Category: 52 Ancestors 2025

52W Mark IV – Week 44: Card L5 Margaretha Heck

Margaretha (“Margaret”) Heck (1868-1946)

Both sides of my Grandmother Helen Lerner’s family are  Germans from Russia. Her branch of my tree is the one I know least about and is the most difficult to research. As a result, it does not go back very far for most branches, and is the most rife with brick walls and conflicting information. Perhaps the line I know least about is that of my Great Great Grandmother Margaretha (“Margaret”) Heck.

Margaret Heck was born on April 1, 1865 (although the year might be in question), in one of the German colonies in the Beresan District of what is now Ukraine, but at the time was part of the Russian Empire. Not only do I not know which specific colony she was born in, I have no idea of where her ancestors came from. At most, I suspect that they had their origins in the same German states, principalities, and duchies that my other Beresan ancestors had come from, such as Baden or the Palatinate. I really know nothing more than the names of Margaret’s parents, and even that information has little foundation.

My mother shares the same birthday as Margaret. As a result, she shares Margaret’s name as her middle name. In fact, Margaret was supposed to have been my mother’s first name, but her father, Leo Burgess, objected, saying that everyone would call her “Maggie”. When my Grandmother arrived home from the hospital with my mother, Leo’s father Milton was there. Upon seeing my mother he exclaimed, “There’s Maggie!” It stuck. Since that time, Lorraine’s father and grandfather called her Maggie.

Margaret married Jacob Anton sometime before 1890, possibly in the Karlsruhe colony. There Margaret had five children, from 1890 to 1898. Sometime after February 1898 and before April 1900, the family left the Beresan for Russia proper, settling in Selo Suchoi, somewhere near Veronesch. A “selo”, as I understand it, is a village with a church. The family lived in Selo Suchoi for just over ten years. During that time, Margaret gave birth to five more children, from 1900 to 1910.

The Anton family. My Great Grandmother, Emelia Anton, is on the girl on the right side of the photo who appears to be holding a bouquet. This is said to have been taken around 1910, and was most likely taken in Selo Suchoi. I believe it was taken before Margaret’s youngest daughter, Rose, was born. Emelia had two younger brothers and one younger sister, but only two children here appear to be younger. As well, Emelia only had two older sisters, but there are three girls who appear older than her. I suspect the girl in the centre is Philomena, likely dressed for a First Communion or Confirmation, who was three years older than Emelia. My guess is that one of the older girls might be the wife of one of Emelia’s older brothers.

On June 18, 1912, Margaret and the family departed Hamburg aboard the S.S. Pennsylvania, bound for Canada via New York. The ship’s passenger manifest described Margaret as 5’6″, blonde, and blue-eyed. The Pennsylvania arrived at Ellis Island on July 1, 1912. By the end of July, the family had arrived at Rastadt, Saskatchewan, where Jacob secured a piece of land for homesteading. Jacob farmed the land for less than 10 years, as he passed away in May 1921. The land he owned was divided between three of his sons.

A few years later, sometime after January 1924 and before April 1925, Margaret remarried, to a man named George Meuchel (1863-1948). George was also a German from Russia. He moved from the Beresan to North Dakota in 1892. At the time he was married and had three children; he and his wife, Paulina, had 13 more children in North Dakota. Paulina died in January 1924. The 1925 North Dakota state census shows Margaret and George as married.

I have no idea how Margaret and George met. Some rudimentary digging seems to indicate he might have had a son who was homesteading not far from where Jacob and Margaret were farming. I also cannot find any record of their marriage, either in Saskatchewan or North Dakota. While census records suggest they were married, it may well be that they hadn’t actually gone through the civil or religious process.

The couple also were not in North Dakota for long after they married – the 1926 Canadian census of the Prairies shows them in Saskatchewan near Rastadt. Five years later, George and Margaret were living in Medicine Hat, Alberta. How long they were there, I cannot say, and 1931 is the last census year currently available. However, at some point in time they moved back to Saskatchewan.

My Aunt Adeline (Emelia’s daughter) told me that she would often go to her grandmother’s house after school. Sometimes she would spend several weeks at her grandmother’s. Addie said that her grandmother as far more straight-laced than Emelia. Addie described Margaret as religious, but in a quiet and not in a showy way; she was not the kind of person who spoke about God much. However, Addie told me that while Margaret did not say it a lot, if you shocked her she would say, “Holy mother of God”. She quickly added that her grandmother likely said it in German, but Addie could only remember it in English. Addie also remembered George, as her grandfather Jacob had passed away when Addie was nine.

