52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Week 20 Prompt - Nature

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 20

Prompt – Nature

Nature is a formidable force. No one would know that better than the immigrants and settlers who came to the Canadian prairies. It's beauty is breath taking and beckons to all who see it. However behind it lurks the dangers that can imperil life and limb. 

1950 Circa George and Helen (nee Peters) Heide

Source is the GRanDMA (Genealogical Registry and Database of Mennonite Ancestry) database, the source of which is the California Mennonite Historical Society (CMHS).

My father's older sister, Helena Peters (1904 - 1994) married Gerhard (aka George) Heide (1906 – 1988). They married July 25, 1925 in Hague, Saskatchewan. Uncle George decided to write out his history for his family. What a beautiful legacy. I am not sure when he wrote this. It is rich in detail of his and Helen and their childrens' lives as he homesteaded their land in Pierceland, Saskatchewan. Pierceland is within the  Canadian Boreal Forrest. 

Pierceland is near the Saskatchewan Alberta border south of Cold Lake and north of Beaver River. Uncle George's story explains nature at its rawest. He and his wife took it on and despite it all thrived. Enjoy his story. It really belongs in the history books.

“Our story starts in Hague, Saskatchewan where Helen and I were born. My parents refused to learn English, so got a dictionary to translate German to Spanish & decided that we would all learn the language because we were moving to Mexico. I had no desire to move there because I was dating Helen, & therefore we decided to get married on July 1925. That November, three trainloads of Mennonites left for Mexico, but I and my sister stayed behind. We lived in Hague for a few years, where three of our children were born & then moved on to Fielding, Saskatchewan. My family who went to Mexico have all died by this time except, Isaac and Claus, who still live there. My sister who stayed died in Burns Lake BC. When we moved to Fielding, my brother Bernard, wanted to come back so I sent him the ticket & he lived with us for a few years until we moved to Pierceland. When we moved to Fielding we had a hard time because Helen could speak no English and I very little. We had nothing, but luckily I found a job for $45 a month, top wages at the time. We saved our money and bought a team of horses, a wagon & a hay rack and loaded up everything and moved to Pierceland arriving July of 1932. It took us 28 days with 4 small children to get there. When we first got there we thought we had made a huge mistake, it looked like a desert because of a fire that had gone through in 1919. We had no idea how we would make a living but knew we had to try. We had no tent, so I made a dugout, a deep ridge, 9'x10' with a peaked roof of log poles & sod, where we stayed nice and dry until October when our log home was complete. Actually our log home never was finished because the logs were 36'x38' and far to big to finish so we lived in a small corner with a flat roof which if it rained outside 2 days it rained inside another 2 days. Our son John, Born in Cold Lake was the first of our children to call this his first home. This place was not called Pierceland when we first got here, but in the fall of 1932, Joe Hewlett dragged a granary in and called it the Pierceland Post Office. Mail them came by horse delivered by (Frank Norris) from Cold Lake to Pierceland & Beacon Hill. In order to have meat to eat I had to hunt deer and while doing so at one time I found a beautiful patch of blueberries, which we picked and sold to Jack Manderson's store for 3 cents a pound. This bought us flour, sugar, and supplies for the winter. The next year we dug seneca roots & sold then for 3 cent a pound, which makes a pretty skimpy living. Helen remembers a time when we borrowed our friends team of horses & wagon, with a grain box and crossed the Waterhen River and picked cranberries there for a week straight. When we had a box full we sold them to Jack for 2 cents a pound & he was able to sell them to peddlers there who bought the whole lot for 3 cents a pound in spite of the fact that they were so juicy that the juice was dripping so badly that it looked like blood dripping from the box. Pete recalls a time when after a hard time working that they were rewarded with a bottle of orange pop which then sold for 2 for5 cents. In the early years Helen used to carry bread dough 1-1/2 miles to be baked in our nieghbours oven and then home the same distance. When Anne was born we could not afford milk and so she drank tea from a bottle and not milk. We made our own pablum from flour boiled then drip dried and oven baked, with a little sugar this was pablum. We didn't have a garden that first year so I dug potatoes for 2 neighbors, one gave me a bag of turnips and the other a bag of beets. To this day I can not tolerate eating turnips. The mosquitoes and sand flies where so bad that we built a smudge in a pail & put it on the wagon pole in front of the horses, so that they could move their ears and there noses would not get plugged. The horses died of swamp fever shortly after we moved there and after that we either walked of took the dog team