[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Dräger / Draeger / Dreger / Schmed / Beck

[Ken Powell]

My particular interest is to track information of my great-grandmother, Julianna Dräger, and her parents Mikhiel Dräger and Wilhelmina Schmed.



My starting point is her confirmation certificate from Kamien (Cholm parish) which show's that she is from the nearby village Kroczyn.  This is in the Lublin province of Poland.

 

My particular interest  is to attempt to locate the specific farm where Mikhiel and his family lived in Kroczyn.


My second priority interest is to confirm Mikhiel's place of birth, and perhaps identify other family members and records (parents, siblings, etc) from that area.  Oral history says that he is from Neu Berlin (Neuberlin, Berlinek) in the Posen province.  Details are below.  In Napoleonic times, the Dräger family ancestors lived in Pomerania, before moving to Posen.

Rgds, 
Ken Powell
kenpowell at sbcglobal.net

------

My starting point of information is Julianna's Confirmation document in German from the Lutheran church in Kamien, Cholm parish, which shows she was from Kroczyn-Kamien and born 21 October/2 November in 188x, where the x is thought to be 1886, or perhaps earlier 

 

[the document shows 1886, but for some reason, the last digit was erased and rewritten - Julianna was confused about both her day of birth and her year of birth - Her gravestone shows that she was born in 1888, but we believe this is incorrect, because her brother Gottlieb was born on March 18, 1889 (d. July 1979) and there were two children born to Mikhiel and Wilhelmina in between Julia and Gottlieb; since Julia was older than Gottlieb, it is more likely that Julia was born in 1886 or before.  (I have the original certificate for reference, but note that on the original both the "6" in 1886 of the birth date and the date of the confirmation 189x were erased and rewritten, so cannot be certain]

 

I also have oral history from the grandson of Mikhiel Dräger with many interesting parts.  

 

1)     My particular priority interest and 1st priority is to attempt to locate the specific farm where Mikhiel and his family lived in Kroczyn, a village of a couple dozen farms, which I visited in 2007.  I also visited the parish church in Kamien, built in 1881, which is now used solely for Catholic services; I made contact with the assistant pastor there; they do not have access to the former Lutheran records.

 

I will provide additional information from oral and written sources based on memory, but none from official documents.

Mikhiel Dräger had a farm in Kroczyn, where he raised 260 Morgan horses.  

Mikhiel's wife was Wilhelmina Schmed.  

Mikhiel and Wilhelmina had 9 children (anglicized spelling): John, Paulina, Julia (Julianna), Helen, Rudolph, Gottlieb, Susan, Otella, Mike (named after his father).  John was born in 1882, Gottlieb in 1889. I believe the children are listed in order of birth.

Mikhiel was born in 1850 in Neu Berlin in Posen (thought to be Neuberlin, Neu-Berlin, Berlinek today located just south of Jeziora Wielka ("Großsee" in German)), which is south of Strzelno.  I also visited this settlement of a few farms in 2007.  Mikhiel died in 1924 in Berlin.

Mikhiel had 12 siblings.

2)     My second priority interest is to confirm Mikhiel's place of birth, and perhaps identify other family members and records (parents, siblings, etc) from that area.

[It is known that Mikhiel's children John, Paulina, Julia and Gottlieb left Kroczyn and went to Wisconsin at different times.  John left in 1903 via Dusseldorf.  Julia and Gottlieb left in 1906, and went to John's farm in Wisconsin.  It is not known when Paulina left.  Paulina later moved to Canada. Julia moved to Mancelona Michigan and married Frederick Conrad (known as Weiss before he left Germany), and later to Cadillac Michigan, where she remarried to Albert Mauritz Nyman.  Gottlieb and John stayed in Wisconsin, and today have many family descendants there, today spelling the family name as Dreger.  John married Katherine Beck.  It is also said that John's parents (Mikhiel and Wilhelmina) and Katherine Beck's parents, knew each other (from their time in Posen).]

It was said that Mikhiel was known as a "wealthy peasant" and was also called the "rich Dräger".  He sold horses to the Russian army, and he owned mortgages on neighbor's farms.  

