Edward Henkel (1923-1944): Killed During Typhoon Cobra

Edward Henkel joined the U.S. Navy in 1940 at the age of 17; he survived the attack on Pearl Harbor, though his battleship sank; and several south Pacific operations, including Wake Island, Marshall Islands, and the Marianas Islands. But Edward did not survive Typhoon Cobra[1] after Task Force 38 sailed into the center of the storm. He was reported missing on 18 December and was memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the American Memorial Cemetery in Taguig City, Philippines -- one of the 790 Navy men who lost their lives that day.

Machinist's Mate 1st Class Edward Henkel on the Walls of the Missing at the
American Memorial Cemetery in the Philippines; courtesy of the American
Battle Monuments Commission

He was born on 8 May 1923 in Winnipeg, Canada, to Gustav Henkel and Karolina Ziprick (or Tiprik). His parents were of German heritage. His father had immigrated to Canada in 1912 from the Russian Empire, and his mother, with her parents, in 1909. When Edward was four months old, his parents immigrated to the U.S., entering the country in Noyes, Minnesota. They traveled by train to California and settled in Montebello in Los Angeles County. By 1935 they had moved to Antelope, California. Edward's father died in 1937 at the age of 45. His mother listed farming as her occupation in the 1940 census.

After three years of high school, Edward joined the U.S. Navy on 26 November 1940. I imagine he had a short training period at a naval base in California. When that was completed he was rated an able seaman and transferred on 18 January 1941 to the USS Utah (AG-16), an elderly battleship built in 1909. The ship had been turned into a radio-controlled target ship by the Navy in the 1930s and served in a training squadron.

On 14 September 1941, the USS Utah left Puget Sound and steamed for Pearl Harbor where she was to serve in her training capacity. On the night of 6 December she was moored on the west side of Ford Island opposite battleship row. During the surprise attack on the base by the Japanese, the USS Utah was hit by two torpedos and capsized. The ship was a total loss and 64 men lost their lives. There is a memorial platform at Pearl Harbor and parts of the ship are still visible today.

USS Utah (AG-16) after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor; courtesy of
the U.S. Navy

Edward Henkel had been promoted to Fireman 2nd Class by the time the USS Utah arrived in Pearl Harbor. On 13 December, under emergency orders, he reported to his new duty station -- the USS Hull (DD-350), a destroyer, a type of ship often called the Greyhounds of the Sea. During World War II, they were small, fast, close-in combatants used to screen battleships and aircraft carriers or protect convoys.

During the rest of 1941 and 1942, the USS Hull participated in naval operations in Guadalcanal and New Hebrides. She operated in the Aleutian Islands during the early part of 1943 before returning to Pearl Harbor on 26 September. Three days later she left for strikes on Wake Island. The USS Hull returned to the mainland for amphibious training exercises in December, but left San Diego with Task Force 53 and sailed for the Marshall Islands.

In 1944 the ship and her men saw action at Truk before joining Admiral Lee's battleships for the assault on the Marianas Islands. With Admiral Mitscher's carrier task force the USS Hull took part in the "Great Marianas Turkey Shoot," which succeeded in sinking two Japanese aircraft carriers. She patrolled off Guam for a month in July and then returned to Seattle for repairs. By October the USS Hull was back in Pearl Harbor.

She was ordered to join a fueling group departing Pearl on 20 November 1944 in order to rendezvous with Admiral Halsey's carrier strike force in the Philippine Sea. Refueling began on 17 December but operations had to be abandoned during worsening weather conditions. Unbeknownst to Halsey, his strike force had sailed into the teeth of Typhoon Cobra.

USS Maddox (DD-731), a newer class of destroyer during Typhoon Cobra;
courtesy of the U.S. Navy

The USS Hull was caught in trough between two mountainous waves and rolled 70 degrees. Water flooded the pilot house and poured through ship via the stacks. Her commander, Lt. Commander Marks, described her final minutes, "the ship remained over on her side at an angle of 80 degrees or more as water flooded into her upper structures. I remained on the port wing of the bridge until the water flooded up to me, then I stepped off into the water as the ship rolled over on her way down."

The Navy reported Machinist's Mate 1st Class Edward Henkel as missing on 29 December 1944. On 29 March 1945 he was listed as dead in an article in The Los Angeles Times. His body was never recovered -- one of the 202 men serving on the USS Hull who were presumed to have drowned during Typhoon Cobra.

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[1] Typhoon Cobra is also known as Halsey's Typhoon.

