Tag: Lerner

52 Weeks Mark III – Week 11: Achievement

March is Women’s History Month and March 8 was International Women’s Day. From the International Women’s Day website:

Celebrate women’s achievement. Raise awareness about discrimination. Take action to drive gender parity.

My mother’s aunt, Adeline (“Addie”) Lerner (1930-2023) was a strong advocate for women’s rights during her lifetime, starting in the early 1970s. She was a founding member of one of the first women’s groups in Lethbridge, Alberta, which opened up a women’s centre. Addie also participated in establishing one of the first daycare centres in Lethbridge. She was also a member of the Alberta Status of Women Action Committee – Lethbridge Branch and served on the provincial board as a regional representative in 1989-90.

Adeline Lerner 1930-2023

Sometime around 2017, the Alberta Labour History Institute conducted a series of “Interviews Relating to Women and Work in Alberta”. This was part of the ALHI’s “Moving Forward” project. Its goal was:

“…to record and recognize the important work carried out by women throughout Alberta’s history, and to honour the achievements of women in various areas of work and the labour movement. The project involves the gathering and recording of the stories of and about women and work, and making this history available to the public.”

The ALHI interviewed a number of women as part of the Moving Forward project. My Aunt Addie was one of them.

YouTube video of the ALHI interview of my great aunt, Addie Miron (née Lerner). A transcript is available on the ALHI website.

Addie noticed the inequities as a child:

I can remember one time when I was a little girl, my mother did let me run around all over the place, I was free that way. Some relatives came to visit. They came in a buggy and horse, and they had three rowdy boys with them. When they drove up I had a rim of a wagon wheel and I was running around pushing it with a stick. The lady said to my mother, isn’t she a little old to be running around like that with that wheel? Suddenly I felt like I was doing something wrong, but I never would’ve though of that. I guess she was referring to me being a girl and here I am running around like a tomboy. She herself was also indoctrinated to think that way. I don’t think people tried to make you feel bad, it’s just the way they thought.

Adeline Miron

One of Addie’s foundational steps in her participation in the women’s movement was when she took a course called “What is a Woman?” through the University of Lethbridge:

I’m going to find out what is a woman, and I took the course at the university. I don’t think I realized what it was going to be all about, but it was nice to take the course and have these experiences with all these other young women and the odd man in there who was resentful… We’d try and argue some of these things we talked about when we were being put down and the ways we were being treated in society. Some of these people could not see that. But most of the women who took the course took it for the same reason I did. They wanted to know more about why they feel repressed and what they could do about it.

Adeline Miron

Soon afterwards, Addie and some friends decided to start a women’s movement in Lethbridge. In the early days, there were about 35 to 75 women involved.

We decided to start a women’s movement in Lethbridge. We applied for a grant the fall of ’73. We received our grant in ’74 and we opened up a women’s center. I think we used to meet at each other’s houses for a while. There was a building downtown where the birth control center was, that was a new place too, and we rented a couple of rooms in there. It was nice when we got a house all to ourselves. We became quite active, even before we had a place all to ourselves, we gave courses at the library on things to do with women, like women in male oriented jobs, women in female oriented jobs, women in health, and so on.

Adeline Miron

One of the important issues at the time (as now) was childcare.

We lobbied city council. They didn’t seem to fall for it to begin with but eventually we talked them into allowing us to open up a public daycare in Lethbridge. After awhile I worked there for about five years. Some of us that were lobbying were also running the daycare and helping with the children. The children were between two and
six. We also had a kindergarten.

Adeline Miron

Addie worked at the childcare centre from 1980 to 1985. Among other things, she worked with toddlers aged 19 months to three years old, and sometimes cared for children with disabilities.

I think Aunt Addie believed her work and the women she worked with made a positive change. However, there was still a lot of work to be done:

There needs to be a lot of improvement but things have really become better. There’s still room for a lot of improvement, don’t you think so? There’s an attitude that hasn’t gone away completely anywhere – it’s still a male oriented society, more or less.

Adeline Miron

Aunt Addie remained active into her 80s. After her husband Ross passed in 2009, Aunt Addie continued to live on her own in the same house until a few years ago. Sadly, in her last days, it was necessary for her to move into a care home. She passed away last summer, at age 92.

Ross Miron and Addie Lerner

I was fortunate to know Aunt Addie quite well and always made a point of visiting her when I visited Lethbridge. I also had the wisdom to – or dumb luck to think about it -interview her about her life. During one visit about 10 years ago she told me a story about going to her grandmother’s every day after school. It dawned on me that she was talking about someone born in the 1860s. I made a point of asking to visit her again a few days later to interview her. I managed to ask all sorts of questions I should have asked her years ago!

Me with Aunt Adeline

Aunt Addie’s advocacy and work definitely contributed to the achievement of women that we celebrate every International Women’s Day!

52 Weeks Mark III – Week 7: Immigration

My mother’s maternal line are all Germans from Russia. The Russian Empire expanded significantly during the 18ths century. When Catherine the Great came to power in 1763, she encourage immigration, partly to re-establish farming in regions that had laid fallow during periods of warfare, modernize the country, and to populate regions the Empire had absorbed.

