Encounter at the Well

Our trip to Ukraine in July 2007 was both a personal and family pilgrimage. When we asked our grown children if they wanted to join us we were thrilled to hear a positive response from all four of them. In the end however, Brian and Lori decided that travelling with a one-year child to Eastern Europe was not a good idea. We respected their decision and made plans to travel with Rob and Sonja. It was an added bonus when my brother Rick and his wife Marjorie decided to join us as well as Ted’s sister Chris. Then Gordon and Carolyne Epp-Fransen along with Jesse and Dianna also decided that the time was right for a trip to their ancestral villages.

There were many reasons for embarking on this journey. One that stood out for me was related to a story my Oma Block had told at a family reunion at Camp Moose Lake (Manitoba) the summer of 1980, four months before she died. At an evening campfire that warm summer day Oma asked the family to gather around. She wanted to share a story with us that she had kept secret for over 60 years. We were quickly drawn to her old frail body sitting by the fire. What she told us rocked us as a family. There wasn’t a dry eye in the dining hall.

During the Russian Revolution the Machno bandits were raiding Mennonite villages causing untold harm to people and property. One night they came into Oma and Opa Block’s village, Neu-Chortitza. Oma was pregnant with their first child. Opa was not home. A bandit approached Oma and in spite of her condition assaulted her physically and sexually. Oma was distraught. After the bandits fled, Oma dragged herself outside to the well in their back yard. Her mind was filled with grief and shame. She thought that Opa would not understand her helpless state and possibly blame her for the rape. She decided that life wasn’t worth living. She determined to throw herself into the well and end her grief and shame. As she lay by the well quivering and weeping, she heard the footsteps of someone approaching. She was seized with fear, but then completely relaxed when she heard the familiar voice of her Aeltester, a man she greatly admired. She had been discovered by her church Bishop, Rev. Jakob Rempel. They talked for a while. He assured her that Julius (Opa) would have only thoughts of love and support. Her feelings of shame were misplaced, he said. There was nothing to forgive. The future was with Julius and not at the bottom of the well. Through that encounter at the well, Oma Block chose life. She later lost the baby she was carrying, but a year or so later my father was born and by 1926 they had migrated to Manitoba. The fireside story left the family stunned.

Nearly 60 years after the rape, Oma Block was visiting my family in Campden, Ontario while I was in high school. She had an opportunity to meet Ted. She could not get over how much Ted resembled his grandfather. She told me later that fall (1976) that she was so pleased that my relationship with Ted was blossoming. After all these years she felt she had a way of repaying Jakob Rempel for his great kindness. I didn’t really understand her rather cryptic comment. She waited four years to tell me and the rest of the family what she really meant. He had given her new hope at the well and the fact that nearly six decades later the grandchildren of those at the encounter were seemingly headed for a life together was giving Oma tremendous joy.

In July 2007 we went searching for the well. Rob and Sonja were the first to find the house, using the village plan that Viktor Penner (our tour guide extraordinaire) provided. We were ecstatic. Once Ted caught up to me at the house, we went to the back yard to find the well. Try to imagine the flood of emotions as we approached the well. How special it would have been to be able to go back to tell Oma that together with Jakob Rempel’s grandson I found her well of hope.

Sunflowers

One of the endearing and indelible images for me of the Ukraine trip is and will be the sunflowers. Fields and fields of sunflowers as far as one could see. They were beauty; they were hope. For me they connected the past to the future.

Ironically, when we came back home, some sunflower seeds I had tossed into the ground before we left had sprung up tall and strong. Soon their massive heads became more weight than their thick stalks could bear and now they bow their heads, seemingly more in shame than in reverence. There are only a few of them, among other flowers and plants. They don't point in any direction but down. They don't inspire me.

It is far past my bedtime and therefore likely not a good time for reflecting or posting, but I wanted to contribute, even if only a tiny sunflower seed's worth to this worthy task of staying connected and remembering the recent past (the trip this summer) as well as the past of more long ago.

School starts for me on Monday, but I hope, once we settle into a routine here, to find a little time to read the posts and post some more pictures. Blessings to all.

"Official" Fransen Treffen photo

I think this is the photo many of you have been waiting to see. All of us gathered at this beautiful spot and several photographers (members of the family) gathered on the balcony of the Erholungsheim to photo-shoot. Hence not all of the 170 that were present made it on the picture. If you don't like this version, Walter Flaming sent another five or so. We hope to receive Walter Fransen's pictures as well, and Angelika Fransen was also on the balcony taking lots of pictures, which will soon be available. Be sure to double click on the photo, so it will enlarge - then check who you can find. It's something like "Where is Waldo"?

Katharina (Fransen) Dueck clan photo

I am re-posting this photo of the Dueck family representatives that were at the Treffen, because this photo in the earlier posting did not consistently lend itself to enlargement. Wow, do I still have alot to learn!

