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.

Grandpa Lange's Life in Essen

Gustav Lange (1888-1963), better known to at least his younger grandchildren as "Grandpa Lange," left Porozove in 1906, the year after his father died. I always heard he went to Germany to work, sending money home to his mother as well as saving to immigrate to Canada. I really don't know if he planned to immigrate when he left home. His uncle, Gustav Ludwig, who was his age and had been raised by his sister, Caroline (Ludwig) Lange, my great grandmother, after their mother died in late 1888, immigrated to Winnipeg in 1910. So Grandpa Lange may have decided to join his uncle in Winnipeg after receiving a letter from him describing life in Canada.

Lately I have been re-examining all the records and personal papers I have for Grandpa and realized I never transcribed or translated his German work permit.

Gustav likely made his way from Porozove[1] fifteen kilometers northeast to Rivne, where there was a rail station. We don't know through which cities he had to pass or where he changed trains but eventually he made his way to Essen, in the Ruhr Valley. Essen had been at the center of the industrialization of the German Empire and was home to the Krupp family's vast weapons dynasty. It was also home to steel factories and coal mines.

While in Essen, Grandpa had his photograph taken at Beckmann's photography studio.

Gustav Lange circa 1906-1911; personal collection

His clothing was very typical for a man in the first decade of the 20th century -- a "middle-class men's suit" instead of frock coats of the previous century, a vest and tie or bow tie. The shirts were often pastel in color and the collars were detachable because they required more frequent cleaning. Collars could also be replaced if ruined.

In Essen Grandpa obtained a work permit, which included his place of birth and employer. It appeared a new work permit was required each year. Below is his permit for 1911, the last year he was in Essen.

Grandpa Lange's German work permit; personal collection

Gültig für das Jahr 1911
Valid for the year 1911
No. 686273

Abfiertigungsstelle Essen a. d. R.
Check-out point Essen [initials not translated]
der Deutschen Feldarbeiter-Zentralstelle zu Berlin
The German Field Workers' Center in Berlin

Arbeiter-Legitimationkarte
Workers Identity Card
ausgestellt auf Grund des Ministerialrlasses
Issued by the Ministerial
vom 21. Dezember 1907 -- IIb 5675
of 21 December 1907 [remainder not translated]

Vor- und Zuname Gustav Lange
First and Last Name Gustav Lange
aus Samosck
from Samosck
Kries Lutzk Heimatland Russland
District Lutzke Homeland Russia
Arbeitgeber Rh. Westf. Elektrizitatwerk
Employer Rheinish-Westfalisches Electric Plant
Place of Work Essen
Kreis, Provinz
Bundesstaat Essen Ruhr Rheinland
District, County
[not translated] Essen, Ruhr, Rhineland

Diese Legitimationkarte ist bei polizeilichen An- und Abmeldungen und bei jedem Weschsel der Arbeitsstelle vorzulegen.
This card is to be presented in the case of police log-in / log-out (?) and every change of the working place.

Die Polizeiverwaltung
The Police

The Rheinish-Westfälisches Elektrizitätwerk was founded in 1898 in Essen. The company's first power station began operating in 1900. The local municipalities owned the majority of the company's stock shares.

The RWE power station in Essen, circa 1905; courtesy of RWE

I don't know where Grandpa lived while in Essen or how he spent his leisure time, but at the turn of the century, Germany's economy was the most dynamic in Europe. The years from 1895 to 1907 witnessed a doubling of the number of workers engaged in machine building, from slightly more than a half a million to well over a million. People continued to migrate from eastern provinces to the growing and multiplying factories in Berlin and the Ruhr Valley. Health insurance was provided to German workers in 1883 and the Workers Protection Act of 1891 banned work on Sundays and limited the work day to 11 hours. So Grandpa Lange had some leisure time to spend. Was he a member of band, playing his trumpet?

The Lange family had converted from Lutheran to German Baptist by the time Grandpa left home. Where was his church and where did he live? Surprisingly, according to an article by John S. Conway and Kyle Jantzen, "German Baptists were among those small groups of free churches which had to struggle throughout the 19th century to gain a foothold in Germany against the intolerant pressures of the established Lutheran church. By the 20th century they were conditionally recognized but remained on the edges of society. They sought to encourage the ideal life of true believers, separated from the rest of sinful society and politics. Hence, abstention from all worldly associations was coupled with the demand for freedom from all state interference in church life." Those beliefs seem noble to me but somewhat impractical to live by for a working-class factory worker like Grandpa. As an alien worker in Germany, his life interacted with the state on a regular basis.

