Year in Review: Slow, But Steady Progress

This year was a year of slow but steady progress researching and writing about my family history. This blog and my research took a back seat to getting our Virginia house ready to sell. Thankfully, it sold in two days so the discomfort of keeping my home a pristine showplace was short lived!

11719 Flemish Mill Court, Oakton, Virginia.

Foyer of our Oakton home; courtesy of TTR Sotheby's International, The
Yerks Team

We are now temporary residents of upstate New York and I am learning to cope with below zero temperatures! We plan to be New Yorkers until my husband retires in late 2019. He had been commuting to work in Albany since 2012; so the move north of the Mason-Dixon Line (something I said I would never do) made sense even to me.

Before our move we held our second bi-annual Lange Cousins Reunion in Lake Park, Georgia. We are the grandchildren of Gustav and Wilhelmina (Schalin) Lange and there are 16 of us. So far most of us have managed to attend our reunions.

Assemblage of Lange first cousins; personal collection

I had promised to produce a pamphlet about the history of the Lange family. We knew a lot about the Schalin family from a book written by a distant cousin, Lucille (Effa) Fillenberg, but the Lange family was a mystery. I was able to navigate the Polish archives and learn a few things. The best gift, however, meeting by telephone the son of Grandpa Lange's youngest brother. He was able to provide so much more information and context. My brother John helped me sort through the ever-changing country borders before and after World War II and provide the context of life for civilians living in war-torn land.

Procrastinator that I am, the pamphlet was late, but it eventually got done a few weeks after the reunion.

Ludwig-Lange Family History

The Slave Name Roll Project turned two in February and was discovered when it was mentioned in an education video produced by Ancestry.com.

As a result, the project became more than one person can handle and I'm hoping to share some exciting news about the project in a few weeks. It's been very rewarding to watch this worthwhile endeavor grow.

Slave Name Roll Project

I was also interviewed for an article which appeared in the New Haven Independent, "She's Preserving Vets' Names for the Digital Age," which describes Heather Wilkinson Rojo's Honor Roll Project. Pete and I love to contribute to this volunteer effort as it gets us out exploring the countryside -- no matter the weather! I encourage everyone with a smart phone and transportation to think about contributing as well.

Honor Roll Project

Perhaps the most exciting thing that happened this year was a "gift" received just after Christmas. A comment on my recent post, DNA Discoveries: Jewell Progress, referred me to a comment on Find A Grave and to a Virginia Chancery Court case, which was a goldmine of helpful information. There will be a post about the details in a few days, but the net result was I learned the maiden name of Catherine B. Jewell's mother, her mother's siblings, and maternal grandparents. Catherine B. Jewell was my great great grandmother. So I was able to learn the name of a three times great grandmother and a four times great grandfather. I had no expectation of being able to push my Jennings pedigree chart back in time as it is a line that has been researched for decades by a very able group of genealogists.

The DNA Discoveries: Jewell Progress post will be republished on 16 January in the RootsFinder blog for the "How I Solved It" series.

God Planned It: Escaping from East Germany

My maternal grandfather's youngest brother was named Friedrich Lange (1905-1988). Unlike his two older brothers, he remained in Poland, married in 1929 a few months after his mother died and had three children. He was drafted into the German Army in 1943; was taken prisoner by Czech partisans in 1944, who turned him over to the Soviet Army; and was held in a Soviet prison until 1949.

Meanwhile, his wife fled German-occupied Poland in early 1945 in advance of the Red Army and made her way, with the children, by wagon, to Zeitz, Germany, where she had family. After V-E day, Germany was divided into four occupation zones under the control of the U.S., Britain, France and the Soviet Union. According to the pact signed in Potsdam, the four occupying countries were to treat Germans in a uniform manner, but this goal was never achieved and each country pursued their own goals and aims. The Soviets required reparations and took factory equipment, even entire factories for their occupation zone. Britain, France and the U.S. focused on economic reconstruction. The Soviets extended Communism to their German zone and collectivized farms. In 1946 the U.S. announced its zone and the British Zone would be merged to form Bizonia -- the start of the German division. The Soviets reacted by announcing Ostmark and suspended all land and air traffic to Berlin. The famous Berlin Airlift, to provide food, coal, and other necessary supplies to the western zones of Berlin ensued.

The Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) was established on 21 September 1949 and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), a month later.

Soviet occupation zone in red; U.S. and British troops withdrew from purple
area after fighting ceased; heavy black line was the border between what
became East and West Germany; courtesy of Wikipedia

Friedrich Lange and his family found themselves in East Germany. They lived on a small farm until Friedrich's health continued to deteriorate to an extent he could no longer help with the farm work. The government moved the family of five to a one-bedroom apartment in town where they remained until 1956 when they escaped. Their son believed it was a miracle planned by God. 

His mother had been looking for a sign from God letting them know when they should escape. The daughter of a friend, who worked at the bank, had been ordered to report any large withdrawals the family made. When Theofile, Friedrich's wife,  learned the government was monitoring their banking transactions, that was her sign from God it was time. 

When she told her family, it was time to go, they thought she was crazy. Friedrich told her the police would not let them leave together at the same time. Theofile refused to lie to the authorities but she was determined to escape. So she and their son went to the police station to get visas to visit relatives in West Germany. The policeman told them they could not go together unless other family members remained in East Germany. She told them her husband and two daughters were still in the country. So the police gave Theofile and her son visas. 

