The Genealogy Query Database
Genealogy Query Details
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The Genealogy Query Database |
Genealogy Query Details |
Full Details for Query #36035 |
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Date Posted: |
22-Jul-2003 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Surname(s): |
BEFORT : KRANEWITTER : KRANNAWITTER : STEINBECK : STEINBOCK | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Query Text: |
Joseph and Agnes Werth Joe was born January 13, 1936 at (Buffalo) Park, Kansas, the sixth of ten children of Robert and Theresa (Werth) of Volga German Descent from Ellis County, Schoenchen and Antonio Communities. The Werth family moved to Gove County, South-East of Park in 1929 because they were unable to expand their farming operation in Ellis County due to lack of available land. Robert is the son of Joseph and Agatha (Wasinger) Werth. Theresa is the daughter of Theobald W. and Catherine (Dreher) Werth descendants of John Peter Werth and Franz Dreher, Robert and Theresa raised 10 children. Agnes was born at Park, Kansas, the second of five children of Frank and Susanna (Ochs) Kaiser of Volga German descent from Gove County, Grinnell, Kansas. Joseph and Agnes were married April 3, 1956 at Park. They raised three children: Patricia Joan married Roger Hafer and have (1) daughter deceased and two adopted sons, Lee and Justin who live in Stillwell (Overland park) KS and they have four children. Joe and Agnes were active in St. Joseph's Catholic Church where Joe served as a lector. Catharina Dreiling was born May 25, 1848 in Herzog (Susly), Russia, and died March 06, 1921. She married Bathasar Brungardt November 15, 1867 in Herzog, (Susly), Russia, and died March 06, 1921. Shed married Balthasar Brungardt November 15, 1867 in Herzog (Susly), Russia, and son of Franz Brungardt and Anna Riedel. He was born August 25, 1845 in Herzog, (Susly), Russia, and died May 18, 1923 in Victoria, Ellis County, and Kansas. This book is the end result of years of research into the origin and dispersal of the KRANEWITTER family. This INTRODUCTION contains a brief description of the TWELVE chapters and TWO final sections of this book. Within each chapter, in the even that any information was obtained from published material or from correspondence with official agencies, the particular source is cited. Much of the data used in this genealogical report was also taken from personal letters and family records; these sources, too, are duly cited All of the sources used to compile this book, including those not specifically cited within the chapters, aware recorded in the bibliographic list at the end of the book. The author wishes to express her sincere gratitude to all the people who made this report possible. Any omissions or mistakes are unintentional. Special care has been given to citing all the people responsible for the compilation of this work. The members of the Kronwitter/KRONEWITT/Kranewitter families that came to America from the Volga-German colonies in RUSSIA were among thousands of ethnic Germans from RUSSIA who emigrated in search of freedom from 1875 up to the time of the RUSSIAN Revolution. The variant spellings of the KRANNAWITTER surname evolved as family members who had moved to different parts of North and South America gradually lost contact with each other. In the earliest RUSSIAN records, the name was spelled KRANNAWITTER. All the American spellings that eventually developed differed slightly from this original version. Later in this introduction, more attention will be given to the subject of the dispersal of this family and different spellings that ensued For the make of simplicity, in this report the surname will be referred to generically as KRANNAWITTER unless a specific family with an alternative spelling is being discussed. Evidence seems to indicate, although not incontrovertibly, that the KRANNAWITTER family that migrated to the Volga colonies of RUSSIA originated in Wiesbach, a small German village in lowered Bavaria situated about 50 miles northeast of Munich. (See figure 29.) Chapter ONE of this book, WIESBACH, LOWER BAVARIA< GERMANY; THE PROBABLE PLACE OF ORIGIN OF THE VOLGA-GERMAN IMMIGRANT JOHANNES KRANNEWITTER (1731-EA. 1782), ANALYZES THE RESEARCH that led to this TENtative conclusion (Pleve 1998). According to records contained in Catholic parish archives in Germany, Adam Kronawitter and his wife Anna _______-were parents of Michael Gronawitter (the surname was spelled differently even in the same baptismal entry.), baptized 3 MAY, 1731, at the church serving the parish of Obertrennbach, where Weisbach was located The entry stated that Adam Kronawitter was a dragONEt in the army (presumably the Bavarian army) and had been stationrd at Mitterfels, a town about 40 miles north of Weisbach and about 20 