wherever we needed to go. Many times when I was away Helen, with 6 children in tow would row or sail across Jeglum Lake then walk to Pierceland for supplies & back home again a distance of 4 miles each way. After Betty was born on the Indian reservation in April we headed for our own homestead & camped 1-1/2 miles away for a month while I cleared a road to our place. Our homestead was a tent that Helen made out of flour sacks, sewed by hand and the floor was spruce boughs and we put plastic over the baby to keep her dry and warm. By this time I had bushed enough for Isaac Unrau, for him to come & plow a patch of 4 acres for our first real garden & a wheat crop. I had also bushed 10 acres for Henry Keller and for that he gave me a cow that was worth $10. This was our first cow, but it had a desire to run home all the time so Helen had to walk over a mile to milk it morning and evening. Over 75 families moved on to homesteads, each having a quarter section. Some of them were, Kellers, Peters, Unraus, and Harders. The first school, Helen, Mary, George and Pete attended, which was 3 miles away. First teacher was P. J. Moynihan. Trapping was the only way to earn money for food & clothing from 1931 to 1937. My trapping line was from Pierceland to Sicup Lake, a distance of eighty miles, which took me 5 days to reach to far cabin, with back packs weighing over 95 pounds of food, and on the way back this would be replaced with furs. I was usually gone for a month then home for 3 days and back again, which we did for 7-1/2 months each winter. In the fall of 1937 and old fisherman, Isaac Unrau, hired me to teach me how to ice fish with the 12 nets that he had. Then we sold the fish to peddlers that came to the lake. One time while trapping I fell through the ice up to my armpits and being all alone and two miles from camp when I got out I started running, by the time I got to the camp my pants where frozen so solid that I could not bend or brake them. In the spring of 1938 we bought out second cow from Mr. Pollock for $10, money from trapping. After helping Corny Unrau cut logs for a new house he in turn helped me cut logs for a new house which was 20'x20' with a new style cottage roof. Both families moved in by the fall of 1938. I donated three acres of land for a new school house, which was ready in a year and five of our children attended that school. In 1938 we had two oxen, Hummy and Mike. On one occasion when I was hauling a load of sand with the oxen, Ann who was about 4 years old fell off the wagon. I hollered for the oxen to stop but the wagon wheel rolled over her back. We immediately took her to the Cold Lake hospital where she stayed for about 10 days, with luckily no broken bones only bruises. In 1938 I traded the oxen for horses which was the best team I ever had, Tiger and Tony. In the fall of 1940 I had my own fishing outfit and I made a deal with Frank Harder to give him half of my fish for eight shallow nets. I was lucky to be able to catch more fish with these old rags than he did with his new ones. I then had enough money to buy new nets and with 12 nets altogether I was now fishing on Pierce Lake and on Cold Lake. In January of 1941 it was too cold for school so they shut it down and we decided to go on a holiday to Saskatoon, with the horses and a caboose heated by a stove, where 10 of us survived all cozy and warm. Saskatoon was our home for about a month and on our way home the caboose caught fire and we lost all our blankets and other stuff, but as luck would have it our neighbors helped out and we got home in April just before Vivian was born. Plus on the way home all eight kids woke up with the measles. In 1942 I started fishing on Primrose Lake with a full outfit. The first year I had no cabin, therefore, Mary George and I slept in a grain box for five days. We fixed up a cabin which needed a half wall, a window and a door. We used this cabin until the Air Force took over the lake. Later I moved and insulated caboose up and stayed in it, which is still there. That same winter I bought one hundred tons of raw fish for which I paid 10 cents a piece, which made a pretty big pile of frozen fish. It was about 40 degrees F. below or colder but about 3 PM that same day a warm chinook came and was flapping the tails of the fish around, so wanting to save the fish I hired some men to help me shovel snow on the pile and lost only 50 pounds. I sure though I had lost the whole pile but was so very lucky. In 1946 we started getting the Family allowance which sure helped our family of thirteen. I bought my first "pony" tractor in 1949 after trapping. Muskrats were five dollars a pelt and I made $5,000.00 in three weeks, using only one horse and a sled. With this it now took me only 10 days to works the trap line which was about one town line of 24 miles. Tragedy struck our family when our son-in-law, Dan Heinrichs, drowned. We were a Sandy Beach on Pierce Lake having a family picnic. There was our family and Helen, our daughter, and her family. Mr. & Mrs. Khol and their daughter, who was playing on an inner tube when she fell off. Helen's husband, Dan, ran to rescue her but they both lost their lives. Dan left behind, besides Helen, two small daughters, Marlene, Darlene and his unborn son.

