Author: Sean Vanderfluit

52W Mark V – Week 2: Marianna Schmidt and Johannes Anton

Marianna Schmidt (1820-1893) and Johannes Anton (1818-1885)

Until recently, I had thought that my Great x4 Grandparents, Marianna Schmidt and Johannes Anton, were most likely from Mörlheim, Landau, Rhinepalatinate before settling in a German colony at Karlsruhe, Beresan District, Ukraine, which was then part of the Russian Empire. I have since learned otherwise, at least for Johannes.

Marianna was born about 1820. I actually do not know where Marianna was born, or who her parents might have been. The only real information I have about Marianna’s birth is her registration of death, which states that she was 73 years old when she died. I suspect Marianna was born in the Beresan and it was her parents who emigrated from the German states.

Likewise, while I know that Johannes was born in 1818, I cannot say for certain where he was born. However, I do suspect that he was born in the Beresan. Johannes was born to Peter Anton (1797-before 1858) and Maria Anna Hatzenbühler (1786-after 1858) and had three younger sisters. Peter and Maria Anna were both born in the Rhinepalatinate – Peter in Mörlheim, Maria Anna in Ottersheim. It also appears that they had relocated to the Beresan, as the 1858 census for Karlsruhe shows that Maria Anna was living there at the time. Presumably, Peter had died before the census was taken.

Marianna and Johannes married sometime around 1840. Together they had ten children, five girls and five boys, all of whom were born in Karlsruhe. The first was born in 1842 and the youngest was born in 1861. I can’t imagine how hard that was on Marianna.

Sometime after all their children were born, Marianna and Johannes may have moved to the Christina colony, as Johannes died there in 1885. He is also buried there. I acknowledge the possibility that only Johannes moved there, perhaps to be with a family member who cared for him in his final days. However, the simplest answer is often the correct one, so it’s more likely the former rather than the latter.

Nevertheless, Marianna was later back in Karlsruhe, or had never left, because she died there on June 4, 1893. Marianna was survived by all her children, who at the time ranged in age from 32 to 51. The cause of death was registered as “old age”.

52W Mark V – Week 1: Klara Stumpf and Michael Loran

Klara Stumpf (1822-1854) – Michael Loran (1819-?)

With my Great x4 Grandparents, Klara Stumpf and Michael Loran, I continue on where I left off at the end of the 2025 iteration of the  52 Ancestors Challenge, with my Germans from Russia ancestry.

Both Klara and Michael were born in German colonies located in the Beresan district of Ukraine, which was then part of the Russian Empire. Klara was born in Speier colony, likely about 1822, while Michael was born in Karlsruhe colony, sometime about 1819.

Both Klara and Michael’s parents were born in what is now south-west Germany. In fact, pretty much all my Germans from Russia ancestry originates in this part of Germany. A few, as indicated on this map, hail from Alsace, which is now part of France, but for much of its history it moved back and forth between German and French control.

Klara was the fifth of seven children born to Jakob Stumpf (1788-after 1840) and Elisabetha Berk (or Burck) (1786-1830). Jakob was born in Riedseltz, in what is now France, very close to the border with Germany. Elisabetha was born in Pforzheim, which is in the modern German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is most likely that the two met in the Beresan, given that Jakob and Elisabetha were born about 50 kilometers apart. They both settled in the Beresan in 1809 and their eldest child was born in Speier in 1810.

As for Michael, he was the second of seven children born to Heinrich Loran (1786-1840) and Eva Maria Horter (1788-1861). Heinrich and Eva were born in Queichheim and Morlheim, respectively. The are both villages that are now part or suburbs of Landau in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. I don’t know when they married, but they both emigrated to the Karlsruhe colony in Beresan in 1809. All seven of Heinrich and Eva’s children were born there.

Klara and Michael married sometime around 1839. Given that the two were born in different colonies, I don’t know how or where the two met. I also don’t know where they married, although it might be more likely that they married in Karlsruhe, because that is where all five of their children were born.