Theofile sent Friedrich and their daughter to the police station immediately. At the police station they were told they could not leave unless other family members remained in the country. Friedrich was able to say truthfully that his wife, daughter and son were in East Germany. Theofile and her youngest left East Germany on the 6:00 p.m. train and Friedrich and his middle daughter left the next morning. Their eldest daughter was married and wanted to stay in Leipzig where she and her husband lived. As their son said, “God planned it; we were just along for the ride.” 

In West Germany, they went to Wettmershagen where Heinrich and Olga’s families lived. The husband of Heinrich Lange’s daughter got Friedrich's son a job in the Volkswagon factory. Richard Lange’s wife came from Canada to visit. After hearing her talk about Canada, Friedrich and his family decided to settle there permanently. The application process took about six months and they left on 4 August 1957 aboard the Arosa Line’s SS Kulm, an old U.S. Army transport, from Bremerhaven and arrived in Quebec on 15 August 1957. They took a train to Winnipeg to reunite with Friedrich’s siblings, Richard and Heinrich. My grandfather traveled from Maryland to Winnipeg in 1958 or 1959 to see his youngest brother for the first time in 50 years and meet his family. 

I was so fortunate to be contacted by one of Friedrich Lange's grandchildren, who put me in touch with her father. He and his wife shared so much information with me and were so patient with my follow-up questions and constant digging. We shared many laughs together on the phone. I cannot thank them enough.

Left to right: Richard Lange; Theofile (Strohschein) Lange; her son; and a daughter of
Heinrich Lange, another brother of Richard and Friedrich Lange. The photograph was
taken on the front porch of Richard Lange's home in Winnipeg on the day Friedrich
Lange's family arrived in Canada; courtesy of Friedrich Lange's son

Has My Prussia Origins Theory Gone Up in Smoke?

My maternal grandparents, Gustav Lange and Wilhelmina Schalin, considered themselves German, wrote to their siblings in German, read a German Bible, and spoke German in their home until their eldest daughter came home from her first day of school in tears because she could not speak English. However, only Gustav Lange lived in Germany, briefly, for five years from 1906 through 1911 when he worked in Essen in order to send money home and save for his passage to Canada. At this time I do not know from where in Germany our Lange or Schalin ancestors originated

The Lange-Ludwig grandparents of my grandfather, Gustav Lange, were born near present day Lodz, Poland, in the 1840s and moved to the Volyn Oblast in Ukraine in the early 1880s. The paternal ancestors of my grandmother, Wilhelmina Schalin, lived in the Greater Poland Voivodeship, about halfway between Poznan and Lodz since at least the 1790s. They moved to the Volyn Oblast in Ukraine between 1861 and 1863. I know nothing of Wilhelmina Schalin's mother beyond her name.

Migrations of the Lange (red circles) and Schalin (green squares) families;
created using Google Maps

But from where did the Lange and Schalin families originate? I assumed Germany since Grandma and Grandpa Lange spoke German as their native language, but I wanted to know more. I spent a lot of time delving into the history of Poland and Ukraine. I learned the area of Poland where the Lange and Schalin families lived was known as South Prussia after 1793 and the Second Partition of Poland by Prussia and Russia. So perhaps they were from Prussia.

When Ancestry unveiled its genetic communities, I looked at them for all the Lange-Schalin DNA tests I administered.

Lange-Schalin relatives I have DNA tested (red outline); created
using Microsoft Powerpoint

On the day after genetic communities were launched, we all shared at least one genetic community and it was Northern Germans, which included Prussia. But as Ancestry has continued to refine the genetic communities, the picture has gotten muddier. As of 30 June 2017, the genetic communities are now:

Genetic communities of the Lange relatives' DNA tests; created using
Microsoft Excel

It appears as if some genetic communities were refined and some of my Lange relatives lost some or all of genetic communities and new ones were added.

Map of Northern Germans genetic community; courtesy of Ancestry.com

Northern Germans was the genetic community we all shared when Ancestry launched its genetic communities though it does not reflect the eastern migration of hundreds of thousands of Germans to current day Russia, Poland, and Ukraine.

Germans, Netherlanders, Belgians & Luxembourgians Ancestry genetic
community; courtesy of Ancestry.com

The Germans, Netherlanders, Belgians & and Luxembourgians was a new genetic community and likely a refinement. It has a great deal of overlap with Northern Germans but extends more westward, which does not support my Prussia origins theory.

Northern (yellow) and southern (red) origins of Germans in the Midwest
Ancestry genetic community; courtesy of Ancestry.com

Germans in the Midwest originated from both northern and southern Germany. So it could still support my Prussia theory.

And the problem...

German origins of the Germans from Baden-Wurttemberg in the Dakotas
Ancestry genetic community; courtesy of Ancestry.com

There is no way, Germans from Baden-Wurttemberg may be considered northern Germans from the area that was once Prussia. So at this point my thinking is the genetic communities are interesting but not helpful. Pretty much what I have found ethnicity estimates to be. Sometimes they make sense; sometimes they don't.

On the settings page of each DNA test is a privacy section. That section states the following about ethnicity:

"Show the participant's complete ethnicity profile to their DNA matches. This means the participant's DNA matches will see both the participant's full ethnicity estimate and all the Genetic Communities. (If left unselected, the participant's DNA matches will only see the portion of the participant's ethnicity estimate and the Genetic Communities they share in common.)"