Treffen Group - Funk/Wiebe

The photo here is of the descendants of Elisabeth Funk (1847-1919) and Dietrich Wiebe. Dietrich Wiebe was Elisabeth Funk's first husband before she married Klaas Fransen in 1875. At the time of his death, they had four children: Elizabeth, Heinrich, Anna, Maria who were all under five years old at the time of their father's death, and their mother's marriage to Klaas Fransen. They were henceforth raised by Klaas Fransen & Elisabeth Funk in Mariawohl, becoming siblings with the other children of Klaas & Elisabeth (Katharina, Nicholas, Jakob, Abraham & Franz). The Wiebe children were registered in the Mariawohl school records as Fransens.
In the photo are Lisa Martens born 1929, her nephew Wilhelm Martens and his son Andreas Martens. I remember meeting Lisa Martens in Kant, Kyrgyzstan in 1978.
Some other members of this ancestral line are: Louise Regier (wife of cousin Hank Andres) & their children, Liese Regier (wife of Abram Priess & their children, Mary (Wiebe) Friesen born 1913 of Leamington, Ontario & her children, such as Rita (Friesen) Krueger and Lydia (Friesen) Church.

Fransen Treffen Group Photos

Today I received a CD with photos of the Fransen Treffen from Walter Flaming of Germany, via Kelowna, BC. I can now post photos of the different ancestral lines as follows:

The first photo is of the descendants of Katharina (Fransen) Dueck (1877-1944). Red name-tags.

The second photo is of the descendants of Nicholas Fransen (1879-1922). Blue name-tags

The third photo is of the descendants of Jakob Fransen (1885-1941). Green name-tags.

The fourth photo is of the descendants of Abraham Fransen (1886-1934). Yellow name-tags.

Connecting a few people...Klassen sisters, Franz Goerz, Klaas Fransen

Franz Goertzen was the teacher in Fuerstenau in 1921-22. In 1922 he married my mother’s sister Mariechen. They are the parents of our Goertzen cousins in Ontario. The last teacher employed by the village of Fuerstenau in 1922-23 was Franz Goerz of Schoensee, (Wilma (Goerz) Turner’s grandfather), who the next year married my mother’s sister Susa (in a double wedding with the oldest sister Helena & Peter Sawatzky). This Franz Goerz (1892 - 1978) became the first deacon in the Vineland United Mennonite Church (Ontario, Canada) in 1927 and served in that capacity until 1938. Then the Goerz's moved to Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, where Franz Goerz became the first deacon in the Niagara United Mennonite Church and served in that capacity until 1961.

His great grandfather Franz Goerz (1820-1901) became a minister in Rudnerweide in 1850 and in 1861 he was ordained as the elder of the Rudnerweide Mennonite Church. In 1870's with the introduction of universal military service, he was sent to plead the Mennonite cause in St. Petersburg. He also served as the elder of the Gnadenfeld Mennonite Church for 5 years.

Our ancestor Klaas Fransen (1851 - 1922) would have been baptized during the time that Wilma’s great great great Grandfather was the Aeltester in his area, and it is very possible that he will have been baptized by Aeltester Franz Goerz.

Edith, that picture of Sharon, David and Jeff inside the Schoensee church, I think has got to be one of the best, if not the best to umbrella our Ukraine experience in our ancestral villages, in this case Schoensee. Perhaps a picture of the seven year old twins Hanah and Katie could match it. It should be seen side by side with an exterior one of the church in the days of its glory..

Consider for a moment - family, church, history.

This was a place where  David's grandparents were married; the church where Sharon's grandmother who was also your and my mother Tina Klassen Fransen was baptized and the church where Aeltester Alexander Ediger composed music, had his choir perform "The Messiah" and was a young theologian of note.

I wish someone could interpret the "green shoots" growing so beautifully inside the now decaying building.  A hint of something to come? Only God knows.

herb

Edith, thank you for those pictures at Schoensee church. 

That picture with Dave, Sharon and Jeff "inside" the Schoensee church is a beautiful picture of a sad sight today. The one with Barb, David and the bricks is a good one as well.

I want to encourage those of us who are Ludites, sort of, to continue to explore this new media and this particular Blog that Sandra has introduced to us. I say this to give me an opportunity to say, please do not forget to "double click" on the pictures and see a much better picture.

I am putting this up as a new post because I still have difficulty adding a "comment". At the risk of being guilty of a little bragging however I say that many years ago (1999) with all the frightening things we thought were going to happen as we entered the new century I determined to accomplish three things so that I could say that I did them in the last century. The three items were, buying a book on the computer from Amazon, checking out my groceries at a check out stand without the help of a clerk(actually I will admit that several times I did need to call a clerk) and buy some stocks on the Internet. So all of this just to encourage those of you who might be on the cusp of enjoying The Blog but still have some frustrations with it.

herb

Schoensee Mennonite Church 2009

This is a sad but striking sight to behold in Schoensee, Molotschna. It is the remains of the once-beautiful Schoensee Mennonite Church, without a roof. On the first photo are Fred Fransen, Herb Fransen and Olga (Intourist guide).