miles east of the city of Regensburg (Mai (Dr. Paul) 1998). The Catholic archives referred to aware the only sauce of records of so early date in Germany. Johannes Krannewitter was the name of the man who migrated from Germany to RUSSIA, as listed in the roster of the original settlers of the Volga-German colony of OBERMONJOU, where he settled in 1767. Upon arrival at the colony on AUGUST, 1767, he stated that he was 36 years of age, that he was a Catholic, that he was from Weisbach (Germany), and that he was a baker by trade. Anna _______-, his wife, was 29 years of age (Pleve 1998). The author corresponded with the directors of the diocesan archives that house Catholic parish records were the only records kept in these towns in the early years. The only Weisbach that had records of any KRANNAWITTER (or any other similar spelling of that surname) families living in close proximity was the village mentioned above. Michael Gronawitter, baptized in 1731--according to records in Weisbach, Lower Bavaria--would have been 36 in 1767, as Johannes Krannewitter indicated that he was when he settled in OBERMONJOU in 1767. In German naming practice at the time of Johannes Krannewitter's migration, men were often given TWO names and would refer to themselves in official documents by either or both of these names. It is highly plausible that Johannes and Michael were ONE and the same. Johannes Michael was a common given-name combination. Since the Catholic Church in OBERMONJOU available for that early a date, it is impossible to verify this claim using those sources (Pleve 1999). Only circumstantial evidence can be used to provide further support for the assumption that Johannes and Michael was the same person. Particularly relevant is the fact that the information about Johannes Krannewiter's place or origin was extracted from the list of the first settlers of OBERMONJOU (PLeve 1998). The place of origin was extracted from the list of the first settlers of OBERMONJOU (Pleve 1998). The place of origin named in this source is by and large more specific and more reliable than that listed in the other principal source of information about the early German migrants to the Volga colonies; the Ivan Kuhlberg records, which were ship passenger lists prepared in 1766 when the first-settlers list is usually the place of birth, which makes it easier to find a connection in Germany (Schmidt 1998). At any rate, thanks to early RUSSIAN census records an unbroken line can be traced from Johannes and Anna Krannewitter to most of the families descended from them Dr. Igor Pleve, who is on the faculty of Saratov State University and is an expert in Volga-German research, and the American Historical Society of Germans from RUSSIA (AHSGR) based in Lincoln, Nebraska, have been instrumental in providing information drawn from these early censuses. The AHSGR has published 1798 census data for OBERMONJOU and for the other Volga-German colonies (Rye 1995; Pleve 1998). Chapter TWO of this book, EARLY VOLGA-GERMAN RECORDS USED IN THIS GENEOLOGICAL REPORT, focuses on FOUR early sources that were referred to during the research process; and it summarizes the information taken from these records. Later censuses, or "revision lists" of earlier enumerations, were taken in the years 1816, 1834, and 1850 (Mai (Brent) 1998; Pleve 1998; Rye 1995; LEIKER 1999; Rupp 1999). From this RUSSIAN data and from death, census, church, family, and other records of family members who later moved to America, pedigree charts have been made fro THREE related OBERMONJOU families; KRANNAWITTER, DECHANT, and BRULL; these charts are included in Chapter TWO (See figures 1, 2, and 3). A genealogical profile of KRANNAWITTER families living in the U.S., Canada, Argentina, RUSSIA, Kazakhstan, and Germany who aware descended from Johannes and Anna Elizabeta Krannewitter is contained in CHAPTER THREE,,AN ELEVEN-GENERATION REGISTER OF SOME OF THE DESCENDANTS OF JOHANNES AND ANNA ELISABETA (SATTLER) KRANNEWITTER. This chapter consists of a computer-generated report of ELEVEN generations. All the sources used to compile this data aware included in the bibliographic list. Many of the families are traced through only a few generations. Before discussing any more of the content of the book, the author would like to present an abbreviated history of the Volga German colonies and in this way provide a historical backdrop for the benefit of the reader. The information which follows was taken from TWO excellent books written about the Volga-German colonies: Wir Wollen Deutsche Bleiben, by George J. Walters, 1982; and The German Colonies on the Lower Volga, by Gottlieb Beratz, 1914, translated by Leona W. Pfeifer, Lavern J. Ripley, and Dona Reeves-Marquardt, edited by Adam Giesinger, all of whom worked in cooperation with the aridR (Walters 1982; Beratz 