I have not selected this for any of the tests I administer, but I changed this setting from my test and my mother's test to select it. Then went to Mom's match from the home page of my DNA test. I could see all of her ethnicity estimates but not her genetic communities. And I should have been able to see them. So there is still work for Ancestry to do in this area.

DNA Discoveries: Who Was Ernestine "Stina"?

In the ongoing, never-ending quest to learn more about my mother's ancestors, she graciously provided a sample for DNA testing less than a year before her death in 2014. When the results were available, the only matches she had that were not very distant cousins were her three children. Since her death, six of my eleven maternal first cousins have tested and another million people have had their DNA at Ancestry. So Mom's match list continues to grow.

Many of my maternal relatives share several matches with people who had a woman named Ernstine "Stina" (Seler) Beich in their family trees. Stina was married to Carl August Beich (1846-1927). Both had been born in what is now Poland and consistently listed their place of birth as Poland or Russia (the borders were ever changing). They considered themselves to be German. Stina or her husband must be related to my Mother and other Lange-Schalin relatives. So I gathered all the information from source documents I could find.

Carl August Beich and Ernestine "Stina" (Zander) Beich;
courtesy of Ancestry member racarroll1

I believe Ernestine to be the youngest child of Johann Gottfried Zander and his wife Anna Susanna Wilde. They were my three times great grandparents as I descend from their daughter Juliane Zander (about 1835-1906), who married Gottlieb Schalin. 

Willamette Valley Death Records; courtesy of Ancestry.com

Ernestine was born in 1846, married and had eight children before she and her family immigrated to Canada in 1893. Carl August Beich and two of the older children, Gustav and Pauline, arrived in Baltimore on 3 June aboard the S/S Weimar. The ship's previous port of call was Bremen, Germany. Stina followed on 10 October aboard the S/S Stubbenhuk.[1] With her were her children, Edward, Adolf, Rudolf, and Hulda. Only two children remained in Russia, their oldest daughter, Amalie "Mollie," who had recently married Heinrich "Henry" Konkel, and their son Julius, who was 11 years old.

Carl Beich returned to Russia in 1899 and returned aboard the S/S Tave with their son Julius, daughter Mollie, her husband, and their three oldest children. They arrived in New York City on 27 April 1899. When the 1900 census was enumerated, Stina, Carl, and their four youngest children lived in Caledonia Township, Wisconsin, where Carl owned a farm. Their son, Julius, also worked on the family farm.

On 17 November 1908 Rudolf, homesteaded land in Bruderheim, Alberta, Canada. Two years before, he had homesteaded another piece of land but abandoned it because the land "wasn't was good represented to me." By 1916 Stina and Carl lived in Bruderheim. None of their children lived with them and Carl's occupation was listed as retired farmer.

Declaration of Abandonment for Rudolf Beich; courtesy of Ancestry.com

Stina and Carl traveled to Salem, Oregon, several times in their later years to visit their children who lived there. Perhaps it was on a similar trip that Ernstine (Zander) Beich died as her death occurred on 20 August 1917 in Salem. She was interred in the Lee Mission Cemetery.

Carl continued to live in Bruderheim and traveled to see his children in Wisconsin. He died on 11 October 1927 in Merrimac, Wisconsin and was interred in St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Cemetery.

Their children:

1. Amalie "Mollie" Beich born 1871; died 25 October 1945; married Heinrich "Henry" Rudolf Konkel
2. Gustav Beich born 1874; died 1964; married Anna Behnke
3. Pauline Beich born about 1877; died 1908
4. Eduard or Edward Beich born about 1881; died before 1900
5. Julius Beich born 31 December 1882; died 4 March 1959; married Ida A. Messer
6. Adolf or Adolph Beich born 12 January 1886; died September 1962; married Grace Staudenmayer
7. Rudolf or Rudolph Beich born 20 February 1887; 23 March 1972; married Anna Krause
8. Hulda Beich born 18 December 1891; died 19 June 1973; married 1) Charles Edward Haughey and 2) Samuel Edward Alexander

Solving Stina's correct surname and her parents connected my Mother, siblings, cousins, and me to nine new cousins!

_______________

[1] Some of my Schalin family and their fellow church members immigrated to Canada on the S/S Stubbenhuk the same year.

DNA Discoveries: Finding Anna Eleonore (Schalin) Skale (or Skalay)

I first learned about Eleonore Schalin in a book by Lucille (Fillenberg) Effa entitled Our Schalin Family, 1770-2003. She was the youngest of eight known children of Johann "Samuel" Schalin and Anna Dorothea Rosno or Rosnian, who were my three times great grandparents. Eleonore was born in Maliniec, Kolo, Wilkopolskie, Poland on 9 February 1844. She married Gottlieb Skale in 1860 in Zhytomyr, Zhytomyr, Ukraine.

The Master Pedigree Database maintained by the Society of German Genealogy in Eastern Europe (SGGEE), included information about that marriage and three known children:

1. Anna Justine Skale born 4 June 1866
2. Gustav Skale born 1 Sepember 1879 in Kostopil, Rivne, Ukraine (in the colony of Maschtscha/Marzelinhof)
3. Henriette Skale born 3 January 1885 in Kostophil, Rivne, Ukraine (in the colony of Maschtscha/Marzelinhof)

What I learned through one of Mom's DNA matches was there was at least one other child: William (probably born Wilhelm) E. Skale.

