Grande Prairie & District Branch
Alberta Genealogical Society

Heritage Seekers
March 1997 Vol. 20, No. 1


Table of Contents:


Meetings

Executive

Upcoming Events

"Biscuits & Boasts" - Compiled by Catherine Ledger

Results of the "BISCUITS & BOASTS" Evening at the Grande Prairie Branch Meeting, February 18 1997

Thanks to all who participated by filling in their "My Ancestors Can Beat Your Ancestors" questionnaire from the December 1996 newsletter. Thanks also to those who showed up at the meeting dressed as their favourite ancestor. Paulette Hrychiw actually made her entire outfit from scratch!! I think we can agree that the evening turned out to be quite entertaining and informative.

Some questions resulted in several appropriate answers so we have included many of the most popular along with any that seemed to be winners "hands-down".

1) Most unusual occupations:

2) Most unusual place of birth:

3) Most unusual cause of death:

4 a) Most number of children to one father

4 b) Most number of children to one mother:

5) Most unusual combination of names:

6) Most given names:

7) Most generations with the same name:

8) Most unusual community name:

9) Youngest age at marriage:

10) Oldest age at marriage:

11) Most number of siblings marrying siblings:

12) Most number of wars a single line of family was in:

Merna Nelson AGS #533

Merna is a charter member of the Grande Prairie & District Branch and for 16 years Merna filled the role of Grande Prairie Branch, A.G.S. Historian.

The Grande Prairie & District Branch was 'conceived' in 1977 and officially 'born' in 1978. Merna was a charter member and always did her share for the Branch and the Alberta Genealogical Society. Merna was our first treasurer and held that position two times: 1978 to 1981, and 1985 to 1986. Along with this, she took on the Historian job in 1980 and kept it until last year, 1996. She was also involved in almost everything else that the society was doing: recording cemeteries, raising money, travelling to conventions, or just helping with the general working of the society.

The scrapbook that you made to record those first years of the Branch will hold a place of honor among the Branch's holdings at the Grande Prairie Public Library. When you are home each year in the Peace, we will expect to see you at meetings and active in the Branch activities.

We all say, "Thank You, Merna, for all your years of dedicated work."

Michael Schmaus (1851-1915) - Debby Was

The following story is about the family of Michael Schmaus, one of my great-great-grandfathers on my father's side of the family. The name "Schmaus" means "feast" in German. The name is not very common in North America and I have had a fair amount of success tracing related families. I have included information about the known Schmaus family that immigrated from Germany.

Michael was born June 11, 1851 in Nietendorf, Kilham, Bavaria, Germany according to his registration of death. His parents were Sabastian Sr. and Catharina (Stang) Schmaus and his family was Roman Catholic. According to information received from another Schmaus descendant and family researcher, Michael had several older siblings, all born in Germany:

There may have been another sister, Maria. A relative sent me a picture of Maria Thomas with 2 of her grown children. The back of the picture says: "Maria Thomas with daughter Anne and son Joe. in Germany Frank Schmaus sister taken 1948."

According to their "Letters of Intent," signed in Minnesota in Feb., 1878, Michael, Frank and Sebastian Jr. emigrated to the United States on July 01, 1873. I believe the family may have started out in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin.

Frank met his wife, Katarina Steil in Beaver Dam and married on April 21,1874. Their first two children, Flora and Frank, Jr. were born in Wisconsin. Their next child, Sophia, was born in Cedar Rapids, Idaho. Another three children (George, Mary & Gertrude) were born in Minnesota and the last five children (Katie, Walberga, Joseph, Emma & Edward) in South Dakota.