Margaret died in Fox Valley, Saskatchewan, on October 28, 1946. She is interred at the Fox Valley Cemetery. As for George, he ultimately moved back to North Dakota, where he died on March 29, 1948. George is buried alongside Pauline in Grant County, North Dakota.

I don’t recall seeing this headstone when I visited in 1997. I also don’t know where “Margred” came from.

52W Mark IV – Week 43: Card L4 Jacob Anton

Jacob Anton (1865-1921)

My Great Great Grandfather, Jacob Anton, is another one of my Germans from Russia whose ancestors originated near Karlsruhe, Germany. Most likely they were from Mörlheim, Landau, Rhinepalatinate, which is about 30 kilometers northwest of Karlsruhe. Jacob’s people settled in the Karlsruhe Colony of the Beresan District. It was located north of Odessa in what is now Ukraine, but at the time it was part of the Russian Empire.

Jacob was born on May 3, 1865 in Karlsruhe, where he grew up to be a farmer. Sometime before 1890 he married Margaretha (“Margaret”) Heck, most likely in Karlsruhe. Together they had ten children, the first five of whom were born in the Beresan.

The family remained in the Beresan until sometime in between February 1898 and April 1900. In that time, they moved to Selo Suchoi, Veronesch, Russia. My relatives told me that Selo Sochoi was a settlement of 12 or so families who all separately owned their own land. As I understand it from my own reading, a “selo” is a small settlement with a church, as opposed to a “derevnya”, which did not. In Selo Suchoi, Jacob and Margaret had five more children, including my Great Grandmother Emelia Anton.

The Antons remained in Selo Suchoi for just over ten years before emigrating for Canada. Jacob and his family sailed from Hamburg on June 18, 1912 aboard the S.S. Pennsylvania. They arrived at Ellis Island on July 1, 1912 – Dominion Day in Canada (now “Canada Day”). Their declared destination was Maple Creek, Saskatchewan, to join Jacob’s son and eldest child, Rochus Anton. The passenger manifest stated that Jacob paid for the entire family’s transport, other than his son Philip’s wife Rosa, whose passage was paid for by her father. In total, the family brought $6000 with them.

On July 31, 1912, Jacob applied for entry to land located at Southeast Section 22 Township 17 Range 24 West of the 3rd Meridian, which is due east of Fox Valley and not far south from the Rastadt Cemetery. The application noted that there were 12 people in the family – 5 adult males, 3 adult females, and 4 children under 12.

Affidavits filed in support of Jacob’s homestead application show that in the first three years of occupation, he broke 60 acres per year. The first year he cropped 60 acres, in 1913 he cropped 120 acres, and in the following four years he cropped 180 acres. Jacob did not own any stock animals during that time, although it appears that he obtained some in 1918. Jacob built a 30 x 30 wood frame house on the property, which was completed by August 1912. In 1918 the house was worth $2,000. He also built a stable and four granaries, along with a well valued at $100. Jacob was granted the patent for the land on January 13, 1919.

In the meantime, Jacob became a naturalized Canadian (British subject) on October 26, 1914.

Sometime in 1916 or 1917, Jacob and his brother Joseph, who had also moved to Canada, returned to the Beresan to sell land they still owned over there. They had success in selling to relatives but barely made it out before the 1917 revolution began. Moreover, one of the brothers apparently missed their passage out of Russia and had to remain behind for a time. To me, the whole idea of crossing the Atlantic and through Europe in the middle of World War I was not the wisest idea.

Jacob died in Fox Valley a few years later, on May 3, 1921. Jacob executed his will that same day, written in German. His sons Rochus and Phillip were named executors. At the time of his death, Jacob had a second piece of land, SE 8 Twn 17 Rng 24 W 3, in addition to the original piece of land he acquired by homestead after arriving in Canada (SE 22 Twn 17 Rng 24 W 3). Jacob also owned a full line of farm implements, fourteen horses, and sixteen horned cattle. The total value of the estate was $10,305.00.

Jacob’s will, handwritten in German
Jacob’s burial place.

The original piece of land was bequeathed to his son John Anton, who was to pay one-quarter of the value of the land to his brother, Rochus. The other property was left to his son Ralph, who was then to transfer half to his brothers Mathias and Jacob. Smaller cash amounts were left to Jacob’s wife, Margaret, and to his other seven children.

Jacob is buried at Rastadt Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Cemetery. Along with the school, which closed in 1970, the cemetery is the only thing that is left of Rastadt.