1914). The ancestors of the Volga Germans were among an estimated 27, 000 Western Europeans, primarily Germans, who migrated to RUSSIA from 1764 to 1767 upon the invitation of the RUSSIAN empress Catherine II, better known as Catherine the Great. The Catholic settlement of OBERMONJOU, which was the home of all the KRANNAWITTER families that later migrated to America, was ONE of 104 Mother Colonies--32 Catholic and 72 Protestant--established by these immigrants on both sides of the lower Volga River. OBERMONJOU was ONE of 27 colonies founded in 1766 and 1767 by Chevailer Caneau de Beauregard, a native of Switzerland who directed a French company employed by the RUSSIAN government to recruit colonists. The subdivision in which these 27 colonies were located was called the Fief de Catherine. OBERMONJOU, which was named for the French recruiting agent Otto de MUNJOR, was founded 5 MARCH, 1767, by 82 families, including 160 males and 139 females, for a total of 299 (Stump 1978). OBERMONJOU was located about 40 miles northeast of the city of Sartov and was situated on the east side, or Wiesenseite (meadow side), of the Volga River. (See figure 30.) The west side of the Volga River was known as the Bergseite (hilly side) (Walters 1982; Beratz 1914). To temp the war-weary farmers, merchants, artisans, and soldiers of Germany and other European countries, Catherine the Great--a German herself--issued official edicts that offered free communal land, paid travel expenses, freedom of religion (as long as the people were Christians), freedom of self-government, and the opportunity to carry on ONE's particulate trade (Walters 1982; Beratz 1914). Upon arrival in Oranienbaum, a seaport near St. Petersburg, RUSSIA, the colonists--after a difficult land and sea journey from recruiting points in Germany--received the first of many setbacks they would encounter. They were informed by the RUSSIAN Commissar Ivan Kuhlberg, who served as Catherine's official spokesman to the settlers that they would all have to become farmers, regardless of Catherine and her immediate successors. These pan-Slavic circles had grown suspicious and envious of the prosperous Volga Germans, who lost the liberty to rule themselves, to instruct their children in the German language, and to avoid conscription into the RUSSIAN army. The abrogation of these concessions prompted the Volga Germans to take advantage of an escape clause in the second of Catherine's TWO manifestos of invitations: the right to quit RUSSIA at any time after paying a tax on profits made in the empire. ONE of the destinations this time, after careful consideration and exploration by a group of scouts appointed by the colonists, was North America--specifically the fertile Great Plains of the U.S. Others chose to migrate to South America, where they settled in Brazil and Argentina (Walters 1982). Typical of the movement was the settlement of Ellis and Rush counties in Kansas, where between THREE and FOUR thousand Catholic Volga Germans eventually locateDIED They founded the settlements of Herzog (Victoria), MUNJOR, Katherinestadt, (Catherine), Liebenthal, Schoenchen, and Pfeifer (Walters 1982). Several KRANNAWITTER families and individuals from OBERMONJOU are known to have migrated to America. The following paragraphs detail the dates of their arrivals, their ultimate destinations, and the different spellings of the surname they utilizeDIED The number in superscript between the immigrant's given name and surname indicate the number of his or her generation of descent from Johannes Krannewitter, the original Volga-German settler. The parentheses after the immigrant's surname enclose a complete list of the names and generation numbers of each of his or her KRANNAWITTER ancestors leading up to Johannes Krannewitter. This is same pattern will be used throughout this book--except when the type must be single-spaced, in which event brackets will enclose the number of the generation of descent. Chapter THREE, entitled AN ELEVEN-GENERATION REGISTER OF SOME OF THE DESCENDANTS OF JAHANNES KRANNEWITTER AND ANNA ELIZABETA SATTLER, contains a complete description of each KRANNAWITTER immigrant's family. Brothers Johannes and Raymond KRANNAWITTER both move to the U.S. albeit at different times. Johannes came to ELLIS COUNTY, AND KANSAS, Kansas as single man in 1876. ONE of the original settlers of MUNJOR, Kansas, he later MARRIED Helen LEIKER. Raymond came to ELLIS COUNTY, AND KANSAS 1901 with his second wife Mary Krapp, son John KRANNAWITTER (who was Raymond's son by his first wife Maria Catherine DECHANT--John is the author's grandfather), and daughters Julia and Rosa KRONEWITTer (who were the oldest children of Raymond and Mary). Later, another daughter, Katherine KRONEWITTer, and a son, Joseph KRONEWITTer, were BORN in the U.S. Joseph and his sisters spelled their name