Note the detail in the front gable and the remains of the front entrance covered in growth, in the second photo.


The third and fourth photos are taken inside the church (what a contrast from the picture submitted by Wilma).


In the third photo, Sharon Fransen, David Fransen, and Jeff Landis find a spot to stand on the brick rubble amidst the growth that fills the church.

In the fourth photo, David & Barbara Fransen hold one of the roof tiles that can be found outside the building. The tiles were made in the brickyard owned by Toews and Enns in Fabrikerwiese, and have "Toews and Enns" on each tile. David's maternal Grandparents, Johann Wall & Susanna Schellenberg were married in this church on November 10, 1913.

Inside of Schoensee Mennonite Church 1909 - 1934

This photo has been submitted by our relative Wilma (Goerz) Turner of St Catharines, Ontario. Wilma has a history of Goerz relatives connected to this church.
Note the ceiling painted by an Italian and the chandelier from Italy.

Sandra & Kieran:

That Nadia is a keeper. Clearly inventive, ambitious.

Glad that she is a US citizen - clearly a great prospective taxpayer. We need all the help that we can get in this country.

The best to all of you.

herb

Nadia Walks

Walking from Kieran Del Pasqua on Vimeo.

Re-visiting Ukraine

In 1971 my father and I were flying over the Atlantic. The mission was two fold - to visit Mariawohl and to visit relatives whom my father had not seen in 46 years (1926). In those early years after 1926 contact had been lost but now in anticipation of this trip intense correspondence had been had between Vineland and Kant, Kirigisia, a Central Asian republic where some of the Fransens had settled after being "released " from Soviet captivity (Kazakhstan).

Our group on that trip in 1971 consisted of some forty Mennonite pilgrims who were basically a mixture of two generations- at least half of them had lived in the Soviet Union prior to the 1920s and had "vivid memories" of their past there and the other half were descendants of these travelers. There were at least three father/son combinations. In addition to my father and myself, my father-in-law and his son Paul, and PJ Reimer and his sons Al and Sid were in the group.
Perhaps one of the biggest surprises was the way in which Al Reimer took to the event and what for him was the first of many trips to Ukraine before publishing his now famous "My Harp Shall Turn to Mourning". Only Al can describe what the trip meant to him. Has anyone heard of a "Damascus experience?" In addition to the above family connections Frank Klassen (Uncle Frank to many of us) traveled with us and of course was particularly interested in visiting Fuerstenau where he had lived and attended school as a youngster. Our fearless leader was Gerhard Lohrenz, Winnipeg who led many such groups to the former Soviet Union. This was of course the time of the Cold War.

I do not know which of the two destinations, Mariawohl or Kant were of greater interest to my father. Both would have been beyond his imagination just a few years earlier.

No sooner had we arrived in Moscow when a Intourist representative came up to Lohrenz our group leader and said something to the effect:
"Oh, by the way please tell those two in your group (father and I) that the notion that they will be able to separate from the rest of the group and fly off to Kant on their own will not work".

When Lohrenz brought us this message my father's heart and mine too sank about as far as it could sink. Surely we would not be on this trip had we known this prior to leaving North America. Lohrenz did report to us however that he had told the Intourist representative that in no way was this acceptable, as these people had been granted permission for this special trip, that the relatives there (in Kant) were waiting for these people and indeed that they would go. Lohrenz was told to wait until the next day and sure enough the next day was told that things had been worked out and we would be able to travel to Kant. This was to be when the rest of the group traveled on to Alma Ata in Central Asia to visit other areas where they were to visit other "Mennonite" groups.

It was, as I recall approximately a five hour flight from Moscow to Frunze the capital of Kirigisia and less than an hour's drive to Kant where the Fransens lived. The excitement as we neared the Frunze airport and the anticipation of meeting the group of relatives was hard to imagine. But it did happen; a small group of relatives, including children, some with flowers and without knowing where we would stay (we had hotel reservations in Frunze but hoped beyond hope that somehow we could go to Kant directly) Jakob Fransen quietly and quickly whisked us off to a waiting taxi and before long we were on our way in the dark of night to Kant. We would worry about the consequences of this daring move the next day.

That night in a small hut that was the home of Jakob and Sara Fransen my father and I visited energetically until nearly four in the morning with his cousins and with Tante Susanna and Tante Katherina, widows of his father's brothers. He had last seen these ladies 46 years ago and the rest is history and not the subject of this story.

