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.
A Deck of Ancestors 