Welcome to my penultimate, and probably shortest, entry for the 2025 52 Ancestors Challenge.
Philip Heck, my Great x3 Grandfather, was of German origin who lived in one of the German colonies in the Beresan district of Ukraine, Russian Empire, possibly Karlsruhe colony. Philip married Mary Geiss sometime before 1868. They had at least one child, my Great x3 Grandmother, Margaret Heck.
Das ist alles.
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.
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.
This week’s 52 Ancestors Challenge prompt is not just funny, but apparently very funny!
My mother shares a birthday – April Fools’ Day! – with her mother’s maternal grandmother, Margaretha (“Margaret”) Heck. In fact, my grandmother gave my mother Margaret as a middle name in honour of her grandmother.
My grandfather always called my mother “Maggie”, which of course is a derivative of her middle name. When I asked my mother why he preferred to do so, she said that her mother had wanted to give her Margaret as her first name, since my mother shared a birthday with her great grandmother. However, her father objected because people would call her Maggie, so my grandmother agreed to give my mother Margaret as her middle name.
My mother’s parents, Leo Burgess and Helen Lerner. Margaret Heck was Helen’s maternal grandmother.
When my mother’s parents brought her home, her paternal grandfather was there and said, “there’s Maggie!” Since that time, Lorraine’s father and grandfather called her Maggie. Later, the immediate family and some of her cousins came to call her Maggie.
Of course, my mother was often teased by being called an April Fool because of her birthday. When we were kids, the tradition was that the time for pranking ends at 12 noon. My mother was adamant that she wasn’t an April Fool because she was born in the afternoon.
Once we were at my grandparents on April Fools’ Day and everyone was giving my mother grief about being an April Fool. My mother repeated her defense that she was born in the afternoon. My grandmother interjected and called out from the other room, “no you weren’t, you were born in the morning!”
Grandmothers: always siding with their grandchildren. Very funny!
Twelve weeks of genealogy, my true love gave to me: the theme “Joined Together” for the 52 Ancestors Challenge. Rather than a lot of discussion, I thought this week I’d post photos of some of the couples whose unions ultimately resulted in…me!
While I have photos of other (great) grandparents, I will only post for those of whom I have the pair. First, my maternal great great great grandparents.
Next, for my great great grandparents on my father’s side, I only have photos for one pair. These are my grandfather’s grandparents.
I have photos of all my maternal great great grandparents.
On to my great grandparents. I have photos for all of them.
| Theresia “Teetje” Pater (1894 – 1947) Johannis Albertus van der Fluit (1894 – 1932) | Adrianus Komen (1888 – 1948) Elizabeth Bakker (1888 – 1976) |
| Milton Leo Burgess (1891 – 1964) Hazel Nelson (1899 – 1967) | Heronimus “Jerome” Lerner (1895 – 1954) Emelia Anton (1903 – 1997) |
My paternal grandparents.
“Trouwboekje” means “marriage booklet” in Dutch. In the Netherlands, only a civil marriage is legally valid. A church ceremony can take place afterward, but is not recognized by the state. The registry office would issue one to a couple at they time they were married. They typically include an extract of the marriage registration. While they can vary from one municipality to another, a trouwboekje usually will include space for the birth information of the couple, as well as for the children of the marriage. They can also include information about religious matters, such as information about the church wedding and baptisms of the couple and their children.
My maternal grandparents.
| Leo Cleveland Burgess (1920- 1995) Helen Lerner (1921 – 1984) October 1971 | Helen and Leo around 1947. |
My parents. Married crazy young by current standards and still together, modelling what a great marriage should be.
And then there’s mine.
A Deck of Ancestors 