Did he pay attention to politics as do some of his grandchildren today? Mom remembered he closely monitored the diplomatic maneuvers by European countries prior to World War II. At the time Grandpa lived in Essen, the empire's authoritarian political system was marked by paralysis. Encyclopedia Britannica described the political situation as:

"With each election, the increasingly urban electorate returned Social Democrats in growing numbers. By 1890 the Social Democrats (who had adopted a Marxist program of revolution at their Erfurt congress in 1891) received more votes than any other party. By 1912 they had more voters supporting them than the next two largest parties combined...Many contemporary observers thought that a major crisis was looming between the recalcitrant elites and the increasing number of Germans who desired political emancipation..."

Some time in the summer of 1911, Gustav traveled to Liverpool, England, where he boarded the White Star Line's RMS Teutonic on 12 August, and immigrated to Canada.

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[1] Porozove is located in the Rivne raion of the Rivne oblast, Ukraine. At the time Gustav Lange lived there it was part of the Russian Empire. After the Polish-Soviet War in 1920-21, it became part of Poland. After World War II, part of Ukraine.

Another Ludwig Breakthrough: Finding Uncle Gustav

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!

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[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.

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.

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

My BIG Brick Wall: Augusta Fabrizius

When I checked my Ancestor Score a couple of months ago, I knew 15 of my 16 great great grandparents. The reason I don't know all of them is my BIG brick wall is my great grandmother, Auguste Fabriske / Fabricius / Fabrizius, who I know next to nothing about.

My pedigree chart; image courtesy of Ancestry.com

I know from ship passenger manifests that she was born about 1861; that she married my great grandfather, Wilhelm Schalin, on 20 December 1881 (converted from Julian calendar); lived in an area of Tsarist Russian that is now Ukraine; had six children there before immigrating to Alberta, Canada; had three more children; and died on 12 February 1898. Other documents to support these facts include the registration of a daughter's birth, which provided the marriage date; a list of headstone transcriptions of the people buried in the cemetery of the First Baptist Church of Fredericksheim in Leduc, Canada; and a book written by Lucille Marion (Fillenberg) Effa, entitled Our Schalene Family: 1770-2003. Mrs. Effa was my second cousin once removed.

The birth registration of daughter, Wilhelmine Schalin, who was born in 1892, is in Russian. The document includes middle names for the parents -- Wilhelm Gottlieb Schalin and August Wilhelmowa Fabrizius. It is the only record which includes middle names for my great grandparents. My current belief is that they are not middle names but rather patronymics. Wilhelm's father was Gottlieb Schalin. If so, then Auguste's father's name was Wilhelm Fabrizius -- the only chip in my brick wall.

Most of this information was included Mrs Effa's book. I found the few documents I have about Auguste as I conducted by own research to verify and extend the information in the book. Late last year I hired professional researchers to assist me break through the brick wall that was Auguste Fabrizius. However, they found so many documents about the Schalin family in Poland, where they lived before moving to Russia/Ukraine, that we concentrated our search there. So I am saving the Ukrainian research for another day.

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Ancestor Score and 500th Post
Deciphering Cyrillic: Finding Tuchyn
Fleeing a Tsar
Starvation Faced Fredericksheim
History of Fredericksheim
Fearless Females: Religion

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: Reporting from Brazil

Continued from The Ludwig Breakthrough: DNA and Chocolates

After entering the new information about Mom's second cousin DNA match into my tree so I could begin to look for source documents, I noticed Gottfried Ludwig and Ernestine Irrgang, my great great grandparents, now had hints. Those hints led to the same public family tree created by one other person who had Gottfried and Ernestine in their tree!

A closer examination of their tree revealed another daughter named Pauline Ludwig. This brought the total to possible children to three: my great grandmother, Caroline; "Daughter" Ludwig (now known to be Juliane), grandmother of Mom's new second cousin match; and Pauline. Apparently, she married Andreas Assenheimer somewhere in Volhynia. Their eldest child, Olga, was born there about 1908. Sometime before 1914, the family immigrated to Brazil!

Andreas and Pauline (Ludwig) Assenheimer family group; image courtesy
of Ancestry.com

As I continued to review this tree, I discovered the family likely immigrated to Porto Alegre the capital of Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state in Brazil sometime between 1908 and 1914 based on the birth dates and locations of their children.

Porto Alegre, Brazil, circa 1850 about fifty to sixty years before the Assenheimer
family arrived; image courtesy of Wikipedia

The majority of the population of Rio Grande do Sul are Brazilians of European descent. First came the Portuguese, but in 1824 German immigrants began arriving. They were brought over to populate the empty southern interior region of the state and to help protect that area from Brazil's neighbors. By the 1870s there were over 28,000 German immigrants living in the state.