My next visit to Fuerstenau and Mariawohl in Ukraine was in 2007. This time it was with approximately 175 other mostly "Menno Travelers" aboard the Dnieper Princess as part of the Mennonite Heritage Cruise. Much had changed and of course the Cold War was long history and indeed Ukraine was now an independent country.

Now in 2009 a group of 15-16 North American Fransen family members traveled to Europe in order to attend a Fransen Treffen in Rehe, Germany and then continue on to Ukraine.
Two of the North American Fransens (Ted & Esther) were along in Rehe but since they had previously been to Ukraine did not take part in that part of the trip. Another "Fransen" (Suzanne Marie) could not come to Rehe but did join us in Frankfurt to travel on to Ukraine.

In Dnepropetrovsk we were met by Ludmilla, Intourist guide and a modern airconditioned 29 passenger bus that was to be our mode of transportation for the next seven days. Our immediate destination was the rather modern, comfortable Intourist hotel in Zaporosche a city of approximately 800,000 inhabitants and a city that used to be called Alexandrovsk when our ancestors lived in the area.

In our planning for this adventure our group had agreed that we would spend an entire week in Ukraine. In fact this would be exclusively in the Intourist hotel in Zaporosche . This would allow us to spend as much time as anyone would wish in a very specific number of former Mennonite villages in both the Chortitza and Molotschna colonies. It would also have the advantage of being able to settle in on one location and not have to pack and unpack each day and move to another location. This involved decisions such as where would we eat all of our meals etc. Because of research that we had done we ended up having our breakfasts in the hotel (very good standard European breakfast buffet) and visit a variety of restaurants within walking distance for our evening meals. For lunch we chose several cafes on our itinerary with one very good lunch provided for us at the Mennonite Centre in Halbstadt (Molochansk).This was the former Maedchenschule that my mother attended almost one hundred years ago.

By way of additional background let me explain a little more as to our planning for this part of our journey that was undertaken before leaving North America.

Larissa (who also happened to be our guide in Ukraine in 1971) was in charge of planning our Zaporoschia experience. We had chosen Ludmilla, Olga and Viktor as three of the Intourist guides that were to accompany us on different days in Ukraine. This worked out very well so that we were able to benefit from the strengths of each of these delightful people.

In addition we were most fortunate to have Dr. Paul Toews from Fresno and also Zaporoschia give us two illustrated lectures on the history of our Mennonite ancestors and particularly their approximately two hundred year stay in Ukraine; for us Fransens it was more like one hundred and twenty years (1806-1926). Paul graciously agreed to accompany us during the two day trip into the Molotschna; It was these days that his wife Olga was our Intourist guide.

In additon to serious study (lectures by Paul Toews and guided tours into the many Mennonite villages that we had selected) there was opportunity to get some familiarity with the city of Zaporoschia and the huge Dnieper Dam that has figured so prominately in the history of Ukraine, a cruise on the Dnieper around the Chortitza Insel, visit a museum in Zaporoschia that included a Mennonite display, attend a Cossack "rodeo" (if you think that isn't daring just ask David) and enjoy some of the different cuisines including the last evening when cousin Johann Dueck hosted all of us to a delicious Ukrainian meal in a first class Ukrainian restaurant on the "Chortitza Insel".

Written by Herb Fransen

Schoensee Mennonite Church 1909 - 1934

Schoensee, Molotschna
The Mennonite Church building at Schoensee, Molotschna was built in 1909, and was one of the most ornate Mennonite religious facilities in Russia. It was built in a neo-Gothic style, complete with Gothic-shaped windows and buttresses between the windows. Large ornate gateposts at the street complemented the design. In 1909 the church had 745 baptized members and six ministers. The seating capacity was 700. The interior had a fresco ceiling painted by an Italian artist. The building was closed in 1934 and turned into a granary and then into a clubhouse. It functioned again as a church for a brief period during WW II when the area was occupied by the German army.
Sadly, the building is now without a roof, some of the roof tiles manufactured by the brickyard of Toews and Enns of near-by Fabrikerweise can be found alongside the building, and a green forest inhabits the inside of the building.