Rastadt Cemetery

52W Mark IV – Week 42: Card L3 Barbara Schmidt

Barbara Schmidt (1865-1936)

My Great Great Grandmother, Barbara Schmidt, was born to Valentine Schmidt and Margaretha Boechler on October 25, 1865 in Karlsruhe, Beresan, Ukraine, Russian Empire. Karlsruhe was one of the colonies established by German settlers who responded to the manifestos issued by Catherine the Great and, later, her grandson Czar Alexander I. Since Karlsruhe was founded in 1809, it is most likely that its founders were responding to a manifesto issued by Alexander I in 1804.

I know almost nothing about Barbara before she married Michael Lerner, said to have been in February 1883. There’s only one clue about her childhood, which is from a photo I first saw in a book in 1997. I’ve since seen it other places. I can’t even recall when or how I came across it. I think I was probably still using Windows 95 and Netscape. One of the later iterations I have of it came with additional information, which is in the bottom left of this graphic:

The one alteration I made to each image was to add “ФОТОГРАФЪ ХАДАКЪ Photographer Khadak” (or “Hadak”). It is what you can see in the bottom of the photo. I googled the phrase using the Cyrillic, without the translation/transliteration. The results included a photograph that was listed for sale on a Russian website that sells collectibles, which had the same caption at the bottom.

The photos of the item included this:

My Google results also included a Russian-language Wikipedia article, Хадак, Павел Иосифович (Khadak, Pavel Iosifovich). If the person in the article is the person who took the photograph, I have a real timeline problem.

The article says that Pavel Khadak was born in 1863 – two years before Barbara. So if the photo was taken when Barbara was 10, in 1875, Pavel would have been 12 years old. The Wiki article also says that Pavel took up photography sometime after 1881, and only later attended photography school. This means that Pavel likely couldn’t have taken the photo until the early to mid-1880s.

I also considered whether Barbara could have been born much later than 1865. If so, if she was 10 in a photo taken around 1885, she’d have been born in 1875. The problem is she’d have been eight years old when she married and had her first child.

Update: So often I find what I’m looking for after I click “publish”. Sigh. Better late than never! I’ve since come across transcriptions/translations of church records, which include baptismal registrations for Karlsruhe. Amongst these is an entry showing that Barbara was born on October 17, 1864, not October 25 as I found in many other secondary sources. Barbara was baptized on October 18, 1864. Interestingly, her godparents were Franz Böhm and…Barbara Schmidt! My guess is that Godmother Barbara might be an aunt. Of course, this supports the original estimate that the family photo was taken in 1875 – which weighs against it having been taken by Pavel Khadak of the Wikipedia article.

I have no idea how Barbara and Michael came to be together, as Michael was from Rastadt, Beresan, which was about 50 kilometers from Karlsruhe. After the marriage, the couple lived in Rastadt, where Michael was a farmer. The couple had six children in Rastadt.

In 1893, Michael and Barbara moved the family family from the Beresan and relocated to the United States. Their youngest child was only five months old at the time, with three three others being aged 5 and under. Poor Barbara – I’m pretty sure the childcare would have all fallen upon her.

The Lerners landed at Ellis Island on May 12, 1893 and quickly settled in Clay County, Texas, where Michael started a farm outside of Henrietta, the county seat. Meanwhile, Barbara gave birth to eight more children. The first of their child born in the United States was my Great Grandfather, Heronimus (“Jerome” or “Jerry”) Lerner. According to the 1910 US Census, Barbara only spoke German. However, according to Canadian census records, Barbara was able to speak English by 1921.

The family remained in Texas for 25 years, until 1918. By that time, several of Barbara’s older children, including Jerry, had relocated to Saskatchewan, near Fox Valley. Michael moved Barbara and most of their other children to Rastadt, Saskatchewan, not far from Fox Valley. Only one of their daughters remained in Texas. Once in Rastadt, Michael again took up farming. Barbara became a nationalized Canadian (although technically a British subject – Canadian citizenship separate from British nationality did not occur until 1947).

In 2000 or 2001, I was doing a series of job interviews. I included genealogy as one of my interests in my resume. One of my interviews was at a firm where I didn’t have much of an expectation of succeeding (there were good reasons), but I went to it anyway. Can’t score if you don’t take the shot!

One of the interviewers took great interest in my hobby, and I ended up talking about a trip to a small town in Saskatchewan that I had done a few years ago, meaning my trip to Fox Valley and Rastadt in 1997. The panelist asked me to name the towns anyway, and he said that he had heard of them. It instantly clicked as to why – his last name was Schmidt! After comparing notes, we figured out that we were third or fourth cousins of some degree.

As expected, I didn’t get the job – although I was successful elsewhere. But I found a cousin!