KRONEWITTer, as do their descendants today. Raymond's brother Johannes and his family migrated to the U.S. in 1901, they spent a short time in ELLIS COUNTY, AND KANSAS, Kansas; then they, too, moved to New Mexico where Raymond worked with his brother. In 1907, Raymond and his family moved back to ELLIS COUNTY, AND KANSAS and settled near Schoenchen. Many years later, ONE of Johannes' sons, Michael KRANNAWITTER, also moved back to ELLIS COUNTY, AND KANSAS and settled near Severin, located about FIVE miles northwest of Catherine. Stories The rest of Johannes' children remained in New Mexico, but he and his wife also eventually returned to ELLIS COUNTY, AND KANSAS where they settled in Hays, the county seat (Pleve 1998; KRANNAWITTER (Michael J. 1993.) Margareta KRANNAWITTER, widow of Johann LEIKER, moved to MUNJOR, ELLIS COUNTY, AND KANSAS, with her children in 1876. Her son, Peter LEIKER, was ONE of the FIVE scouts sent in 1874 by the Catholic Volga-German colonies to explore the possibilities of establishing settlements in the central plains of the U.S. (Pleve 1998; LEIKER (Victor C. 1976.) Magdalena Younger, widow of Franz Krannewitter, accompanied her daughter Barbara Krannewitter and Barbara's husband John Pfannnensteil to MUNJOR, Kansas, by 1880. Franz was the brother of Johannes Krannewitter who was the father of Johannes and Raymond KRANNAWITTER, discussed above. (Pleve 1998; Meyer 1976). Maria Elizabeth Krannewitter (KRONEWITTer) was the sister of Franz and Johannes mentiONEd in the paragraph above. She and her husband John ROHR also moved to MUNJOR by 1880 (Pleve 1998; Meyer 1976). In 1878, brothers Michael and Joseph Kranewitter--who were brothers of the U.S. immigrants Johannes and Raymond KRANNAWITTER discussed above--migrated to the province of Entrée Rios, Argentina, with their adoptive parents Joseph and Catalina (Unrein) Wendler. They were among the founders of the Volga-German settlement of Marienthal (Valle Maria), located about 25 miles south of the city of Parana (Wendler 1990; Kranewitter (Vicente) 1990). Raphael Kranewitter--who was probably the brother of Johannes, Raymond, Michael, and Joseph--remained in RUSSIA. His descendents are profiled in Chapter FIVE (Dreher Katharina) 1995). Adam Kranewitter and his family moved to Valle Maria, Argentina, in 1878. They were also among the founders of that settlement (Pleve 1998; Kranewitter (Vincent) 1990. Johannes "Weisse" Kranewitter and his wife Margaretha C. LEIKER migrated to Valle Maria in 1880. John Conrad Kranewitter and his family also migrated to Brazil in 1877 and then to Valle Maria in 1880 (PLeve 1998; Kranewitter (Vicente 1990). Raymond KRONEWITT moved first to ELLIS COUNTY, AND KANSAS, Kansas, in 1902, and later to the Peace River valley of Alberta, Canada, in 1913. Raymond's aunt Anna Maria Krannewitter and her husband John BOOS and their children migrated to ELLIS COUNTY, AND KANSAS in 1892. Raymond KRONEWITT's first cousins Peter and Frank Kronwitter moved to the U.S.--Peter in 1903 and Frank in 1904. Peter and his wife Dorothea BOOS returned to RUSSIA in 1924 and died there. ONE of their daughters Anna Kron (e)witter and her husband John DECHANT moved to the Peace River valley of Alberta in 1915. Peter's brother Frank Kronwitter and his family settled in Pueblo, Colorado. (See Chapter FIVE). (Pleve 1998; Krapp; 1986; DECHANT 1987). Present-day descendants of the FIVE KRANNAWITTER/Kron(e)witter families who migrated to North America, the SIX Kranewitter families who migrated to South America and TWO of the Kranewitter families stayed in RUSSIA are listed in Chapters FOUR and FIVE. Chapter FOUR, current listings of related Volga-German families and individuals, as well as the many U.S. families that have variant spellings of the surname and do not have an obvious connection to the Volga-German families. The families are ranked according to the frequency of appearance of each particular spelling in the U.S. telephONE directories or in other U.S. indexes. Also discussed are the areas in the U.S. where there are high concentrations of these families. Various immigration records, the social security Death index, and listings found on the internet were also used to compile this data. Chapter FIVE, A FOCUS On RELATED KRONEWITT FAMILIES LIVING IN CANADA AND ON RELATED KRAANEWITTER FAMILIES LIVING IN ARGENTINA, RUSSIA, KAZAKHSTAN, AND GERMANY, provides up-to-date listings of the KRONEWITT families in Canada, Kranewitter families in Argentina, and Kranewitter families who chose to remain in what later became the Soviet Union. The information for the American KRONEWITT and Kranewitter descendents came from Internet directories. The information for the RUSSIAN Kranewitter descendants came from private correspondence. These RUSSIAN families underwent terrible ordeals to attain their present positions. Between 