The most diligent of readers will have found the Comments made by Wilma (Goerz) Turner on August 20/09 following Herb’s blog titled August 17, 2009 FUERSTENAU.
Perhaps Wilma needs an Introduction. Her paternal Grandmother was Susanna Klassen, an older sister to my mother. We called her Tante Susa. As many people know, my mother spent the years 1962 - 1969 collecting family history data. This was the pre-computer era and she wrote hundreds and hundreds of hand-written letters, with self-designed photo-copied forms to many very distant relatives in Canada, USA, South America and Germany, requesting people complete the forms and return them. As you can imagine this didn’t always happen. Then she repeated the requests. And she did collect a lot of data and compiled four large Registers, one for each of her four ancestral lines (Klassen, Dick, Goossen, Nickel). She had special hard cover books printed and then transferred the data into those books by hand. The last few generations appeared in each book, so it was an enormous amount of work. I’m not sure just when, but quite sometime after my mother’s death in 1970, Wilma Goerz, Tante Susa’s grandchild expressed an interest in entering my mother’s genealogical data into a software programme. I was living in Manitoba and heard about this, but had no idea what this meant or what it would lead to. Wilma worked at updating the data whenever possible. I believe there were about 5,000 names in my mother’s project. About 1997, George Dyck of Vineland, and now involved with the Mennonite Centre in Halbstadt, Molotschna copied the data for me to install into my first computer. I added the Fransen, Wichert and Funk data over the following years, and then proceeded adding Harold’s relatives: Regiers, Goertzens, Penner and Kroegers. This has became my retirement hobby. Wilma and I continue to share our interest in genealogy, updating data via email, although we rarely meet.
Although my mother and her family lived in Fuerstenau they attended the Mennonite Church in nearby Schoensee whenever this was possible. Consequently she was baptized there on June 9, 1924. Wilma’s Goerz ancestors had a very strong lineage in Schoensee.

Fransen Treffen in Rehe 2009

We planned this trip for about two years in advance. We had no idea that it was a realistic possibility but began by asking our family contacts in Germany what they would think of such an idea. The responses were slow in coming but with some prodding from us they organized a committee in Europe and invited us to help in the planning. In the end the vast amount of planning and work involved was done by a small group of Fransens in Germany representing the different lines of Fransens.

As you know the lineage basically involves our father’s (NN Fransen) surviving first cousins. Other than Jack in California this included six cousins in Germany - Lisa, Justa, Maria, Tina (Katharina), Gredel and Jakob. Lisa is 97 I believe and could not attend and therefore we are dealing with five first cousins present at the Treffen.

The committee had made an elaborate genealogy chart which covered a long wall, with a second chart on another wall that covered the Wiebes who were descendants of Elizabeth Funk's first husband Diedrich Wiebe. Name tags were colour coded based on the ancestral tree from which one descended. This as well as the wall chart was very helpful.

Our group of North American Fransens were treated royally one might say. You know who attended from NA (15 in all) and so I will not list them. We came from many directions, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, California, Arkansas, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania and arrived at the Frankfurt airport within two hours of each other on Friday July 2. Actually Fred and Angelika with their children drove in from Klettwitz, Germany where they were spending the summer. At the airport we were met by Johann Dueck, son of Franz Dueck who happens to live midway between Frankfurt and Rehe where the Treffen was held. Johann had brought two vehicles of their own and had leased an additional vehicle for the weekend which was of immense help to us in being picked up at the airport on Friday and then delivered back there on the following Monday morning. Rehe was perhaps 1 1/2 hours from Frankfurt. Johann's wife Ursula had prepared a lunch for our entire group and so on the way to Rehe we were taken to their home in Huettenberg and were able to spend several hours there. The Johann Duecks have a large family and so they have a beautiful, large home in which they have been raising their children. We were impressed at the neatness of the family as well as their home and yard. The lunch was delicious.

The Christliches Erhohlungsheim was one of many such retreat centers that the larger German Lutheran church has throughout the country. I was familiar with this type of campus from our earlier years and meetings at various retreat centres in Germany. The entire campus gave the impression of the utmost in cleanliness and taste. A "Hausvater" was in charge, being generally invisible except to appear before each meal to offer a short prayer and make whatever announcements needed to be made throughout the week-end. Approximately 170 "Fransens" attended. Walter Fransen, son of Justa headed up the planning committee and was in charge of week-end activities.

The week-end extending from Friday noon to early Monday consisted of much time for visiting, family reporting and a variety of devotional events including prayer meetings, choir, and a long Sunday morning services where two of the Fransen clan preached. Several poems mostly reflecting on the seriousness of life and also on past difficult sojourns that had been part of the lives of these our cousins were presented by several of the older women. The NA Fransens had an hour, probably an hour and one half to present something that would reflect what had happened to the descendants of Nicholas Fransen and Maria Wichert since they left Mariawohl in 1926. Ted introduced this portion of the session with a short prayer that Fred translated into German and then the DVD from Jack Fransen, California was shown. It was done in good German and was very much appreciated. I made a few comments as to how it occurred that one branch (our branch) of the Fransen clan had gone to North America when all the others had stayed behind. Then several others reported on the families of each of the children of Grandma Wichert. Our presentation was sort of impromptu and because earlier ones had been thoroughly prepared and included many, many pictures of families and also individuals we were told that we were appreciated for the free wheeling report that I must say came across quite well.

