The Frey Sander Connections Germans from Russia

By Albert Frey

This book provides the genealogical connection of the Frey, Sander and extended families. The genealogical record is traced from the late 1500’s of central Europe to the Russian Steppes near what is now Odessa Ukraine and finally to the Prairies of North America. Brief historical descriptions are included to provide some insight into the reasons why the families relocated. The major part of the book traces the ancestral lines through the years and includes church and civil records as genealogical prime sources.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 28, 2020
• ISBN: 9781664119796

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Copyright © 2021 by Albert Frey.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 12/28/2020

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Contents

Dedication

Acknowledgments

1.0 Introduction

2.0 Ancient Genealogy

3.0 First Migration: – German-Speaking States Alsace, Baden, and Pfalz

3.1.   Alsace History

3.2.   Baden History

3.3.   Pfalz History

3.4.   Ancestral Villages Not Included on Alsace, Baden, and Pfalz Maps

4.0 Second Migration: Russian Steppe

4.1.   Ancestral Villages in South Russia

5.0 Third Migration: The Americas

6.0 Our Ancestors

6.1.   Anton Frey Ancestral Charts

6.2.   Theresia Gass Ancestral Charts

6.3.   Ferdinand Sander Ancestral Charts

6.4.   Monica Heck Ancestral Charts

7.0 The Frey and Associated Families

7.1.   Frey Family at Hördt

7.2.   Georg Frey Family of Rastadt, Russia

7.3.   Anton Frey Family of Rastadt, Russia, and Saskatchewan, Canada

7.4.   Wittman Family of Hilsbach, Baden

7.5.   Heck Family of Bietigheim, Baden

7.6.   Bast Family of Steinfeld, Pfalz

8.0 The Gass and Associated Families

8.1.   Gass Family of Malsch, Baden

8.2.   Gerlein Family of Neupotz and Leimersheim

8.3.   Wingerter Family of Herxheim, Pfalz

8.4.   Gress Family of Reimerswiller and Betschdorf, Alsace

9.0 The Sander and Associated Families

9.1.   Gottlieb Sander Family of Selz, Russia

9.2.   Joseph Sander Family of Strassburg, Russia and Alberta Canada

9.3.   Ell Family of Durmersheim, Baden

9.4.   Schatz Family of Seltz, Alsace

9.5.   Schneider Family of Spessart, Baden

9.6.   (Hahn) Kraft Family of Göcklingen, Pfalz

9.7.   Mildenberger Family of Offendorf, Alsace

9.8.   Senger Family of Mothern, Alsace

9.9.   Fischer Family of Baerendorf, Alsace

10.0 The Heck and Associated Families

10.1.   Heck Family of Rastadt

10.2.   Weinberger Family of Zeiskam, Pfalz

10.3.   Urlacher Family of Climbach, Alsace

10.4.   Bellitzer Family of Eppingen, Baden

11.0 Genealogy Sources and Bibliography

Bibliography

Appendix 1 Church and Civil Records

Appendix A Anton Frey Family Genealogy

Appendix B Theresia Gass Family Genealogy

Appendix C Ferdinand Sander Family Genealogy

Appendix D Monica Heck Family Genealogy

Dedication

This genealogical history is dedicated to all those ancestors of ours who had the strength and courage to do what was needed to provide a better future for their families. Our ancestors, for the most part, were German-speaking farmers and tradesmen, some who endured three major migrations, which have allowed us to live in peace and security in North America.

In the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries, the central European population was decimated by religious and political turmoil, especially the Thirty Years’ War of 1618 to 1648 and the French Revolution of 1793 to 1815.The first migration of our ancestors was to fill the population void caused by war through emigration from Switzerland, France, Austria, and other areas of Europe. Certainly some of our ancestors were among these immigrants to the German-speaking provinces of Alsace, Pfalz, and Baden. Other ancestors survived the turmoil of their local villages. The upheaval of the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars was the catalyst for the second migration. At that time, Russia was looking for people to settle their newly acquired lands in the Black Sea region. The promise of transport, religious and language freedoms, exemption from military service, and other financial incentives were too much to resist; so again, our ancestors left their families and loved ones and moved east. They prospered in the German-speaking villages they created on the Russian Steppe.

As the twentieth century approached, the Russian government began reneging on their promises, and new land for their children was hard to find. They looked for a new land to call home. Fortunately, the countries of the Americas were looking for people to populate their new territories. So with strength and courage, our ancestors again left their families and loved ones to find homesteads in the cold and unforgiving prairie of the Dakotas, Alberta, and Saskatchewan. What would our lives be like if they didn’t have the strength and courage for any of the three migrations?

47772.png

Eugene Frey and Mary Eva Sander.

Acknowledgments

It is impossible to recognize all those who inspired me to create this document or helped with all the details contained in the document. There are some that deserve special mention. My in-laws, George and Beth Smith, who lit the genealogy spark, and my wife, Amy, who encouraged me to continue the search. I was sure that we would find no records because our family came from an area that was behind the Iron Curtain in Russia. She tracked down the bible of German Russians, The Emigration from Germany to Russia in the Years 1763 to 1862 by Karl Stumpp. There now was a link to my ancestors and their origins. The book led to discovering the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia in Nebraska and the German Russian Heritage Society in North Dakota. These organizations are preserving the history of the Germans from Russia. My parents gave me the details to start my family search. My dad toured Alberta and Saskatchewan to compile our family tree in Canada, which he published in The Freys, Pioneers from Russia. Last but not least, to all those uncles, aunts, and cousins that added their family information. Without all this help, there would be no genealogical record. While putting together this information, it is inevitable that mistakes or errors are made. I apologize for any such errors and mistakes that you find in this document.

I would also like to acknowledge and thank the following organizations that have provided permission of right to use for the map and street images, record of birth, marriage, and death images that I have used in this document.