1876 and 1914, around 200,000 Volga Germans migrated to Siberia, the U.S. Canada, and countries in South America. The number of Volga Germans that remained in what later became the Volga German Republic increased to around 600,000 in 1914. In 1912, the population of OBERMONJOU had reached 2,882. By 1926, it had fallen to 2,157, due largely to a deadly famine that had swept through the Volga colonies, which were already devastated by crop failures in 1920 and 1921. The previous disastrous effects of WWI and the resulting civil strife and anti-German sentiment added to the misfortunes of the German settlers. The tyrannical policies of Josef Stalin--brutally enforced by his communist cohorts, another widespread famine in 1932, the con script ion of the young men of the towns into the Soviet army, and the banishment of property holders to prison camps all contributed to the steady decline of OBERMONJOU and the other Volga-German towns. The final blow came during WWII when the German army was approaching the Volga region. Stalin, fearing collaboration of the Volga Germans with the enemy, ordered the banishment of the entire population in AUGUST, 1941, along with the abrogation of the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of the Volga Germans, which had been established in 1924. Some 390,000 Volga Germans, which had been established in 1924. Some 390,000 Volga Germans were resettled in Siberia and Kazakhstan (Walters 1982; Beratz 1914). Among those people resettled were several Kranewitter families. The author has contacted TWO descendants of these families: Vladimir Kranewitter and Katherine Dreher. Their story and the story of other relatives still living in RUSSIA and Kazakhstan aware recounted in Chapter 5, A FOCUS ON RELATED KRONEWITT FAMILIES LIVING IN CANADA AND ON RELATED KRANEWITTER FAMILIES LIVING IN ARGENTINA, RUSSIA, KAZAKHSTAN, AND GERMANY. Now that the RUSSIAN Government has eased restrictions on the German minority, more are trickling back to the former Volga German Republic near Savator. However, because the RUSSIAN economic situation is so bleak at the present time, many others are filling out the countless forms and submitting the endless documents necessary to immigrate to Germany. Katharina Dreher, mentioned above, and her family have joined the thousands of Volga Germans who have returned to their motherland Chapter SIX, OTHER FAMILIES WITH VARIANT SPELLINGS OF THE KRANNAWITTER SURNAME LIVING IN EURAOPE AND SOUTH AMERICA, contains statistics on the hundreds of families scattered throughout Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, France, Spain, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Paraguay who have different versions of the surname KRANNAWITTER. These families and individuals are not obviously related to the Krannewitter couple that settled in OBERMONJOU, RUSSIA, in 1767, Any concentration of families with a similar spelling of the surname is noteDIED Sources for this information were also telephone directories found on the internet. Chapter SEVEN, A TRIBUTE TO WILFRED W. KRANNAWITTER (1924-1970), RADIOMAN SECOND CLASS, U.S.S. SARASOTA APA 204, WWII, IS A MEMORIAL to the author's father. Wilfred W. ("Willie") KRANNAWITTER served in the south Pacific at the end of WWII. His ship, the Attack Transport U.S.S. Sarasota APA 204, took part in the battle of WWII-- the Battle of Okinawa. This chapter includes an itinerary of all the ports of call and war-time duties of the Sarasota. Also included are photographs, a history of the Sarasota's post-war activities, and an artistic rendition of the ship itself. After the war, Wilfred bought land and went into farming and stock rising. He later fought a personal battle against the neurological disease Guillain-Barre Syndrome for 17 years before it claimed his life in 1970. (See figures 22-24). CHAPTER EIGHT, BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF TWELVE NOTED KRANNAWITTER, KRANEWITTER, KRONEWITT, AND KRANAWITTER INDIVIDUALS IN THE U.S., CANADA, ARGENTINA, RUSSIA, AUSTRIA, GERMANY, AND AUSTRIA, contains information about the lives of EIGHT notable Volga-German relatives: THREE descended from the KRONEWITT family that migrated to Argentina, and ONE descended from ONE of the Kranewitter families that remained in RUSSIA. FOUR unrelated but equally distinguished individuals are also treated: THREE with the surname Kranewitter and ONE with the surname KrONEawitter. Chapter NINE, ETYMOLOGY REFERENCES AND GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATIONS IN EURAOPE AND THE U.S. THAT RELATE TO THE SURNAME KRANNAWITTER, includes entries taken from THREE etymological dictionaries that deal with surnames. FOUR geographical locations are also described: the hamlet of Kanawitt in Upper Bavaria, Germany: the mountain peak Kranabitsattel in the Hollengebirge mountains