Needless to say not everyone spoke each others language. A few of the younger Europeans spoke a good English and a few of our NA delegation spoke German. In can be said that Edith and I perhaps spent more time with the older (First cousin) generations. In the Sunday morning service Edith joined the choir and Fred was asked to translate one of the sermons into English for those who did not understand German. For the other sermon Angelika was sitting among several of the NA English and translated for them.

The older generation undoubtedly would have appreciated having you older folks there. I could only imagine how they would have related to our father had he been there. I have been present in earlier years when he was still alive on such occasions. Now however Edith and I were the recipients of this added attention.

It was wonderful to have the other NA travelers with us. They were all well accepted among the European relatives and seemed to be enjoying their stay in Rehe as well. We were immensely proud of each of them and this included Jeff & Sharon's seven year old twins Hannah and Kate, and Kata & Nicolas our grandchildren from Indianapolis. I do not know whether any of the younger people will describe this week-end in any greater detail for you but hopefully they will. My impression was that a recurring theme in their minds was that: "Here except for an incident of typhus and death (Nicholas Fransen 1879-1922) all of us undoubtedly would have suffered a similar fate as these our relatives had - exile from their ancestral homes in Molotschna , a long sojourn in the former Soviet Union and after many difficult years a migration to present day Germany". It was good to see some bonding and even friendships developing between some of the younger people and their spouses, all descendants of Klaas Fransen (1851-1922.)

Needless to say this week-end in Rehe before our trip to Ukraine was a wonderful introduction for what was to come in the Mennonite villages of Ukraine.

Written by Herb Fransen

Nikolaifeld visit in July 2007

While we're waiting for Fred to jump in with photos and stories about the 09 visit to Nikolaifeld, I'll share a couple of pics from 2007. It was our first stop after departing by bus from Dniep to Zap. The school house is still active as a school. We were fortunate to have the Principal come and open the school for us. We had a great visit with her and enjoyed touring the school.

What once was the Mennonite Church is now a school gymnasium. Do you think the former villagers would have approved of the new use? Shooting hoops in the school gym are 2nd cousins Rob Fransen and Jesse Epp-Fransen.

Checking out Fuerstenau

Upon arriving in Fuerstenau, we checked our map of the village created by Uncle Frank Klassen (1909 - 1993) to determine an action plan. It worked really well, to ask someone through our guide Olga, to take us to the oldest person in the village. We were led to the home of Mr Peter Wollmann (see Herb, our Intourist guide Olga and the local person who showed us to the Wollmann house on the second picture). Sure enough he was home, welcomed us inside most graciously, and talked and talked in German about his life in Fuerstenau during the last 80 years. He mentioned that he remembered there were Dicks living in their village at one time. In the picture with Mr Wollmann are Sharon Fransen, Angelika Fransen, and Olga Shmakin. Kate & Hannah Landis were also most attentive.When we tried to leave, Mr Wollmann repeatedly asked us to stay longer. We needed to be off to check out the school, and look for the cemetery and the yard where my mother and her family had lived.

Fürstenau School Building

Thanks for sharing the story about Fürstenau in your blog posting Herb. I wondered if you might want to add a picture of the school building as it was in July 2007. Shown in the picture are the descendents of Oma (Klassen) Fransen. (Tina Fransen's great-grandchildren: Rob and Sonja Fransen, Diana and Jesse Epp-Fransen, grandchildren Gord Epp-Fransen and his wife Carolyne, and Ted Fransen and his wife Esther, and Christine Fransen.)

Monday August 17, 2009

FUERSTENAU

When I think of Fuerstenau the following thoughts come to mind. 

- Fuerstenau was the birthplace of my mother Tina(Klassen) Fransen 1906-1970.

- Our mother lived in Fuerstenau up until 1925.

- Mother's ancestors settled in Fuerstenau in 1806 and lived on the same yard till 1925.

- Apparently the only two buildings remaining from Mennonite times are the school and the luxurious  Neufeld home. 

-The Klassens lived next to the school which was directly across the street from the Neufeld home.

- The cemetery was directly behind the Klassen property.

-The church that the Klassens attended was in Schoensee, three miles to the east. Today the structure is abandoned and in serious stages of decay although remnants of the ornate building remain. 

- Alexander Ediger, a talented musician and theologian was the pastor in the Schoensee church until he was exiled in the early thirties. 

-Our mother was baptized in this church and Hilda Fransen's parents, Johann Walls were married in this church. Beyond Schoensee is Klippenfeld the former home of the Walls and also of Canadian leader J.J. Thiessen. We visited here on our trip to  Molotschna.

- We spent at least two hours in Fuerstenau visiting the former school which is an outpatient medical clinic, including birthing and a little library. Some of us picked up a brick from what appeared to be from the rubble of the Klassen home. Particularly Fred and David, and perhaps others did a thorough search of the area of the former cemetery but no remnants or markings of any family names were found. Some of us walked about a block down the street and were welcomed into the home of a Mr. Wallman who spoke a good german and said that he had been born in the village in 1926.