After learning a tiny bit about this region of Brazil, it did not seem outside the realm of possibility that the Assenheimer family would go there on the eve of World War I. I still have much to do before I can confirm that Pauline Ludwig was a daughter of "my" Gottfried Ludwig and Ernestine Irrgang. But a check of the master pedigree database developed by the Society of German Genealogy in Eastern Europe (SGGEE) does include the same mother and father of Andreas Assenheimer, the husband listed in this tree of Pauline Ludwig. So we are off to a good start.

Getting serious about researching my eastern European ancestors has required a great deal of study and I still have much to learn. I think I'll set aside this Brazilian family aside for now as I will need to learn about the history of the country, the type of records that are available, and so much more. Discovering Pauline Ludwig was exciting, though.

Update: Unfortunately, despite my best efforts to put this family aside, I couldn't do it. I looked on the SGGEE website again and discovered an index for Russian records. A Pauline Ludwig was born 14 December 1878 but died on 9 August 1880. So either another daughter was born later and married Andreas Assenheimer or the public tree on Ancestry is incorrect and its creator, Pauline's great granddaughter, has misidentified her.

To be continued...

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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 

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...

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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

"Oh, Come on! We Can Look"

When my Polish researchers sent me a marriage license for the daughter of my four times great grandfather Marcin (or Martin) Schalin, it was new information. I hadn't previously known about Anna Rosina Schalin. I learned she married Christoph Arnholtz on 24 January 1816 in Maliniec, Kolo, Wielkopolskie, Poland. That sent me to the Master Pedigree Database maintained by the Society of German Genealogy in Eastern Europe (SGGEE) to see if Anna and Christoph were included and found them. The database indicated they had a son, also named Christoph, born about 1826 in Police, Kolo, Wielkopolska, Poland.

Son Christoph married Anna Rosalie Buech on an unknown date and they had three known children. Then the trail ran cold at SGGEE. However, after entering the names and birth dates into my family tree, I discovered their son, Carl Ludwig Arnholtz's wife, Rosalie Juliane Schechinger, lived with her son, Adam, and his family in Strathcona, Alberta, Canada in 1911. There was no mention of her husband, Carl Ludwig, on the census form, even though it indicated she was married. I found the passenger list for Adam's family but not his mother, who did not appear to travel with him. Adam immigrated to Canada aboard the S/S Bremen in 1907, leaving Bremen, Germany on 11 May and arriving in Quebec on 22 May.

Adam wasn't the only son to leave Russia. His brother Friedrich, still single, also left and settled in Portland, Oregon, about the same time according to his naturalization papers. Once in the United States, he went by Fred. He married Ernestine "Tinnie" Ganske sometime before 1912. They had six children children, including daughters Esther Nettie and Evelyn Mae who married two brothers named George and Raymond Rueck.

In 1987 a long article about George and Raymond, their spouses, and three other siblings and their spouses was published in The Oregonian on 10 April entitled, "Commitment upholds long-lived Rueck marriages." When Raymond and Evelyn (Arnholtz) Rueck celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary that year, they became the fifth Rueck sibling to pass the half-century mark.

Five Rueck siblings and their spouses; article courtesy of the Oregon
Historical Society

There was one passage in the article that made me laugh out loud:

Another reason the five marriages has [sic] lasted is, Ella May Rueck said, "We don't have our eyes on other men."

"Oh, come on! We can look!" joked Evelyn (Arnholtz) Rueck.

I just loved her sense of humor; she reminded me of my Dad and his telling his children after we were married we could look but couldn't touch. It was Rule No. 1. Another one of his adages was, "Just because I'm on a diet doesn't mean I can't look at the menu," about giving pretty girls a second look. Then he would quickly remind us of his first rule! He had all sorts of pearls of wisdom that I still live by today.

I find it hard to believe an 1816 Polish marriage registration led me to an article in Oregon newspaper over 170 years later and half a world away.

How I got there:

Christoph Arnholtz (c1787-unknown) married Anna Rosina Schalin (c1792-unknown)[1]
>Son Christoph Arnholtz (1826-unknown) married Anna Rosalie Buech (1829-unknown)
>>Son Carl Ludwig Arnholtz (1848-1936) married Rosalie Juliane Schechinger (1849-1937)
>>>Son Friedrich "Fred" Arnholtz (1889-1948) married Ernestine "Tinne" Granske (1893-1933)
>>>>Daughter Esther Nettie Arnholtz (1912-2006) married George Rueck, Jr. (1910-1996)
>>>>Daughter Evelyn Mae Arnholtz (sister of Esther) married Raymond Rueck (1914-2003)

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Anna Rosina Schalin was my three times great grand aunt