1.0 Introduction

Who were our ancestors? Where did they live, and what did they do? Ever since I was a young boy growing up hearing my parents and grandparents speaking in German about the Old Country, I was curious about the past. Why does my family speak German yet my grandparents came from Russia? Why did so many of their friends and family leave Russia and come to Canada? We are shaped by our ancestors. Our character and appearance are passed down through the generations. Each generation adds characteristics and traditions. We are the link from the past to the future, and unless we pass on our own family histories, they will be lost forever. I once read that a person who knows his ancestors will always have an anchor in life, which seems to result in more stability during times of stress than those who do not have that anchor. I have put together this information to answer those questions of my younger years and to hopefully provide the ancestor anchor to my descendants. This journey has taken almost fifty years of research, frustrations, excitement, and joy of new discoveries.

2.0 Ancient Genealogy

So where to start? The advances in understanding DNA and the ease with which it can be tested allow each of us to track our own ancient ancestry. For those interested in our DNA, my Frey paternal DNA belongs to a genetic lineage labelled I-L1287, which is passed from father to son. My mother’s maternal DNA belongs to a genetic lineage labelled H2a1a, which is passed from mother to child. This DNA allows us to track our ancient ancestors out of Africa and through Asia and the Middle East on their journey to Europe. This journey took many thousands of years, and finally, with the retreat of the last Ice Age, our ancestors settled in what was to become Alsace, Baden, and Pfalz. Some of our ancestors no doubt lived in these three areas for many thousands of years, while other ancestors no doubt came from neighboring areas such as Lorraine, Austria, and Switzerland. There they lived and thrived until we can pick up their trail in the church and civil records of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in the German-speaking provinces of Alsace, Baden, and Pfalz.

3.0 First Migration: – German-Speaking States Alsace, Baden, and Pfalz

This area of central Europe was in constant turmoil for much of the Middle Ages. The Peasants’ War in the 1520s ended in disaster for the local peasants. One of the most devastating events was the Thirty Years’ War of 1618 to 1648. During that war, the local population were killed in great numbers, leaving a population void. After the war, local authorities issued invitations throughout Europe for people to repopulate their territory. Little detail is available about which of our specific ancestors answered the invitation to resettle and those that were local residents for many generations. It is believed that our Frey ancestor was one of the migrants from Switzerland. There were quite likely more families that made the move from Switzerland and other European locations. Many of the villages where our ancestors lived at do not have specific histories. I have included any local histories I could find with our ancestor information and a brief history of Alsace, Baden, and Pfalz to give some insight into the lives of our ancestors and why they might have wanted to leave.

3.1. Alsace History

By 1500 BC, Celts began to settle in Alsace, clearing and cultivating the land. It should be noted that Alsace is a plain surrounded by the Vosges Mountains to the west and the Black Forest Mountains to the east. In the world of agriculture, Alsace has always been a rich region, which explains why it suffered so many invasions and annexations in its history. By 58 BC, the Romans had invaded and established Alsace as a center of viticulture. To protect this highly valued industry, the Romans built fortifications and military camps that evolved into various communities, which have been inhabited continuously to the present day. With the decline of the Roman Empire, Alsace became the territory of the Germanic Alemanni. The Alemanni were agricultural people, and their Germanic language formed the basis of modern-day dialects spoken along the Upper Rhine. Clovis and the Franks defeated the Alemanni during the fifth century AD, and Alsace became part of the Kingdom of Austrasia. Under Clovis’s Merovingian successors, the inhabitants were Christianized. Alsace remained under Frankish control until the Frankish realm was formally dissolved in 843. Alsace formed part of Middle Francia, which was ruled by Lothar I. Lothar died early in 855, and his realm was divided into three parts. The part known as Lorraine was given to Lothar’s son. The rest was shared between Lothar’s brothers. After 880, Alsace was united with the other Alemanni east of the Rhine into the duchy of Swabia.

Alsace experienced great prosperity during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Frederick I set up Alsace as a province to be ruled by ministers, a non-noble class of civil servants. The idea was that such men would be easier to control and less likely to alienate the fief from the crown out of their own greed. Frederick II designated the bishop of Strasbourg to administer Alsace. Strasbourg began to grow to become the most populous and commercially important town in the region. Cities such as Colmar and Haguenau also began to grow in economic importance.

As in much of Europe, the prosperity of Alsace came to an end in the fourteenth century by a series of harsh winters, bad harvests, and the Black Death. An additional natural disaster was the Rhine rift earthquake of 1356. Prosperity returned to Alsace under the Habsburg administration during the Renaissance.

Holy Roman Empire central power had begun to decline following years of imperial adventures in Italian lands, often ceding control in Western Europe to France, which had long since centralized power. France began an aggressive policy of expanding eastward, first to the Rivers Rhône and Meuse, and when those borders were reached, they aimed for the Rhine. During the fourteenth and fifteenth century, France was to be militarily shattered by the Hundred Years’ War, which prevented for a time any further tendencies in this direction. After the conclusion of the war, France was again free to pursue its desire to reach the Rhine, and in 1444, a French army appeared in Lorraine and Alsace. It took up winter quarters and demanded the submission of Metz and Strasbourg.

In 1469, Upper Alsace was sold by Archduke Sigismund of Austria to Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. Although Charles was the nominal landlord, taxes were paid to Frederick III, the Holy Roman emperor. The latter was able to use this tax and a dynastic marriage to his advantage to gain back full control of Upper Alsace

By the time of the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century, Strasbourg was a prosperous community, and its inhabitants accepted Protestantism in 1523. Martin Bucer was a prominent Protestant reformer in the region. His efforts were countered by the Roman Catholic Habsburgs who tried to eradicate heresy in Upper Alsace. As a result, Alsace was transformed into a mosaic of Catholic and Protestant territories.

