Re: Enders/Schneider
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In reply to:
Enders/Schnider
Julie Eade 8/28/10
Julie, you say you "were told" that they were both born in Germany and that they travelled from Germany to Russia and then took a boat to the U.S.You failed to cite your source of this information!And your source was wrong!Who or what exactly was the source of this incorrect information?It would of course have made absolutely no sense at all for a family from Germany to go to Russia to get a ship to America!When doing any kind of historical research, Julie, you have to be so very, very careful of your sources!
JOHANN ENDERS and REGINA SCHNEIDER were not from Germany!They were from RUSSIA!There were two major groups of Germans living in Russia -- the Volga Germans (who had settled along the Volga River) and the Black Sea Germans (who had settled down near the Black Sea).Based on where they settled in Cook County, Illinois, namely Bellwood, Johann Enders and Regina Schneider were definitely VOLGA GERMANS.
Passenger arrival records show JOHANN ENDERS, aged 19, a laborer; wife REGINA, aged 22; and daughter LENA, aged 1 year, arriving in NEW YORK on 11 JANUARY 1904 on a ship called the "UMBRIA", which had set sail from the English port city of LIVERPOOL.(They must have taken a ship from the Baltic port city of Libau to England, and then got the "Umbria" out of Liverpool to come to America.)The family is shown as being from RUSSIA, their last place of residence the city of Libau.Their final destination is shown as CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.
As just mentioned, their last place of residence is shown as the Baltic port city of Libau, but that would have actually simply been the port they left from to get to England.The city called in German LIBAU, and today in Latvian LIEPAJA, is located on the Baltic Sea in today's country of LATVIA.Back at that time, Libau was located in what was until 1918 the RUSSIAN PROVINCE of COURLAND.Johann and Regina would have been from a German village somewhere near the city of SARATOV on the Volga, which means that they would have had about a 1200-mile journey to Libau -- (Moscow is about half-way between Saratov and Libau, Saratov being located about 600 miles southeast of Moscow).Particularly because they had a 1-year old daughter with them, they probably did not get off the train in Libau and immediately hop on a ship to England.They probably simply stayed in Libau for a period of time, and thus, Libau appears on their arrival record as their last place of residence.
The Volga Germans are descended from Germans who migrated from western Germany to the Volga River region of Russia back in the 1760s.
The U.S. censuses of 1910 and 1920 show RUSSIA as the place of birth of John, Regina, and Helena (Lena).
You will be able to get the name of the village in Russia where John and Regina were born from their naturalization records.Those would be on file with the Great Lakes Region branch of the National Archives in Chicago.John became a U.S. citizen in 1925, Regina in 1937.
Here is the link to a website that I think you will find very informative:
http://www.ahsgr.org/http://www.ahsgr.org/
(My background, by the way, includes six years studying history at the University of Munich in Germany, in case you may be wondering where my historical knowledge comes from.)
Robert
More Replies:
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Re: Enders/Schneider
Julie Eade 8/30/10
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Re: Enders/Schneider
robert theiss 8/31/10
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Re: Enders/Schneider
Julie Eade 8/31/10
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Re: Enders/Schneider
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Re: Enders/Schneider