As many of you know, I have been working on the family tree since Willy Raabe (Sr.) asked my mom and me to type up his extensive notes into a family tree program when he and his sister, Maria, first came for a visit to Canada (nearly 30 years ago now!). There were a few missing facts - usually called brick walls - in that first tree, and I promised Uncle Willy that we would work on this. I have been chipping away at these searches ever since. In 2007 I started searching online as more resources became available. Whenever cousin Willy (his son) comes for a visit to Canada, we sit down for some collaboration time. He has also joined the MyHeritage tree.
For the past few years, I have been attending the Genealogy workshops at the Mennonite Heritage Museum in Abbotsford, and it was there that my mom's second cousin, Richard Thiessen, persuaded us (me and my parents) to take DNA tests to help break down those brick walls. The next year, we moved all of the research to MyHeritage. Last year I took an Ancestry test to help find matches there. A few other family members have also taken DNA tests (all people who have taken a DNA test are bordered with yellow in the chart below). We have had matches with people on both 23andMe and MyHeritage that we suspect are on the Raabe branches of the tree, but we usually cannot figure out how they are related to us (missing information, no responses to messages, etc.).
Just recently, our family tree has blossomed.
Here is a chart to help you figure out who is who and how they are related to us. The chart is not a family tree - its goal is to demonstrate how people who have taken DNA tests fit into this family paradigm. If you want to know how you are related, and you have not taken a DNA test, simply find the person of the same generation as you who has taken one, and then work out how you are related. Check out the pages on this blog for other resources.
*All family members still alive as I post this are identified by initials instead of their first names and birth decades instead of years.
I looked at our shared matches. "Yes. Yes I do think we are related!"
S.K. has a family mystery to solve, and when he saw a DNA test kit for sale on FB Marketplace, he thought, why not? It took us a few days while we waited for him to move his DNA profile over to MyHeritage (where there are more Raabe matches). While we waited, he shared more details about what he knew of his grandfather's life in Russia and Kyrgyzstan. Once we had the dates and could see how his DNA matched to others on MyHeritage, we were certain that we had him in the correct family line.
S.K. didn't even know that he had Mennonite ancestors until we started communicating. His grandfather, H.W., is the same age and generation as my father, but he grew up away from his Mennonite relatives. S.K.'s great-grandfather, Wilhelm (there are so many!), was arrested in 1941. He had a wife and four young children at home (H.W. was only 3 years old). His family was alone to fend for themselves while he was in prison. A prison guard's sister fell in love with him, and he was given the choice to go to a prison further away (and possibly die there) or abandon his family and marry the guard's sister. Either option meant leaving his family. Wilhelm chose to run away with the Russian guard's sister. S.K. has heard that there are children from that second marriage, and he would like to find them.
H.W.'s mother somehow managed to get her family to Kyrgyzstan (we will have to wait to learn more about that story). They grew up there as Christians (but not Mennonite) in a very conservative community. H.W. became a preacher after he married and started his own family. It is a large family of twelve children, all of whom moved to Germany in the 1990s. There are so many people in their family (H.W. has 100 grandchildren) that they have not sought out any other people who might be related to them. Until now.
S.K. is a step further down the family tree than D.B., so if S.K. has any chance of solving that family mystery, he will need a stronger DNA match. A cousin is going to Germany next week, and if S.K. can make it happen, another DNA kit is going along to test H.W., who has agreed to all of this.
S.K.'s parents moved to Canada in 2008. They live in Cook's Creek, MB, just east of Winnipeg. S.K. is married, with a 6th child on the way in October. His mother, A.R., has twelve children also, and fifteen grandchildren, with the next one due in April. She has a sister, I.R., who lives in Penticton, BC. S.K. has cousins who live all over Western Canada (I think we have to start a family map!). If you ever get out to Winnipeg, he would love to meet you!
Karl Raabe and his family, along with his brother Friedrich, emigrated to Mexico in late 1924 (about a year before Opa tried to leave Russia). They arrived in Tampico, Mexico in January of 1925, but Karl did not arrive with his brother, wife, and sons. He died between purchasing the tickets in Moscow and the disembarking in Mexico. He must have died on the voyage over, and I am still looking for records of his death.
Those of us who have taken the 23andMe test match to B. Eliason. It is a strong match for each of us. I have done some sleuthing, and her birth name is Rabe. She has two sisters, and they all live around Kamloops or Prince George. My hypothesis is that B. and her sisters are the granddaughters of Karl Rabe, born 1915. So far, she has not responded to my messages on the app (I try about once a year).
Peter Raabe's children and grandchildren stayed in Omsk. They moved to Germany in the 1990s. If you visited Germany when Uncle Willy was still alive, he would have introduced you to the Peter Raabe clan. I will be looking to contact people from their line so that I can share this with them as well.
If you want to know more about how these cousin relationships work, please check out the page called Cousins On Family Tree Branches
The Maria Raabe-Peters Line:
In January of this year, there was a new match on MyHeritage to a man named D. Bargen (D.B.) in Germany. He responded to my introductory message on WhatsApp. He was pleasantly surprised to learn that the family stories of "distant family in Canada" were actually true. D.B. took the DNA test because his wife took a test last year. His family bought them for Christmas this year; he is going to help his parents complete theirs very soon. They are quite excited with this news.
D.B. is descended from Opa's sister, Maria Raabe, who married a man named Johann Peters. His name was unknown to us until now (his son, Johann Peters, is recorded in the Grandma database, but not any of his other children). D.B.'s grandfather was another son, Peter Peters. Opa would have known his brother-in-law, but he was already in Canada when they started building their family. Maria's husband, Johann, was arrested in 1941 and she died shortly after that in 1942.
