Chapter 3: Reconnecting & Finding Hidden Treasures

I'm back in Vancouver after a great visit with family and friends in Winnipeg & Belair.  It was really nice to re-connect and catch up with everyone.  Vancouver may be where my life is now, but I think Winnipeg will always be home.

Toasting Dad with Tara, Aunty Ellie, and Aunty Hedy at the 8th tee - 2014 Al Niemar Memorial Golf Tournament, Grand Pines Golf Course

On the fairway at Grand Pines with Tara & Derek

With Mum & Tara at The Forks in Winnipeg

Sharing some laughs with Tara and my beautiful niece, Holly, in Winnipeg

While we were out at the cabin in Belair, Tara and I had a chance to sort through some papers in an old chest of drawers of Dad's that we hadn't really looked at yet.  We like to do this together, and since I'm typically only in Winnipeg once a year, it's taken some time to sort through it all...Dad liked his stuff.

One thing that really struck me as we were looking through everything was how many photos and keepsakes (cards, invitations etc.) that Dad had kept.  I think it's a real testament to how important his friends and family were to him.  Looking through all of those old photos was also good for a laugh...there was a lot of big hair in the 80's!

There were also some real treasures tucked away in those drawers...

• I found a photo of my Oma's father, Karl.  I still don't have information on the birth dates & places of either of her parents, and I think this will be the next piece of the puzzle that I try to figure out.
  
• A copy of the Neimor family tree that was put together for the 1992 family reunion.  I'm sure I had my own copy of this at some point, but I'm guessing that my 14 year-old self didn't really see the value in hanging on to it.
• Several documents relating to Opa Charlie's service in WWII, including:
• His St. John's Ambulance Certificate from the Canadian Army along with his Identity Certificate from the Field Ambulance unit of the RCAMC.
• His Canadian Army Soldier's Service Book.  The service book was a part of his Army identification, and had to be carried with him at all times.  There is some interesting information in here that's given me a bit of insight into his time in the war.  There's a very long list of all the "protective inoculations" he received (mainly for typhus & diphtheria); so many, in fact, that an extra page had to be stapled into the book.  There's also a section in the book for information about bank accounts and personal effects.  There are many abbreviations in this section that I don't understand, but I can make out some of the service medals Opa Charlie earned during the war, including a badge for good conduct, 5 red service chevrons, his Italy Star, France Star, and Germany Star.  
• Receipts - one from the Dept. of Veterans Affairs in 1948 in the amount of $728.69 for "household equipment" purchased the house at 772 Talbot Ave. in Winnipeg (that works out to about $7,600.00 in 2014).  The second is from the Dept. of National Defence, and is a "Statement of War Service Gratuity" which was paid out to Opa upon discharge (his discharge date was Nov. 13, 1946...my birthday is Nov. 13...kinda cool!).  According to the statement, Opa served 1772 days in the army, of which 1579 were overseas.  For all of this, he received $485.20 (about $5,800.00 today...according to the Canadian Inflation Calculator).
  

Thanks again for reading, my plan of attack, for now, is to try and find out more about Oma's parents.
Christine

Chapter 2: Arrrghhhh! (aka excitement, frustration & patience)

Thanks to everyone who read my last post!  I know it was a lot to read...I really did try to keep this post shorter...promise!

Also, a shout out to Aunty Ellie for connecting me with her (and dad's cousin), Sharon Shultz, on Facebook.  Sharon's done a lot of work already on exploring her own family tree, and very kindly sent me a couple of documents related to my own search (more on that later).  There's a Neimor family group on FB with some pretty interesting reading. Through the hard work & research of others, I've managed to trace my 5x great-grandfather from my dad's side all the back to Jacob (or Jakob) Neumaier, born in 1721 in Seewiesen, Bohmerwald (Bohemian Forest).  In trying to figure where exactly Seewiesen is, I stumbled across a couple of other blogs & web sites written by people in Germany who had traced their own family's move from Bohemia to Bukovina, where, coincidently (???) my great-great-grandfather, Christian Neumohr, was born in 1851.  I have no idea if I am distantly related to those people or not, but it seems like there were many families that made that move.  I need to learn to read German ASAP!