Eleonore (Schalin) Skale in family tree of a DNA match; image courtesy of
Ancestory.com

After a lot of research, I was able to prove that Eleonore Schalin and Anna Lenore Schalin were the same person. 

Eleonore (Schalin) Skale first appeared in U.S. records as Annie Skaley and lived with her son William E. Skaley and his family at 1135 Broadway in Benton Harbor, Michigan. Annie said she immigrated in 1900 and had two children who were still living. (This is the only bit of information that gives me pause.) She died on 23 March 1913 of organic heart failure at her son's home and was interred at Crystal Springs Cemetery in the same city. Her daughter, Henriette (Skale/Skaley) Hoffman was the informant on her death certificate. 

1910 U.S. Federal Census for the William E. Skaley family, including his
mother; image courtesy of Ancestry.com

I have not found the passenger manifests for Anna Eleonore (Schalin) Skaley or her children Anna Justine, Gustav, or Henriette. In fact I have found no trace of Anna Justine except for her entry in the SGGEE master pedigree database. Perhaps she died young. I believe Gottleib Skale was likely deceased when his wife immigrated to the U.S. 

Gottlieb and Anna Eleonore (Schalin) Skale's children:

1. Anna Justine Skale
2. Gustav Skale (also known as Gustav Skalay or Skaley) born 1 Septement 1879 in Kostopil, Rivne, Ukraine; died 19 March 1939 in Benton Harbor; married 1) Mary Schultz about 1902 and 2) Bertha (Krause) Schonert on 31 March 1923 in St. Joseph, Michigan. He and Mary had eight known children.
3. Wilhelm Skale (also known as William E. Skalay) born 17 May 1882; died 30 Jun 1959 in St. Joseph; married Paulina Tober on 5 May 1903 in Bainbridge, Michigan. They had eight known children.
4. Henriette Skale (also known as Henrietta "Hattie" Skalay) born 3 Jan 1885 in Kostopil, Rivne, Ukraine; died on an unknown date[1]; married Rudolph Leopold Hoffman on 23 December 1905 in St. Joseph. They had eight known children. Leopold died in 1960 and I suspect Henrietta married again and was interred with that husband, which may explain why there is no death date for her on Leopold's headstone. She filed a life claim in November 1960 with the Social Security Administration a few months after her husband died and listed her birth date as 1 January 1887, which is different than the date listed in the SGGEE database. 

The death certificates for Gustav and Wilhelm/William list some version of Schalin as their mother's maiden name. Neither informant knew the name of their father, which I believe supports my theory that he died when they were young and still living in what was then Russia. However, both of their marriage registrations listed Gottlieb Skale (or some version) as their father.

Learning More about Heinrich Lange

Several months ago the granddaughter of Friedrich Lange reached out to me after finding this blog. Friedrich was the youngest brother of my maternal grandfather, Gustav Lange. She has shared photos with me, asked her father, Wilhelm, questions, and over the past month or so I have been interviewing him. During our second interview I received enough information to look for the remaining "missing" brother, Heinrich Lange. Mom had known his name and thought he was born about 1903. That was all we knew.

Caroline (Ludwig) Lange with six of her seven children. Left to right: Richard
Lange; unknown woman, likely a relative; Lydia "Lida" Lange; Olga Lange;
Friedrich Lange, in front of Olga; Gustav Lange; and Heinrich Lange. Not
included was Traugott Lange. Personal collection. A big thank you to Willy
Lange for identifying the people in this photograph.

Honestly, we don't know much more now. But every little bit is quite exciting when found.

Heinrich Lange was born on 5 July 1903 in what is now Poland or Ukraine. He was the sixth child of Carl August Lange and Caroline Ludwig. His father died in 1905. A year later the eldest brother, Gustav, went to Essen, Germany, where he worked for five years before immigrating to Canada in 1911. The next eldest brother, Traugott, also immigrated to Canada in 1912 or 1913.

When World War I broke out in the summer of 1914 Caroline (Ludwig) Lange and her five children found themselves in an uncomfortable position. They were people of German heritage living in Russia. The Russian government doubted the loyalty of the more than two million Germans who lived within their borders, and relocated many families, including the Lange family. They were notified they would be moved east and ordered to sell everything.

According on one of Caroline's grandsons, she made quite a bit of money after selling their personal possessions. She was able to buy train tickets for the journey, which not many people could afford to do. And she had money left over, which worried her. She was so afraid it would get stolen, she sewed it within the clothing of her two youngest children, Heinrich (about 11 years old) and Friedrich (about 9 years old).

Heinrich had a tendency to wander off at that age so Caroline told the boys if they missed the train, they would get left behind. They went off to play by a river and Heinrich fell in. When they got back to their mother, she was so angry their paper money got wet. The family settled somewhere in the Omsk Oblast, which is in Siberia and lived there until about 1920, when they were allowed to return to Porazava[1]. When they returned the territory was in dispute between the White Russians and Communists. In 1921 Proazava was ceded to Poland.

The years between World War I and World War II saw Caroline's five youngest children grow to adulthood, marry, and begin families of their own. She died a few months before her youngest son, Friedrich married, in 1929 and was buried in Porazava.

Heinrich married Lydia Hoffman in the mid 1920s. She was the daughter of Ludwig Hoffman and Wilhelmine Krause. Heinrich and Lydia had seven children: Tabea, Friedrich, Hanna, Frieda, Ruth, Rita, and Emil. In 1939 after Germany and the Soviet union signed the secret Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the two countries invaded Poland. Germany attacked from the west on 1 September and the Soviets from the east on 17 September.