While standing in the village we reminded ourselves of the time in 1919 when Grandpa Klassen, according to his memoirs that he wrote in 1929 was approached by a couple of strangers(turned out to be from the Red Army) and ordered him to drive them to the next village. Thinking that he would be back in a few hours he embarked only to return not in a few hours but six days later only to find out that while he had been gone his brother Jakob had been "enlisted" by The White Army to drive for them and was not yet back  home. Or we thought of the three "Flights" that Grandpa describes that the family was forced to undertake during those tumultuous times.

Questions remain - What might have happened to the wealthy  estate owners Neufelds that lived in the village? Did they suffer the fate of so many others, particularly but not exclusively by any means, the wealthy who found their death in the far reaches of the Gulag? Or did they migrate eventually to NA? No one seems to know.

Did all Mennonites leave Fuerstenau for America in the twenties? Or did some remain as most did for example in Mariawohl. Did any leave Fuerstenau for NA in the 1874 migration?

Perhaps some of you can relate more about the Edigers - apparently Mrs. Ediger lived for many years in WK and if I am not mistaken a book/booklet has been written perhaps by Mrs. Ediger who is now deceased about the family tragedy. I understand that two children were abandoned in the thirties while both parents were in exile. If my information is correct they were street children who later grew up to be loyal communists and remained living in the Soviet Union.

There is of course a Goerz/Weir connection to Fuerstenau. My mother's sister Susan was married to Frank Goerz who comes from a family of church leaders. One apparently was an elder at one time of the large Rudnerweide church in the southern part of the Molotschna.

Rumour also has it that perhaps "Uncle Bill" Andres may have been born in Fuerstenau.

It might be of interest to state that Daniel Daniel Peters, (1794-1879) an ancestor to Mary and to Ingrid Peters Fransen first came and lived in  Fuerstenau when his family migrated from Prussia and before he moved on to be the founder of Petersdorf in the Old Colony. 

The visit to Petersdorf and then to Nicolaifeld/Nicolaipole and on to Gnadenthal and Gruenfeld is a story that I must leave for Fred to tell as it involves the Peter's side of the family.

I would hope that others would submit their thoughts and pictures about my notes on Fuerstenau. I did not take a camera with me but others did. David does have some pictures of Fuerstenau etc on his earlier blog. 

herb

Born in Mariawohl 1937 - 1939

The Fransens that did not emigrate to Canada in 1926 remained in Mariawohl, Molotschna until into WW II. The last Fransen to be born in Mariawohl was Erich Fransen born January 1940, who lives south of Moscow.
The woman pictured with Herb Fransen is Tina Enns Wiebe (daughter of Liese Fransen Enns, the oldest living cousin born 1912).
The three women above, are sisters, Lisa Fransen Janzen born 1937, Maria Fransen Kisser born 1947, and Katharina Fransen Warkentin born 1939. Lisa and Katharina were born in Mariawohl. Maria was born when the family had been re-located to Kazakhstan. They are daughters of Nikolai Fransen (1913 - 1981)

Born in Mariawohl 1925 - 1930

Herb Fransen asked me sometime ago, who of the older generation of cousins that we met at Rehe were born in Mariawohl. The simple answer is that they all were.

Here they are: Pictures taken at Rehe July 2009.

Top picture: The three women are sisters, daughters of Jakob Fransen (1885 - 1941), brother to my Grandfather Nicholas Fransen (1879 - 1922). The sisters form the left are: Justa Hildebrandt & Mariechen Flaming (twins born in 1927), whose 82nd birthday we celebrated at Rehe, and Tina Boese born 1925. Their older sister, Liese Enns born 1912 was unable to be present at the Treffen. The man between Justa & Mariechen is Mariechen's husband Peter Flaming who was born in Mariawohl in 1931. The man at the right is Abram Boese, husband to Tina Fransen; he has many relatives in Canada. He visited Mariawohl in 1970, as his wife was born there, and he was born in the neighbouring village, Paulsheim.
It was this Jakob Fransen family that moved from the house of Klaas & Elisabeth (Funk) Fransen in Mariawohl (they died in 1922 & 1919 respectively) to the home of our Grandparents Nicholas & Maria (Wichert) Fransen after Grandma & her children emigrated to Vineland, Ontario, Canada in 1926. Jakob Fransen was conscripted to compulsory labour on September 1, 1941 and never heard from again. His wife, Katharina Klassen Fransen spent sometime in Siberia, then moved to Kant, Kyrgyzstan, where my father & brother Herb visited her in summer 1971, before she died there in May 1972.

In the middle of the second and third pictures are Jakob Fransen born 1930, and Gredel Fransen Schneider Becker born 1928. They are the children of Abraham Fransen (1886 - 1934), brother to my Grandfather Nicholas Fransen (1879 - 1922). Abraham Fransen died of starvation. His wife died a month later. Jakob and Gredel were six and four years old.

