Anna Janzen met Jacob Funk while working at Bethania Hospital located near the Dnieper River in the Chortitza Colony between the settlements of Einlage and Kronsweide. This photograph was taken shortly before she married Jacob J. Funk in 1920. Anna is standing for this portrait wearing a formal dress.
This is a copy of a photo showing families boarding a freight train car in preparation to leave Russia in the 1920s. About four families lived in one of these small freight cars for about two weeks en route to Riga, providing their own food along the way. Photograph in Gerhard Lohrenz, HERITAGE REMEMBERED: A Pictorial Survey of Mennonites in Prussia and Russia, revised and enlarged (Canadian Mennonite Bible College, 1977), 264.
This is composite image of the passport photos of some of the Susanna Funk family members (daughter and sons with spouses) that emigrated from Russia to Canada. They came in three separate groups, two in July 1923 and one in December 1926.
This is a photo of Jacob Funk in army medic attire with a group of people in front of a Russian field hospital kitchen of which he was manager. He is #6 in the photo and about 21 years old at the time.
This is a photo of Johann Jacob Funk and Susanna Nickolai Peters. They returned to Rosenthal to purchase a windmill in 1904. They are Katie Funk Wiebe's grandparents. In the portrait, Johann is sitting and Susanna is standing beside him. He is dressed in a formal suit and she in a formal dress with headgear.
This is a photo of the Franz and Katharina Janzen (nee Katharina Boldt) extended family in 1928 around the coffin of Katharina, who gave birth to 12 children. It was common practice to have a family picture taken at the funeral with the open casket of the departed loved one. The funeral banner announces: Wiedersehn! (We will see you again!). Katharina and Franz with their seven younger children were the ones Jacob Funk went looking for and found in 1921.
This photo is of Nickolai Johann Peters and his wife Elizabeth Peters (nee Elizabeth Friesen) seated for a portrait with their two children Susanna Peters (right) and Margarita Peters (left). Nickolai is wearing a suit jacket and Elizabeth a dress and head covering.
A page from Jake Funk’s hymnbook that he smuggled into prison in his boot after being arrested in 1919. These hymns of faith were of great encouragement as he waited to be shot. Note the annotations penciled in. Jake (1896-1986) was released from prison.
This is a copy of a map showing the route taken by Jacob Funk during his month-long search for Anna’s family in 1921. Map of Mennonite colonies in South Russia by William Schroeder (scale: 1 inch = 50 miles).
This is a photo of Katie Funk Wiebe's Great-uncle Peter pictured with his orchestral band of army medics. Peter Nickolai Peters, seated, second from the right in the first row, is the younger brother of Katie's Grandmother Susanna Funk (nee Susanna Peters). He and Katie's father, Jacob J. Funk, both served as army medics during World War I. In 1920, Peter, his parents Nickolai and Elizabeth, and Katie's Grandfather Johann all died of typhus.
