Showing 182 results

This family originates from Fuerstenwerder, Russia. Jacob Heinrich Goertzen (1815-1888) had 20 children that survived infancy -- 10 with his first wife was Maria Loewen (1819-1855), and 10 with Maria Willms (1835-1904), after his first wife passed away. Jacob H. Goertzen migrated to America in 1878 and died in Mountain Lake, Minnesota in 1888.

Peter B. Kroeker (1873-1955) immigrated to Canada with his parents when he was a year old. In 1898 he married Elizabeth L. Dueck (1879-1963). During the first year of marriage they lived in Blumenort, Manitoba. After this they moved to a farm in Clearspring, one and a half miles south of Blumenort. In 1916 Peter was called into the ministry for the Mennonite Kleinegemeinde (later known as the Evangelical Mennonite Conference), serving in the Steinbach congregation. Peter B. Kroeker and his wife Elizabeth L. (Dueck) Kroeker had 12 children together that survive childhood.

Julius Letkemann (1821-1908) married Anna Neudorf (1826-1900) in 1944 and lived in Osterwick, Choritiza Colony, Russia. They had 5 children (1 son & 4 daughters) that survived childhood. Son Julius immigrated to Canada in 1923 and daughter Katharina also immigrated to Canada.

Peter Neufeld (1834-1898), a minister, and his wife Anna (Loepp) Neufeld (1835-1901) had four surviving children that married and had children. These four were: Peter Neufeld (1858-1918), Gerhard Neufeld (1866-1905), Kornelius Neufeld (1869-1950) and Agatha (Neufeld) Enns (1874-1943).

Aganetha (Epp) Klassen, her husband Peter Klassen and family came to Canada in 1926 and moved to Mission, British Columbia. Peter's family stayed in Russia because they thought things would get better. They had been very wealthy, even during WW1 and hesitated to leave. The Epp family all came to Canada. Letters were also sent to Abe Epp and Mary Epp (brother and sister) in Manitoba. Louise and Mother lived in Surrey next to sister Mary for many years. Louise (Epp) Klassen stored the letters and passed them on to Margaret (Epp) Wedel who passed them on to Ruth Derksen Siemens

Notes written by Ruth Derksen Siemens.

Gerhard G. and Sara (Ens) Lehn

Gerhard G. Lehn born 27 March 1881and Sara (Ens) Lehn born 17 February 1886 were both born in Kronsgarten, Chortitza, Mennonite Settlement, South Russia. After their marriage they lived with her parents in Kronsgarten for some time. Their first daughter Katharina was born in 1907 in Kronsgarten. By 1909 Gerhard, Sara and Katharina had moved to Leonidovka, Ignatievo. Their next four daughters were all born in Leonidovka - Helena 1909, Sara 1912, Elfrieda 1918 and Cornelia 1920. Elfrieda died in Leonidovka in 1925. The couple with their four daughters came to Canada in June 1926 and settled in Hanley, Saskatchewan. Sara Ens Lehn died in Hanley, Saskatchewan on March 9, 1933. Gerhard married on October 27, 1935 for the second time to Katharina Klassen. The family eventually moved to British Columbia. Katharina died March 22, 1958 in Sardis, British Columbia and Gerhard died 1 March 1970 in Chilliwack, British Columbia.

Notes adapted from Gameo and GRANDMA

David F. Pauls (1871-1953) born in Alexanderthal, Molotschna, married Sara Dueckman (1877-1946) on 18 December 1896. The family migrated to Canada in 1924. Sara died in Arnaud, Manitoba. David F. Pauls died in St. Catharines, Ontario.