This situation prevailed until 1639 during the Thirty Years’ War, when most of Alsace was conquered by France to keep it out of the hands of the Spanish Habsburgs. Beset by enemies and seeking to gain a free hand in Hungary, the Habsburgs sold their territory in Upper Alsace to France in 1646. When hostilities of the Thirty Years’ War were concluded in 1648, most of Alsace was recognized as part of France, although some towns remained independent. Although the French king gained sovereignty, existing rights and customs of the inhabitants were largely preserved. France continued to maintain its customs border along the Vosges Mountains, where it had been, leaving Alsace more economically oriented to neighboring German-speaking lands. The German language remained in use in local administration and in schools. In 1685, the French king ordered the suppression of French Protestantism but was not applied in Alsace. France did endeavor to promote Catholicism. Strasbourg Cathedral, for example, which had been Lutheran from 1524 to 1681, was returned to the Catholic Church. However, compared to the rest of France, Alsace enjoyed a climate of religious tolerance.

The year 1789 brought the French Revolution and, with it, the first division of Alsace into the departments of Haut-Rhin and Bas-Rhin. Alsatians played an active role in the French Revolution. On July 21, 1789, after receiving news of the storming of the Bastille in Paris, a crowd of people stormed the Strasbourg city hall, forcing the city administrators to flee and putting symbolically an end to the feudal system in Alsace. In 1792, in Strasbourg, Rouget de Lisle composed the revolutionary marching song La Marseillaise, which later became the anthem of France.

At the same time, some Alsatians were in opposition to the Jacobins and sympathetic to the restoration of the monarchy pursued by the invading forces of Austria and Prussia, who sought to crush the new revolutionary republic. When the French Revolutionary army of the Rhine was victorious, tens of thousands fled east before it. When they were later permitted to return (in some cases not until 1799), it was often to find that their lands and homes had been confiscated. These conditions led to immigration by hundreds of families to newly vacant lands in the Russian Empire in 1803–1804 and again in 1808. Among these emigrants were several of our ancestors.

3.1.1. Ancestral Villages in Alsace

Star —Villages where our ancestors lived before immigration to Russia.

Square —Villages where our ancestors lived with no immigration to Russia.

ALSACE.jpg

3.2. Baden History

The lords of Württemberg were first named in 1092. The new Wirtemberg Castle, dedicated in 1083, was the central point of a rule that extended from the Neckar and Rems Valleys in all directions. The family of Baden-Baden was very successful in increasing the area of its holdings, which, after several divisions, were united by Prince Bernard I in 1391.

During the fifteenth century, a war with the count palatine of the Rhine deprived Charles I of a part of his territories, but these losses were more than recovered by his son and successor, Christoph I of Baden. In 1503, under his sons Ulrich II and Eberhard I, and their successors, the power of the family grew steadily.

From 1584 to 1622, Baden-Baden was in the possession of one of the princes of Baden-Durlach. The house was divided during the Thirty Years’ War. Baden suffered severely during this struggle, and both branches of the family were exiled in turn. Its population fell primarily because of death and disease, declining birth rates, and the mass migration of terrified peasants. The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 restored the status quo, and the family rivalry gradually died out.

On the Middle Neckar, in the whole Upper Rhine area and especially in the Electoral Palatinate, the wars waged by the French king Louis XIV from 1674 to 1714 caused further terrible destruction. The duchy survived mainly because it was larger than its immediate neighbors. However, it was often under pressure during the Reformation from the Catholic Holy Roman Empire and from repeated French invasions in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

During the wars of the reign of Louis XIV of France, the area was ravaged by French troops and the towns of Pforzheim, Durlach, and Baden were destroyed. Louis William of Baden-Baden figured prominently among the soldiers who resisted the aggressions of France.

It was the life’s work of Charles Frederick of Baden-Durlach to give territorial unity to his country. Beginning his reign in 1738, and coming of age in 1746, this prince was the most notable of the rulers of Baden. He was interested in the development of agriculture and commerce, sought to improve education and the administration of justice, and proved in general to be a wise and liberal ruler in the Age of Enlightenment.

In 1771, Augustus George of Baden-Baden died without sons, and his territories passed to Charles Frederick, who thus finally became ruler of the whole of Baden. Although Baden was united under a single ruler, the territory was not united in its customs and tolls, tax structure, laws, or government. Baden did not form a compact territory. Rather, a number of separate districts lay on both banks of the Upper Rhine.

In the wars after the French Revolution in 1789, Napoleon, the emperor of the French, rose to be the ruler of the European continent. An enduring result of his policy was a new order of the southwestern German political world. When the French Revolution threatened to be exported throughout Europe in 1792, Baden joined forces against France. Its countryside was devastated in the ensuing battles. In 1796, the region was compelled to pay an indemnity and to cede the territories on the left bank of the Rhine to France.

In 1803, largely owing to the good offices of Alexander I, emperor of Russia, the bishopric of Konstanz, part of the Rhenish Palatinate, and other smaller districts were added to regional control. The prince changed sides in 1805 to Napoleon, with the result that, by the Treaty of Pressburg in that year, he obtained the Breisgau and other territories at the expense of the Habsburgs. In 1806, the Baden prince joined the Confederation of the Rhine, declared himself a sovereign prince, became a grand duke, and received additional territory.

On January 1, 1806, Duke Frederick II assumed the title of King Frederick I and united old and new Württemberg. Subsequently, he placed church lands under the control of the state. In 1806, he joined the Confederation of the Rhine and received further additions of territory containing 160,000 inhabitants. A little later, by the Treaty of Vienna in October 1809, about 110,000 more persons came under his rule. It was at this time that Alexander I, emperor of Russia, issued his invitation for settlers to come to South Russia. Several of our ancestors took up the invitation and left Baden.

3.2.1. Ancestral Villages in Baden

Star —Villages where our ancestors lived before immigration to Russia.

Square —Villages where our ancestors lived with no immigration to Russia.

