[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Sharing your genealogy

[Jack Milner]

Hello Listers.  I thought I would share this summarized history of my 
genealogical research and acknowledge some of the people who contributed 
over the years.

Jack Milner


  The Quest

This is how I fit into the Altwasser family tree. My great grandfather 
was Gottlieb Altwasser, his oldest son Michael was my grandfather and 
Michael's oldest daughter Olga was my mother.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

1996

Back in December 1996, my wife's interest in genealogy emphasized the 
fact that I didn't know anything about my Altwasser grandparents, not 
even their first names. How could this happen?   Surely everybody knows 
about their grandparents..............or don't they? 

In 1997 I managed to make contact with my Uncle Alan Juno, the husband 
of my Aunt Agnes . Unfortunately, Aunt Agnes had passed away the 
previous year so I missed seeing her again. However, she had been 
interested in family history and collected a lot of data on her mother's 
side (Grams) as well as considerable information on the Altwassers. I 
was able to copy all of this information and was the recipient of the 
book "Yellow Grass Our Prairie Community" as well as a copy of "A 
Century of Doms History in Western Canada". It took me several years to 
untangle the various branches and sort out the generations of 
continuously recycled names.

Uncle Alan also told me that Art and Herb Domes were doing an Altwasser 
book. That's why I contacted Art. However, Art wasn't writing an 
Altwasser history book. He thought Karl Lenz in Saskatoon was producing 
the book and he provided me with Karl's address. What a bonanza! Karl 
and I share the same great great grandfather and he had researched the 
Altwassers back to 1775 in Poland. This information he willingly shared 
with me and later published in his own book ["A Journey of Discovery", 
(2005), Karl A. Lenz]. So now I had information about my ancestors in 
Europe, but Karl wasn't doing an exclusive Altwasser book either. The 
Yellow Grass branch of the clan had written a lot about their family 
history, but precious little had been written about great grandfather 
Gottlieb's family. Something had to be done so I started researching 
these family members and writing their stories. The quest had begun.

1997

The first exciting document I found was the 1907 passenger list of the 
SS Victorian showing the names of my grandfather Michael Altwasser and 
his family, their country of origin and their destination in Canada.

Origin...............Russia.................?

Why were they going to Yellow Grass, Saskatchewan..........?

It soon become evident that Yellow Grass was the residence and perhaps 
the first destination in Canada for many of "der Auswanderer" 
Altwassers. Volhynian history eventually revealed why Russia was their 
country of origin.

<>  1999

In 1999, Karl Lenz sent me a copy of an Altwasser Family Reunion 
pamphlet, which contained an absolutely amazing story about the Karl 
Altwasser and Emilie Muth branch of the Altwasser family which had 
remained behind in Volhynia. Some of them had come to Canada in the 
1920's and some after WW II. The Canadian descendants were holding the 
reunion and they had composed this segment of their family story. I now 
possessed written material for three branches of the Altwasser tree. 
Destination: Yellow Grass came on line in April 2001.

2006

Wolfgang Köllner in Germany sent an e-mail saying he thought he had 
connections to some of my extracted EWZ information. His ensuing 
research over the next four year period, combined with my own, produced 
the English Language chronology of Gustav Altwasser and Pauline Langner 
appearing in these pages. Gustav Altwasser and Pauline Langner are the 
grandparents of his wife Elfriede Altwasser.

2007

Three homesteads established by family members in 1907 could have 
qualified for Century Farm status in the Province of Saskatchewan, but 
the bureaucrats stipulated that only one Century Farm designation could 
be awarded per family by the Saskatchewan Government. Herb Domes decided 
to organize a "Jamboree at the Junction" on the homestead established by 
his grandfather Gottlieb Altwasser. During the 2007 Canada Day weekend, 
local residents and direct descendents of Gottlieb paid tribute to the 
pioneer family by marking the historic trails that were travel routes 
before roads and celebrating the Century Farm Award honouring him.

2010

Destination: Yellow Grass continues to evolve with the resurgent 
interest in genealogy and the wonderful technology of the internet. I 
hope you visit Destination: Yellow Grass and enjoy these slices of 
Altwasser family history.

http://members.shaw.ca/d_y_g/

Yours truly,

Jack Milner