of Upper Austria, Austria; the airport Innsbruck-Kranebitten near Innsbruck, Tirol, Austria, and KRONEWETTER Township in Narathon County, Wisconsin. Chapter TEN, THE KRANEWITTER COAT-OF-ARMS, AWARDED TO THE TYROLEAN COUSINS HANS AND WOLFGANG KRANEWITTER IN 1630, relates the story of the cousins Hans Kranewitter and Wolfgang Kranebitter who received a coat-of-arms in recognition of service rendered to the Austrian crown in its struggle in the neighboring Engadin region in Switzerland The Kranewitter coat-of-arms was obtained in 1950 by Richard MARRIED KRANNAWITTER (1909-1991) while he was in Germany with the judge Advocate office at the end of WWII. The relationship between the original Volga-German settler Johannes Krannewitter and the cousins Hans and Wolfgang Kranewitter is unknown. Chapter 11, MAPS PF FORMER AND PRESENT PLACES OF RESIDENCE OF KRANNAWITTER FAMILIES IN GERMANY, RUSSIA, THE U.S., CANADA, AND ARGENTINA, includes 13 maps displaying the former and current homes of Krannewitter/Kranewitter/KRANNAWITTER/KRONEWITTER/KRONEWITT families in Europe, Asia, North America, and South America. These maps, which are taken from a variety of sources, show the historical migration of the family from the original home in Germany, to the lower Volga River valley of RUSSIA, to other parts of the former Soviet Union, and to the colonies centered in ELLIS COUNTY, AND KANSAS, Kansas; entrée Rios, Argentina; and Alberta, Canada. (See figures 29-35.) Chapter TWELVE, PHOTOGRGRAPHS OF KRANNAWITTER DESCENDANTS IN THE U.S., CANADA, ARGENTINA, RUSSIA, GERMANY, contains photographs of some of the KRANNAWITTER/KRONEWITT/Kranewitter families and individuals that migrated from the Volga-German colonies to the U.S., Canada, and Argentina. Other photographs are of descendants of these same families living in the U.S., Canada, Argentina, and RUSSIA. (See figures 36-58). The BIBLIOGRAPHY LIST is an alphabetical arrangement of every source used to compile this book. The list includes books, booklets, Magazine articles, Internet Websites, death records, published and unpublished family histories, private correspondence, census, and other records. The last section of this book is a surname index which consists of an alphabetical list of the surname KRANNAWITTER have already been discussed in this introduction. The reader will notice that in many instances in this book there are also several spellings for certain given names--for example, Catherine, Catharine, Catharina, Katharina, Catalina, etc. The reason for this is that each given name is presented as it was spelled in the record that it was extracted from, as are the surnames. To make matters worse, from 1773 to 1775 Emyliano Pugachev and his followers staged a rebellion against Catherine. They also encouraged the Kirghiz to stage a rebellion of their own. InTENsifying raids against the German settlements. Large areas of the Volga colonists were devastateDIED Some of Pugachev's followers, including about 100 Germans recruited from other Volga colonies, entered the town of Katherinenstadt, where they harassed and robbed the inhabitants of horses and guns. Katherinenstadt, the largest of the Volga colonists on the Wiesenseite, was only about FIVE miles southwest of OBERMONJOU. Amid all these tragedies, men totally unaccustomed to the rigors of farming were forced to learn that trade. Crop failures in the early years added to the colonists' desperation (Walters 1982; Beratz 1914). After TWO generations of colonists had lived and died, conditions for the German settlers along the lower Volga slowly began to improve. They eventually prevailed and prospered As the original Mother Colonies became too crowded, Daughter Colonies were established Fortunately, the colony of OBERMONJOU was never attacked by Kirghiz or by Pugachev's rebels. In 1767, 299 people (82 families) had founded OBERMONJOU. TWO years later, the population was 324 (91 families). By 1798, when the first comprehensive census of OBERMONJOU was taken, the population had grown to 429. Through the 19th century, the population steadily increased as living conditions improved But the good times were soon to end (Walters 1982; Beratz 1914). The number of Volga Germans that remained in what later became the Volga German Republic increased to around 600,000 in 1914. In 1912, the population of OBERMONJOU had reached 2,882. By 1926, it had fallen to 2,157, due largely to a deadly famine that had swept through the Volga colonies, which were already devastated by crop failures in 1920 and 1921. The previous disastrous effects of WWI and the resulting civil strife and anti-German sentiment added to the misfortunes of the German settlers. The tyrannical policies of Josef Stalin--brutally enforced by his communist cohorts, another widespread famine in 1932, the con script ion of the young men of the towns