Catherine the Great

Catherine’s manifesto inviting settlers bears some resemblance the homestead schemes introduced in the United States and Canada over a century later.

Among other things, she promised land, free transportation to Russia, and economic incentives (including freedom from taxes for a period of time and interest-free loans for the purchase of equipment). As well, settlers were promised that they could freely practice their religion, retain their language, and be free from military service. The settlers were also promised a degree of self-government.

While settlers came from several places in Europe, a majority were Germans. At the time, there was no “Germany”. Rather, the region was primarily composed of a multitude of principalities, dutchies, and other small states. While Catherine’s promises provided a significant pull, economic and political conditions in the German states provided a significant push.

Germany in 1789

The first wave of settlers formed colonies in the Volga region (“Volga Germans”). The next wave occurred after Catherine’s grandson, Alexander I, issued a similar manifesto with many of the same promises. My ancestors were part of this wave of settlers, who formed colonies in what is now southern Ukraine, particularly in the area north of Odessa (“Black Sea Germans”).

The German colonies in the Beresan district in 1890, as seen in relation to Odessa. All four of my maternal grandmother’s grandparents came from Rastadt and Karlsruhe, located in the upper right-hand corner.

The German colonies were usually composed of members of the same religion. The main colonies were Catholic, Lutheran, and Mennonite. These colonies thrived for decades. However, in 1871, Czar Alexander II repealed the manifestos of Catherine and Alexander I. The German colonists lost many of their privileges. Shortly afterwards, they lost their exemption from military service. The next Czar, Alexander III, took further steps to incorporate the German population into general Russian society, which included discouraging the German language and encroaching on the school system established by the colonists.

Needless to say, this immediately sparked waves of emigration of the German colonists, many of whose families had been in Imperial Russia for decades. Many of these Germans left for the United States and Canada, relocating to the plains stretching from Texas to Saskatchewan. Other colonists left for Argentina and Brazil.

My grandmother’s paternal line originally settled in Texas, starting with my great great grandparents, Michael Lerner and Barbara Schmidt and their six children. They came over in 1893 on the S.S. Lahn, which landed at Ellis Island – less than 18 months after it had opened. Michael and Barbara had six more children after settling in Texas, the first of whom was my great grandfather, Heronimus “Jerome” Lerner. Over time, many of their children relocated to Saskatchewan, including Jerome. Michael and Barbara ultimately made the same move themselves, leaving behind several of their adult children.

My grandmother’s maternal grandparents,  Jacob Anton and Margaretha “Margaret” Heck, came directly to Canada in 1912 with all their children and settled in Saskatchewan. This included my great grandmother, Emelia Anton, who was nine years old at the time. She lived to be 94 and I knew her well.

The Anton family, circa 1910. Likely taken in Selo Suchoi, Veronesch, Russia. My great grandmother, Emelia, is the little girl standing at the edge of the right side of the photo.

Emelia had not had much schooling before coming to North America, but was very religious. She said that she was frightened and nervous during the journey, as she did not know anything about where she was going and did not fully understand what was going on. However, on reaching New York, she said her fears subsided when she saw “the Madonna”. When she saw that, she knew she would be safe and all would be well. Of course, the “Madonna” was the Statue of Liberty. As she had never heard of it before, she thought it was a statue of the Virgin Mary.

There are many well-known descendants of the Germans from Russia. They include Lawrence Welk, who married my grandmother’s fourth cousin. While I am generally disinterested in celebrity, I was excited to learn that Hayley Wickenheiser is a descendant of Germans from Russia. Her great grandparents lived in Rastadt, where Mike and Barbara had lived before emigrating. However, her family was there decades after mine left, as the did not leave until they fled Stalin’s regime.

52W Mark II – Week 49: Family Recipe

Years ago on The Great Canadian Baking Show, one of the contestants said that she was using her *great* grandmother’s recipe. I have all sorts of recipes from my grandmothers (and copious notes on the recipes they didn’t write down that I’ve spent years trying to recreate). However, it never crossed my mind to think about my great grandmothers’ cooking. So the episode inspired me to ask my mother and mother-in-law if they had any of their grandmothers’ recipes.

My mother-in-law responded first and provided me with her maternal grandmother’s recipe for brown bread. I’m happy to have it, but I doubt I’ll ever make it. It not only calls for nine cups of flour, it also requires two cups of rolled oats. I know that nine cups of flour isn’t outlandish for two loaves of bread, but adding in all those oats, it strikes me as a lot. However, the real impediment is that while I love to cook, I do not enjoy baking – despite the fact I am a pretty good baker. Nevertheless, I am thrilled to have a recipe that our kids can say was their great great grandmothers! (In fact, writing that last sentence has me thinking that maybe I should make this recipe…)

My mother responded by saying that she didn’t think she had any. She reminded me that her maternal grandmother was not a very good cook. The one exception was that her grandmother made fantastic raisin drop cookies, which all the grandchildren loved. My mother doesn’t have the recipe, which is fine by me. The only thing more boring than raisin cookies is oatmeal cookies.