Michael's first child was a daughter (my great-grandmother) Theresia Schmaus born on May 13, 1884 in Wakefield, Minnesota. His wife's name was Elizabeth (maiden name not mentioned on the birth record). In 1883, Michael and his elder brother, Frank must have left their families in Minnesota, while they travelled to Nutley Township, South Dakota to obtain land. Frank and Michael are mentioned in the local history books for Nutley as being among the first settlers to come to the area in 1883. The families must have come later and between 1885 and 1891 Michael and Elizabeth had four more children:

In March of 1893, Elizabeth was pregnant with another baby. According to stories related to one of my relatives, Michael had to go into town to get supplies and Elizabeth stayed at home to look after the farm. After feeding the stock, she went into premature labour. Both Elizabeth and the baby died. A cousin found Elizabeth's grave in South Dakota. As near as she could read the words on the worn stone, the grave marker states:

When I had this translated, I was told it meant, "O think if ascension will wait for you, then you will separate gladly to the mortal kingdom." I have found no documentation with Elizabeth's maiden name on it. (Can anybody help me?)

Within a few months, Michael remarried. His second wife was an 18 year old Polish girl named Maria Steppa. By 1899, Maria and Frank had 3 more children:

The 1900 South Dakota census shows Michael, Maria and 8 children living on a farm in Nutley Township, Day County, South Dakota. By 1901 (1901 Canadian census), the family is living in Ross Creek, North West Territories (Alberta after 1905). On July 7, 1902, Michael applied for a homestead on NW 20 53 18 4.

Six more children were born over the next few years (I am not sure of birth order):

On Feb 8, 1905, Michael became a "Naturalized citizen" of Canada.

In the autobiography, Pioneering in the West by Father Boniface, O.F.M., the Schmaus farm is mentioned on pages 46-47:

Michael must have been in the German army before he emigrated to the USA. According to a relative in South Dakota, Michael's brother Frank had served in the German Navy before emigrating and was entitled to a pension that he never collected.

This relative was told that Michael was the most handsome of the Schmaus brothers and that he was very mischievous. Apparently, he could play the violin and the mouth organ. He was also Godfather to her husband, Eddie Schmaus (Frank's youngest son).

My grandmother, Thelma Treit, told me that she remembered that her grandfather had lost a leg before he passed away. Michael died on June 2, 1915 and is buried in the Ross Creek cemetery. His marker reads:

Among the four known children of Sabastian Sr and Catherina Stang, they had 39 live children. Sabastian Sr and his wife, Catharina were living in Cold Spring City, Minnesota in 1892.

Rosina married George Rappel. They had six children (Joseph, George, Susanna, Gertrude, Catharina & Johann) and were living in Rockville, Minnesota in 1892. Ironically, their oldest child, Joseph, settled on a farm in Spirit River, Alberta after living in the Dakotas and Saskatchewan. Today, there are still descendants living in the Peace Country.

Sebastian Jr. married Theresia Eichhamer and lived in Luxemburg, Minnesota in 1892. They had 8 children (Johann, Anna, Theresia, Joseph, Michael, Martin, Rosina & Peter).

Frank and Katarina settled in Drywood Lake, Roberts County, South Dakota. Some of Frank's descendants live in and around Sisseton.

Some of Michael's children moved to the Barrhead area in Alberta. The Schmaus' are mentioned in the local history books, The Golden Years and Pride In Progress. Unfortunately, I am not in touch with any of these cousins.

I would love to hear from anyone who can help me with research on this family. I am particularly interested in finding the photograph of Michael in his military uniform. I would love to have a copy of this photograph to include in my collection.

Address Update

A new address has been received if you wish to obtain complete entries of information listed in "Death Notices from the Christian Guardian", and "More Notices from Ontario's Methodist Papers".

These books are indexes and they are in our library collection. The author of the books listed will (for a fee) supply information in the original article.

Write to: Donald A. McKenzie, 32 Morris Street, Ottawa, Ontario K1S 4A7

Old Newspapers

Births, marriages and deaths as contained in the Grande Prairie Herald newspaper. Continued from the December, 1996 issue of "Heritage Seekers", submitted by Joan Bowman

Jun 9, 1920 Issue:

Jun 15, 1920 Issue:

Jun 22, 1920 Issue: (More in this issue on the above mentioned unsolved murders)

Jul 6, 1920 Issue: No births, marriages or deaths found.