Grandpa Lange's Life in Winnipeg and Michigan

We don't know when Grandpa left Essen for Liverpool, or how long he had to stay at a hostel near the docks waiting to board his ship to Canada, but we do know he left England on 12 August 1911 and arrived at Port Huron, Michigan, on the Grand Trunk Railway on 20 August. Assuming 50 to 60 hours for the train ride to Winnipeg, he probably arrived on 22 or 23 August. It's entirely possible he may have been traveling for nearly a month.

The first record I have found for Grandpa in Winnipeg is his and Grandma's Official Certificate of Marriage. Grandpa was a 27 year-old bachelor, who worked as a store keeper, and was a Baptist. His place of birth and parents' name were listed and his father's profession was farming. At the time of his marriage he lived with his maternal uncle, Gustav Ludwig. Grandma was a 21 year-old spinster. (Don't you just love the terminology. Never mind she'd been working since she was 9 years old, no profession was typically listed for women.) She was born in Leduc, Alberta. Her parents' names were also listed.

Gustav and Wilhelmina (Schalin) Lange on their wedding day; personal collection

They were married on 9 April 1915 by C. H. Edinger, a Baptist minister, at the home of Grandpa's uncle at 386 Thames Avenue in Winnipeg. The witness to their marriage was Uncle Gustav. Mom always said Grandma and Grandpa met in Winnipeg or Edmonton when Grandma was there with a family for which she worked. After she and the family returned to Alberta, Grandpa sent her a letter, asking her to marry him and enclosed a train ticket. Not knowing what to do, Grandma asked her boss what he thought. He replied, "Minnie, he sent a ticket. He mean's business. Go."

Current photograph of 386 Thames Avenue, Winnipeg, Canada;
courtesy of Google Maps

In order to track the rapidly growing population of the western provinces, the Canadian government ordered special census of the prairie provinces to begin in 1906. These census were in addition to the nationwide census conducted every ten years on the first year of each decade (example 1911). This practice continued until 1956. Because of this special census we know that Gustav and his young family lived at 400 Thames Avenue just a few doors down the street from Uncle Ludwig. He worked as a general laborer. Grandpa's brother, Traugott (known as Fred), had immigrated to Canada and lived with Uncle Gustav and his family. Aunt Ruth was five months old so the census was likely conducted in July.

Grandpa Lange left Winnipeg in February 1917 and traveled by train to Detroit, Michigan. When he crossed the border on 24 February, he hold immigration officials his destination was 1073 Montclair Avenue, the home of his friend, Dan Stroscheim. Grandma undertook the same train trip with her baby daughter and arrived in Detroit on 30 April 1917.  Her destination was 1090 Holcombe Avenue, where Grandpa now lived.

These delightful photographs of Aunt Ruth were taken at studio in Detroit;
personal collection

On 5 June 1917 Grandpa registered for the World War I draft in Sanilac County, Michigan. He worked as a farm hand for Bert E. Mortimer, who coincidently was also the draft registrar for the county. Mom told me many times Grandma and Grandpa worked on a sugar beet farm, saving money to buy their own farm. Grandpa claimed an exemption from the draft because he was married with dependents. His appearance was described as medium height, medium weight, brown eyes and dark brown hair.

Sanilac County township map and land ownership map; courtesy of
FamilySearch.org and Ancestry.com, respectively

Uncle Walter was born in December of 1917 and Uncle Arnold was born in October 1919. When he was three weeks old, Gustav and his family were traveling once again to a farm Grandpa bought sight unseen in southern Maryland.

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Grandpa Lange's Trip from Essen to Winnipeg
Grandpa Lange's Life in Essen

Another Ludwig Breakthrough: Finding Uncle Gustav Ludwig

Grandma and Grandpa Lange on their wedding day in 1915; personal collection

I have known for many years that my grandfather, Gustav Lange, and grandmother, Wilhelmina Schalin, married in Winnipeg, Canada, in 1915. It was not until I ordered their Official Notice of Marriage from Manitoba Province that I knew exactly where in Winnipeg they married.

Where married: 386 Thames Avenue, Winnipeg; snippet from personal
collection

386 Thames Avenue was also listed as Gustav's home address. So they married at the groom's home. How interesting since he was the only known Lange family member in Canada and Wilhelmina had lots of family in her hometown in Alberta.

It wasn't until my aunt gave me the Lange family bible that the address on Thames Avenue became a clue that knocked down another Ludwig brick wall. Aunt Jeanne believed the bible was given to her husband, my Uncle Alfred, by his father Gustav. As I translated the pages containing family information from German to English. I began to suspect the bible belonged to my grand uncle Traugott Lange and he had later given it to my grandfather. (You may read about that here: Grandpa's Bible and New Mysteries and Lange Family Bible Unlocks the Life of Traugott Lange.)