BADEN.jpg

3.3. Pfalz History

Formerly a Celtic region, this area was conquered by the Roman Empire under Emperor Augustus in about 12 BCE. During the decay of the empire, Alemanni tribes settled here; their territory was conquered by Francia under King Clovis I about 496. From 511 onward the area belonged to the eastern part of Frankish Austrasia.

The Electoral Palatinate was a historical German principality consisting of the Lower Palatinate on the Upper Rhine with its capital in Heidelberg and the North Bavarian territory known as the Upper Palatinate along the Bohemian border.

The origins of the Palatinate lay in the medieval period, when the Lotharingian count palatine secured a territorial base in the Upper Rhine region. The Wittelsbach dynasty acquired the Palatinate with the sanction of Emperor Frederick II in 1214. The Treaty of Pavia (1329) assigned control of the Lower and Upper Palatinate to the elder branch of the Wittelsbach family. The Palatinate’s drive to emerge as the preeminent power in southern Germany stalled during the Bavarian Succession War (1503–1505).

The military setbacks of the early 1500s determined the tentative role that Elector Louis V would play in the early years of the Reformation. Louis remained loyal to the Catholic Church. Palatine forces played a significant role in putting down the Peasants’ War (1524–1525). Frederick II (ruled 1544–1556) first moved the Palatinate in a Protestant direction by promoting a Lutheran church order in 1546, but the imposition of the Augsburg Interim in 1548 halted this development. The Reformation took root in earnest with the accession of Elector Otto Henry (ruled 1556–1559). He established Lutheranism but sowed the seeds of future discord by appointing professors of varying Protestant convictions to the resurgent University of Heidelberg.

The old electoral line died out with Otto Henry’s passing of the Palatinate to Frederick III. By converting to Reformed (Calvinist) Protestantism, Frederick initiated the Second Reformation of the Palatinate. The 1566 Augsburg Diet sealed the de facto legality of the Palatine religious settlement. The Palatinate played an increasingly militant role in European politics, and Palatine forces took part in the French Wars of Religion. Yet another confessional change occurred with the accession of Louis VI (ruled 1576–1583), who reestablished Lutheranism. After Louis’s premature death, John Casimir emerged as the dominant figure in the government of Frederick IV (ruled 1583–1610) and returned the Palatinate to its Reformed activism.

When the largely Protestant Bohemian estates revolted against the Catholic Habsburg king Ferdinand II, igniting the Thirty Years’ War, hostilities also ravaged the Palatine home territories, and Spanish and Bavarian troops occupied the Palatinate. Frederick went into exile, and Emperor Ferdinand II transferred the Palatine and the Upper Palatinate to Maximilian I of Bavaria. The war had a devastating impact on the Palatinate; depopulation estimates in the range of 75–80 percent represented the highest losses of any major territory of the empire.

Frederick’s heir, Charles Louis (ruled 1649–1680), regained the Lower Palatinate and a compensatory eighth electoral vote in the Peace of Westphalia (1648), allowing the territory to begin to recover some of its lost prestige. In the War of the League of Augsburg (1688–1697) the French king Louis XIV’s forces laid waste to the entire Palatine region. The war prompted another wave of emigration, resulting in the resettlement of many Palatines to the mid-Atlantic colonies of British North America.

The accession of the Catholic house of Palatinate-Neuburg (1685), which also possessed the wealthy duchy of Jülich-Berg, led to the legalization of Catholicism, Lutheranism, and Reformed Protestantism. Centuries of animosity between the sundry branches of the Wittelsbach dynasty ended with joint inheritance agreements in 1771 and 1774. However, the Palatinate became a backwater when Charles Theodore of Palatinate-Sulzbach moved the court and administration to Munich. After frequent occupation by French troops in the revolutionary wars, the former territories of the Electoral Palatinate were divided between several neighboring principalities in the imperial recess of 1803. It is with little wonder, living through this turmoil, that many residents accepted the emperor of Russia’s invitation to settle in South Russia and many of our ancestors made the journey.

3.3.1. Ancestral Villages in Pfalz

Star —Villages where our ancestors lived before immigration to Russia.

Square —Villages where our ancestors lived with no immigration to Russia.

PFALZ.jpg

3.4. Ancestral Villages Not Included on Alsace, Baden, and Pfalz Maps

Several other villages where our ancestors lived could not be included in the above maps. These include Birgisch, Valais, and Veldenach, Switzerland; Thann and Baerendorf, Alsace; Bisten and Saint-Avold, Lorraine; Breitingen, Austria; and in Baden, Altregris, Rothenfels, Unterbachlingen, Reicholzheim, Rauenthal, and Mühlbach.

4.0 Second Migration: Russian Steppe

In the late 1700s, Russia drove back the Ottoman Empire, gaining steppe land to the north of present-day Odessa, Ukraine. To ensure that the Russians retained this area, Tsar Alexander issued an invitation to the farmers and tradesmen of the Rhine River region to settle his new lands. Only colonists that were capable agriculturists and artisans would be accepted. The idea was that they would serve as model farmers, winegrowers, animal breeders, and craftsmen in the newly acquired and underdeveloped areas of the Russian Empire. The main points of Alexander’s Manifesto were as follows:

1. Complete religious freedom.

2. Exemption from taxes and other burdens for the first ten years.

3. After the ten years of exemption, the colonists would be treated like any other subject of the empire, with the exception that they would not be required to house troops, except those en route to the battlefields.

4. The colonists were exempt from military service and also civil service. Each one, however, was free to enter the service of the Imperial Crown, but this would not exempt him from the payment of his debts to the crown.

5. To get established, every settler received an advance loan, which he had to repay in the ten years following the decade of exemption.

6. Every family was permitted to bring its movable property duty-free, plus commodities for sale not exceeding 300 rubles in value.

7. Craftsmen were permitted to join guilds and associations. Each one could carry on trade and commerce throughout the empire without hindrance.

