Remembering a Victim of Communism

I never knew my great-grandmother.

She was born October 26, 1873 in the Volga German village of Semenovka.

She will go to work for the Dieser family, in the village of Josefstal, as a maid, and then marry one of their sons, Johannes Dieser, on Novermber 8, 1894.

They will have 9 children.  One of these children, Elisabeth, born August 19, 1902, will marry Paul Gerk on September 15, 1920.

My grandparents, Paul and Elisabeth, will live through the Russian Revolution and subsequent civil war.

They will experience life under a Communist goverment.  Because of the Red Terror and the first famine along the Volga, Paul will escape Russia and flee to Canada as a refugee.  Paul will bring my grandmother out to Canada in 1925.

The plan was always to get the rest of the family out as well.

But the Iron Curtain will slam shut.

There will be letters.

The families will try desperately to keep in touch.

 Then, in 1933, a letter will arrive, written by my great-grandmother.  It will say in part:

Dear children, conditions are difficult here with respect to food. Times are tough dear children. Yes dear children we are having a hard time getting food.  Some people have had money sent to them. For one coin (taler) one pound of flour can be bought in Kamyshin.  If you could come to my aid could you send me 5 (taler) which would give us five pounds of flour.  Perhaps then I wouldn't starve to death, dear children.  Again I ask if you can help me so that I don't have to starve.  Now I will close this letter and greet you again and ask you to write quickly.

The letter was dated January 5, 1933.

My grandparents sent as much money as they could afford.  It would never arrive.  It would be stolen by Soviet postal officials.

On August 2, 1933, my great-grandmother, Marie Eva Dieser, will die from starvation.

A victim of the forced famine along the Volga and in the Ukraine.

There will be no acknowledgment of her death. My family will not discover her death until 1984...51 years after the fact.

When I traveled to Russia and spoke with archival officials, trying to track down her death record, I was told that even if I found it, it would probably only state that she died from "stomach disease". In the 1930's...as famine raged along the Volga....telling the truth...even on documentation of a death...would get you shot.

Such was life under Communism.

And so our family remembers our great-grandmother.  A kind and loving Mother and Grandmother.  We never got to know her....we knew only of the kindness and gentleness of her daughter, our grandmother.

Prayer for 2017

Christmas Memories

Time, once again, the ring in the Christmas season with a collection of movies.

For a lot of families, some of these movies are a major tradition in their families.

On the weekend, I watched one such movie with one of my sons.  "The Gathering" is a made-for-TV movie from 1977.  I was 17 years old when I watched it with my Mom & Dad.

I remember the movie well.  A Dad with terminal cancer seeks to reconcile with his estranged family one last time.

All at Christmas.

The movie demonstrates the power of family and forgiveness.

Some of these just bring me a step closer to my parents, because I know I watched it with them, and so it brings up fond memories.

Good memories.

35th Anniversary Adventure...

We are off on our 35th Anniversary Adventure.  More to come.

Camping.....

One of our best memories deals with camping.

Our family loved to camp...we headed out, year after year, to Ellison Provincial Park, near Vernon.

In the early years we purchased a 10-man tent, in order to fit everyone.  Usually camping in July, we were often rained out.  Tenting is great...but after 2 or 3 days of rain....despite protection of tarps, we all managed to get soaked. 

But the kids loved it, and despite all the work, we all had a great time.

We still camp...although our equipment now includes a tent-trailer, which means we don't much mind if it rains...we manage to keep dry.

This year we tried an experiment.  As our family living at home shrinks, we decided this year to still camp, but just set up and invite the kids and grandkids to come and visit.  It worked ok for a couple days, but the reality of life set in.

Work schedules for everyone are difficult to change...and manage.  By the end of the week, we found ourselves alone. We had a great few days though.

And lots of memories. We love our kids, and it was always our way of spending some great time together, making those memories.

I miss those days.

Ralph Hale and the Blakeburn Mining Disaster of 1930

It's a great thing, in our digital age, to have access to so much information.  Some wise folks in Merritt, BC, decided it was time to digitize old newspaper archives.  It created a gold mine of stories, documented history, and a dream come true for researchers of that area.

Take, for example, this Merritt Herald story of August 15, 1930, documenting the mining disaster at Blakeburn, BC....46 men perished in a coal-mine explosion.

One of the men who perished in the explosion was Ralph Hale.  He is listed above as one of the "entombed" men, whose body was not yet recovered.

Later on we see a obituary listing for Ralph, this taken from the Merritt Herald of August 29, 1930, showing leadership and bravery in trying to save his fellow workers.