In the fall of 1949 we built our new house 18'x20', out of lumber. This house had a bedroom upstairs and later on we added two more bedrooms and a kitchen. Also in 1949 George got his Deputy Game Warden's Badge, which he held until 1972, for a total of 23 years. It was also the years that he had his first heart troubles, as he was driving by car to Saskatoon, with Helen, Jake and Mrs. Ernest Lepine. This was time too when Jake ate too many bananas and Helen had her eye operation. In 1950 George legally began acting as a hunting guide. Many of the hunters were Americans, from California, Michigan, the Dakotas, Montana, Atlanta and Georgia, some also haling from Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. He usually had 40 or more hunters in a season. In his 23 years of hunting he had only one hunter ever lost, and then only for 24 hours. This was Sid Unrau, a local fellow but his first time in the bush, and one hunter from Battleford, Saskatchwan was lost for 2 hours. I never had any shooting accidents while guiding; after all my preaching on safety and carelessness no one dared to do something dumb. Most of the hunters bagged their game, with several moose dressing over 1,000 pounds Joe Kisch of Saskatoon shot a trophy moose and Mr. Jones of Meadow Lake, Sask., got a moose that dressed over 1,100 pounds, which was also a trophy. George himself shot a moose that dressed around 1,000 pounds in 1949, in the early moose season. George's Partners were, Albert Pahlke, & Ernest Promeau. While setting up camp one year his partners said, how stupid we were to come with no snow and no tracks to follow, They kept this up all evening and I was too angry to say anything. The next morning George told them that they could go which ever way they wanted, but if they went west I would go east. They were just not going in the same direction if they thought that it was sheer stupidity. So they went west and George took of in an easterly direction and out of sight, and started running so that they could not follow him. About a mile east George heard a moose calling, and followed the sound and about an hour later He has his moose. The moose was so big that he thought it might be tough so he cut off a good sized chunk off the hind leg which he took back to camp where the others were waiting. They asked if I had heard any shooting, to which I replied, "No I hadn't heard anyone. They said it could not have been me shooting because it was too fast so he pulled the chuck of meet out of his pack and asked them to cook it to see if it was fit to eat. In 20 minutes it was well done, so since the meat was good he told them to leave their rifles at camp because we had all the meat we needed. We went out and dressed the animal and skidded it back to camp with the horses. The moose was so big that the horses tired out three times while coming to camp. After packing up we camped at Gold Mine Creek for the night where we spread the meat out on sticks to cool as it was really cold in the canyon. When we arrived home the next day we divided the meat but there was more that we could handle, so we let the people in town know. One man in particular, Joe Vanhovard, upon picking up his meat was surprised that it was frozen and asked where my freezer was as it had not frozen in Pierceland. I told him it was the little wooden shed and he was really stumped. Another incident, about 1970. was when George had Harvey Farslow as guide and the hunters were some professors from Saskatoon and a doctor from Norway. Ian Hendersen from Saskatoon and his partner shot a cow and calf one day, so we brought them to camp and dressed them. That night some bears stories were told and low and behold that night some bears dragged the moose hides away. The next morning Ian went about a quarter of a mile into the bush and saw a black object and thinking it was a bear he emptied his .308 automatic into the black spot, then ran back to camp before checking to see what it was that he had shot. At camp he met his partner and wrote a note for me and left it on the table. When Harvey and George got into camp & read the note, Harvey said,"If he shot five shots into the bears chest we may as well wait here." Just then Ian and his partner came back into camp laughing and Ian's partner said, "That bear grew horns into a five point bull moose. Ian looked for his note but since George had put it into his pocket, and Ian not wanting his wife to hear about his bear story, George then gave the note to his partner to give to Ian,s wife. In the early 1930's one of my trips up north to Big Island Lake I spotted a moose rubbing his antlers on a big jackpine, so I shot it with one shot. By the time I got it down to my friend, Louis Pumas, came down from where the moose had chased him and since I thought the moose had more claim on him than I did I gave it to him. Ten days later when I came back Louis had the whole thing sliced and dried and put in a gunny sack, which was the only way he could get it home in one trip on foot. In 1951 Helen, daughter, came home with her new husband, Jake Isaac, and four children. There were 23 people in our house for the winter. Helen, wife was a professional baker by this time and we baked bread every day, 100 pound of flour a week and two big pails of potatoes every day. In 1952 I got my out-fitter,s license and in 1953 Helen and I traveled to Lloydminster to attend the weddings of our two oldest sons, George and Pete. In 1956 the girls came home from British Columbia and tore down the log house. In 1957 a small house was built for Mary and Ike during August before their first son was born, where they lived for a couple of years before moving to Buffalo Narrows, Sask. We then used the house for brooding 200 chicks at a time until it burnt down in 1960 along with the chicks and Ed's Whiskey. We sure had to laugh, because Ed losing all his whiskey made up for us losing all our chicks as the bottles exploded. In 1957 after the three youngest boys helped me earn $350.00 and going to Saskatoon I lost it all to a pickpocket. In 1959 I began mink ranching starting with 60, but due to the fact that I lost so many because of low flying jet planes in the end I lost all the young one year plus 13 old ones that I killed the rest and gave up that business. In 1960 Abe, my brother and his wife from Mexico came to visit us. A few months later out house burnt down as Helen was baking and I in the mink shed saw smoke pouring from the chimney and out from under the roof, as I ran and was only able to save Helen and lost everything else. When the kids got home from school the house was in the cellar. We could not even make coffee. In town I called our sons in Lloydminster, They came that night with blankets and groceries and others donated clothes, groceries, dishes and other necessities. The Eatons Company and the Red Cross also helped us out greatly. It was 1961 when we began building our new house. Poured the cement in the summer and moved in by fall, our first home with a basement. In 1967 our three youngest sons all got married. Mel's in Lloydminster and Jake and Dave's in Saskatoon. I missed Mel's wedding as I was flown to Saskatoon to have a gallstone operation. Lloydminster was the location of our family reunion in 1968, where all our children and their families came except Helen & Mary. Emma the last of our 18 children went to work in Lloyd, then in Saskatoon in the hospital. Helen & I were alone for the first time since 1925. George and Florence moved to Surrey, B.C. in 1969. I acquired a new toboggan in 1970 and on a trip up north it blew a piston 30 miles from Goodsoil. I walked back 23 miles in 2 feet of snow, seven hours by the time I got to my truck and couldn't move my feet enough to drive and could not walk for 2 weeks. 1971 proved what a lucky man I am for I won a battle with cancer of my jaw, where they removed part of the jaw and replaced it with a piece of my rib. Five years later all tests had been negativeS In the spring of 1972 we moved from the farm to the town of Pierceland and we love being close to neighbors and have joined the Seniors Club and met and made many old and new friends. Mel also sold the farm in Barrowman. That fall the boys came home to help me build a 10'x28' extension onto the house. We made a trip to Vancouver the year Helen's mother died at 92 years old and were stranded there for 6 weeks because trains and buses were snowed under and planes were on strike. In 1973 we ended up in Vancouver again when after spending Christmas with Jake and Cheryl then Jack and Kay's for New Years, Then on to Creston, BC. to Mary & Isaac's and then by bus to Vancouver. In 1975 Helen & I celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary, with 10 of our children coming home, to make this the thrill of our lives, with a repeating of our marriage vows at the United Church in Town and a reception and later on a dance at the Community Hall. As a gift from our family we got our first color television set as well as other things. We are so appreciative of all that was done for us. Helen and I had the opportunity to travel with our daughter Viv and Ed and their family to Mexico in a motor home. We were gone for three weeks and visited with my brothers Isaac and Klaas, whom I had not seen for 50 years, and after seeing how they lived I was doubly glad that I had not gone with them to Mexico, for they were so poor it was worse than living in the 1930's. I was so glad that my family had a better chance to make better lives for themselves. During this trip we also saw, Disneyland, Knots Berry Farm, San Diego Zoo, Hollywood, Universal Studio, Las Vegas, and the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City, etc. In 1977 I had a bad nosebleed. A blood vessel had broken. Kay and Jack were visiting us and they drove me to Goodsoil. I was taken by ambulance to Saskatoon. The End.”