8. Through the magnanimity of His Imperial Majesty, all serfdom was abolished in the provinces of Imperial Russia.

9. Every family received from the crown a grant of 30 to 60 dessiatine 1 dessiatine = 2.7 acres of productive land for its use. In addition to the police dues, each family would pay an annual ground tax of 1520 kopecks per dessiatine after the ten years of exemption had expired.

10. Any settler who desired to leave the imperial realm of Russia and return to his native land must first pay his crown debts, plus the taxes for three years for the use of the land.

Having been through many generations of war and persecution, the offer was too good to refuse. Many thousands of farmers and craftsmen made the trek from Germany and France to take up a new life. The overland trip was exhausting and filled with uncertainty. The trip took about three months from the gathering spot at Frankfurt to the Russian border at Radzwilow. They would have needed to travel from their homes to Frankfurt, then after crossing into Russia, they would have had further travels to their destination near Odessa. Overall, the journey covered four to six months.

The following map shows a typical route and timing taken from passport entries. The time and locations on this map are the travels of our ancestor Georg Frey as he traveled as a foster child with the Michael Gandermann family in the spring and summer of 1809.

FS%20CONNECTIONS.jpg

The Frey-Sander connections are made up of many families that made the journey. The table below lists all our known direct ancestors that made the journey either with their families or as single individuals and where they settled. Among the trades of these ancestors were farmers, laborers, teachers, bakers, clerks, bricklayers, tailors, and weavers; but most became farmers on the Russian Steppe.

4.1. Ancestral Villages in South Russia

ANCESTRAL%20VILLAGE.jpg

5.0 Third Migration: The Americas

The German-speaking villages made great progress during the nineteenth century in Russia. Large families, peaceful times, and agriculture soon filled the available land. Starting in the 1870s, the original Russian promises were being eliminated. With great difficulties to provide land for the growing population, our ancestors again looked for new lands. Fortunately, at this time, the Americas were inviting settlers to fill their lands. The Homestead Acts in the USA and Canada providing 160 acres of free land to any adult was hard to ignore. Countries in South America were also open to settlement. Many thousands of families took up the homestead offer from the Canadian and US governments. These settlers populated the prairie states of Nebraska, North and South Dakota, and Montana. The destinations in Canada were mainly Alberta and Saskatchewan. Brazil and Argentina were the main destinations in South America. At this point in time, our ancestors reached their decision. Immigration to Canada! This decision, which must have been very difficult, was to have major implications to the lives of their existing and future families. While great hardships and tears were the result of leaving family and friends to pioneer a new country, possibly greater hardships and tears were avoided. The terrible Russian famines of the 1920s and 1930s were not part of their lives. The great upheavals and death in WWII as well as life in Siberian exile did not have to be faced. Because of their decision, we grew up in relative comfort and security in Canada. The table below lists our direct ancestors who traveled to Canada and where they settled.

6.0 Our Ancestors

Records for our ancestors have been found from the late 1500s through the 1600s and 1700s in the German states of Alsace, Pfalz, and Baden. Records for the 1880s and 1900s are found in Russia and North America. Most records are baptismal, marriage, and death records kept by the Catholic Church. A few are civil records established by the local governments of the time. The earliest ancestors that I have found reference to are Pratoris Ochs and Joannes Lauinger from the Schollbrunn, Baden, church record of the marriage of their children. These eleven-times-great-grandfathers would have been born sometime around 1570. Their children’s marriage record is as follows:

47798.png

17 October 1623 Mathias Ochs son of Pratoris and Catharina

daughter of Joannes Lauinger of Spessart were married.

To begin my ancestry record, I have charted all our ancestors back as many generations as I have been able to find records. Some of these ancestors are connected by marriage so as to make double grandparents. I have removed the duplicate names from the following pedigree charts and included notes where they appear and how they are connected. I have separated the ancestor records into four groups based on my grandparents Anton Frey, Theresia Gass, Ferdinand Sander, and Monica Heck to hopefully make it easier to follow the tree. Later in the appendices of this document, descendant files are included for the four same groups, covering births, marriages, deaths, siblings, and descendants. The appendices also include the original church and civil records that relate to our ancestors.

6.1. Anton Frey Ancestral Charts

Frey001.jpgFrey002.jpgFrey003.jpgFrey004.jpgFrey005.jpg

6.2. Theresia Gass Ancestral Charts

Gass001.jpgGass002.jpgGass003.jpgGass004.jpgGass005.jpgGass006.jpgGass007.jpg

6.3. Ferdinand Sander Ancestral Charts

Sander001.jpgSander002.jpgSander003.jpgSander004.jpgSander005.jpgSander006.jpgSander007.jpgSander008.jpgSander09.jpgSander010.jpgSander011.jpgSander012.jpg

6.4. Monica Heck Ancestral Charts

Heck001.jpgHeck002.jpgHeck003.jpgHeck004.jpgHeck005.jpgHeck006.jpgHeck007.jpgHeck008.jpgHeck009.jpg

7.0 The Frey and Associated Families

Our Frey family originated from Hördt, Germersheim, Pfalz, and includes the associated family names Gallenstein from Hördt and Geiger from Leimersheim.

7.1. Frey Family at Hördt

Hördt is a small village on the west side of the Rhine River about one hundred kilometers northeast of Strasbourg, France. The first record available for our Frey family is a baptismal record for Anna Christina, daughter of Joannes and Anna Margaretha Frey at St. George Church in Hördt, Germersheim, Pfalz, on February 17, 1696. Our ancestor, John George Frey, the brother of Anna Christina, has his marriage to Anna Barbara Gallenstein recorded at the same church on February 5, 1720.

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The 5th February 1720, after 3 proclamations to the church, joined in marriage were honorable

single hard worker John George Frey and maiden Anna Barbara Gallenstein from Hördt.

Excerpts from the History of the Monastery Village Hördt by Max Frey Sr.