Mrs. Ralph Hale would go on to place two "memorial" inserts in the newspaper, remembering her husband's untimely death:

(Merritt Herald, August 7, 1931)

and this: 

(Merritt Herald, August 12, 1932)

Here is Ralph Hale's grave in Merritt cemetery.....

And what happened to Mrs. Ralph Hale?

Mrs. Ralph Hale was originally Elizabeth Isabelle Martell (1894 - 1970).  She will re-marry on October 21, 1933...to Thomas William (Bill) Skelton (1899 - 1984) ...another one of the miners of the area.  They will adopt 2 children, William Roy Skelton and Margaret Ann Skelton.

Margaret Ann Skelton is my Mother....born in 1934.

Social Media Status Updates...in 1929

Browsing through old newspapers can be fun.  Especially if your family are mentioned.

I was thinking about our societies "status update" obsession.  That is, our use of social media to tell everyone what we are doing, where we are going...and who we are with.

Today it is instantaneous.  Yesterday, maybe not so much.

This clip from the Merritt Herald, May 17, 1929, is a common page in most newspapers of the day...showing the comings and goings....the day to day life, of those who live in the area.  In fact, you had to contact the newspaper writer who was in charge of that section of the paper to let them know!

If you compare it with today's social media updates, not much has changed.  We want people to be interested in what we are doing...so we tell the world.

Twitter and Facebook were not around in 1919, 1929, but our status updates were!

Even this clip from the Merritt Herald Sept 12, 1919, documents the same "social media".

Our family....leaving Russia in 1877?

Research in Russia can be amazing....you never know what little tidbits and gems you will stumble across.

Some years ago I was alerted to a copy of a document from 1877 suggesting that my great-great grandfather, Johannes Gerk, had applied for a Russian passport.

I've finally been able to get scans of the official application, dated 1877, and it indeed shows he applied for and was issued a Russian passport.

I have no way of knowing if he and his family actually left Russia, and then returned at a later date.

I do know that his 2 sons, Johann Georg Gerk and Johann Georg Gerk will indeed leave Russia.  The eldest Georg Gerk will leave Russia and settle in Argentina.  The youngest, my great-grandfather, will leave Russia during the Russo-Japanese war, travel to Argentina, but then return to Russia, where he will die in 1924.

It's a fascinating history, at least for my family.

The application states that Johannes Gerk is age 50, his wife Katarina is 50, son Johann Georg is 23, wife Margareta is 23, daughter Anna Maria is 2 and son Johann Georg (my great-grandfather) is 8.

A page from the passport that was issued, No.153

(These documents were obtained from GASO, State Archive of Saratov Province)

And, of course, showing that Johannes Georg Gerk was in Russia later on, here is his death record,  stating that he died in Josefstal on 27th July 1886, at the age of 59. Listed as his survivor is his wife, Katarina, and son, Joh. Georg, age 18. (my great-grandfather).

Steeped in its burning layers

Bridge of Spies

 Once in awhile there is presented a story that is fascinating for a whole host of reasons.

Bridge of Spies is one such story.  Based on the book, "Strangers on a Bridge", the book is the story of a Soviet Spy who is caught during the height of the Cold War.

I always look for themes and lessons to be learned or applied in the movies I watch....and this movie had lots.

The history also fascinates me....the "kinder and gentler" way life was in the 1950's and 1960's.

At least, compared to today.

In my collection of postal stamps from the former USSR, I even have a commemorative stamp honouring Rudolf Abel, the main character in the book and movie.  A tacit admission by the Soviets that Abel was indeed who he was thought to be.

Anyways, principals such as standing for what you believe in, treating those who you disagree with with respect and dignity....and of course, the spy world in all its glory.

Such is the story told here.

The book is also a fascinating read, with even more links to other stories...but that is for another post.

R.I. Abel.  1903-1990 Postage stamp Issued in 1990 in the USSR

Bridge of Spies movie poster for Russia

Dear God....

“Dear God,
I am so afraid to open my clenched fists!
Who will I be when I have nothing left to hold on to?
Who will I be when I stand before you with empty hands?
Please help me to gradually open my hands
and to discover that I am not what I own,
but what you want to give me.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, The Only Necessary Thing: Living a Prayerful Life

My Prayer for 2016

I am no longer my own, but yours.
Put me to what you will, place me with whom you will.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be put to work for you or set aside for you,
praised for you or criticized for you.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and fully surrender all things to your hope and service.
And now, O glorious and blessed God, Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer,
you are mine, and I am yours.
So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
let it be made also in heaven.
Amen.