Thank you and God bless you Uncle George for writing your story that we all may know of your tenacity, ingenuity, your heartbreaks and your triumphs in your life as a homesteader, settler, trapper, fisher, farmer,entrepreneur,  husband, father, grandfather and the only uncle that I knew. You welcomed our family - the city slickers to your farm in the 1960's.  A memorable experience to say the least. 

Circa 1949 Helen and George Heide & Family

In Loving Memory
Wendy

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Week 19 Prompt - Nurture

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 19

Prompt – Nurture

To nurture is to care for someone or something and also to encourage their growth and development. I believe that nurturing our children, for example, is a natural part of who we are as human beings. Throughout my blogs I suggest that the immigration of my ancestors was the result of seeking religious and political freedom and free abundant land. Underlying all of this has to be the want to nurture their children and give them land that was no longer available in their former countries. Owning land meant that they could grow and harvest more food to feed their growing families. Their new land allowed them to be together in their own language and culture which was important to them to encourage them to grow in their faith and be allowed to live according to their moral beliefs. Obviously this nurturing worked as we are here.

ME  >  JACOB PETERS (my father)  >  FRANZ PETERS (his father)  >  DAVID KLAAS PETERS (his father)  >  NIKOLAUS (KLAAS) PETERS (his father)  >  ARON PETERS. (his father).

Aron Peters, my 3^rd great – grandfather was born in 1745 in Pietzckendorf, Prussia. He was married 3 times. 

His first wife (unknown name) gave him two daughters. This wife died sometime on or before 1780. He married his second wife, Helena Krahn on September 14, 1780. It was not unusual for the remarriage to happen so quickly after the death of a wife because he had children that needed a mother to nurture them. Aron and Helena were married in Heubuden, Gross Werder, Prussia. Aron and Helena Peters are my direct ancestors (5 generations).

Aron and Helena had 3 children prior to moving to Russia. Anna Peters (1782 – 1802). Jacob Aaron Peters ( 1784 – 1856). Cornelius Aaron Peters ( 1786 – 1886).

In 1789 at the approximate age of 44 – Aron and Helena and their 3 children (and possibly Elizabeth from Aron's first marriage) immigrated to Russia. Aron Peters was among the first settlers to start Schoenhorst in Chortitza Colony of Mennonites in Russia.

They had 4 more children. Gertrude Peters (1791 – 1802). Aron Peters (1794 – 1856). Klaas Peters (1797 – 1866). David Aaron Peters (1798 – 1866). Klaas Peters is my direct ancestor.