Klara passed away in 1854 in Karlsruhe, at the age of 32, about a year after her last child was born. Michael remarried about two years later, probably in 1856, to Maria-Elisabetha Kitzel. Together they had four children, two boys and two girls. The boys were born about 1857 and 1860, in Karlsruhe. I don’t know when the girls were born; I assume they were also born in Karlsruhe. Maria-Elisabetha died in Karlsruhe in June 1884.

Sometime after Maria-Elisabetha died, Michael relocated to Felsenburg, which had been established in the Beresan in 1860 and was a daughter colony of Waterloo. Michael died there on June 1, 1898.

Unfortunately, I have found few records other than those that provide the vital statistics about Klara and Michael, so it has not been possible so far to add more detail about their lives. This is typical of many of my German-Russian ancestors.

Follow-Up 52W Mark III – Week 40: Least

Sixteen months ago, in October 2024, I wrote on the topic of some Dutch relatives who had received the Orde van Oranje-Nassau (Order of Orange-Nassau), a Dutch civil honour somewhat akin to the Order of Canada. I interjected with an anecdote about Bryan Adams, when he was the recipient of the first cohort of the Order of British Columbia, a provincial civil honour:

Inaugural Order of BC recipient Bryan Adams.

Interlude while I look for the autograph I have of Bryan Adams. I cherish it not because of the signature, but because of the person who gave it to me. Adams was one of the recipients of the Order of British Columbia the first year it was awarded. I was working in the B.C. Parliament Buildings at the time. The office I shared with three other interns was right next door to the committee room where they bestowed the medals. We had a window looking into that room, but they made us close the blinds. One of the dearest members of the legislature’s dining room staff, who was attending to the coffee and treats for the ceremony, asked Adams for an autograph for each of the four of us, without our knowledge. Later she presented them to us, saying “you nice boys might be fans so I thought you might like these”.

I looked for the autograph at the time, but couldn’t find it. Yesterday, while looking for something completely different, it popped into my head where the autograph might be, and there it was.

What I really wish is that I could remember the name of the dining room staff member who got this for me. In fact, I should have gotten her autograph.

Looking back at that previous post, it’s adorable that I thought being a whole week behind in the 52 Ancestors Challenge was somehow significant. Here it is, February 7, and I still haven’t finished writing my first post for the 2026 challenge!! I’d better get cracking…

52W Mark V: Flipping the Script

You typically see pedigrees set out with the paternal side above and the maternal side below. Since this year I’m examining my Grandparent’s Great Great Grandparents (my Gx4 Grandparents), it would mean first looking at my paternal grandfather’s line, followed by my paternal grandmother’s line, my maternal grandfather’s line, closing with my maternal grandmother’s line.

I’ve decided to flip it around.

I still intend to follow the approach I described last post for this year’s 52 Ancestors Challenge. However, I’m going to start where one would usually end, at the lowest branch of maternal grandmother’s pedigree chart, Klara Stumpf. For anyone familiar with Ahnentafels (a genealogical numbering system for listing a person’s direct ancestors in a fixed sequence of ascent), Klara is the person who is last on the list of my seventh generation of ancestors.

However, as I noted last post, I’ve got 64 Gx4 Grandparents to fit into a 52 card deck. For seven, I don’t have as so much as a name, so I can leave them out of the deck. That still leaves 57 – four too many.

For my maternal grandmother, I know four pairs of her Gx2 Grandparents. If I combine those sets together, it brings me to 52. The only remaining person on that line is my maternal grandmother’s direct paternal Gx2 Grandfather, who I both know and don’t know. It’s either Michael or Bernard Lerner, sons of Franz Ignaz and and Maria Eva Geiger. Since I am uncertain as to which brother is my Gx4 Grandfather, by leaving them out it brings this year’s deck to 52.

However, in fairness, I’ll set out what I do know about Michael and Bernard:

  • Michael Lerner was born on July 11, 1793 in Malsch, Karlsruhe, Baden. He was married to Maria Eva Eberle, born June 3, 1793 in Pleisweiler, Bergzabern, Pfalz, although the evidence of this marriage is not verified.
  • Bernard Lerner born February 27, 1798 in Malsch, Karlsruhe, Baden. Bernard was married to Barbara Heil, who was born about 1799 in Niederlustadt, Germersheim, Pfalz.

With that, let’s start the 2026 52 Ancestors Challenge!