Later it was said that during the Revolution, his land was confiscated by the Russians and he and his wife Wilhelmina spent time in the salt mines in Siberia. Wilhelmina died while at the salt mines.  Mikhiel later returned to Berlin in 1924 and died at the age of 74.

Mikhiel's son Rudolph was taken prisoner by the Russians during World War I and was sent to Siberia.

Mikhiel's mother was the sister of a German general.

3)     My third interest is finding information regarding Mikhiel's farm, mortgages, both while he raised horses and farmed, and later as his farm was confiscated "during the Revolution".

 

4)     My forth interest is locating any information regarding the deportation to Siberia for Mikhiel and Wilhelmina, either specific to them, or in general in the context of the history during this period.

 

5)     My fifth interest is identifying more information regarding Mikhiel's parents and grandparents.  Who was Mikhiel's mother? Who was her brother the German general? It was also said that "during Napoleonic times" the Dräger family had lived in Pomerania near the Baltic coast, and later moved to Posen.  Is it possible to identify earlier generations, perhaps in Pomerania?

 

6)     Several other questions arise - it is not likely that specific answers can be feasibly found from research, but I pose them here, in case information is more easily available than expected:

a.     Where was Mikhiel born, and when did he move from there to Kroczyn?

b.    When did Mikhiel Dräger marry Wilhelmina Schmed? Where?

c.     Where were the birthplaces of Mikhiel's children?

d.    Under what terms did Mikhiel obtain mortgages on neighbor's farms? For what purpose?

e.     On some old maps Kroczyn is shown as Kolonia Kroczyn (with other Kolonia villages in the area) - what is the meaning and history of these "Kolonias"?

f.     How much land did Mikhiel own? Where?

g.    Under what terms did Mikhiel sell horses to the Russian army? How many did he sell over time?

h.     What other information can be obtained about his farm or sales of horses or goods?

i.      Why was Mikhiel called the "rich Dräger" - is this a term such as "kulak" that basically means "landowner"?

j.      Why did Mikhiel lose his farm? When? 

k.     When, why and how were Mikhiel and Wilhelmina sent to Siberia? To where? Why were they sent there? Who sent them? Were they part of a mass deportation? Or sent individually?

l.      When, why and how did Mikhiel leave the salt mines in Siberia and return to Berlin? How long were they there? How did Mikhiel get out?

m.   Where specifically did Mikhiel's parents have a farm (assumed) in Neu-Berlin (according to oral history)? Are there records of ownership? Are there records in the local parish (Grosssee; Strelno?)

n.     Who were Mikhiel's parents? Which generation lived in Pomerania, and where?

o.    What happened to Rudolph after he was sent to Siberia?  Did he return? Did he have family?

p.    Are there any other family members in Germany or Poland today?

q.    Were Katherine Beck's parents from Posen also? Where was Katherine Beck born? Where were her parent's born?

 

Information on Julia Dreger:

There has been some confusion as to when Julia was born. For years we celebrated her birthday in September, but later changed to November. Her tombstone says that she was born in 1888; however we think that is incorrect as Gottlieb was born in 1889, and there were two children born to Mikhiel and Wilhelmina Dreger between Julia and Gottlieb. Julia was older than Gottlieb, so more than likely Julia was born in 1886 or before.

 

[Here is information on Julia Dreger's Konfirmation certificate given to her by her local church in Kamien, translated from the original German - copy is available below]

 

Remembrance on the Day of Confirmation

Julianna Dräger from Kroczyn, born on 21 October / 2 November / 1886 and baptized in the

Parish Cholm has been confirmed, after receiving instruction in the Word of God, on 7/19 June

189? in the Lutheran Church at Kamien, and afterward participated for the first time in the Holy

Communion.

(signed)

Dein Seelsorger ("your soul-care-taker")

your Pastor

W. Kernitz

Lutheran Pastor

 

[The dual dates are due to two calendars in use - the first date is the Russian Orthodox eastern calendar, the second date is the German Lutheran western calendar - 12 days difference here. So Julia was in fact born on 2 November, probably in 1886, or earlier. The year of confirmation appears to be 189x, but it is smudged and unclear, and this last digit was also erased and rewritten on the original document. This church is still standing in the countryside between Kamien/Kamien-Kolonia today, about 10 miles southeast of Chelm (Cholm), Poland - it was built in 1881.