Mom always called Traugott "Fritz." She didn't know his given name and she didn't know what happened to him. A connection with the granddaughter of my grandfather's youngest brother provided a bit more information about his life and a different name, "Trogott." But that new information didn't advance my search results in any way.

The family information handwritten in the bible stated Traugott married Katherina Magdalena Hirt in Winnipeg in 1917. With a place name now known, I could add new focus to my search for Traugott.

When the 1916 census of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta was enumerated, Traugott lived at 386 Thames Avenue and was a roomer with Gustav Ludwig's family. There were two things familiar about this piece of information: 1) the address was where my grandfather lived and married in 1915 and 2) Ludwig was the maiden name of Caroline (Ludwig) Lange, the mother of my grandfather and his brother, Traugott. Was Gustav Ludwig related? He was the same age as my grandfather so I thought perhaps a cousin, but at the time I had absolutely no way to prove a familial connection.

386 Thames Avenue, Winnipeg, Canada; courtesy of Google Street View

As I continued researching Traugott's life, I realized I had found the proof that Gustav Ludwig was related to Caroline Ludwig. He was her much younger brother.

Snippet from a 1920 U.S.-Canada Border Crossing list; courtesy of Ancestry.com

The master pedigree database developed by the Society for German Genealogy in Eastern Europe (SGGEE) included the parents of Caroline and Gustav Ludwig but no information about their children. So this connection to Gustav Ludwig was completely new information!

I started researching the life of Gustav Ludwig and discovered he did live on Riverton Avenue in Winnipeg in 1921 so we were talking about the same person! And another brick tumbles down from the Ludwig brick wall.

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Lange Family Bible Unlocks the Life of Traugott Lange
Grandpa's Bible and New Mysteries
The Ludwig Breakthrough: Finding Some Great Greats
The Ludwig Breakthrough: DNA and Chocolates
The Ludwig Breakthrough: Reporting From Brazil
The Ludwig Breakthrough: Life of Johann Jacob Baerg

Lange Family Bible Unlocks the Life of Traugott Lange

Based on the transcriptions and translation I conducted on the three pages of family information in my Grandpa Lange's bible, which I received from an aunt in March, I believe the bible originally belonged to Grandpa's brother, Traugott Lange. The family lore about Traugott was that he immigrated to the United States from Russia sometime in the 1920s, went to Alabama and was never heard from again.

It turns out Traugott lived a very different life from what many in the family believed.

He was born on 16 October 1890[1] and his birth was registered in the parish of Rozyszcze, Volyn, Ukraine (at the time of his birth, it was part of Russia), to Carl August and Caroline (Ludwig) Lange. He was their second son, two years younger than my Grandpa, Gustav Lange.

Grandpa left Russia soon after his father died about 1905 and went to Essen, Germany, to work. He immigrated to Canada in 1911 and settled in Winnipeg, Canada, where he lived with his maternal uncle, Gustav Ludwig[2] and his wife Matilda Yeske. They lived at 386 Thames Avenue.

386 Thames Avenue, Winnipeg, Canada; courtesy Google Maps

Traugott followed his brother to Winnipeg about 1912. When the Canadian census for what became the provinces of Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan was enumerated in 1916, Traugott lived at 386 Thames Avenue with Uncle Gustav and Aunt Matilda and worked as a laborer at an iron works.

He married Katherina "Kate" Magdalena Hirt on 23 June 1917 in Winnipeg. She was the daughter of Nicholas "Mike" and Anna Hirt and had been born in Sanderfalva, Csongrad, Hungary, on 30 September 1899. Her mother and three of her siblings had immigrated from Hungary in 1905 and joined her father and oldest brother in Winnipeg. She was Roman Catholic and Traugott was Lutheran. Traugott became a naturalized Canadian citizen about this time.

Katherina Magdalena Hirt is second from the left; the bridal couple is
Mathias John and Anna Rose (Hirt) Becker, 1916; courtesy of Ancestry.com
member jay_barbara

Traugott and Kate had their first child, Peter Lange, on 5 March 1919 in Winnipeg. The next year, on 24 November 1920, the young family boarded a Canadian Pacific train and left for a long-trip across two countries to Maryland. They arrived in the United States at Noyes, Minnesota, indicated their destination was Cheltenham, Maryland, and they were going to see Traugott's brother, Gustav Lange. Gustav and his wife had moved to Maryland the year before after a buying a farm sight unseen. Was this when Traugott gave Gustav his bible?

When the 1921 Canadian census was enumerated in June, Traugott, his wife, and son, were lodgers at the home of his Uncle Gustav Ludwig, who had moved to 445 Riverton Avenue in Elmwood neighborhood of Winnipeg. On 30 August 1921 their daughter, Magdalene Elizabeth, was born in Dakota County, Minnesota.