Helena Peters (nee Krahn) died in April 1801. Leaving Aron with 8 children. It was little wonder that he remarried three months later in July 1801 to a women named Kristina (1754 – after 1802). Kristina and Aron had no children as far as I can tell. At the age of 57 Aron died in January 1802 along with his 20 year old daughter, Anna, and his 11 year old daughter Gertrude. I do not know if they died the same day as in some horrific tragic accident or whether they died in the same month due to some disease.

Let's look at Kristina and her history as it intersects the Peters Family. Kristina was born in Vistula Delta, Poland in 1754. She was married 4 times. 

 At 16 years of age she married Peter Reimer ( 1744 – 1795) in Poland. They had 5 children. Jacob Reimer (abt. 1771), Christina Reimer (abt. 1772), Anna Reimer (abt. 1782), Maria Reimer (abt. 1791), and Peter Reimer (abt. 1794). Kristina's husband, Peter Reimer died in either 1795 or 1797, none the less Kristina remarried. His name was Gerhard Doerksen (1774 – 1801), They had two children together. We know the second child as David Doerksen born about 1797. Gerhard Doerksen died in March of 1801. Kristina was widowed with 8 children from her first two marriages. Remember she married Aron Peters – her 3^rd husband who 8 of his own children. They married in July of 1801. Six months later Aron Peters dies and leaves Kristina with 14 children to nurture. Kristina goes on to marry her fourth husband, Aron Lepp on May 22, 1802. Kristina is listed as dying about 1802. I have no further information whether her 4^th husband remarried. My educated guess is that he did and not too long after the death of Kristina. There was about 14 children left behind at this time. And we think we invented the blended family!

In order to nurture their children my ancestors remarried quickly after the loss of a spouse. It was a necessity. It was expected.

Wendy

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Week 18 Prompt - Road Trip

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 18

Prompt – Road Trip 

My husband and I enjoy our holiday road trips. There is nothing like hitting the wide open road. We put on our favorite music or a audio book and watch the miles go by. For us it is all about the journey and not so much the destination.

I remember several road trips as a child with my parents. Often we were headed out to Vancouver to visit my paternal grandmother, Elisabeth Peters. My mom hated the drive through the high mountain passes so we went the southern route on what is now the #3 Highway. There was mountains but not as high. The particular trip I recall was about 1961 or 1962 when I was 6 or 7 years old. Dad could only get holidays in September because his seniority (or lack of seniority) at The Olympic Meat Processing Plant never allowed summer holidays. We got to start school late which was no big deal for me when I was younger, but later on it was kind of cool. Our family car was a small 4 door Chevy of some type. It was a tight fit for mom and dad and 6 of their 7 children. My oldest sister was in nursing school and never went along. These were the days of no seat belts. My 3 brothers and older sister crammed the back seat. My younger sister sometimes drove in between mom and dad in the front seat, but I recalled her sleep time being spent lying across the shelf of the rear window. And poor me – I got the back seat floor. The one with a hump in the middle of the floor and all my brother's stinky feet. Til this day I do not know how mom and dad survived us on that trip. We complained, screamed, fought, whined and begged to be let out for a bathroom break or a break for just walking around. Oh dad you were a saint to put up with the kicking feet in the back of your seat while driving all the way to Vancouver. 

As a special treat, once we did get to stop for a roadside diner lunch and it was the first time that I had a“hot hamburger sandwich” plus a coke to drink. It was heaven. I do not know how mom and dad could afford it but maybe we all shared meals.

We could not afford hotels so we slept in campgrounds along the way. The tent was only 10 by 10 feet. We arrived late at night and dad and my brothers put up the tent using the car headlights to see. It didn't matter because it was always put up on the most uncomfortable tree trunks and rocks of the campground. That one particular night was super late and too late for a campfire so we got to eat sugar cubes and crackers for supper.

To say the least 8 of us in that one tent was uncomfortable. One of us slept across the top and the other slept crosswise at the zipper end of the tent. That person grumbled the most because they were always being stepped on as one or another of us had to leave to use the bathroom.

In the morning we had a campfire which had coffee on the go for dad. I don't remember what we ate for breakfast – probably cereal. I distinctly remember going to the a nearby stream / river to scoop up our water for consuming. No seat belts and drinking stream water; how did we ever survive?

We packed up very quickly after breakfast when the boys came running to tell mom and dad that they spotted a bear across the stream just hanging out. I knew very little about bears but it lit a fire under everyone else.

How did they fit a tent, camping cooking equipment, blankets, sleeping bags, suitcases or bag for the clothes into the trunk? There was sure no room in the car for any of it.

The cramped tent and car was the memorable part of the trip for me. It was so different from how we lived in the city.

Finding Grandmother Peters Home!

There was always tension for mom and dad once we got to Vancouver. We never knew where grandmother lived. She lived on Social Welfare and moved from place to place quite frequently. Dad had one family member who was more stable and as soon as we got to the city dad found a pay phone and called him for the address and directions. There was no GPS, cell phones or city maps. We depended on the directions given to us. It was never as easy to find them as they said it would be. We drove for what seemed like hours. Dad on several occasions went the wrong way down a one way street. This was something that Saskatoon did not have. However we always found grandmother Peters and her daughters Mary and Kate and several cousins of varying ages. I don't remember where we all slept but I am sure that it was just as cramped as the tent.