The village Hördt was first mentioned between 780 to 802 in a document from the monastery of Fulda by the abbot of Fulda, Baugolfus. This document, which is written in Latin and Anglo-Saxon, indicates the village is called Terhordi. In several parts of the district numerous stone axes and vessels or vessel parts have been found from the Neolithic Age. Two god’s stones are present from the Roman period. While one represents the goddess Juno, the other shows the god Mercury. There is also a Roman stone bridge with inscription from the 2nd century AD. The 9th of February 1103 was a memorable day for the village. A man by the name of Herimannus had built a monastery which was consecrated as the Speyer Cathedral of Our Lady, witnessed by John I Bishop of Speyer and numerous noble witnesses, He also built he village church of St. Georgi before 1103. From then on, the development of the village was closely linked with that of the monastery. In 1540 the court order of the village was formed. It regulates responsibilities and fees of the court and the mayor acts as head. In the same year (1540) the village Hördter order was created. Forest rights and the penalties for violation are given. Arrangements were established for bakers, farmers, butchers, oil millers and penalties for unauthorized grazing. The monastery Hördt was settled by Augustinian canons. The former peasants and artisans were dependant on them, and had to pay many and grievous services. The taxes and levies were almost prohibitive. The monastery was plundered and burned. The peasant uprising of 1525 was a bloody and tragic period. Over 100,000 people were killed and over 1,000 monasteries were destroyed or severely damaged in Germany. Unfortunately the lot of the peasants had become worse than it was before. The following periods of the Reformation and the 30 Years War resulted in the monastery becoming the property of the Palatinate. In the days of the Reformation and the 30 Years War the monastery Hördt with his subjects had to change their religion nine times (Lutheran, Calvinist, Catholic).The French Revolution brought the old monastery foundation to complete dissolution. The large possessions of the monastery were declared the property of the French nation and auctioned. The hundreds of acres of forest were in 1816 under the ownership of the Bavarian state.

At this time, our ancestor Georg was on his way to Russia with family friends.

Hördt Photos from 2019

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The first church at Hördt was called St. George. The St. George name has remained until the present time. The baptismal font dates from 1646, and all our Frey ancestors, including Georg, were baptized at this font.

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The Frey family remained in Hördt where the Frey surname still exists today. Our ancestor George immigrated to Russia, and there is record of the 1870 and 1880 immigration of two Frey brothers to the Ohio-Kentucky border area in the USA. Their descendants are included in the appendices.

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This Frey coat of arms was designed by Max Frey Sr. from Hördt, Germersheim, Pfalz, and shows a farmer of the middle ages who is fighting for his freedom (freiheit). The first record of Freys at Hördt.was in 1646

The descendants of Joannes and Anna Margaretha Frey of Hördt are included as appendix A.1

7.2. Georg Frey Family of Rastadt, Russia

The small village of Rastadt is about one hundred kilometers northeast of the present city of Odessa, Ukraine. The earliest record for our ancestor Georg Frey Sr. at Rastadt is the 1816 census list provided by Karl Stumpp in his book Emigration from Germany to Russia in the Years 1763 to 1862. The listing translation is this:

Gandermann, Michael 39, from Hördt/Germersheim-Pf, his wife Sophia 35, their children, Katharina 9, Valentin 7, Maria 3, Barbara 1 Month, his stepson Georg Frey 21.

The next record available for Georg is the baptism of his son Georg Peter in 1824. He married Regina Wittman and live in München, a village near to Rastadt, most likely living with his father-in-law, Anton Wittmann. Their son Georg Jr., our great-grandfather, was born in 1833, as shown on his baptismal record from the Saratov Catholic Church archives.

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From the colony München, in the year 1833, August 18, I baptized an infant named Johann

Georg, born today, the child of Georg, son of Anton, and legitimate wife Regina, daughter of

Anton Wittman. The godfather was colonist George Matir and godmother was Rosalia Matcova.

Rastadt village was started in 1810 after spending the winter with colonists in Liebenthal. When the settlers arrived at the location about one hundred kilometers northeast of Odessa, Ukraine, the steppe was made up of meter-high buck bearded grass and a weed that the Russians called Burjan. The settlers dug holes in the earth, which they lined with reeds, as the first accommodation while their adobe houses were being constructed. The village started with ninety-six families. In the typhoid epidemic of 1811, about 10 percent of the population was lost. An adobe church was built in 1811 but had limited use until 1814 and remained in use until 1830. München was started at the same time as Rastadt, and since it was only about two kilometers from Rastadt, it remained an affiliate until 1890.

The villages grew and prospered through the rest of the century. To get a view of the life of our Frey ancestors at Rastadt, the book Paradise on the Steppe, by Joseph S. Height, is a good source. Our branch of the Frey family only remained in Russia until the 1890s. At that time, several Frey brothers made the move to North America and settled in Saskatchewan near Regina. Many of the relatives remained in Russia through the revolution and starvation years until they were forced to retreat toward Germany by the German military in 1944. Some families remained in Germany after the war, and for many others, their fate is unclear.

The descendants of Georg Frey Jr. and Maria Eva Heck, our immediate family, from Rastadt and Canada are included in appendix A.2 of this book.

7.3. Anton Frey Family of Rastadt, Russia, and Saskatchewan, Canada

Anton Frey was born in 1876 at Kushnarova near the villages of Rastadt and München, near Odessa, Ukraine, as shown on this baptismal record.

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Anton lived in the village, and verbal history has him as a schoolteacher. He married Theresia Gass and started his family. Our grandfather Anton thankfully came to Saskatchewan in 1910 with his family before the difficult times spread in Russia. Several of Anton’s brothers had immigrated to Canada in the 1890s. They most likely influenced his move to Canada with the expectation of free land. Anton decided to leave Russia and arrived in Quebec City, Canada, on May 26, 1910, with his wife, Theresia, and family aboard the SS Wilihan. His first stop was at St. Peter’s colony near Regina to connect with his brothers, Vincent and Andrew, who immigrated in 1899. He then took up his homestead near Fox Valley in western Saskatchewan. The family lived there until 1926 when they moved to the Fairyland district near Wilkie. His son Eugene, my father, was born in the Fox Valley area. Eugene moved with Anton near Wilkie then, in 1946, moved to the farm near Battleford, where I grew up and lived until 1967. More about Eugene’s life is covered in his history publication The Freys, Pioneers from Russia.