Traugott and Kate received U.S. Alien Certificates in Winnipeg in 1923 from the U.S. Department of Labor after being examined by government officials prior to immigrating to the U.S. Traugott preceded his wife and children to Los Angeles, California. He likely stayed with his brother-in-law, Mathias Becker, who married Kate's sister, Anna Rose in 1916. Kate and her young children boarded Canadian Pacific train No. 110 in Winnipeg and arrived in Noyes, Minnesota, the same day. They told U.S. border officials their destination was 4204 Hubert Avenue in Los Angeles, the home of Traugott Lange.

Traugott Lange Alien Certificate; courtesy of Ancestry.com

Katherina Magdalena (Hirt) Lange U.S. Alien Certificate; courtesy of
Ancestry.com

It is entirely possible the family returned to Winnipeg soon afterwards. There are several records, which indicated Traugott traveled from Winnipeg to Los Angeles in November of 1924. On those records, he said his wife, Kate, lived at 404 Tweed Avenue in the Elmwood neighborhood of Winnipeg.

However, by 1930 the family had settled permanently in Montebello, California. Traugott owned a home at 4470 Lovett Street, which was valued at $3,000; no occupation was listed on the census form.

Traugott Lange died on 13 April 1932 in Los Angeles County, California, at the age of 41. Six months later, Kate married Sandor "Sam" Egrasky on 1 October 1932 in Los Angeles County. He had been married before. On 27 February 1935 Kate and Sam had a son, Sandor Nick Egrasky, in Los Angeles County.

In 1938 Sam and Kate were listed in the Los Angeles city directory living at 4470 Lovett Street in Montebello -- the house she had lived in in 1930 with Traugott. They remained there when the 1940 census was enumerated. Kate and Traugott's children, Peter and Magdalene were enumerated with the Egrasky surname.

Tragott and Kate's son, Peter, became a U.S. citizen on 11 April 1941. He had changed his name to Peter Charles Lang (no "e" at the end) before he earned his U.S. citizenship. He was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1942.

Kate became a U.S. citizen on 10 December 1943 and still lived at 4470 Lovett Street in Montebello.

Kate (Hirt) Egrasky petition for U.S. citizenship, 1941; courtesy Ancestry.com

Sam Egrasky died on 19 September 1963 in Los Angeles County; Kate died on 18 December 1970. Kate's three children are all deceased.

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[1]This is a Julian calendar date; it converts to 28 October 1890 in the Gregorian calendar, which was the calendar in used at the time Traugott lived in Canada and is still used today.
[2]More about Uncle Gustav Ludwig in a future post.

Grandpa Lange's Bible and New Mysteries

The Ludwig Breakthrough: The Life of Johann Jacob Baerg

Continued from The Ludwig Breakthrough: Reporting from Brazil

As I learned more about Mom's second cousin match whose mother was Ida Missal, a niece of my great grandmother Caroline (Ludwig) Lange, I learned their branch of the family had married into the Baerg family. And what an interesting family they turned out to be.

The Baerg family considered themselves Dutch and almost always listed that nationality on various documents in which they appeared in several countries. I first found them in Canada where they had married into my Ludwig line. As I worked backwards, I was in for another whirlwind tour of the globe thanks in large part to Johann Jacob Baerg, who was born on 15 November 1886 in Klippenfeld, or Molonochnoye, Russia. If we were looking for it on a map today, we would search for Molochansk, Zaporizhzhya, Ukraine. At the time Johann was born, however, Klippenfeld was a village considered part of the Mennonite Molotschna Colony.

Johann's parents were Jacob Wilhelm Baerg and Anna Thiessen. Jacob's name appeared in several of the colony records. As did that of Jacob's father Gerhard Wilhelm Baerg. They had been attracted to the region by Tsarina Catherine the Great when she appealed to farmers from the low country and Germany to settle in the vast, empty steppes of Ukraine. In return, she promised freedom of religion, exemption from Russian military service, monetary loans and more. After sending scouts to meet with government officials and survey the land, over 200 Mennonite families migrated to southeastern Ukraine. The first colony they established in 1789 was Chortitza, known as the Old Colony.

Old Mennonite barn in the Molotschna Colony area of Ukraine; courtesy of the
Mennonite Archival Image Database

Another wave of immigrants founded the Molotschna Colony in 1803 on the Molochna River east of the Dnieper. By 1860 there were over 60 villages and hamlets associated with the colony. These settlers were generally more prosperous than those of the Old Colony and for many life was good. However, in 1870, the Mennonites of Russia were no longer exempt from state service. This began a wave of emigration, mostly to the United States and Canada, which accelerated after the Bolshevik Revolution and World War I.