Peter Peters died in 2016 in Germany. This family has had some interaction with the Peter Raabe relatives in Germany (they know about each other), but for the most part they stick to their small Peters clan. D.B.'s mother, N. Peters-Bargen, is looking for the family register that did come to Germany with somebody in their extended family. She doesn't speak any English and she is more comfortable speaking German or Russian, so we will go slowly building out that branch of the tree. D.B. has a sister, T. Bargen-Neufeld, who is married and has children. His older brother, S.B., returned to Russia a few years ago, and he is also married with children.
D.B. is descended from Opa's sister, Maria Raabe, who married a man named Johann Peters. His name was unknown to us until now (his son, Johann Peters, is recorded in the Grandma database, but not any of his other children). D.B.'s grandfather was another son, Peter Peters. Opa would have known his brother-in-law, but he was already in Canada when they started building their family. Maria's husband, Johann, was arrested in 1941 and she died shortly after that in 1942.
Peter Peters died in 2016 in Germany. This family has had some interaction with the Peter Raabe relatives in Germany (they know about each other), but for the most part they stick to their small Peters clan. D.B.'s mother, N. Peters-Bargen, is looking for the family register that did come to Germany with somebody in their extended family. She doesn't speak any English and she is more comfortable speaking German or Russian, so we will go slowly building out that branch of the tree. D.B. has a sister, T. Bargen-Neufeld, who is married and has children. His older brother, S.B., returned to Russia a few years ago, and he is also married with children.
The Heinrich Raabe Line:
Two weeks ago I received a message on 23andMe from S. Kistler (S.K.): "Hi Jody. I just got my DNA test results and found out that we must have something in common. My grandfather's name is H.W. Raabe...Do you think that we are related?"
I looked at our shared matches. "Yes. Yes I do think we are related!"
S.K. has a family mystery to solve, and when he saw a DNA test kit for sale on FB Marketplace, he thought, why not? It took us a few days while we waited for him to move his DNA profile over to MyHeritage (where there are more Raabe matches). While we waited, he shared more details about what he knew of his grandfather's life in Russia and Kyrgyzstan. Once we had the dates and could see how his DNA matched to others on MyHeritage, we were certain that we had him in the correct family line.
S.K. didn't even know that he had Mennonite ancestors until we started communicating. His grandfather, H.W., is the same age and generation as my father, but he grew up away from his Mennonite relatives. S.K.'s great-grandfather, Wilhelm (there are so many!), was arrested in 1941. He had a wife and four young children at home (H.W. was only 3 years old). His family was alone to fend for themselves while he was in prison. A prison guard's sister fell in love with him, and he was given the choice to go to a prison further away (and possibly die there) or abandon his family and marry the guard's sister. Either option meant leaving his family. Wilhelm chose to run away with the Russian guard's sister. S.K. has heard that there are children from that second marriage, and he would like to find them.
H.W.'s mother somehow managed to get her family to Kyrgyzstan (we will have to wait to learn more about that story). They grew up there as Christians (but not Mennonite) in a very conservative community. H.W. became a preacher after he married and started his own family. It is a large family of twelve children, all of whom moved to Germany in the 1990s. There are so many people in their family (H.W. has 100 grandchildren) that they have not sought out any other people who might be related to them. Until now.
S.K. is a step further down the family tree than D.B., so if S.K. has any chance of solving that family mystery, he will need a stronger DNA match. A cousin is going to Germany next week, and if S.K. can make it happen, another DNA kit is going along to test H.W., who has agreed to all of this.
S.K.'s parents moved to Canada in 2008. They live in Cook's Creek, MB, just east of Winnipeg. S.K. is married, with a 6th child on the way in October. His mother, A.R., has twelve children also, and fifteen grandchildren, with the next one due in April. She has a sister, I.R., who lives in Penticton, BC. S.K. has cousins who live all over Western Canada (I think we have to start a family map!). If you ever get out to Winnipeg, he would love to meet you!
The Karl Raabe Line:
There is a border crossing document for Emerson, MB that has the family crossing into Canada in September of 1926. On any records that I can find, this family goes with the "Rabe" spelling in Canada. The 1931 Canada Census has his widow, Katharina Rabe, and three young sons living in Morris, MB. Friedrich Rabe lived close by in Steinbach at that time. Katharina Rabe (her birth name is unknown) died in 1953. Friedrich died in 1968. Both of them are buried in Steinbach. There is no obituary for either of them that I can find.
Those of us who have taken the 23andMe test match to B. Eliason. It is a strong match for each of us. I have done some sleuthing, and her birth name is Rabe. She has two sisters, and they all live around Kamloops or Prince George. My hypothesis is that B. and her sisters are the granddaughters of Karl Rabe, born 1915. So far, she has not responded to my messages on the app (I try about once a year).
The Peter Raabe Line:
There are also more DNA matches, especially on MyHeritage.
- There is a J.K. Raabe who is descended from Opa's uncle, Karl Raabe (he was a brother to the Wilhelm Raabe at the top of the chart, so back another generation). J.K. matches as "second cousin, once removed" to my dad and uncle. He lives in Northern Germany on the border with Denmark and has children who live in Berlin.
- Oma had seven half-siblings after her father remarried. We have DNA matches to a few of their descendants - they match as "half second cousins" - but only through the youngest daughters. One of these women, Maria Hildebrandt, married a man named Trenkenschu, so if you see that name pop up as a match (father and son), it is a Hildebrandt relative.
*I will do a separate post on the Hildebrandt line.
To wrap up: with just these two DNA tests taken since Christmas, 🎉 there are now about 200 names to add to the family tree over the next few months. 🎉
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Again, if you want to know more about how these cousin relationships work, please check out the page called Cousins On Family Tree Branches
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