Poland after the invasion by Germany and the Soviet Union; couresy
of Zoom Maps

Several members of the Lange family were relocated again. This time to the west, which was the portion of Poland German occupied after invading the country on 17 September 1939. I do not know the exact travels Heinrich and his family were forced to make during the war, but by 1952 they lived in Wettmershagen, Germany, which is in Lower Saxony.

Heinrich and his family immigrated to Arkansas in 1952, but it must not have been to their liking as the next year they moved to Winnipeg, where Heinrich had an uncle, Gustav Ludwig, living.

By 1968 he was registered to vote in Canadian elections and worked as a presser in a laundry. Some time after that, Heinrich, his wife, and at least some of this adult children moved to Vancouver. Heinrich worked on a ranch in British Columbia.

Lydia (Hoffman) Lange died on 22 November 1982 at Burnaby General Hospital of a cerebrovascular accident. She was interred Ocean View Burial Park in Burnaby. Sometime after his wife's death, Heinrich moved in with his eldest daughter's family in Port Moody. He died on 3 November 1991 at Queen's Park Hospital of a myocardial infarction. He was also buried at Ocean View Park.
His wife's name was Lydia Hoffman. She was the daughter of Ludwig Hoffman and Wilhelmina Krause. She was born on 19 November 1907 in what is now Poland and died on 24 November 1982 at Burnaby General Hospital. She and her husband lived at 6955 Doman Road in Vancouver at the time of her death. She and Heinrich were interred at Ocean View Burial Park in Burnaby.

Ocean View Burial Park in Burnaby, Canada; courtesy
of Find A Grave volunteer Karen Hanna

Children of Heinrich and Lydia (Hoffman) Lange

Heinrich and his wife had seven children; however, two are still alive so I will not mention them:

1. Tabea "Toby" Lange born in 1927 in Poland; died 27 September 2002, Mission, Canada; married Paul Beschetznick
2. Friedrich "Fred" or "Fritz" born 3 November 1930 in Poland; died 7 April 1991, New Westminster, Canada; married Gertrude "Gerty" Wahl
3. Hanna Lange born 11 May 1937; died 23 November 2003, British Columbia, Canada; married Hans-Juergen Logeman
4. Frieda Lange born 17 May 1942 in Matschulek, Poland; died 21 Mar 2015; married Waldemar "Wally" Jack
5. Ruth Lange born 25 June 1943; died 27 December 2008 in California, USA; married Manfred Czinczoll

_______________
[1] Porazava is now in the Grodno region of Belarus. At the time the Lange family lived there, it was in the Volyn Oblast of Russia. Germans spelled it Porozov, Volhynia.

Friedrich Lange's son, Willy, provided the story about relocating to Siberia, and several locations for various family members in interviews. Knowing Heinrich died in British Columbia, I was able to find the death certificates for he and his wife online through the Royal BC Museum. Other information about where they lived after leaving Europe was included in his daughter Frieda's obituary, which Willy kindly sent to me.

Traugott Lange's Descendants
Lange Family Bible Unlocks the Life of Traugott Lange
The Sibling Problem

The Lange Family and the Forgotten War

On the eve World War I my great grandmother, Caroline (Ludwig) Lange, lived in what is now Porozove, Rivne, Rivne, Ukraine. At the time, the town was in Volhynia Gubernia[1] of the Russian Empire. As World War I progressed the Russia government became sensitive to the over 2 million Germans who lived within their borders and relocated many of them east to Siberia or other parts of the empire. Caroline Lange and her five youngest children were sent to the Omsk Oblast. They were allowed to return to Porozove in about 1920. World War I had ended but the area was not yet peaceful.

Modern day Ukraine in white with Volhynia in gold/yellow; map courtesy of
Wikipedia

The Polish-Soviet War occurred between 1919 and 1921 fought by the Second Polish Republic and the Ukrainian People's Republic against Soviet Russia[2] and Soviet Ukraine over an area that is roughly equivalent to modern-day Ukraine and the western portion of Belarus. Poland wanted to push its borders eastward as far as was feasible. And Lenin saw Poland as the bridge the Red Army had to cross to assist other communist movements bring about revolution in Europe. Ukraine was trying to establish itself as a country, but had a weak hand as Polish troops occupied much of the western part of the country. Ukraine also had to contend with the Bolsheviks pushing westward until they had pushed Polish troops all the way back to Warsaw.

Poland won an unexpected but decisive battle at Warsaw and advanced eastward. Russia sued for peace and a cease fire was put in place in October 1920. The Peace of Riga was signed on 18 March 1921 and divided the disputed territories between Poland and Soviet Russia.

The territory that included Porozove was ceded to Poland by the Riga treaty. These borders remained in place until World War II.

In between the world wars Caroline Lange's family did what families do. Her children began getting married and having children. Caroline died in October 1929 and was interred in Porozove. Her youngest son married a few months after her death, intending to use the tickets his oldest brother, Gustav (my grandfather) sent, but his new wife didn't want to leave her family, so they stayed.

Germany and the Soviet Union signed a secret pact in August 1939 called the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. It was a non-aggression pact between the two countries that delineated spheres of influence along Germany's easter border. On 1 September Germany invaded Poland from the west and a little more than two weeks later, on 17 September 1939 the Soviet Union invaded from the east.