Lighthouse on Isla de Sacrifcios, an island in the Gulf of Mexico near the
port in Veracruz City; image courtesy of eBay

Johann Jacob Baerg's grandparents made their way to Riga, the capital of what is now Latvia and sailed via Hamburg and Glasgow to Rosthern, a Mennonite settlement in Saskatchewan, Canada. His parents left two years later and settled in Winnipeg, Canada. Johan chose a differently. He and his wife, Susanna Penner and six children, sailed to Veracruz, Mexico, arriving on 19 August 1926. They settled in Durango, Mexico, where Johann Jacob farmed. They would have two more children in Mexico, the youngest died as an infant.

Johan Jacob Baerg Family 1926-1927; image made using Google Maps and
Microsoft Powerpoint

In February of 1927 Johann and his family undertook an arduous trip of nearly 2,300 miles to visit his parents in Winnipeg. Records exist of their Mexco-U.S. border crossing at El Paso, Texas, and their U.S.-Canada border crossing at Noyes, Minnesota. It is from those records we know that Johann Jacob Baerg was about 5 feet 11 inches tall with a fair complexion, blonde hair and blue eyes.

Eventually, Johann and his wife, Susanna, moved to Canada. He died on 23 March 1964 at the Chilliwack General Hospital of heart disease. He was interred in Greendale Cemetery in Chilliwack, Canada. His wife, Susanna "Susan" (Penner) Baerg died on 22 July 1970 also at Chilliwack General Hospital. She is interred beside her husband.

Both of their death certificates indicated they had lived in Canada since 1927 yet two daughters were born after that date in Mexico. So that is one little mystery still to be resolved.

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The Ludwig Breakthough: Reporting from Brazil
The Ludwig Breakthrough: DNA and Chocolates
The Ludwig Breakthrough: Discovering Some Great Greats

The Ludwig Breakthrough: DNA and Chocolates

Continued from The Ludwig Breakthrough: Finding Some Great Greats

Sometimes DNA matches are like that box of chocolates Forest Gump's mother talked about in the iconic movie of the same name. The scantiest information coupled with a DNA match can lead to great things.

My Mom graciously provided a DNA sample for testing in 2013 less than a year before she died. When the results came back, they were disappointing, but not unexpectedly so. Mom's ethnicity is 64 percent Europe East and 26 percent Great Britain. The surprise is the amount of Great Britain ethnicity. We expected it to be much lower or non-existent. Figuring out that mystery is a story for another day.

My mother's ethnicity map; image courtesy of AncestryDNA

Mom also had three shared matches and that was the disappointing part. Those three matches were her children -- my two siblings and me. She was very pleased to have proof we were her children though!

I was able to figure out two matches without a shared ancestor, but both of them were on her maternal Schalin side of the family. Thanks to the book, Our Schalin Family -- 1770-2003, written by cousin, Lucille (Fillenberg) Effa, we knew enough about this part of Mom's tree to identify some third and fourth cousin matches. 

I would review Mom's DNA matches every few months to see if I could make any headway with the new ones I received. Usually, they were distant cousins and I knew I had no hope identifying them. Image my surprise when a second cousin match appeared! I was crestfallen, though, when I opened up the match and saw three people.

Family tree of Mom's only second cousin DNA match; image courtesy of
AncestryDNA

The Lade and Missal surnames did not sound familiar but I checked my tree for them, as well as any variations, and came up empty. I was so disappointed, but I sent a message to the owner of the DNA match and hoped for a replay. Weeks passed.

One morning I was deeply involved in creating a timeline when the phone rang. I answered it without bothering to look at CallerID, something I rarely do. But I am so glad I did. A gentleman introduced himself and said he was the DNA match. He was 85 years old and could not remember his maternal grandmother's given name. Only that her maiden was Ludwig. As we talked about the Lange/Ludwig family, I learned that my grandfather's younger brother, Richard Lange, had paid for Mom's DNA match to immigrate to Canada after World War II. So we had two points of connection and I surmised Mom's paternal grandmother, Caroline Ludwig had a sister, who I affectionately named "Daughter Ludwig" in my tree.

A second phone call a month later, after Mom's DNA match had spoken with his older sister in Germany, revealed more details. Daughter Ludwig was Juliane Ludwig, who married Emil Missal. They had six children, one of which was Ida Missal, who married Friedrich "Fritz" Lade. They were the parents of my Mom's DNA match. He was born in 1930; joined the Hitler Youth at age 14 to defend Germany and was taken prisoner by the Russians in 1945. Two years later, he joined the East German police force but escaped to West Germany in 1949.