Abram Friesen (1870-1943), Mennonite farmer, born in Berdjansk, Russia married in 1896 to Aganetha Reimer (1872-1924) born in Fernheim, Crimea. They had 9 children born to them in Ogus-Tobe, Crimea between 1897 and 1914. They were: Heinrich Friesen (1897-1919); Sara Friesen (1899-1968) married to Jacob Braun of Tiegenhagen, Molotschna, S. Russia; Helene Friesen (1902-1982) married to Abram Dueck; Peter Friesen (1903-1977) married to Eva Sudermann of Berdjansk; Renate Friesen (1906-1987) married to Peter Dueck; Gerhard Friesen (1907-1937); Mariechen Friesen (1909-2001) married to Hans Federau; Anna Friesen (1912-1997) married to Jacob Wall; and, Katherina Friesen (1914-1928). Jacob and Sara (Friesen) Braun lived in Tiegenhagen, Molotschna (S. Russia) until they immigrated to Canada in 1925 where they settled at Ste. Elizabeth, Manitoba. The rest of the Friesen family remained in the Soviet Union. Heinrich disappeared in 1919 after the Russian Revolution. Gerhard disappeared in 1937 in Siberia where he had been sent to work in the forest. With the changes during the early years of the new Soviet regime in the 1920s, Abram Friesen with some of his family was sent to Siberia in 1930, where he died in 1943. The family maintained letter contact with Jacob and Anna (Friesen) Braun in Canada from 1921 to 1938. In 1956 contact was again established between family members in the Soviet Union and the Braun family in Manitoba. Letters written mainly by Helene (Friesen) Dueck, Renate (Friesen) Dueck, Anna (Friesen) Wall and Peter Friesen were received from 1956 to 1982. Anna (Friesen) Braun died in 1968 in Manitoba. Jacob Braun visited visited many of these family members in the Soviet Union on a tour in 1971. The correspondence ceased shortly after Helene (Friesen) Dueck passed away in 1982. A few letters were exchanged after that. Anna (Friesen) Wall, the last of the siblings, died in 2001.

Cornelius H. Froese (1896-1948) married Elisabeth Fast (1901-1994) in 1921 in the Orenburg Colony, Russia. The Fast family had left the Molotschna Colony (Mariental, Gnadenfeld Volost) in 1896 and been first settlers in the village of Pretoria, in the Orenburg colony, where they had acquired 40 desjatin (hectares) of land. Four of the nine children had been born before this move. Elisabeth Fast who marred Cornelius Froese was born in this new settlement. After she married Froese, they lived in the village of Kubanka, Orenburg. In 1929 they left for Moscow and emigrated to Canada, together with one son, John Froese (b. 1924) – two other children had died young. Except for older brother David J. Fast (1894-1971) who moved to Brazil in 1929, the entire Fast family remained in Russia. Elisabeth (Fast) Froese’s parents, Johann A. Fast (1862-1937) and Maria (Koehn) Fast (1866-1933) and some of the siblings wrote letters to keep in contact with the family members that had left Russia.
In Canada, Cornelius H. & Elisabeth Froese, settled at Hepburn, Saskatchewan where Cornelius worked as a blacksmith for many years. They had a daughter Bertha born to them in 1931. Cornelius Froese died in 1948. Elisabeth later married Henry Block of Great Deer, Saskatchewan. Son John Froese (1924-2012) studied at University of Manitoba and Mennonite Brethren Bible College and had a long career in educational administration (Deputy superintendent of School in Yukon, Director of studies, Canadian Coast Guard College, Cape Breton, and Chief of International Training for the Department of Transport, Ottawa). Daughter Bertha also married a Henry Block. She pursued a nursing career and eventually retired in Winnipeg.
Susanna Fast (1908-1987), youngest sister of Mrs. Elisabeth (Fast) Froese lived and died in Kubanka. She kept a journal and also wrote a number of letters to her relatives that left Russia. She had a daughter, Hilda (b. 1938) who married a Jacob Krahn. Hilda and her family immigrated to Germany.

Johann Gerhard Fast, born April 25, 1860, in Petershagen, Molotschna (Russia), and Helene Warkentin, born Jan. 25, 1859, in Rueckenau, Molotschna, were married on the Warkentin parental estate of Gruenhof, in the Schoenfeld district, Ekaterinoslav province, Feb. 10, 1883. Helene inherited the larger part of the estate. The couple settled in Gruenhof where their family of six sons was born: Jakob (Jasch), Johann (Hans), Gerhard, Heinrich, David, and Peter. In 1898 Johann was elected minister of the Schoenfeld congregation. He had a preference for village life, and a keen business sense. In 1907 he sold the property in Gruenhof and bought two farms, with numerous large buildings, in Memrik. They were spared the trauma of the Stalinist era: Johann died June 16, 1915, from a series of strokes, and Helene from typhoid fever, Jan. 11, 1920.