to the previous photo. Is that a military uniform? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have no clue who this relative is.  He does have an interesting beard.

Are the 3 men on the left the same men as the 3 below.  If they are then we know who they are.  The left photograph was taken in Germany and the photo below was taken in America.  

 

 

 

These are just a few photographs from the photo album of unknown ancestors.  Their identities are lost.  What a shame.

Wendy

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Week 11 Prompt - Fortune

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 11

Prompt – Fortune

I am several weeks behind in the blog.  It happens and no I am not sick.  It has been my good fortune to stay in good health and away from COVID and it's Variants. (touch wood!).  Is fortune luck?  Or is fortune brought about by good external forces we have put in place?   It seems to me that luck is not within our control or it happens more by chance.   I think of luck as good and bad and fortune as only good.  Although it could be negative if it is “misfortune".  None the less, it has been my good fortune to get my first vaccine last week and for that I have been eternally grateful.

The more likely reason for my delay in blogs is that I recently got a new laptop for my genealogy.  There was really nothing wrong with the old one except it was slower and occasionally needed rebooting to help it remember.  Now doesn't that sound all too familiar?   I backed up my genealogy on a regular basis so I was rarely concerned about it.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My new laptop is smaller, lighter and is apparently a “kick ass” type of computer according to my husband who bought it for me for my birthday.  I am fortunate to have a husband who knows about computers and in fact has built them from components several times over the years.  It is not always a blessing.  His knowledge runs way beyond the everyday knowledge that most of us have and use on our computers.  Thus it was with great trepidation and anxiety that I allowed him to move all of my genealogy over to my new laptop.  Believe me when I tell you, I did lose some sleep over it.  There was several timeouts to regroup without tragedy.  I talked of thingies and cute icons while he talked about managing systems and other things that I chose not to listen to.  A couple of days later he had it all on my new laptop without a single loss of photos, accumulated family data or loss of life.

Seriously, I am fortunate and so grateful to have a computer genius in my life.

Wendy