I am struck by the differences in the lives of my Mom and her second cousin, which I put down to the fact her father decided to immigrate before World War I and her cousin not until 1952.

To be continued...

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The Ludwig Breakthrough: Discovering Some Great Greats 

52 Ancestors #21: Wonder Woman

Ancestor Name: Wilhelmina (Schalin) Lange

We read so much today about super Moms and wonder women who do it all -- work, raise children, and put meals on the table. I'd like to introduce an original of the species on the 120th anniversary of her birth.

Wilhelmina (Schalin) Lange was my maternal grandmother. She raised all her nine children to adulthood and each one thought they were her favorite. She was an amazing woman. In the late 1990s Lucille (Fillenberg) Effa contacted my father through a genealogy forum. She was writing a book on my grandmother's Schalin family and wondered if my mother would contribute an article about her mother. So on the 120th anniversary of my grandmother's birth, I thought I would let my Mom tell the story of her beloved mother's life. This excerpt is from Our Schalin Family: 1770-2003, by Lucille Fillenberg Effa, published in 2003 by Northstar Direct Printers, Nanaimo, British Columbia.

by Dorothy (Lange) Jennings:

Wilhelmina "Minnie" Schalin, daughter of Wilhelm and Auguste (Fabriske) Schalin, was born in the Fredericksheim district east of Leduc, in the year following the Schalin family's arrival in Canada. She was their second daughter to be named Wilhelmine and was only three years old when her mother died. A year later her father remarried.

Minnie had a very unpleasant childhood and when her father found out how she was being treated he would take her with him when he went out into the fields to work. When she was about nine, her father found another family to keep her where she helped out with farm chores. When older she helped in homes when a baby was born. At one time she worked in hotel kitchen and for a time was employed by Lord and Lady Davis in Edmonton, Alberta.

Wilhelmina Schalin when employed by Lord Davis

Minnie met Gustav Lange while living in Edmonton. When he moved to Winnipeg, Gustav sent her train fare to come there to be married and the of 9 April 1915 was chosen.

Gustav was born to August and Karoline (Ludwig) Lange, in Rozhishche, near the city of Lutzk, in Volhynia. He moved to Germany in 1906 where he worked for a short time before leaving for Canada. He sailed from Liverpool, England, on 12 August 1911 onboard the S/S Teutonic and arrived at the port of Quebec on the 20th.

Wilhelmina (Schalin) Lange on her wedding day

Their first daughter, Ruth, was born in February of 1916. The family left Winnipeg, crossing through Detroit on 30 December 1916 to live in Peck, Michigan. Two sons, Walter and Arnold, were born there while the family worked as share croppers on a sugar beet farm. Another move was made to Cheltenham, Maryland in November 1919 when Gustav saw an advertisement for a farm for sale in Maryland. They left by train when Arnold was only three weeks old. Before leaving for Maryland, the baby had to have an operation to correct a harelip, necessitating a stop in Buffalo, New York, to have the stitches removed by another doctor.

Ruth Hedwig Lange, Wilhelmina's oldest child; photograph taken in Detroit, Michigan

They bought the farm in Maryland where six more children were born to them. They worked hard cutting pulpwood to pay for the farm and build a new home. They raised tobacco for one year (a big money crop in Maryland) but because of religious beliefs did not pursue that further. Instead, they later started a poultry business and also kept horses, cows and pigs. Gustav began an egg route in Washington, DC, delivering eggs to some of the U.S. Senators in the Senate Office Building.

Tribute to Gustav and Wilhelmina (Schalin) Lange, carved in a tree by their son, Arthur James Lange

Minnie's life was busy and she worked hard raising nine children and working side-by-side with Gustav on the farm. They had no electricity or running water. Although there was always a lot of work to be done, she found time to play with her children: tag, hide and seek, and ball games, even putting boxing gloves on to box with Alfred! She had gift of story telling. When she worked with the children cutting and husking corn, fixing the road, hoeing the garden, planting potatoes, bringing in the hay, feeding chickens, or whatever, she would tell them a story and magically the work was done.

Wilhelmina (Schalin) Lange in her beloved rock garden; how she had time for it no one knows

Meal times were the best part of the day, although presenting a real challenge for her. She relied on the big garden and fruit trees to put a meal on the table. These were noisy, but cheerful times.

In many ways she was a perfectionist. For example, if the girls didn't hang the clothes on the line according to size and color she would make them go back out and change it. She was a good seamstress and could do delicate handwork. It was amazing to see those big hands, which wielded an axe to cut firewood doing the finest handwork with a little needle.

Wilhelmina (Schalin) Lange doing fine embroidery

Minnie took every opportunity to instill good work ethics and Christian ideals in her children. She provided them with many happy childhood memories and all of her children feel truly blessed to have had her for a mother.