into the Soviet army, and the banishment of property holders to prison camps all contributed to the steady decline of OBERMONJOU and the other Volga-German towns. The final blow came during WWII when the German army was approaching the Volga region. Stalin, fearing collaboration of the Volga Germans with the enemy, ordered the banishment of the entire population in AUGUST, 1941, along with the abrogation of the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of the Volga Germans, which had been established in 1924. Some 390,000 Volga Germans, which had been established in 1924. Some 390,000 Volga Germans were resettled in Siberia and Kazakhstan (Walters 1982; Beratz 1914). Among those people resettled were several Kranewitter families. The author has contacted TWO descendants of these families: Vladimir Kranewitter and Katherine Dreher. Their story and the story of other relatives still living in RUSSIA and Kazakhstan aware recounted in Chapter 5, A FOCUS ON RELATED KRONEWITT FAMILIES LIVING IN CANADA AND ON RELATED KRANEWITTER FAMILIES LIVING IN ARGENTINA, RUSSIA, KAZAKHSTAN, AND GERMANY. Now that the RUSSIAN Government has eased restrictions on the German minority, more are trickling back to the former Volga German Republic near Savator. However, because the RUSSIAN economic situation is so bleak at the present time, many others are filling out the countless forms and submitting the endless documents necessary to immigrate to Germany. Katharina Dreher, mentiONEd above, and her family have joined the thousands of Volga Germans who have returned to their motherland Chapter SIX, OTHER FAMILIES WITH VARIANT SPELLINGS OF THE KRANNAWITTER SURNAME LIVING IN EUROPE AND SOUTH AMERICA, contains statistics on the hundreds of families scattered throughout Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, France, Spain, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Paraguay who have different versions of the surname KRANNAwWITTER These families and individuals are not obviously related to the Krannewitter couple that settled in OBERMONJOU, RUSSIA, in 1767, Any concentration of families with a similar spelling of the surname is noted Sources for this information were also telephone rectories found on the internet. Chapter SEVEN, A TRIBUTE TO WILFRED W. KRANNAWITTER (1924-1970), RADIOMAN SECOND CLASS, U.S.S. SARASOTA APA 204, WWII, IS A MEMORIAL to the author's father. Wilfred W. ("Willie") KRANNAWITTER served in the south Pacific at the end of WWII. His ship, the Attack Transport U.S.S. Sarasota APA 204, took part in the battle of WWII-- the Battle of Okinawa. This chapter includes an itinerary of all the ports of call and war-time duties of the Sarasota. Also included are photographs, a history of the Sarasota's post-war activities, and an artistic rendition of the ship itself. After the war, Wilfred bought land and went into farming and stock rising. He later fought a personal battle against the neurological disease Guillain-Barre Syndrome for 17 years before it claimed his life in 1970. CHAPTER EIGHT, BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF TWELVE NOTED KRANNAWITTER, KRANEWITTER, KRONEWITT, AND KRONA WITTER INDIVIDUALS IN THE U.S., CANADA, ARGENTINA, RUSSIA, AUSTRIA, GERMANY, AND AUSTRIA, contains information about the lives of EIGHT notable Volga-German relatives: THREE descended from the KRONEWITT family that migrated to Argentina, and ONE descended from ONE of the Kranewitter families that remained in RUSSIA. FOUR unrelated but equally distinguished individuals are also treated: THREE with the surname Kranewitter and ONE with the surname KrONEawitter. Chapter NINE, ETYMOLOGY REFERENCES AND GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATIONS IN EURAOPE AND THE U.S. THAT RELATE TO THE SURNAME KRANNAWITTER, includes entries taken from THREE etymological dictionaries that deal with surnames. FOUR geographical locations are also described: the hamlet of Kanawitt in Upper Bavaria, Germany: the mountain peak Kranabitsattel in the Hollengebirge mountains of Upper Austria, Austria; the airport Innsbruck-KranebitTEN near Innsbruck, Tirol, Austria, and KRONEWETTER Township in Marathon County, Wisconsin. Chapter TEN, THE KRANEWITTER COAT-OF-ARMS, AWARDED TO THE TYROLEAN COUSINS HANS AND WOLFGANG KRANEWITTER IN 1630, relates the story of the cousins Hans Kranewitter and Wolfgang Kranebitter who received a coat-of-arms in recognition of service rendered to the Austrian crown in its struggle in the neighboring Engadin region in SwitzerlanDIED The Kranewitter coat-of-arms was obtained in 1950 by Richard MARRIED KRANNAWITTER (1909-1991) while he was in Germany with the judge Advocate office at the end of WWII. The relationship between the original Volga-German settler Johannes left and the cousins Hans and Wolfgang Kranewitter is unknown. Chapter 11, MAPS