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.