It was all so worth it because dad was a completely different man with his sisters and mother. He spoke German which blew me away. You must know that dad was a man of few words in English and we never heard him speak German except around his family. He smiled and joked. It was so beautiful to see him truly happy while with his family.

Going home was less memorable but seeing how it was September, mom always bought crates of apples to take home. Those ended up in the car on someone's lap or at the feet where I stayed. They were very special apples because they tasted so much sweeter than the store ones we got in Saskatoon. I got to take my teacher one on my first day back at school. She was so thrilled about it. I also gave her a present of a leaf of a Maple Leaf tree that I found in Vancouver Stanley Park. It was the size of my head. That hung around the classroom for sometime. 

 

I look back fondly at our road trips. Road trips are the thing that gives the family the best stories about themselves. Some of it was true, some of it became family legend and some stories turned into family folk lore that became impossible to believe. 

Wendy

52 ancestors in 52 Weeks Week 17 Prompt - At Worship

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 17

Prompt – At Worship

Church and worship was life's anchor for most of my ancestors. As noted before in my family, religion comes in several different denominations. My father was Mennonite and came from a long line of Mennonites. When dad married mom, Lydia Vivian Sullivan, he became Lutheran. My mother came from many generations of Lutherans. And on my husband's paternal side they are Catholic. His mother's side is Lutheran.

In order to be a family in good standing in their church, attending church to worship was a mandatory obligation for most of my ancestors. I want to say you would have to be dead not to attend church service, but aside from this being a bad joke, even the dead attended church for their funeral!

In genealogy many of the documents that we use were generated in the church. Mennonites kept exceptional records that have been kept and passed down to each new generation. However I think that most churches kept records of their parishioners regardless of their denomination. Many of these written records have been digitized and available on line. Some denominations keep their documents in a less central location and one must be lucky to try and track them down. I am very fortunate to have my mother's actual church certificates from her baptism, confirmation, wedding and her funeral.

Lydia Vivian Sullivan was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba on April 19, 1922. 

My mother's baptismal certificate from May 22, 1922 is written in German. It is a large ornately printed certificate with the church's seal and suitable for framing. I have photocopied it for easy use in my genealogy scans. Generally speaking these documents are thought to be primary evidence as it is written very close to the actual event by the person who performed it and in this case the by the minister who performed the baptism.

My mother was confirmed in Lutheran faith on March 21, 1937 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. 

It is more of a booklet than a certificate. It is written in English. The booklet is titled - “In Remembrance of My Confirmation.” . The central page is the actual Certificate of Confirmation. It includes all the pertinent information of the confirmation. Interestingly my mother is listed as McLaughlin. She was never adopted by her step father (Benjamin F. McLaughlin) like her brother was. It could have been grandmother's choice to list her as a McLaughlin instead of a Sullivan due the nature of the dissolution of the first marriage. This could be the beginning of confusion over what mom's real maiden name was. After all as a document it is considered primary evidence of the event.

My mother and father were married November 20, 1938 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. 

Again the church document is a beautiful booklet named; “Our Wedding Day”. It is tied together with a ribbon. The pages throughout are filled with bible passages. The central page states “This Certifies that ...” and has the seal of the church and is signed by Pastor A. Eissfeldt. The last page of the booklet is signed by their wedding guests. Such a special document.

My mother died January 24, 1987 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. 

The official death records are actually government issued documents registering her death to the Saskatchewan Department of Health, Vital Statistic Division. There is also a Funeral Director's Statement of Death. For the funeral there is a church bulletin that was printed for all those in attendance. It may not be the official government documents, but it does give us much more information. It states when and where the funeral service was held. The name of the pastor is listed along with the funeral Order of Service including hymns and bible readings. There is a list of pallbearers. The site of interment is listed. So much more information is given with the included obituary. There is no seal or signature of the pastor on this church document. The government has taken over the official documents of death from the church, however the church bulletin for the worship of my mother's funeral has more details that is of greater interest to me.

Mom and dad were not regular church goers. They were more the “C and E” kind of church attenders. That is Christmas and Easter and for those special life events such as baptism, confirmation, marriages, and funerals.

Wendy

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Week 16 Prompt - Out of Place

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 16

Prompt – Out of Place

My husband and I are essentially homeless. Or put another way we are between homes right now. We have moved out of our condo in Kelowna, but our new home in Calgary is not quite ready. It is a disconcerting feeling to say the least. It occurs to me that this feeling may have been what my ancestors experienced when they immigrated to North America but in their case in a much grander way. Unlike my husband and I our ancestors had little idea of what their new home looked like or what traveling weeks on a ship would be like.

