[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Tsarist Draft - update

Thu May 30 10:24:12 PDT 2013

You know your family is checking up on your research when your Uncle reads the Listserv email, tells his wife and your Aunt calls your Mother to check on details of my Oma's fiancé story and calls me to clarify the story.... lol!!

I now vaguely remember the other details, but foolishly had not written them down!

Sooo.. to update my email.....apparently the real story is  ----  my Oma and her fiancé plus two wagonsful of immediate family and wedding party headed off to be married in the town, leaving the remaining wedding guests at home awaiting the return of the bridal couple for the traditional celebration meal.  However, when Oma and her beau arrived in the town, they were told by the officiant (be it minister or registrar)  they could not be married because the fiancé was in the army and, as such, could not be married. 

So, everyone returned home disappointed, but enjoyed the wedding feast anyway so as not to waste good food and apparently Oma and her fiancé shook hands and he departed.  

Neither my Mom or Aunt remember the date - although Oma would have been 19 years old in the summer of 1914 so the time would have been about then. Whether the fiancé was home on furlough or had just been drafted and wanted to marry before going off to fulfill his duty, no one knew either. I guess the Russian government did not want pay a military pension to potential widows and orphans.... just in case.

But apparently the fiancé  survived the wars - First and Second - as members of both families heard updates of each other at various times.  He had also married and had a family.  Something like "jungle drums", "someone knew someone who had heard from someone that so and so had etc. etc "  And so the news was passed along from friend to family to friend and so on.  Today it's Twitter and Facebook....

Thank goodness for their good memories.  I think the telling of family stories was and still is entertainment.   But I need to write some of these down sooner than later.....

Helen

---------------------------------

The wise man must remember that while he is a descendant of the past, he is a parent of the future. 
--Herbert Spencer

________________________________
 From: Helen Gillespie <hgillespie at rogers.com>
To: gpvjem <gpvjem at sasktel.net>; "DLPratt123 at aol.com" <DLPratt123 at aol.com>; "ger-poland-volhynia at sggee.org" <ger-poland-volhynia at sggee.org> 
Sent: Wednesday, May 29, 2013 8:22:44 AM
Subject: Re: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Tsarist Draft

My grandfather, EMIL BETHKE (1893-1976), was in the Czar's navy, based in the Finland Basin in 1917 when the Revolution broke out.  He was drafted - but I don't know when.  He was born in 1893 in Pempkov, north of Kostopol, in Wolhynia.  Apparently he could not speak Russian at the beginning. This was a problem because the system was that the men were lined up according to height, and he, being a very tall man (at least 6'3") was supposed to be at the front - and legend has it that the person in charge of training was agreeable to Opa being next in line until he was able to understand sufficient Russian.  So, yes, there was a draft but am not sure when he was drafted.

Also, before the 1915 deportation to Siberia, my grandmother ALWINE BAIER (1895-1981), had been engaged to marry, but her fiancé was drafted and was never heard from again.  Unfortunately, I don't know his name or the date he was drafted, but he too would have been German.

PS  there is info on the history of Conscription in Russia - 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscription_in_Russia 

so it looks like the draft age was 20 years 

So something else to add to my Opa's military service information.  However, when the Revolution broke out, the navy was disbanded and he went in search of his family who were deported in July 1915.....He found them....and my grandmother whom he married in December 1917.

Helen

---------------------------------

The wise man must remember that while he is a descendant of the past, he is a parent of the future. 
--Herbert Spencer

________________________________
From: gpvjem <gpvjem at sasktel.net>
To: DLPratt123 at aol.com; ger-poland-volhynia at sggee.org 
Sent: Tuesday, May 28, 2013 9:28:26 AM
Subject: Re: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Tsarist Draft

    My Grandfather Emil Marsch, left Poland for Volhynia with his father and siblings in 1873 and in 1878 he returned at the age of 21 to Poland to "fulfill his military duty" as he wrote. He served in the Russian army for 5 1/2 years.  It appears there was draft program in place at least in at that time..  
    In July of 1905 Emil's father Karl Gustav wrote to his son who was now in Canada, "that the Russian-Japanese war was causing a great deal of stress in the community.  Many men have already been called up to serve as occupation troops".  Men were taken to serve in the army with total disregard for the wives, children and elderly dependants who were left behind with no means of support.

John Marsch
---------------------

  Can anyone tell me when Volhynian young men would have been subject to  
  being drafted into the tsarist army?  I have in mind the period around  1900.  
  (It seems several of my relatives emigrated at age 19 or 20, even if  it 
  meant the family came later.)

  Can anyone recommend a book that would answer similar questions of  
  interest, including those I can't think to ask?

  Dan Pratt
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