-John Wesley

A Soviet New Year

For many Russians, New Years is a bigger holiday than Christmas. In the 1980's and 90's, just after we re-established contact with our family in Russia, Johannes Gerk, youngest brother of my grandfather, would send us New Years cards from the USSR. These are scans of these cards sent to our family.

23 Years.....November 27, 1992

How can 23 years go by? Like a mist....a flash of light...it seems like only yesterday my Dad was here...and I still miss him. "So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." -2 Corinthians 4:18

Old Kelowna in pictures

There is a great Facebook group called Old Kelowna that keeps posting old pictures of our city.  It's a great page that keeps delighting all of us with our own history.

Sir Thomas More on Marriage: A Man for All Seasons - Trial (3 of 3)

90 Years ago....An Amazing lady arrives in Quebec...

Granny Gerk, 1980

I write these words as I sit across the street from the Gare du Palais, or Palace Station which is the Quebec City train station.

When I booked our Quebec trip, the link that our family has to Quebec City was just a blur in the back of my mind.

The week before we left, I checked my grandmother's old Russian passport.  Sure enough, it is stamped Port of Quebec, October 16, 1925.

90 years ago.

The significance is not lost on me.

Here I am, looking out my window at the place of my grandmother's arrival in Canada.  Looking at the exact location she boarded a train and headed out to meet her husband Paul, my grandfather, in Saskatchewan.

Gare du Palais, circa 1915

"Québec, Gare du Palais1" by I, Bouchecl. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Gare du Palais, August 2015

Gare du Palais, August 2015

As I ask some questions, it also becomes clear that the Quebec City Immigration Hall, where her ship docked and where she would have been "processed" in the Immigration Hall, is just down the street.

Passenger list showing Elizabeth Gerk's arrival at the Port of Quebec

Immigration Hall, Louise Embankment, Port of Quebec,
Credit: Library and Archives Canada, a020858

Immigration Hall, Louise Embankment, Port of Quebec, 1914
Credit: Library and Archives Canada, a021672

What happened to the buildings?  Some research shows that:

"While the Quarantine Station at Grosse Isle is being preserved by Parks Canada, unfortunately, nothing remains of the large immigration facilities at the Louise Basin in Quebec City. The basin is now a marina for pleasure craft."
"Québec City–The Forgotten Port of Entry" By Robert Vineberg, Canadian Immigration Historical Society, CIHS Newsletter, Issue 59, September 2010

Louise Embankment, Port of Quebec, August 2015

Louise Embankment, Port of Quebec, August 2015

My grandmother, 23 at the time, was a shy, introverted lady who had to have been one of the most courageous people I have known.

For her to travel, by herself, thousands of miles, in order to join her husband was amazing!

And I ponder this while I walk in the places she must have walked.

And I am thankful.

Our family calls Canada our home thanks to the bravery of these two young people, Paul & Elizabeth.

Paul & Elizabeth Gerk, October 1925, upon Elizabeth's arrival in Holdfast, SK to the Ehman family farm.

For further information on immigrants to the Port of Quebec, see:  Québec City – The Forgotten Port of Entry

The future.....

You are a member of the first generation of doctors in the history of medicine to turn their backs on the oath of Hippocrates and kill millions of old useless people, unborn children, born malformed children, for the good of mankind —and to do so without a single murmur from one of you. Not a single letter of protest in the august New England Journal of Medicine. And do you know what you’re going to end up doing? You a graduate of Harvard and a reader of the New York Times and a member of the Ford Foundation’s Program for the Third World? Do you know what is going to happen to you? . . . You’re going to end up killing Jews.

                                            —Walker Percy, The Thanatos Syndrome

To Ponder.....

Settle this in your heart. Life is a gift from God. He owes it to none. He may take it at any age, any time, and do no wrong.
                                                                                                    -John Piper

Remembering a good friend

Life as a family historian can be lonely.

You spend hours and hours over years, with little to show....but when you find something it's big.  You want to tell someone.

My Dad was always interested...and it was great showing what I found and who I found.

But I was to be blessed with a cousin who was just like me.

Alexander-Josef Dreser was born in Russia in 1957.  He was the grandson of Alois and Katharina (Dieser) Heinrich.Which means his grandmother and my grandmother were sisters.

Through the years we established a great friendship...sharing old records...stories...contacts.

Both of us were able to compile and sort through some major archival records and put together a book on the history of our families village, Josefstal.

Alex was able to travel to Canada to visit and in 2007, Marina and I were able to visit him, his wife Lora and son Eduard.

Alex died on July 7, 2015 at the age of 57.

He was a good and kind friend....and I shall miss him in many ways.  Mostly having someone to share my historical passion in documenting the life and people of our little village on the Volga.

I will really miss him.