[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] looking for families Stelter and Dreusner

[sandra stelter]

Hi Gilbert

As far as I can determine, the Stelter connection to Moravians came in Canada, not in Volhynia. The 1901 census of the subdistrict of Josephsburg, Assiniboia, NWT lists Stelters as Lutheran. They came in contact with Moravians through visits of Clement Hoyer, Moravian minister at Bruderheim who first visited the Josephsburg/Newburg area southeast of Medicine Hat AB in 1900 (this Josephsburg is not to be confused with the one near Edmonton). Hoyler learned of Ludwig Stelter through a resident of Heimtal (near Fort Saskatchewan) who met Stelter sheep-shearing near Swift Current SK. (These people really got around and had connections far and wide.)

The Andreas Lilge story in From Bush to Bushels, A History of Bruderheim and District, 1983, p, 6 and 7, does include a number of place names in Volhynia. Jerry Frank of SGGEE helped me pinpoint some of these, and I can share that with you, but I don't think they are part of the Stelter story.

The Stelter time in Volhynia seems to be in the area of Elisabetpol where we have Lutheran records of Ludwig and Amalia's first three children. So.....if there is a Moravian connection in the old country, I haven't found it yet.

I will be in touch with you re our common history but just wanted to post this on the list serve in case there are others with this same interest.

Jim and Sandra Stelter



> Date: Sun, 14 Dec 2008 17:23:25 -0500
> From: gstelter at uoguelph.ca
> To: ger-poland-volhynia at eclipse.sggee.org
> Subject: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] looking for families Stelter and Dreusner
> 
> Hello all;
> I joined this group a few days ago and have been impressed by the quality of the research many of you are doing.
> 
> My name is Gilbert (Gil) Stelter and I'm a retired University Professor of History (University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario. My wife and I are planning to go to Volhynia next September.
> 
> Both sides of my family are Germans from Volhynia. My grandfather, Ludwig Stelter, was born in Radwanky(a), Poland in 1855 and migrated to Vladimir-Volensk (near the Polish border) in 1867 with his parents, married Amalia Demm. of similar background, in 1880. They had two daughters, them migrated to Winnipeg in 1867. They must have had contact, or been members of the Moravian Brethern in Poland and Volhynia, because when they eventually ended up in Southern Alberta, they contacted the Moravian communities
> around Edmonton, in particular, Bruederheim, and eventually moved up there.
> 
> Those Moravian communities such as Bruederheim, had been founded by Moravians from Volyhnia in 1894,led by Andreas Lilge, but I have not found any information about where in Volyhnia they came from in the official history of that congregation. Does anyone in this group have more info?  
> 
> My mother's family name was Dreusner ( my email will not allow me to write a u and unlaut)and called themselves Driesner in Canada. They lived in some of the 200 some German settlements just to the north of Zhitomer, about 60 miles west of Kiev. I have the names of the communities involved there and will be visiting them with Donald Miller, whom some of you know, next September.
> But its the Moravian connection I'm looking for at this point.
> Regards,
> 
> Gil Stelter                
> 
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