As I mentioned above, Sharon was kind enough to send me the following three documents (which she got through Ancestry.com):

1. Manifest of "Alien Passengers for the United States" on board the SS Marine Marlin, sailing from Southampton on 28 Feb., 1948, destined for NY.

2. The British version of the ship manifest.  This has similar information, but also lists an address in the UK.

Here's what I find interesting...on the American version of the ship's manifest, Oma's nationality/country of citizenship is listed as Great Britain.  On the British manifest, there's nothing listed about citizenship, though it does indicate that the country of last permanent residence for my Opa, Oma, and Uncle Len (who was actually born in Oldenberg, NOT England as I had previously posted), is Canada.  I don't know if I'm reading more into this than I ought to, and this is just how it was in order to make passage to Canada easier, or if Oma actually had to become a British citizen in order to get into Canada.  

3. A copy of the index page for marriages registered un England and Wales in Jan-March of 1948.  The only info I can really get from this is that Oma and Opa were married in Paddington district.  The volume and page numbers listed are required to get an actual copy of the marriage certificate itself.  This may be useful info to have down the line if Aunty Ellie or Aunty Hedy don't have a copy of the marriage certificate itself.

And now for the frustration and patience...

After reading the documents that Sharon sent to me, I was super excited to see what I could find on my own.  Specifically, I was hoping to find some record of my Oma's birth, maybe in immigration document with some info about where my grand-parents entered Canada after landing in NY, and possibly something from the war records about my Opa's involvement in WWII.  After about 4 hours of searching, and $35.00 worth of "free trials" on Ancestry.com, I have yet to find anything new...no birth certificates, no obituaries, no military records...it's like Opa and Oma barely existed!  It was NOTHING at all like on "Who Do You Think You Are"?...after today I'm on the verge of thinking that that whole show is just a glorified pro-mo for the website.  

One interesting thing I learned is that there was another Hedwig Wachowiak married in the UK.  This Hedwig, was married in 1949, after Oma was already in Canada, and her married was Wachowiak, so no family scandal there!

Anyway...I know Uncle Jack has used Ancestry for his Fraser research, I'll have to pick his brain about search tips.  The Ancestry site also suggested contacting geneology societies, so I guess I can try that in the mean time.  Also looking forward to chatting more with Aunty Ellie and Aunty Hedy in Winnipeg next week.  

Thanks for reading. Wish me luck on my search.

Chapter 1: The Journey Begins!

I've decided to start investigating my family history on the Niemar side.  It's something that I've been thinking about starting for quite some time now.  I guess the Who Do You Think You Are? marathon I watched over the weekend finally gave the me the inspiration I needed.  There are lots of reasons why I've chosen to start this journey by focusing on the Niemar side (for now).

Christmas, 1983 or 1984.  Tara, Dad, me & Oma...and...Ferdie and Nanine, of course!

1. I already have a strong connection to my mum's side of the family, thanks, in large part, to the efforts of my mum's brother, Jack, and cousin, Jean, to research and compile a pretty detailed Fraser family history & family tree.  My mum's dad, Robert Charles Fraser, was one of 12 (I think), and she has more than 30 first cousins, and at least as many second cousins.  I've been attending Fraser family gatherings my whole life, and while the family is smaller and more geographically spread out now than I was when I was younger, it never really seemed as large as it actually is.  I think that has a lot to do with the effort that all of the first cousins make to stay in touch, and the vitality of my grandfather's surviving brothers and sisters.  There's just something about hearing your 100 year-old great-aunt share stories about the past that automatically makes you feel more connected to your family...who wouldn't want to be related to a woman that shows up for her 100th birthday party on the back of a motorcycle?!