Jakob Fransen was then raised by his father's brother and wife, Franz Fransen and Susanna Klassen, who lived in the parental home of Klaas and Elisabeth (Funk) Fransen in Mariawohl. Franz Fransen was sent to Siberia in March 1938 and shot shortly after that. Jakob and his adoptive mother, Susanna & her mother left Mariawohl in 1943 with the retreating German army on what is generally known as The Trek. (Susanna's mother died on the Trek that year). Most of the people who still lived in Mariawohl (the older men were basically gone having been sent into the Soviet Gulag) were evacuated at that time. In all approximately 35,000 Mennonites were on this journey. They spent approximately 18-20 months in the Pozan area in what is today part of Poland. Twenty-five thousand of these Mennonites were caught by the Soviets at the end of the war, told that they were taking them back to their homes but instead were sent directly to Kazakhstan and other places throughout the Soviet Union. In 1951 in Kazakhstan, Jakob Fransen married Sarah, the niece of his adoptive mother. In 1964 they and their children, and Susanna Klassen Fransen moved to Kant, Kyrgystan. My father and brother Herb visited them in Kant in summer 1971. My father, his wife Tina, Herta, Werner & I visited them in Kant in August 1978. Susanna Klassen Fransen died in June 1979. She and Katharina Klassen Fransen were sisters.

Sitting beside Jakob Fransen is his cousin Justa Fransen Hildebrandt and Herb Fransen.


Gredel was then raised by her father Abraham Fransen's half-sister, Maria Wiebe, and husband Johann Thiessen in Rudnerweide, Molotschna from 1935 until November, 1941, when Gredel and Maria Wiebe Thiessen were forced to go to Kazhakstan. Johann Thiessen had already been taken by the Communists. Maria Wiebe Thiessen died in 1942.

Gredel Fransen Schneider Becker is sitting between her daughter Luci & son-in-law Willie Muss, parents of Andreas Muss, who lived in Hutchinson, Kansas for two years doing Voluntary Service.

The Most Famous resident of Mariawohl

When we returned from our 2007 visit to Mariawohl, Edith asked us if we happened to have encountered the resident at the edge of town. What a small world. Anatoliy Emtsev (aka Kutz) seems to be coming up in lots of photos. Here he is talking with our group. We had no idea then (2007) that he had a connection with the Fransens, nor did he know that we were Fransens. Also in the photos to the right are Richard Block (Esther's brother), Viktor Penner (our guide), and Carolyne and Gord Epp-Fransen.

Mariawohl - 1978

The two photos on the left are taken in the yard where my father (Nicholas Fransen 1907 - 20000) grew up. In the top photo are Nicholas Fransen, the current owner, and Anatoliy Emtsev (aka Kutz).

The lower photo shows the current owner and a friend, Nicholas & Tina Fransen, Edith and Herta Fransen.

The photo in the top right is of Nicholas Fransen standing in the entrance to the yard of his Grandparents, Klaas & Elisabeth (Funk) Fransen.

The photo in the bottom right is also of Mariawohl.

Mariawohl, 1978

These are photos taken in 1978 when our father (Nicholas Fransen, 1907 - 2000), step-mother Tina, Herta, Werner & I visited Mariawohl. Here are three views taken from the main road in Mariawohl. On the top picture, four of us are walking westwards along "the fence" which has become a strategic point of identification for locating the place where Herb's and my Grandparents (Nicholas & Maria (Wichert) Fransen lived. My note on the back of the picture based on information from our father says: 1978, Original fence in front of Johann Schoenke's home, neighbour to Nick Fransen in 1920's. Our father and Johann Schoenke were best friends, and both Herb & I have met him. The picture of this fence (2009 version) is also displayed on previous posts (with Hannah, Kate, & Viktoria). The question is: where is it located in relationship to the yard which we are almost certain contains the ruins (excavated basement in progress) of our Grandparents house (Nicholas & Maria (Wichert) Fransen? When facing the Fransen yard, is the portion of the original fence to the left or the right of the yard? We look to hear from people who were there this July or in 2007.

The second & third photos are taken looking eastwards (I believe) towards the former Paulsheim end of Mariawohl. Photo two gives a view of the small brick bungalows that were readily in sight while walking down the Mariawohl road in 1978. Where are they now?

Photo three is simply an extended view of the road in Mariawohl.

Fences in Molotschna

Edith has asked in at least two posts about fencing. This led me to review our 2007 pictures. We've already seen some pictures of fences from Mariawohl and Liebenau. On one of our days (in July 2007) in Molotschna with guide Viktor Penner he showed us the remnants of a huge horse-breeding estate in Altonau. It was evident that this place had been quite something in its prime. Note the fence in the photos.