Barbara died on October 21, 1936, four days shy of her 71st birthday. Her death occurred in Liebenthal, Saskatchewan, a village about 25 kilometers north of Fox Valley and Rastadt. Other than the proximity, I haven’t found Barbara’s connection to Liebenthal. Her husband, who survived her, was still farming in Rastadt. Barbara might have had family in Liebenthal, but her children had largely moved to larger places like Regina, Saskatchewan and Medicine Hat, Alberta.

The larger mystery for some time was where Barbara was buried. When I first started investigating this in the late 1990s, the sources available to me had her interred at either the Fox Valley Cemetery or the Rastadt Cemetery. After further investigation, and a trip to Fox Valley and Rastadt in 1997, I determined that she must be buried at the Fox Valley Cemetery.

While there is no marker for her at Fox Valley, the cemetery records show that she is buried in plot as W23-2, which is right beside where her husband, Michael, is buried (plot W23-3). As well, other close Lerner family members are buried in Fox Valley Cemetery, including their son Jerome Lerner (plot W13-1).

On the contrary, there are no other Lerners buried in the Rastadt cemetery. As well, there appears to be inconsistency in the plot in which she is supposedly interred in Rastadt. An older listing from 1997 indicated plot 61; in 2004, it was said to be plot 70. This inconsistency casts doubt on the possibility Barbara is interred at Rastadt. In any event, the Fox Valley Cemetery records far outweigh the secondary sources for Rastadt Cemetery.

Fixed it!

52W Mark IV – Week 41: Card L2 Michael Lerner

Michael Lerner (1862-1947)

My Michael (“Mike”) Lerner, my Great Great Grandfather, his wife Barbara Schmidt, and their family were the first of my Germans from Russia ancestors to leave the German colonies in the Russian Empire for North America. He spent about a third of his life in Russia, a third in Texas, and a third in Canada, and was a citizen of all three.

Mike was born on May 2, 1862 in Rastadt, a German colony in the Beresan district of what is now Ukraine, which at the time was part of the Russian Empire. Mike’s paternal line originated in the Karlsruhe area of Baden. In fact, the capital of Baden at the time the Lerners left for Russia was Rastadt.

I don’t know much about Mike’s life in Russia, particularly his childhood. He married Barbara Schmidt in February 1883. Nine months later, they had their first of 14 children. Until the family emigrated in 1893, Mike was a farmer in Rastadt. He may have actually owned his land, as a map of Rastadt in Joseph Height’s book Paradise on the Steppe shows several pieces of land which belonged to individuals with the surname Lerner.

The family departed Bremen aboard the S.S. Lahn in the spring of 1893. By that time, they had six children. Four of those children were aged five and under (the listed age for Joseph is likely incorrect), with the youngest, Rochus, being about five months old at the time. The ship landed at Ellis Island on May 12, 1893. From there, the family made their way to Clay County, Texas, arriving there by June 1893.

A year later, on June 18, 1894, at the Clay County District Court, Mike made a Declaration of Intention to become an American citizen. However, it seems that he was in no hurry to follow through. Mike did not take any further steps towards citizenship until January 29, 1907, when he filed a new Declaration of Intention. Soon after, on May 23, 1907, Mike took an Oath of Allegiance and became an American citizen.

Also shortly after arriving in Clay county, and no later than 1894, Mike had established himself as a farmer. By 1910, Michael owned his farm, free of any mortgage, on Jacksonboro Road. In that time, he and Barbara had eight more children.

In 1912, Mike’s son Joseph had migrated to Maple Creek, Saskatchewan. Sons Rochus and Jerome (my Great Grandfather) followed suit, in 1913 and 1917, respectively. In 1918, Mike made the move to Canada and began farming outside Fox Valley, Saskatchewan. He continued farming there well into his 60s. When Mike became a Canadian citizen on December 5, 1929 when he was 67, he was still farming.

In fact, Mike was still farming into his 80s. After his son Jerome (my Great Grandfather) separated from his wife Emelia (my Great Grandmother), he moved in with Mike. Sometime around 1944, Jerome’s daughter, Adeline Lerner, came to live with Mike and her grandfather. Mike was a widower by then, as Barbara passed away in 1936. According to Adeline, her grandfather was still running the farm at the time. Adeline told me that her grandfather generally spoke German, but could speak English as well.

Mike died in Fox Valley on January 16, 1947. He is buried at the Fox Valley Cemetery, next to Barbara.

Calgary Herald, February 9, 1981, page 45
  • “Baden in the early 19th Century” image attribution: Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic license via Wikimedia Commons. Author: ziegelbrenner.