At some point I will come back again to write more about Fuerstenau, more about Johann Dueck and hopefully along with others mention the delightful seven year old twins Hannah and Katie (did I spell those names correctly?) that travelled with us.
Yes, Fransens have now visited Mariawohl on at least four occasions. In 1971, my father and I joined about fourty others, mostly Canadians on a tour to visit former Mennonite villages in Ukraine and then also traveled to Central Asia so that we could visit relatives that had been resettled to those far away regions. In the case of my father and myself we flew to Kirigizia and visited many Fransen relatives there in the city of Kant, about an hour's drive out of the capital city of Frunze (both of those cities have different names today.) While we were in Kant, where Jakob Fransen, whom everyone met in Rehe last month lived with his adopted mother and aunt
many relatives from throughout the Soviet Union traveled to spend several days with us. It was there that I first met many of the relatives that were now present at the Treffen in Rehe. Walter Fransen who was in charge in Rehe then with his mother Justa who was also in Rehe lived just two houses down the road from where Jakob lived. Those were the days of the "cold war" and a trip into the Soviet Union was very different than it is today. Ask me about it sometime.
But, back to Mariawohl. Then in 1971 my father and I had a maximum of thirty minutes in the village. We basically concentrated on three things - the school which still stood as it had when my father attended there earlier in the century; stood on the yard that we thought had once been the home where my father had lived, and ran back to the other end of the village to visit with Kutz/Kutzenko/Emtsev. (Edith has explained the names). We found that Anatoliy and his father were home but Manja the mother of Anatoliy who hosted us this time had gone to town and was not available. And so we visited primarily with the father of Anatoliy. Both parents have since died. If you are still with me, let me remind you that Manja was the sister of Eva Andres' mother. Eva lives in Niagara and is married to our cousin William Andres.
Yes Anatoliy and his wife knew that we were coming. I did give him some pictures - one of him that I had from my trip in 2007, one of his Uncle Jakob Kutz from Kitchener-Waterloo and one of my parents standing with his mother Manja on the occasion of their visit with Herta in 1978 in Mariawohl. I was not able to get a picture of Eva and Bill that I would have liked to have included with the others. For those that know KW let me also say that Anatoliy has another first cousin in Ontario. I believe the lady goes by the name of Kutz and is past Principal/President of St. Paul's College in WK. Correct me if my information is faulty.
Think for a moment, the journey from being the granddaughter of the herdsman at the end of the village when Opa Fransen lived in Mariawohl to being CEO of a significant Ontario institution of learning. Ask Martha sometime about Jakob Kutz, now deceased of WK. She met him personally and has some interesting comments to make about him. All good!
Life is difficult for people living in the Ukraine villages. People are simply poor; and yet they make do. I wonder if it isn't similar to how our people felt in the early thirties in Canada.
Why is the Kutz contact important and why do we keep going back to look up this family?
It is the only human contact with the past when our Fransen family lived there. No other family in the village today lived there even in 1943 when Fransens last fled the village. Then of course by now and through Eva we feel "related". Clearly the Emtsev family had anticipated our coming as much as we had. There place was tidy, they invited us into their home (it was small so not everyone could get to see the inside) and we were able to see their large, neat garden and exchange gifts. Antoliy and his wife recognized me from earlier visits. Both he and his wife were neatly dressed. Both were friendly and great hosts. As Edith has reported Anatoliy spent the entire time from our arrival to our departure in our company.
I must also mention the cemetery, as did Edith. There is now no doubt in my mind that we identified the location of the cemetery - a place where presumably Klaus Fransen (1851-1922)
and our grandfather Nicolas Fransen were buried along with many other relatives, friends and neighbours. We did stop for a moment of silence and a picture to commemorate that place and this event. How wonderful it would have been to find a stone, just some marker with a name or even a partial name to fix the location in our minds. That is the kind of thing that such travelers like us (Walter Unger calls them Pilgrims) look for. But for this you must ask Fred to tell you about the dead in Petersdorf and Nicolaifeld and the markings that they have left behind.
herb
Herb, interesting historical point about the St. Paul's Principal (President) at the UW. Helga Kutz-Harder succeeded William Klassen at St. Paul's in 1994.
ReplyDeleteAs for Martha commenting on Jakcob Kutz, she told me last night, via telephone, that she's anxious to get access to the Fransen Blog. Now that Chris is available to show her how to navigate the blog - having completed her Alaska cruise as nurse - perhaps Martha will add her comments about Jakob.