Aunt Peg arrives for her 100th Bday party in Kelowna (July, 2013)

On the Douglas side (mum's maternal side), my grandma filled in lots of details there.  Tara and I spent a lot of time with my grandma when we were younger, and she always entertained us with stories not only of my mum's childhood, but of her own as well.  My grandmother has even convinced me that the stories of the Black Douglas Clan, and their connection to Robert The Bruce, that she made me read are really a part of my own family's story...perhaps that's something to investigate further once this leg of my journey is over.

2.  I feel like I don't really know a whole lot about my dad's side of the family, relatively speaking.  My parents' separation likely played a significant role here, as Tara and I just didn't spend as much time with my dad and his family as we did with my mum and hers (no judgement here...that's just the way things worked out).  Secondly, my dad's extended family weren't really in Winnipeg.  I remember attending a few family gatherings for my Opa's side when I was younger, but those were out of town, as much of my dad's father's family lived in Saskatchewan or elsewhere.

Neimor Family Reunion - on the family farm in Sask., 1981 (I think)...more on the last name change in another post

More from the farm in 1981, I'm in the front, on my dad's lap.  Oma is front row, far left.  My cousin Jason & his mom (my dad's sister) Ellie are also in the front row.  My uncle Len (dad's brother) is in the back, holding my cousin Shanna...sorry about the unflattering pic Uncle Cal, it was the only one I have :-)

Another Neimor Family Reunion - Boyle, AB, 1992.  I'm in the back row, 5 in from the right side.

Furthermore, my Oma had fewer siblings than my Opa, and none of them lived in Winnipeg.  Her younger brother, Joe, visited Winnipeg the most.  Joe moved to NYC after WWII.  Her sisters, Elly and Maria, stayed in Germany.  I remember them coming to visit once, but my Oma used to go back to Germany to visit quite often.  I have no memory of meeting Oma's brother, Frank, who lived in BC.

Uncle Joe and Dad (Winnipeg)

Finally, I think the difficult, and sometimes tragic, events of my Oma's life in Germany during the inter-war period & WWII was just not something she wanted to re-live and/or talk about with many people, let alone her young granddaughter.  By the time I was old enough to start to understand and appreciate what her life as a young woman must have been like, it was too late; my Oma was tragically killed by a hit-and-run driver in 1993.  

Since my own father has passed away, just over six years ago now, I think I feel more motivated to find out more about my Oma, and her family, because I know that the number of people who know her, and with whom I can talk about her will only grow smaller over time.  I have had conversations with my Aunty Hedy & Aunty Ellie (dad's sisters) about Oma since dad died, but I never really wrote any thing down, and so some of my (limited) knowledge now seems a bit fuzzy to me.  

Here's what I DO know, for sure:

School photo from Germany.  I'm not exactly sure how old she is here, but Oma is in the front row, second in from the right.

• Oma (nee Hedwig Wachowiak) was born in Essen, Germany, on September 21, 1921.  
• She had two brothers (Frank and Joe), and two sisters (Elly and Maria)
• Oma's mother passed away when she was quite young.  Shortly after that, her father (Karl), left the children (to an orphanage, I think) in order to join the Russian Army, and fight against the Germans on the Eastern Front.  I don't know what happened to him, and it's definitely something I want to learn more about.
• Oma didn't attend school much after she was about 13 years-old or so, and at some point, she worked as a domestic, I believe for an opera singer & his family.

• She met my Opa (Charlie) in Germany, after the war, in 1945.  They were married in London, England in 1948, where my Uncle Len was born, and moved to Canada shortly afterwards.

Oma & Opa's wedding photo; London, England, 1948

WHAT'S NEXT????

I'm headed to Winnipeg in August.  When I'm there, I hope to find out a bit more about my Oma's life in Germany, and about her parents & then I will determine where to look next.

Thanks for reading!