My mother's mother, Mary McLaughlin nee; Krikau (1903 to 1987) was born in Russia and immigrated (with her family) to Canada through New York when she was 8 years old in the fall of 1911. Just old enough to have some faint memories of the trip and their new home. Mary McLaughlin stated in her oral history that the reason their family moved to Canada was as follows.

 On a wider scope, many Germans from Russia were disgruntled with Russia. Catherine the Great promised free land, religious freedom,  exemption from military service, allowed them to teach in their own language and their own curriculum. By the 1870's these privileges were being revoked due to Russian political upheaval and the need for able bodied men to serve in their armies. Those fortunate enough, got out of Russia searching for the same freedom that they had once been granted originally in Russia. Generally speaking they found the freedoms they were hoping for in America. Of course they would feel out of place. It was all brand new to them.  For the most part they stayed with families and friends who already lived here and had welcomed them to Canada. They were able to communicate in their German language and attend German church services and teach their children in German. I believe that this type of cultural community helped my grandmother and other immigrants feel less out of place in their new home.

Similarly, my father's grandparents immigrated to Canada in 1875 from Russia to Canada for much the same reason. They were Mennonites and like the protestants they moved to Russia for free land, tax exemption, freedom of language and religion and being pacifists they looked for military exemption. As these privileges were being rescinded in Russia they looked to America for a better life. The Mennonites sent out trusted members of their clergy to scout out and eventually negotiate for the American and Canadian land. Mennonites are communal and when it was decided to go to America, they did en-mass. Whole communities ended up on the same ship and traveled together with the agents to the same place. My father's grandparents, David Peters (1935 - 1919) and Katherina Mueller (1836 - 1913) traveled to the Manitoba and settled in the land set aside for the Mennonites. I would assume that the feeling of being out of place would have been somewhat mitigated by their community. They split their land as they did in Russia which was long narrow strips of land. They built similar house barns in the same type of village streets as they had used in Russia. They had their own Mennonite schools and churches and it was not necessary to interact with Canadians except in those cases where the men were looking for local advice on farming the unfamiliar land.  The Mennonites huddled together in their communities trying their best to make it like their former homes and villages in Russia. Some of the villages were called by the same name as they were in Russia.  Initially they enjoyed all the freedoms promised to them by Canadian government. However by WWI the Mennonites were hassled for their pacifism beliefs. They were enlisted to do work in the country of a non military nature but helping the cause. In the early 1900's they were no longer allowed to teach their children at their schools in their language. Provincial law was passed and the children of the Mennonites and in fact all children regardless of their affiliation were to be taught in English in the government approved schools. This assimilation was not what the Mennonites wanted as it eroded their Mennonite life which was to stay as they always had. For the Mennonites they were okay with being out of place if it meant that their way of life was not assimilated into the Canadian life.

Our reasons for moving were not as grandiose as religious freedoms, language freedoms or political. Simply we wanted to move back to a place we thought of as home which was closer to family and friends. We wanted to move back to Calgary and feel a sense of being in a place we knew and loved.

Wendy

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2019 Week 15 Prompt DNA

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

2019

Week 15

Prompt – DNA

DNA is still not my forte. I have done the Ancestry DNA kit. I have got back my results and have downloaded it to my Ancestry tree. What does it all mean? I still don't know. However it is a plan to keep at it until I figure out what it is telling me.

My ethnicity story according to Ancestry is 54% Germanic Europe. 46% England, Wales and Northwestern Europe. That is no surprise to me. Well maybe I expected some Irish from my paternal grandfather, Robert W. Sullivan. On the other hand so much of what I know of him has been less than forthcoming. Does DNA lie?

My DNA and Ancestry Family Tree have found 1000 + 4^th Cousins or closer. Also I have 114 shared ancestors hints. I believe that means I have 114 individuals in ancestry who share my DNA or vice versa.

My closest matches are 1^st and 2^nd cousins that I know about.

The following example is a match that I am presently trying to sort out. 

H.P. Is the name of the tree which is run by James Peters. He has 1334 people in his tree. Our match is estimated to be 3^rd to 4^th cousins based on our shared DNA. It is 127 cM across 7 segments. A centimorgan (cM) is a unit used to determine the length of the DNA. The higher the number the higher the confidence and in general the closer the relationship. In this case their confidence is extremely high that this is a 3^rd or 4^th cousin.

Ancestry then shows the comparison of our ethnicity as follows. 

H.P. Has a higher Germanic European ethnicity than me. I have almost twice as much England, Wales I& NW European than H.P. Also H.P. has Swedish and Norwegian ethnicity. 

Ancestry then shows me the common ancestor and how H.P. Is related to me. It is our 2 times great grandfather, Jacob Peters born in 1810 at Kronsweide, Chortitza Colony, South Russia. I can now look at his tree and look at his sources as a guide to further study of our 2^nd great-grandfather.

It seems like a very helpful tool. Considering I have a 1000 plus matches in DNA alone, I could be very busy trying to follow up on them. I plan to learn more about DNA genealogy and how it will help me in future.