She predeceased her husband by three years, passing away 27 November 1960 in Clinton, Maryland. Gustav Lange died on 23 December 1963 in Arlington, Virginia. Both are buried in Waldorf, Maryland.

This is my entry for Amy Johnson Crow's 52 ancestors in 52 weeks challenge.

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Wilhelmina "Minnie" Schalin was born on 23 May 1894 near Leduc, Alberta, North-West Territories, Canada, to Wilhelm and Auguste (Fabriske) Schalin. She was their seventh child and the first to be born in Canada. She married Gustav Lange on 9 April 1915 at Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. On 30 December 1916 they immigrated to Peck, Sanilac, Michigan. They lived there for three years before moving to Cheltenham, Prince George's, Maryland. They had nine children. Wilhelmina died on 27 November 1960 at Clinton, Prince George's, Maryland. She is buried next to her husband in Trinity Memorial Gardens at Waldorf, Charles, Maryland.

Fearless Females: Marriage

March is Women's History month and the Accidental Genealogist has 31 blogging prompts for the month to celebrate. I'm not sure I'll participate in every prompt but I will today. The prompt is: Do you have marriage records for your grandparents or great-grandparents? Write a post about where they were married and when. Any family stories about the wedding day? Post a photo if you have one.

Wilhelmina "Minnie" Schalin was the first child to be born to Wilhelm Schalin and Auguste Fabriske after they immigrated from the Volhynia region of Russia (now Ukraine) to Alberta, Canada. Her mother died when she was four years old and her father soon remarried. Wilhelmina's step-mother was young, inexperienced and didn't much care for her step children. That dislike seemed focused on my grandmother. Wilhelm started taking Minnie into the fields with him to spare her some of the abuse. When she was nine she was sent out of the home to work for others.

Gustav "Gust" Lange was born in Lutske, Russia, also in the Volhynia area. He was the oldest child and his father died when he was young. He left home and worked in the Ruhr valley of Germany for five years, saving up for passage to Canada. I don't really know how Gust and Minnie met, but they did. He wrote her later, asked to marry her, and sent the train fare for her to come to Winnipeg where he was living. Minnie didn't know what to do. She showed the letter to her employer and asked his advice. He said, "Minnie, if he sent you the money, I guess he means business." So she went to Winnipeg.

Marriage Certificate for Gustav Lange and Wilhelmina Schalin

When she arrived, she stayed at the YWCA until they married on 9 April 1915 at Gust's home in Winnipeg. The house is still standing and I was able to find a photo on Google Earth.

386 Thomas Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada; the home where Gustav and Wilhelmina were married

They later moved to Sanilac County, Michigan, and worked as migrant workers on a beet farm, while they saved enough money to buy their own farm. By 1920 they were living in Brandywine, Maryland, and farming land they purchased.

After their children -- nine in all -- were married, Gust told Minnie he would like to move to Peru! She told him he'd have to go without her.

Wilhelmina Schalin and Gustav Lange on their wedding day

Being German in Tsarist Russia -- Why They Left

This post is about the families of Wilhelmina Schalin and Gustav Lange (my maternal grandparents) and why they emigrated from Russia, to Canada and then later to the U.S. It's a chance to put my love of history to good use!

Both the Schalin and Lange families consistently referred to their nationality as German on official documents.  When they immigrated to Canada, they still spoke German, attended German schools, and practiced their religion in German-speaking churches.  Both families also came from the Volhynian Governorate, which was created by the third partition of Poland in 1975. It was part of the Russian Empire.

Gustav Lange was born in Lutsk and Wilhelmina Schalin's family lived near Rovna, having moved there some time between 1861 and 1863 from Maliniec, which is now part of Poland. At the time the Schalins lived in Maliniec, it had been Prussian territory since 1720.

Maliniec is the red dot just under the word Poland

My assumption is the Schalin family is of Prussian descent and moved into Polish territory newly acquired by Prussia. It was the policy of Prussian leaders to "colonize" acquired lands. But I have not yet been able to track them any farther back in time and place than Maliniec.

Wilhelm Schalin, my great grandfather was born in Maliniec, moved near Rovna, and then to Alberta, Canada

So why did they leave their farms in the Volhynia and move nearly 5,000 miles to western Canada from the 1890s up until the eve of the First World War?

When German families moved to Volhynia, the Tsar of Russia was Alexander II. He was tsar from 1855 until he was assassinated on 13 Mar 1881. He was known as the "Liberator" because he emancipated the serfs in 1861. As a result boyars, the land-owning class, lost their free workforce and many put some of their land up for sale.