Caroline Lange's five youngest children, Olga, Lydia, Richard, Heinrich, and Friedrich, found themselves in a war zone yet again.

NOTE: At this stage in my research I do not yet know why the Lange family lived in Porozove. Caroline Ludwig married Carl August Lange in 1886. Their marriage was registered in what is now Rozhysche, Volyn', Ukraine, which is south of Porozove. Carl Lange died in 1905 about three months after their youngest child was born. Caroline supported her family by working as a medicine woman and midwife.

_______________
[1] The Volhynia Gubernia is now located in Belarus, Poland, and Ukraine.

[2] Soviet Russia was a sovereign state from 1917 until 1922 when the Soviet Union was formed.

Much of the information about the various dates and places the Lange family lived comes from the few documents I have been able to collect and conversations with Friedrich Lange's son, Willy.

German Baptists in Poland

When my maternal grandmother's parents immigrated to Canada from what is now Ukraine in 1893, they did so with many others in their German Baptist church congregation. The group settled in Leduc, just south of Edmonton, Alberta, homesteaded land, built a church, and raised their families.

Photograh taken in 1903 in front of the First Baptist Church in Fredericksheim.
My great grandfather helped build the church; courtesy of Lucille Effa Fillenberg

What exactly were German Baptists and why did they leave their farms in eastern Europe?

Though no one has been able to discover from where in Germany the Schalin family originated, they may have come from Prussia. We know that the family lived in Maliniec, which was in South Prussia, the part of Poland, Prussia partitioned in 1793. Prussia encouraged its citizens to settle in its new territory. And sometime during their lives in Maliniec, they had become German Baptist.

The religion was considered a separatist cult by Lutheran church leaders and Baptist ministers were persecuted. As I read more about the German Baptist faith, I learned its flowering in the various partitions of the country that was once Poland was down to one man: Gottfried Friedrich Alf, a school teacher.

Alf was a pious man concerned about his spiritual condition. By prayer and supplication he believed he found inner peace and forgiveness of his sins by trusting Christ. About 1853 Alf began preaching to his students about his religious experiences. This sparked a religious awakening for some parents and adults in the village.  Alf was soon consoling and praying with people almost every day. When the parish pastor heard about Alf's activities, he forbade him to continue. But Alf didn't stop. The parish pastor escalated Alf's "corrupting" actions to church authorities. The Lutheran Consistory dismissed Alf from his teaching position and banished him from his home.

But the genie was out of the bottle, so to speak. Alf was invited by many communities to lead religious revivals. He traveled constantly and was detained and imprisoned many times. Finally, Alf decided to leave the Lutheran church.

Gottfried F. Alf (1831-1898); photograph courtesy
of Donald N. Miller's "The German Baptist Movement
in Volhynia"

A neighbor, Heinrich Assman, told Alf about Baptists he had encountered. He talked about their church organization, discipline, and holy living, as well as their beliefs about baptism by immersion. These beliefs aligned with Alf's thoughts on religion and he decided to become a Baptist.  He traveled to Hamburg in 1859 to study and was ordained there.

After returning home he continue traveling and preaching and awakening others to his new faith. He became the chief Baptist revivalist in Poland. Alf believed the German Baptist faith appealed to the consciences of people to recognize they were sinners and needed to repent and look to Christ for salvation. Only then could they be baptized.

So knowing the history of the German Baptist faith where my ancestors lived, has enabled me to draw some conclusions about the family's timeline. I believe they converted to the German Baptist faith not long before they moved to Russia (near now Tuchyn, Volyn, Ukraine) sometime between 1861 and 1863 and they likely moved for religious, as well as economic reasons.

Administrative Divisions of Poland: Why Knowing Is Important

In order to research in the government archives of a country for which I do not speak the language, I need to understand how the country organized for administrative and legal purposes. Often, the archives are organized in an identical or similar manner. My mother's ancestors lived in eastern Europe in what is today Poland and Ukraine. Many of the civil records about her ancestors are housed in the archives of those two countries. So I needed to get smarter about how those countries are administratively organized.

When we enter a place name into our family tree for an ancestor who lived in the United States, we would enter it [Municipality, County, State, Country] if we followed genealogical standards, for example:

Raleigh, Wake, North Carolina, United States

Poland is actually organized in a very similar fashion.

Gminas are municipalities or communes. Powiats are counties. Voivodeships are provinces (similar to states). Administrative authority at the voivodeship, or province level, is shared between a governor appointed by the central government, an elected assembly (similar to state legislatures), and an executive chosen by that assembly.

The 16 voivodeships of Poland; map courtesy of Wikipedia

My great grandfather was born in:

Maliniec, Kolo, Wielkopolskie, Polska

Now when I am searching the Polish archives, I know how to navigate.

Polish Roots (links and descriptions of archive holdings)
Central Archives of Historical Records

Ukraine is a little more complicated so I will save that for another day.

The Polish Partitions

Some of you may remember the song, "(What a) Wonderful World," written Sam Cooke:

Don't know much about history

Don't know much biology

Don't know much about a science book

Don't know much about the French I took

I've found it's hard to put my ancestors' lives into context without knowing and understanding history. I'm still working on my French. <smile> I won't mention biology and science; they weren't positive school experiences.

Here's an example of why I find knowing the history so important. I thank my European history instructors everyday. And I read...a lot. My husband is continually amazed at the odd titles of old, used books that arrive by mail.

