How I Got Started...the prequel

My great-grandfather Abraham Schmidt had been laid to rest in a Reedley, California cemetery for fifty years before I began searching for him. By 1978 only the skeleton of his life remained. I had so many unanswered questions. Who was he? Where did he come from? How did he get to California? Why did he come here? What traits have I inherited from him?

These questions fascinated me and started a search that continues still. This blog is an attempt to answer these questions from information that I have pieced together from many sources.

I began my research when I came across an antique photograph of a large family. I was intrigued to learn that the slender, young boy in the center was my grandfather Jacob Schmidt. My childhood memory of him was of a huge man with a big belly. Could this slender young boy really be him?

 Back row: Peter Karber, Jacob Hiebert, Abraham A., John, Henry
Standing: Elizabeth (Voth), Peter, Jacob
Sitting: Katharina (mother Nikkels), Mary, Nicholas, Katharina, Abraham
Infant Walter Karber

The family was dressed in black and looked as though they were going to a funeral. The inscription on the back, however, said that it was a joyous occasion. Abraham, with the white beard, had just become an American citizen.

My mother used a few German expressions around the house and when we visited her relatives they would serve "German" food. Naturally I assumed that her ancestors had come from Germany. Imagine my surprise when I learned that Abraham Schmidt had emigrated from Russia!

I showed the picture to my mother. "RUSSIA?" I asked. "But I thought they were from Germany."

Well, actually," she replied. "They came from Poland, but they spoke Low German because they were originally from Holland."

That was really confusing!

"How did Germans from Russia come from Poland and speak German that was really Dutch?" The answer was in their Mennonite religion. So started my search to unravel this confusing history.

Stay tuned for the rest of the story tomorrow...