Alexander II in 1870

This part of Ukraine has been called the breadbasket of Europe for centuries. So I believe my ancestors settled there because good land was available for a price, and many developed prosperous farms.

Combination house and barn common in German settlements in Volhynia
Picture courtesy of Lucille Fillenberg Effa

Alexander III became tsar upon the assassination of his father.  Alexander was the second son and was never supposed to be the ruler of Russia.  His older brother, the Tsarevich Nicholas, died in 1865. Alexandar III bore little resemblance to his father in appearance or outlook. He was a reactionary conservative and undid many of the reforms his father implemented.

 Alexander III in Copenhagen in 1893 with his wife, Maria.  She was originally his older brother's fiancee.

He believed that the country was to be saved from revolutionary agitation by remaining true to "Russian Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality," the ideology introduced by his grandfather, Tsar Nicholas I. Alexander's political ideal was a nation composed of a single nationality, language, and religion, as well as one form of administration. He attempted to realize this by the institution of mandatory teaching of the Russian language throughout the empire, including his German, Polish, and other non-Russian subjects with the exception of the Finns; the patronization of Eastern Orthodoxy; and the destruction of the remnants of German, Polish, and Swedish institutions in the respective provinces, including the Volhynian Governorate.

Practicing any other religion was illegal and ministers of other religions were hunted down and imprisoned when they tried to meet with their flocks.  The German schools that educated their children were forced to teach in Russian. Land became more difficult to purchase if you were not Russian.  

So my Schalin ancestors decided to leave. They traveled with several other families to Leduc, Alberta, Canada.  I described their journey in this post.

Gustav Lange's father died he was young. He left Lutsk in about 1906 and went to Essen, Germany, to work and save up money for his move to Canada.  He boarded the White Star Line's S/S Teutonic In Liverpool, England, on 12 Aug 1911 and arrived in Quebec City on 20 Aug. He traveled west to Winnipeg where he settled. 

Gustav Lange as a young man

Odessa to Vancouver the Long Way via Vladivostok

William Warm (1909-2007), the husband of my second cousin once removed had one of the most interesting life stories I have yet discovered. Sit back and buckle your seatbelts, it will be a wild ride -- not everyone you meet steals a train!

William Warm's life travels

He was born on 13 Dec 1909 in Millirowa near Odessa, Russia (now Ukraine). In Nov 1914, Russian soldiers stormed into town and led all able-bodied men away, including William's father, John. The men were conscripted into the army and served as soldiers or paramedics.

Not long after the men were taken, the Russian soldiers returned in the middle of the night and rounded up all the women and children. They were jammed into cattle cars and traveled east by train. Then they disembarked and were loaded onto sleighs and continued east in sleigh convoys until they finally arrived in Vladivostok, Russia. Many died along the way. The Warms, however, were reunited with their father. The family were prisoners in Vladivostok unil May 1917 where they cut timber for the Russian Army.

When the Russian Revolution came to Vladivostok, Russian army discipline broke down and the prisoners were able to get a train together with the help of German soldiers. Five families organized the effort and ran the train with a couple hundred people onboard, including the Warms. When they ran into warfare, they would back up the train and wait until the coast was clear. It took three months for the train to get to Moscow.

Under the jurisdiction of the Red Cross, the Warm family was sent to Koenigsburg, East Prussia, which was still under German countrol.  They were cleaned up, deloused and given clean, warm clothing. Later they were sent on to Gdansk, Poland.  John Warm, William's father, was conscripted into the German army and sent to the Western front. When the war was over, he returned to his family in Gdansk. John served in both the Russian and German armies during World War I.

The Warm family lived in Gdansk until 1924 when it was declared a free city and the Germans were kicked out. The family then moved to Berlin. In 1927, they traveled to Bremen, Germany, along with twelve other families and boarded the S/S Seydlitz bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia.

North German Lloyd Line's S/S/ Seydlitz

They were met in Halifax on 27 Aug 1927 by Rev. Emil Wahl, a member of the German Baptist Church mission, who had arranged for the families' travel. They were transferred to the Canadian Pacific Railroad and traveled to Winnipeg, Canada.

Winnipeg, Manitoba, train station

Rev. Wahl learned that immediate help was needed to harvest a bumper grain crop in southern Saskatchewan and Alberta. William joined the group that helped with the harvest and stayed until spring. In July 1930, he hopped onboard his one-speed Opel bicycle that he brought with him all the way from Berlin and headed to Vancouver. This trip alone is worth a separate post. In August 1930 he arrived in Vancouver and stayed with his uncle, Dave Janzten.

All this happened to William Warm before he was 21!

William and Norma (Grapentine) Warm and children about 1952
Photo courtesy of Lucille Fillenberg Effa