Marcin, or Martin, Schalin was my four times great grandfather. He was born about 1770 and married Anna Dorothea Rosno on 11 May 1791. They settled in a village known as Maliniec. If you wanted to find it on the map today, you would need to search for Maliniec, Kolo, Wojewodztwo Wielkopolskie, Polska. Four generations of the Schalin family lived in this village until Gottlieb and his family moved farther east between 1861 and 1863. The Schalin family considered themselves German. They spoke German for much of their history. In fact, Gottlieb's granddaughter and her husband spoke only German until the early 1920s when their oldest daughter went to school in Maryland and could speak no English.

When I began my family history research, I asked myself why did a German family live in Poland. It turns out for much of the time they lived in Maliniec Poland didn't exist at all.

Map of the three partitions of Poland, 1772-1795, courtesy of Wikipedia
and edited using Microsoft Powerpoint

In 1569 the Union of Lubin created the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which included modern day Ukraine, led by elected kings. The period between 1648 through 1764 saw the decline of the commonwealth as a result of several foreign invasions and internal disorder. One such invasion resulted in the first partition of Poland in 1772 when Austria, Prussia and Russia took about 30 percent of the country and added it to their dominions. What was left of Poland became known as the First Polish Republic. Russia did not want to see a rebirth of a strong country on its border and invaded in May 1792.  Poland capitulated in 1793 and the country was partitioned again -- this time by only Prussia and Russia. Tadeusz Kosciuszko, a popular general and veteran of the American Revolution was chosen as Poland's leader. He issued a national proclamation in 1794 calling for a national uprising under his command. Austria, Prussia, and Russia gobbled up what remained of Poland the next year, erasing the country from the map until 1807 when Napoleon created the Duchy of Warsaw from lands ceded by Prussia. After Napoleon was defeated the Kingdom of Poland, or Congress Poland, was established in 1815 in a personal under the Russian tsar. Technically, however, there was no sovereign Polish state until 1918.

We do not know where Marcin Schalin was born but we know he lived in Poland by 1791 and the family remained in the same village until sometime between 1861 and 1863. So during the that time, without moving, the Schalin family lived in:

• Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (included modern day Belarus and Ukraine) (1569-1795)
• Prussia Partition (1793-1807) (Prussia called this area South Prussia)
• Grand Duchy of Warsaw (in personal union with king of Saxony) (1807-1815)
• Kingdom of Poland, informally known as Congress Poland (in personal union with tsar of Russia) (1815-1867)

According to Albert W. Wardin, Jr.'s book, Gottfired F. Alf: Pioneer of the Baptist Movement in Poland, "The Kingdom of Poland was a strange construction. Its king was the tsar of Russia, who held strong executive powers. At first the kingdom possessed a rather liberal constitution that provided for an assembly, civil service, judicial system, and Army. The constitution also granted personal liberties, including religious tolerance. The Polish population was, by and large, hostile toward its Russian overlords. As a result of the Polish uprising of 1830-31, the kingdom came under full Russian control. Its constitution was destroyed and its assembly and army disbanded. The Russian regime curtailed civil rights and Polish institutions. After another uprising in 1863-64, the Russian government abolished the Kingdom of Poland, calling it Vistula Land, and completely subordinated it under Russian administration."

The Russian tsar freed the serfs in 1861, as a result much land became available in what is today Volyn', Ukraine, then known as the Russian Partition. Is it any wonder the Schalin family moved to the greener pastures of that vast eastern European plain, which has been known as the bread basket of Europe.

The Ludwig Breakthrough: Finding Some Great Greats

When I took over our family's genealogy research from my Dad a few years ago, all I knew about my maternal grandfather, Gustav Lange, were the names of his parents and siblings and some vital fact dates.

Family Group Sheet for Carl August Lange, my great grandfather; created
using Microsoft Excel

In the spring of 2015 I got my first breakthrough with the help of the husband of one of Mom's second cousins once removed, who pointed me in the direction of a microfilm collection which included the registration of the marriage between Carl August and Caroline Ludwig. That lovely record provided their ages, their parents, names, where they lived and where they married. I was back another generation!

New information added to the Family Group Sheet for Carl August Lange

After entering the information from Carl and Caroline's marriage registration, the excitement of finding their marriage registration faded. I was stuck again. It was time to join the Society of German Genealogy in Eastern Europe (SGGEE). From the SGGEE website:

"The Society is devoted to the study of those people with German ancestry (most often of the Lutheran, Baptist, or Moravian Brethren faiths) who lived in present-day Poland and northwestern Ukraine. Special emphasis is placed on those who lived in the pre-WWI province of Volhynia and on the pre-WWI region of central and eastern modern Poland known as Russian Poland or Congress Poland."

The region described on the SGGEE website is where my mother's maternal ancestors lived before immigrating to Canada. I learned after discovering the marriage registration for Mom's paternal grandparents that it was also the geographic "hotspot" for the Lange/Ludwig families.

Birth and marriage locations for Mom's ancestors in Congress Poland (now
Poland and Ukraine); map made using Google Maps and Microsoft Powerpoint

The green squares are the birth locations of my great grandfather, Wilhelm Schalin, and where he registered the birth of one of his daughters in 1892. According, to her birth registration, the family lived in a small town that has not yet been located. I assume it is at least somewhere near where her father registered her birth. The red squares are the birth locations of my great grandparents, Carol August Lange and Caroline Ludwig, and where they were married in 1886.

To be continued...