Jul 13, 1920 Issue:

Jul 20, 1920 Issue:

Jul 27, 1920 Issue: No births, marriages or deaths found

Aug 3, 1920 Issue:

Aug 10, 17, and 24, 1920 Issue: No births, marriages or deaths found

Obituaries - Grande Prairie - 1996

Names taken from the obituaries in Grande Prairie's newspaper "The Daily Herald-Tribune" from January to December, 1996

Names in ( ) indicate a woman's maiden name. Names in [ ] indicate a previous married name.

The obituary index consists of index cards, on which the actual obituary from "The Daily Herald-Tribune" in Grande Prairie has been pasted. As well, funeral cards, thank you notices, memorials and notices to creditors & claimants have been included where applicable. If there were other news articles containing information of the deceased, these have also been collected.

This obituary file covers the period from 1978 to the present. Past issues of "Heritage Seekers" which contain surname lists of these obituaries are:

Our Research Committee will search any surname for a SASE. If copies are requested, you will be notified of the number of entries available and copying costs (approximately 25¢/copy).

Library News

As of this newsletter, I am going to use a new format for the library report. I hope to provide a more useful report on the resources available in the Grande Prairie & District Branch, AGS Library. Our collection is housed in the Isabel Campbell Room in the Grande Prairie Public Library. The resources are available to the public during any regular library hours.

Our collection consists of genealogical newsletters from various parts of Canada, a few newsletters from the USA, several genealogical periodicals, books, maps & atlases, an obituary file, videos, microfiche and microfilm. We have the entire 1891 & 1901 Canadian census on microfilm. Obituaries from the Daily Herald-Tribune, 1979-1990 are also on microfilm (alphabetical by surname). There is also a book of Grande Prairie & District Branch member's ancestor charts.

Besides the branch collection, the Grande Prairie Public Library has many resources available for local & genealogical research. Any genealogical queries sent to the public library are usually referred to the GP & District Branch researchers: Paulette Hrychiw & Joan Bowman.

In this report, I would like to discuss the Isabel Campbell Newspaper index. Although this resource belongs to the GPPL, it is one of the most used resources for local history. The index was started by Miss Campbell, a local historian. Realising that a need existed to locate local information printed in the newspaper, Miss Campbell indexed the papers from 1913 until 1960. Her index is on catalogue cards and is searchable by surname or by subject. Starting with the 1960 newspapers, the Grande Prairie Public Library continued the indexing with the help of volunteers and through special projects (SEED & UIC).

To date the index consists of:

The index does not include the name of every person mentioned in the paper. What it does include is: local news or news important to the Grande Prairie district. Each article is analysed and the three most pertinent subjects from that article are indexed. The subjects could be general (e.g.: schools, churches, accidents, forestry, etc.), by location (e.g.: Sexsmith, Clairmont, St. Joseph Catholic Church, Montrose Junior High School, etc.), by business name (Ainsworth Lumber Co. Ltd., Canfor, Weyerhaeuser Canada Ltd. etc.) or by surname (Doe, John). If you are having trouble locating an article, try using alternative subject titles. For instance - accidents could be located under: accidents, the location of the accident, persons involved in the accident, or RCMP.

I hope this article will encourage people to use this wonderful resource. Grande Prairie is the only city north of Edmonton with a newspaper index. Reference staff at the library are available to assist patrons in the library. The "Genies in the Library" can also offer some advise on using the index.

For individuals who cannot come to the library because of distance, you can contact one of our researchers at our post office address.

There is a charge for any photocopying. Please be specific in your requests, as our researchers volunteer their time.

If you require help with the G.P. Branch library, contact me I'm always glad to give a helping hand.

Debby Was

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October 15, 1997