Wendy

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2019 Week 14 Prompt - Brick Wall

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

2019

Week 14

Prompt – Brick Wall

Robert and Mary Sullivan on Wedding Day

A brick wall is just like it sounds. It is that point in your genealogy tree where it is seemingly impossible to go any further back on that branch. It is that point where a person seems to have been transplanted into your tree without any ancestors. How can that be?  Everyone comes from someone!

My brick wall appears in my blogs frequently. It is my mother's father – Robert Windsworth Sullivan. Grandfather Sullivan married my grandmother – Mary Krikau. They married April 11, 1921 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Their wedding certificate is one of the few official documents that I have for Mr. Sullivan.

Grandfather Sullivan was rarely spoke of and if he was it was certainly in hushed and secretive voices. My grandmother made a good go of trying to erase him from the family. Mr. Sullivan comes with much family lore. Mary's parents despised him for her and according to my Aunt Phyllis they “disowned” her because she married him.

According to my sister who had a conversation with Grandma - this marriage was rocky from the start. The story is that Mr. Sullivan married a second women while married to grandma and was found out and was sent to jail for bigamy. I can not prove that story. However I do know that he did spend time in jail when mom, Vivian, was born. On Vivian's birth registration her father is listed as Patrick Sullivan and his address at the time of her birth is listed as Stony Penitentiary – Winnipeg.

Mary did forgive and they got back together. They had another child – George Windsworth Sullivan who died at a few months of age. On George's Burial Report Mr. Sullivan's name is Patrick W Sullivan and on George's Interment Order he is listed as P. Sullivan.

His name is not the same on any document I have. In their marriage document his name is listed as; Bob Windsworth Sullivan. In the 1921 Canada Census taken shortly after they were married he is listed as; Robt Wentworth Sullivan. Searching through Saskatoon Henderson's Books I find him as follows;

1924 – Patrick Sullivan, Chef at Barry Hotel, r (renting) 525 20^th Str. W ( Colonial Apartments)

1925 – Patrick Sullivan, Chef at YMCA, r 309 Ave B North

1931 – Patrick Sullivan, emp. Commodore Cafe

1933 – Robert W Sullivan, chef, HBCO, 1435 Ave B North

1934 – Same as above
1935 – Robert W Sullivan, chef, 220 31^st Street W

1936 – Same as above

1938 – Robert Sullivan, emp, Elmer Ball, r 1218 Temperance

There is other conflicting information besides his name. On the marriage certificate he lists his age as 29 and birth in Philadelphia, USA. One year later, on Vivian's birth certificate his birth place is listed as Los Angeles, Cal. and he is 32 years old.

The family lore has him moving to British Columbia and remarrying. I decided to look for a death certificate from the province of British Columbia. I found the following; I am sorry that it is so blurry. The original is packed away for now.

This Robert Wentworth Sullivan died November 25, 1952 in Chilliwack, BC. The first thing that struck me is the middle name which is close to Windsworth. I have not seen that name in my tree or any other tree. It is such an unusual name. This death certificate states he died in an "unemployment line" He is listed as Canadian Citizen of Irish Origin.  He has lived in Chilliwack, British Columbia for 10 years. That makes him as arriving in 1942 which is only 4 years after the last Henderson directory entry. The death certificate states his birth date as May 29, 1887 and his birth place as Truro, Nova Scotia. It is a little off of the date I figured out and is yet another place of birth. He is married to Jean Alice Walker and at the time of his death he lived at 519 Nowell Street Chilliwack, BC. He is listed as a cook working at a cafe and has been at this job as noted on the certificate for “life”. He last worked in July 1952, just months before his death which may be why he was in the unemployment line when he died. He died of Atherosclerotic Heart Disease which he had for at least 10 years. Well that is in line with the heart history of mom and my siblings. It runs in the family. He was buried November 27, 1952 at the Canadian Legion Cemetery in Chilliwack. The funny thing is that I can't find this gentleman on any British Columbia cemetery index for this cemetery or in Find a Grave index. How do we keep losing our dead people?

I want to believe this is my maternal grandfather but I have nothing connecting him from Saskatoon to BC other than a family story. The unusual middle name seems too much of a coincidence. His employment as a cook is consistent with what we know of him while with Mary. He is of Irish origin which we have been told he was. Keep in mind that the person giving this information for his death certificate is his brother – in – law who may not of known many details of Robert W. Sullivan. This could account for the differences in date of birth and place of birth. His cause of death is in keeping with family medical history being bad heart health. Dying in an unemployment line is a bit dramatic but it seems to fit with the way Mary's family thought of him as a “unemployed low life”!

Robert Sullivan, my maternal grandfather is my brick wall. It was a frustrating obsession when I first started genealogy and I have been tempted many times to hire a researcher.  However as I keep working on the family branches that seem to have lots of information I continue to gather experience in how to look for family records and go back to Robert Sullivan from time to time looking at what might be new from Ancestry or other on line sites.

Wendy