The descendants of Anton Frey are contained in appendix A.3.

7.4. Wittman Family of Hilsbach, Baden

Hilsbach, Sinsheim, Baden, is about seventy-five kilometers northeast of Rastatt, Baden. The Wittman family lived in the area of Sinsheim in the villages of Kirchhausen and Hilsbach for many generations. Our other ancestors associated with the Wittmann family were the Pfoh, Heller, Kuhn, and Burkhard families, all from the area. The earliest Wittman ancestor was a Peter Wittman, born about 1670 in the Sinsheim area. When the invitation to go to Russia came in 1808-09, our grandmother Regina traveled to the village of Rastadt near Odessa, Ukraine, with her parents where she married Georg Frey. Our grandmother Regina Wittman was born in 1802 at Hilsbach, Sinsheim, Baden, as her baptism record shows.

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The 28th of September 1802 Regina Wittman was baptized, legitimate daughter

of Anton Wittman and Anna Maria, née Pfoh, citizens of Hilsbach.

Hilsbach is located in the headwaters of the creek of the same name and was mentioned in the Lorsch codex in the early Middle Ages as Hillersbach. It was first in possession of the earls of Öttingen Hilsbach and was handed over together with Burg Steinsberg on the occasion of a family dispute to the elector of the Palatinate. About 1310, the town was relocated from the valley to the mountain and was surrounded with a fortification wall of up to twenty meters in height. The parish church, built around 1300, is dedicated to St. Michael. In the Peasants’ War in 1525, the peasants looted the recently built winery and then moved to the castle Steinsberg, which was burned. In the Thirty Years’ War, the town was taken by Tilly’s troops, and the population was barbarously slaughtered.

When walking through Hilsbach, many buildings keep the historical past alive. The guardhouse with its imposing colonnade, built in 1808, served as the customs office and office of the night watchman and later as police station and local prison. Only one tower and one cellar have survived from the sixteenth century Palatinate winery. Part of the city wall is also fragmentary.

Kirchhausen together with Ascheim were first mentioned in documents of the monastery of Weissenburg. In both places, probably during the invasion of Hungary in 926, a total of twenty houses and the church were devastated. The devastated church is probably the precursor to today’s St. Alban Church.

The Thirty Years’ War caused great hardship, as everywhere else, and the number of eighty-two estates in the late sixteenth century declined to forty-six in 1681. Only in the middle of the eighteenth century did the place regain its size to that before the Thirty Years’ War.

On August 27, 1797, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe drove through Kirchhausen and noted, Kirchhausen lies between graceful garden and tree plants; behind it is a beautiful view of the mountains of the Neckar; you come through a beautiful grove and through a poplar avenue to France.

Hilsbach Photos from 2019.

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The descendants of Peter Wittman and associated Hilsbach families are contained in appendix A.4.1 and appendix A.4.2.

7.5. Heck Family of Bietigheim, Baden

The Heck family provides ancestors for both my mother’s family and father’s family, hence the term double grandparents I use in this document. I have covered those common Heck ancestors in this Frey section of the document. I have added notes at the appropriate locations to indicate where they are connected.

Bietigheim is located about ten kilometers northeast of Rastatt, Baden. Our Heck and associated ancestors lived near Bietigheim, Rastatt, Baden, for many generations. Our associated ancestors include the Tritsch, Dreixler, Laub, and Schmitt families. The area was an important crossroads during Roman times, when the region was part of the province of Germania Superior.

Presentday Bietigheim church and typical village house.

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The earliest Heck ancestor identified was Nicolai Heck, born about 1640 at Bietigheim. In 1809, a descendant of Nicolai immigrated to the village Speier near Odessa, Ukraine. His son Franz Joseph and wife, Maria Eva Bast, are our double grandparents, with their son Johannes an ancestor of my mother and daughter Maria Eva an ancestor of my father. She married Georg Frey Jr. as indicated in their marriage record.

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The descendants of Nicolai Heck and associated Bietighem families are contained in appendix A.5.1 and appendix A.5.2.

7.6. Bast Family of Steinfeld, Pfalz

The Bast family originated near the France-German border area in the villages of Steinfeld, Pfalz, and Altenstadt, Alsace, a few kilometers east of Wissembourg, France. The associated ancestors are the Hauser family from Steinfeld and the Vaudel, Bohn, Repold, and Marssee families of Altenstadt. The earliest ancestor identified from these families was Peter Marssee, born about 1640 and identified in his daughter’s marriage record:

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25th November 1687 joined in marriage were honorable young Dionisis Bonn from

Altenstadt and Joanna Marssee daughter of Peter Marssee of Altenstadt.

His great-granddaughter would marry our Bast ancestor that immigrated to Russia in 1809, Johann Bast, where they settled in Speier near Odessa, Ukraine. Their daughter Anna Maria would marry Georg Frey Jr. Her baptism record from Steinfeld church records is shown below.

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Today the 5th of August 1804, the 17th of Thermidor, year 12 of the Republic the undersigned

baptized Anna Maria, legitimate daughter of Joannes Bast, farmer, and Eva Margaretha Wodhlet

[Vaudel] residents of Steinfeld. Godparents were Balthasar Schwabel, son of deceased Philipp

Jacob Schwabel and wife Catharina Wist local residents, and Anna Maria Bast unmarried

daughter of Anno Maxio Bast and Michael Wodhlet farmer and local resident who present

with the father all signed below, except the godmother who stated she was unable to write.

