Germans from Russia: One Families Experience

My cousin, Remi Roy, with whom I share French-Canadian roots, recently sent me a brief and fascinating history he wrote for and about his ancestral German from Russia family,  What Remi relates is a migration in early 1800s from today’s Germany/France Alsace-Lorraine region, to the Black Sea area of todays Ukraine, beginning in early 1800s, ending with the subsequent migration of these folks out of Eastern Europe to Canada in early 1900s.

(Remi and my great grandfather were brothers whose family migrated from Quebec to Minnesota, then North Dakota, then to Manitoba.  My home state of North Dakota received tens of thousands from similar places, and what fascinates me about Remi’s story is that its elements, of infinite variety, are similar to the hopes, dreams and privation and heartbreak experiences by any of our own ancestors, most of whom were from migration beginning in the 1600s.  This post is an invitation to you to translate what you read into your own families experience and history.)

I start with a couple of maps, then Remi’s brief overview.  A nine page essay by Remi (linked below) is the meat of this post.    All of this is offered with permission of the author.  Thank you Remi.  Remi also provided a link to a 100+ easily used photo album of one community in the general homeland area from earlier in the 1900s.

First the area of the story, which is generally the area just northwest of the Black Sea, roughy between the mouth of the Danube River and Odessa.  The Danube is central to the story, and essentially is about 19th century Eastern Europe..

Danube area Eastern Europe. (Red line).  Travel map from Vienna to the Black Sea.  Ukraine would be area to upper right.

Note the circled places which are the general vicinity of the story.  Adapted map is from p 148, Southwestern Soviet Union, Rand McNally Illustrated Atlas of the World 1982

Some detail from Remi.  Places are referred to in Remi’s writing.

The Schnell and Hirsch (Remi’s ancestors) journeys to Canada were from 1901 to 1907.

Remi’s 9-page summary history of the family is here: Remi Roy The Russian Experience.  In addition, here are six pages of pictures of Karamurat, most taken in the 1930s. (Click on any photo, and you can then simply scroll through the entire group.)  In 1940,  the remaining Germans from Russia were forced to resettle in Germany and never returned.

SCHNELL family: Caramurat, Romania via Bucharest, Vienna, Rotterdam and Liverpool to Halifax, 1903 and 1907. My grandfather Louis Schnell was in the second Schnell party.

HIRSCH family: Landau, Russia via Odessa, Warsaw, Bremen and South Hampton to Ellis Island New York, 1901. They were parents of my grandmother Anne Hirsch. Two of her sisters were on board.

The conditions in the cargo hold were horrific. They arrived full of lice from the animals on the ship. A child died on one of the ocean crossings. They had never seen a train or a ship before.

My mother’s maternal grandparents were born in Landau. Her paternal grandfather was also born in Landau, then he moved to Caramurat as a young man. Her paternal grandmother was born in Krasna and then moved to Caramurat as a child.

COMMENTS:

from Jeff:  I knew a few German Russians in my business days …from N Dak, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and Nebraska…..interesting group.