As for my grandmothers, I’ve written about their cooking in some detail before, but I can add a bit of an update.

This past summer we participated in a 16-week Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program through a local Richmond farm, Sweet Digz Farm. Overall, we had a very positive experience. What became apparent very early on was that a lot of the produce we were receiving lent itself to a lot of Dutch dishes. In particular, we had a lot of potatoes and kale, the key components of boerenkool stamppot (the Dutch were eating kale decades before it was cool and trendy in North America). My paternal grandmother often made stamppot, and it was awful. I knew I could do better.

My youngest and I went to a local butcher in Steveston Village and he selected the sausage for the recipe. (Sometime I will have to write about the Steeves family of New Brunswick, after whom the west coast village is named. My kids are Steeves descendants.) I also was a bit non-traditional with my stamppot. While there are no hard and fast rules, stamppot is usually potatoes and kale, while a combination of potatoes, onions, and carrots is hutspot. I was a rebel and not only used potatoes, carrots, and kale in the same dish, I used a few kohlrabi in place of a couple potatoes.

If I say so myself, it turned out amazing, and needless to say, much better than my grandmother’s. Not only that, but everyone in the family loved it and wanted seconds. While my family are generally not picky eaters, there are very few things that appeal to all of them. There’s always something I can tell someone is less than thrilled with. Even moreso with the Dutch foods I make – there’s always one who loves it and one for whom the dish is not for them. Pity, because in the winter months I really could go for some snert. A few days later I made shepherds pie (another universal favourite), but used leftover stamppot instead of the typcial mashed potatoes. Another win!

The biggest score, however, was during a visit to my mother’s a year ago. She distractedly removed an item from the back of a shelf and casually said, “oh, it’s my mother’s recipe book.” Yes, my head exploded. I had been asking her for years if she would find it for me sometime. I immediately absconded with it and photographed every page. The vast majority of the recipes were her desserts and sweet dishes but very few of her savoury dishes. However, a few of the savoury dishes seemed familiar – they were things my mother made, but in a whole different way. I could see how my mother adapted and changed her mother’s recipes over time – just as I do with my mother’s recipes!

My maternal grandmother’s recipe book.

My grandmother also wrote down a few non-culinary recipes, such as this Recipe to Unshrink Woolens:

There were also a lot of clippings of recipes from magazines and product packaging. This was an advertisement on the reverse side of a recipe my grandmother clipped from a magazine in the 1970s:

I suspect those scientists – and their successors – remained frightened, and rightfully so.

The 1931 Canadian Census is Out!

Last week, on June 1, 2023, the Library and Archives Canada released the 1931 Canadian census. The site was overwhelmed at first, but now it seems to be operating without any problems. As of now, the LAC only has the raw images, in that they are not indexed. You can search the images by Province, District, and Sub-District. Fortunately, I knew where to look for many of my ancestors and found them without any problem.

The Library and Archives Canada page for the 1931 Canadian Census on June 1, 2023

Yesterday, Ancestry Canada went live with a searchable indexed version of the 1931 census. It enabled me to find some of my more elusive family members, particularly some of those in urban areas for whose sub-districts I could not quite identify.

Both the LAC and Ancestry.ca allow you to download census records in jpg format. The LAC also allows you to download entire sub-district files in pdf format. What I’ve done is download both versions. For the pdf version, I’ve used the “print to pdf” function to create a file for the single page I am interested in.

I save the single page with my family members with a unique file name, using the system I established for myself many years ago.

The LAC website seems to be better set up for those who are searching in French, looking for francophone ancestors. For now, Ancestry recommends searching first in English and then again in French if the initial search was unsuccessful.

So far, the biggest surprise was learning that my great aunt (who’s still alive) is a year older than I thought she was. The census was taken on June 1, 1931. Everything I had so far indicated that my aunt was born in October 1931, which was after the census was taken, so she shouldn’t have been there. However, the entry for my great grandparent’s family includes my great aunt, saying that she was 8 months old at the time. This means she would have been born in October 1930.

My mother’s maternal grandparents, and her mother Helen. My great grandparents separated later in life. I don’t have an exact date, but the fact they’re still together here is consistent with my theory that they separated around 1937. I guess I’ll have more evidence in 5 years, when the 1936 prairie census come out, and more in 10 years, when the 1941 census comes out.

This is the second census in which my maternal grandfather, Leo Burgess, appears. I see the enumerator was much more careful than his predecessor who prepared his entry for the 1921 census, which for some bizarre reason stated my grandfather was Dutch. Wrong grandfather.

This census includes my grandfather and all his siblings, other than his youngest brother Ralph, who was born in 1935. His youngest sister, Fon, (seen here as Hazel Fontella), was an avid genealogist. She missed being able to see herself her by 18 months.

One of the most interesting things about the 1931 census was that it asked whether the household owned a radio. It was no surprise to me that neither of my grandparents’ families owned a radio. However, I was surprised to see that another member of the extended family, who was very successful and well-off, did not. My suspicion was that he was not interested in such new-fangled things like radios.