[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] pre and post pages in censuses hold answers

[Randy Svenson]

The Homestead Act of 1862 opened up the western USA.  The Act was enhanced in about 1872 with the Timber Culture Act.  At the same time Canada was going through the Dominion Lands Act.  If the family was not originally farming types this may explain their change of work and where they lived.  Free land.
 
Also in the 1870s was the Long Depression.  Very hard on North America, Western Europe, and very, very difficult for the British.  The Long Depression lasted until about 1879.  Small farmers who at the time were often subsistence farmers would be able to make it through the worst of times as long as crops grew, animals lived, and the creditors did not call their loans.  Many farms were recalled for debt as the farm was often the collateral.  The Bonanza Farms (as in the Dalrymple Farm) at this time were splitting and decreasing in size.  That may have cut back on job availability in Minnesota and the Red River Valley.
 
If the loans were called, more times than not, the terms could not be met.  Time to move out.  Many would move to areas where relatives or friends that had went through the same hardships had moved to.  There is a bit of a "herd mentality" starting with the Germanic move to Volhynia; followed by the move to North America; and finally with different moves within North America.

Randy Svenson
 
Searching: Pohl, Paetsch, Nixdorf.
 

________________________________
 From: Charlotte Dubay <hoeserhistory at aol.com>
To: ger-poland-volhynia at sggee.org 
Sent: Sunday, September 15, 2013 1:38 PM
Subject: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] pre and post pages in censuses hold answers
  


Lois writes:
My relatives had homesteaded in Tyndall, Bon Homme, Dakota Territory from 
1873-1885 (this was in the southern part of what is now South Dakota) and moved 
to Eureka.? Two children were born there in 1885 and 1888.? Their oldest 
daughter was married in Eureka in 1889 in her father's house.? The whole family, 
including the newly married, then moved, almost immediately,?to Swanwick, Perry, 
Illinois.? I am surmising that they, not being GR, they did not "fit in".? I 
often wonder why they went to Illinois.? I have found no other relatives there.

Yes,Lois, wouldn't it have been wonderful if they would have written down in a long letter WHY they did
some of the things that they did? Re: relocating to Illinois: maybe you could check their SD neighbors on 
earlier census reports (if they hit a SD census year) to see if there are any familiar names - 
who also relocated to IL. SD took censuses every five years, so you might see something...Also, I have found 
related families on  the census pages both before and after the actual page that held my family's name. It takes some
time, but at our age all we have is time! hah. (And yes, it could be that the German spirit in the Dakotahs was 
overwhelming...but then the question must be asked: why did they go there initially?) Good luck in your search.

Charlotte DuBay
hoeserhistory at aol.com

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