Village histories would likely be similar to that of Wissembourg since they are so close together. The inhabitants of Wissembourg were often subjected to looting and deprivation due to wars and brigands. The most renowned among the latter was Jean de Drott, a Palatinate count, otherwise known as Hans Trapp, the legendary figure of Alsatian Christmases. The Reformation came to the town in 1522 when the priest of the St. Jean parish called the preacher Martin Bucer to his side. After the Treaty of Westphalia, which placed the town under French sovereignty, Wissembourg had the privilege of welcoming the exiled king of Poland. Here, Mary, his daughter, received Louis XV’s proposal of marriage, which was proclaimed at the Church of St. Jean in 1725. The people of Wissembourg suffered greatly from wars and reprisals. As a result of conflicts between the abbey and the Palatinate elector, and the Wars of Religion in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the town was ruined by looting and deprivation. Successive armies followed one another—French, Imperial, Swedish, and Austrian as well as troops from Württemberg.

Steinfeld Street and church in June 2019.

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The descendants of the Bast and associated families are contained in appendices A.6.1 to A.6.3.

8.0 The Gass and Associated Families

The Gass family originated from Malsch, Karlsruhe, Baden, which is about fifteen kilometers northeast of Rastatt, Baden. The associated ancestors include the Reissenauer, Reichert, Bissack, and Gresser families.

8.1. Gass Family of Malsch, Baden

The earliest available record of our Gass family was Georg Gass from the first marriage of his son Peter Gass, our five-times-great-grandfather.

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19th Nov 1742 married were honorable Peter Gass, legitimate son of George Gass

citizen of Malsch, to Catharina Acker, daughter of John Acker citizen of Malsch.

Witnesses were George Gass and Martin Kolb citizens of Malsch.

Peter later married Anna Maria Bissack, and their son Joannes Georgius would immigrate to the village of Rastadt near Odessa in 1809.

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23rd July 1767 I Joseph Hauger priest of this Malsch village church baptized an

infant born, the same day and month as above, to Peter Gass and Anna Maria

Bissack legitimately married citizens of Malsch to whom the name given was

John George. Godfather was John George Laube citizen of Malsch.

Joannes Georgius’s four-times-great-granddaughter Theresia Gass became our grandmother.

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Malsch is a municipality in the district of Karlsruhe in Baden. It is situated between the cities of Karlsruhe and Rastatt and lies in the foothill zone of the northern Black Forest, with great likelihood of Celtic origin. Around the year 1100, the then Graf Reginbod, also called Count von Malsch, built the castle Waldenfels in the Spielfinken of the Malscher, Bergwald. Count Reginbodo was probably also the founder of the first St. Cyriak Church in Malsch. From a note in the archives of the Landesdenkmalamt 1824 to 1827, the still existing wall remnants of the castle were removed and used to build or expand this church. In 1318, the village Malsch was sold together with the castle to the monastery Herrenalb. The village and the castle Waldenfels are mentioned in the purchase contract as a fief of the monastery Weissenburg. Over and over the flowering community has been wounded by war, hunger, and plague years throughout its history. During the Thirty Years’ War, the already stately population shrank from 1,400 to 300. The Baden army had been defeated. The emperor’s troops, mostly Hungarians and Croats, poured into the country. Plunder, terror, and murder marked their path. They simply burned down most of the village of Malsch. The strong desire to survive, however, quickly led to a noticeable upswing among the predominantly agricultural population. On July 9, 1796, the Battle of Malsch took place during the First Coalition War. Malsch was taken several times and lost again. The inhabitants had taken refuge in their cellars during the battle so that there were only a few dead. In this turmoil, our ancestors made their way to the Russian Steppe.

Present-day Malsch, Karlsruhe, Baden.

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The descendants of Georg Gass are contained in appendices B.1.1 to B.1.4.

8.2. Gerlein Family of Neupotz and Leimersheim

The Gerlein family originated from Leimersheim and Neupotz, Alsace, which are located about one hundred kilometers northeast of Strasbourg, France. The associated families include the Schlindwein, Heyd, Behr, Becker, Wolff, Heintz, Schardt, Buerkel, and Geiger families, all from Leimersheim and Neupotz. The earliest record for our Gerlein family was from the Leimersheim family book, which lists the family of Laurentius Gehrlein.

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The register identifies Laurentius Gehrlein, aged 60, in 1729 with

wife Anna Barbara Hoffmann and 4 children.

These families connect to the Gass family through the marriage of Ignatz Gass, our three-times-great-grandfather, with Eva Katharina Gerlein at the village Rastadt near Odessa, Ukraine. Eva Katharina immigrated to Russia with her sister Maria Barbara and brother-in-law Michael Bohm. Their parents remained in Germany. Her record of baptism follows:

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The 18th of May 1792, I Christopher Glock, parish priest baptized an infant born today

named Eva Catharina, legitimate daughter of Philip Jacob Gerlein and Maria Elizabeth

Becker, local citizens. Godmother was Eva Catharina Weschel a citizen here.

The small villages are only ten kilometers away from Hördt where the Freys originate. There are finds from Stone Age settlement in the area around Neupotz. The first written mention of Neupotz was in 1270. Again in 1533, the Rhine flood caused great damage. The representatives of the prince-bishop and provost of Hördt decided to build a five-meter wide dam from Jockgrim to Neupotz. However, the dam caused floods to tear away the shores of the fishing village of Potz during the floods of the year. Residents were allowed to move their village away from the Rhine and set it up elsewhere. Starting the year 1535 the new Potz was transformed into today’s Neupotz.

In 1722, the village was described as having water, forests, and fishing grounds. The forests consisted overwhelmingly of oak trees. In the 1800s, grazing cattle, pigs, and especially fishing were the food and sources of income for the population. The clearing of the oak forests allowed increased livestock production. Through the cultivation of