_______________
NOTE: I use current place names when entering facts into my family tree. I enter the place name at the time the event occurred in the description field. In this way, I can map the movements of my ancestors, who on Mom's side, at least, seemed to have itchy feet and liked to wander. 

The Sibling Problem

4 Things I've Learned about Researching Eastern European Ancestors

I have finally seriously begun to study how to research eastern European ancestors so I can begin to work on Mom's and my husband's sides of my family tree. One morning over coffee I was bemoaning the difficulties I have experienced. Pete agreed it sounded tough and said I should write a blog post about it so others who are thinking of doing the same thing will know about which issues to watch or take into consideration. I'm certainly no expert but am making progress in my education.

According to AncestryDNA eastern Europe includes these countries: Albania (northern), Austria, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece (northern), Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia (European), Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey (European), and Ukraine. It's as good a definition as any other I have found.

Map of Eastern European Ethnicity per AncestryDNA; image courtesy of
Ancestry.com

Regardless of the specific country in which you find your research taking you, most of these countries require knowing certain facts before you can truly begin to make progress. And they are:

1. What calendar was in use?

It sounds crazy, I know, but if you want to add a certain date to an ancestor's timeline that puts that information in context with your other known ancestors, then you will likely want to use the Gregorian Calendar, which is what we use today. The Gregorian calendar was named for Pope Gregory XIII, who introduced it in 1582.

The calendar is sometimes known as the Western or Christian calendar. Not surprisingly, Catholic European countries were first to convert to the new calendar. Protestant and Orthodox countries adopted the Gregorian calendar sometimes centuries later with Greece being the last country to adopt it in 1923.

I use this web page to determine what calendar the country in which I am researching was using at the time of the ancestor about whom I am working. Then I go to Stephen P. Morse's converter to determine what the Gregorian calendar date is for a record created using the Julian calendar. I enter the Gregorian date as the fact in my family tree and add a note in the description field that includes the original Julian calendar date with (Julian) in parenthesis. The recording of the facts about my paternal grandfather Gustav Lange's birth is a good example:

Gustav Lange birth fact in my family tree; image courtesy of Ancestry.com

You could use an alternate birth fact, but my personal preference is to keep all of the information together as it really was the same date. If I had a source that listed an entirely different date, then I would use the alternate birth fact to record that information.

2. What religion did your ancestors practice?

Religion was more important in the daily life of our ancestors than it is for many of us today. My maternal grandmother's family moved from what is now Maliniec, Poland, to what is now Ukraine, but was then Russia, primarily for economic reasons. However, Tsar Alexander II offered many inducements, including the freedom to practice a different religion from Russian Orthodoxy, which was the empire's official religion. When Tsar Alexander III came to power, he rescinded those inducements and jailed my grandmother's family's minister. They undertook a 5,000+ mile journey in 1893 to escape Russia in order to practice their German Baptist faith. Many from their community and church made the same journey at the same time and settled in the same area in Canada where they built a church together. Without knowing your ancestor's religion, you will not know in what churches to look for records if none exist at the civil authority.

Photograph of the congregation of the First Baptist Church of Fredericksheim
in Leduc, Canada, which my great grandfather helped build; photograph
courtesy of Lucille Marian (Fillenberg) Effa

3. In what country did your ancestors reside?

Country boundaries changed a lot over time in Europe, but especially in eastern Europe. Poland actually disppeared from the map in 1795 after the third partition of the country as Prussia, Russia, and Austria gobbled it up. Other countries lost wars and territory and there was a war somewhere in eastern Europe for much of history. It is important to know in what country the town or area in which your ancestor lived at the time your ancestor lived there. It's also important to know the contemporary name of the location in case you want to plot it on the map.

I typically enter the current place name in the location field and the historical name in the description field. I do this so that mapping function of my family tree software will work. If they lived in a very small village that is not recognized by my software, I enter the region and enter the village name in the description field. By knowing the country in which Zamosty was located at the time of Gustav's birth, I can use Wikipedia or the JewishGen town search to get the correct spelling or current place name. Because most of my eastern European ancestors lived in Poland and the Volhynia region, I joined the Society of German Genealogy in Eastern Europe. Members have created some of the best gazetteers I have found. If your ancestors are from other countries in eastern Europe, however, the society's resources will not be as helpful.

4. What was the national language and what language did your ancestors speak?

Once you know the country in which your ancestor resided, then you will likely have a good handle on the official language spoken there. However, be aware that some countries allowed administrative areas to speak different languages based on the majority nationality in the area as did Russia until the reign of Tsar Alexander III. If you are lucky enough to find records about your eastern European ancestors, then knowing the language in which the record was written will be extremely helpful as you will need to have the record translated. I find Facebook groups very helpful for translations, but I must know to which group to post the record.

My maternal grandfather's birth registration provides a great example of how you can get tripped up. Remember, Gustav Lange was born in 1888. His birth information was recorded in German on a form pre-printed in Russian! After 1894, his birth information would have been recorded in Russian due to a change in the law.

Gustav Lange's original birth certificate; personal collection

Knowing it was in German enabled me to obtain a translation from the German Genealogy Facebook group. I now understand there is another group specifically for German translations.

I have found it particularly helpful to read the Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org wikis before I begin researching in a foreign country. I also spend a lot time reading about the history of the country, especially its internal civil procedures and how local governments were organized for administrative purposes.

I hope you found these tips useful. Please let me know if you have others.

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