PF FORMER AND PRESENT PLACES OF RESIDENCE OF KRANNAWITTER FAMILIES IN GERMANY, RUSSIA, THE U.S., CANADA, AND ARGENTINA, includes 13 maps displaying the former and current homes of Krannewitter/Kranewitter/KRANNAWITTER/KRONEWITTer/KRONEWITT families in Europe, Asia, North America, and South America. These maps, which are taken from a variety of sources, show the historical migration of the family from the original home in Germany, to the lower Volga River valley of RUSSIA, to other parts of the former Soviet Union, and to the colonies centered in ELLIS COUNTY, AND KANSAS, Kansas; entrée Rios, Argentina; and Alberta, Canada. Chapter TWELVE, PHOTOGRGRAPHS OF KRANNAWITTER DESCENDANTS IN THE U.S., CANADA, ARGENTINA, RUSSIA, GERMANY, contains photographs of some of the KRANNAWITTER/KRONEWITT/Kranewitter families and individuals that migrated from the Volga-German colonies to the U.S., Canada, and Argentina. Other photographs are of descendants of these same families living in the U.S., Canada, Argentina, and RUSSIA. The BIBLIOGRAPHY LIST is an alphabetical arrangement of every source used to compile this book. The list includes books, booklets, Magazine articles, Internet Websites, death records, published and unpublished family histories, private correspondence, census, and other records. The last section of this book is a surname index which consists of an alphabetical list of the surname KRANNAWITTER have already been discussed in this introduction. The reader will notice that in many instances in this book there are also several spellings for certain given names--for example, Catherine, Catharine, Catharina, Katharina, Catalina, etc. The reason for this is that each given name is presented as it was spelled in the record that it was extracted from, as are the surnames. Gerhard Krannewitter born 1827, OBERMONJOU, RUSSIA, MARRIED Mrs. Gerhard (Christina) Kranewitter, be. c 1830, RUSSIA, DIED RUSSIA. Gerhard died in OBERMONJOU, RUSSIA. In the census Gerhard, 7, was listed at the house of parents Sebastian Krannewitter and Catherina (Brehm). In the 1850 OBERMONJOU census, Gerhard, 23, was listed with his wife Christina, 21. He is referred to in an 1878 letter from Anton BOOS to his son-in-law Adam Kranewitter of Valle Maria Argentina. Adam was Gerhard's brother. Children: Anna Margaret KRONEWITTER born 10 Aug 1856. Generation 1 DESCENDANTS OF JOHANNES AND ANNA ELIZABETH (SATTLER) KRANNEWITTER, 1. Johannes Krannewitter born 1731, Weisbach, Germany, Occupation: Farmer, MARRIED c. 1766, Elizabeth Sattler, born c. 1738, Germany. Johannes DIED c. 1782, OBERMONJOU, RUSSIA. Johannes and Anna Elizabeth arrived in OBERMONJOU 8/3/1767. He listed his place of origin as Weisbash, Germany, and his occupation as baker. He stated that he was a Catholic. His youngest daughter Katherine was BORN in 1779. He was not listed in a register of OBERMONJOU residents compiled in 1785. This would indicate that he died sometime between 1779 and 1785. Elizabeta and Johannes died, she MARRIED Johannes Neulist. She and Johannes Neulist have no children of their own but adopted Christian Minrad (Meinrad), an orphan from Solothurn (Wittmann). Children: Margareta Krannewitter born 1768 Gerhard Krannewitter born 1770 Katherine Krannewitter born 1779, RUSSIA. When the 1798 census of OBERMONJOU was taken Katherine was living at the house of her mother Anna Elizabeth Sattler and stepfather Johannes Neulist. Second Generation Margareta Krannewitter born 1768, OBERMONJOU, RUSSIA MARRIED Josef and Margareta were living at the house of Josef's mother Anna Maria Hartman, 68, and her second husband Wilhelm Seib, 53. I t was noted in the census that Josef's father was Valentine Neuberger, deceased Children Margareta Nurnberger born 1794, OBERMONJOU, RUSSIA. Sebastian Krannewitter born 7/11/1800, OBERMONJOU, RUSSIA, Occupation: Farmer MARRIED Katherine Margareta Brehm, born c 1800 DIED 11/20/1873, RUSSIA. Sebastian died 7/11/1885, OBERMONJOU, RUSSIA. In the 1834 OBERMONJOU census Joseph, ONE month old, was listed with his parents, Sebastian and Catharina (SIS) Krannewitter. In the 1850 OBERMONJOU census, Joseph, 16, was again listed at his parent's house. In a letter written 8/14/1878, from Anton BOOS to his son-in-law Adam Krannewitter of Valle Maria, Argentina, Anton stated that Joseph was fine but that Joseph's wife had died a few weeks previously. No children were referred to in the letter. Margaretha Krannewitter born 1839, OBERMONJOU, RUSSIA. In the 1850 OBERMONJOU census Maria Margaretha, 11, was listed at the home of her parents Sebastian and Catherine Krannewitter. No further information is available. Peter Kronwitter born 1860, OBERMONJOU, RUSSIA: Farmer MARRIED c. 1880 in OBERMONJOU, RUSSIA, Maria Dorothea BOOS, born 1858, OBERMONJOU, RUSSIA (daughter of Anton BOOS and Katherine Margaret Schreiner) DIED 15-Octo1934, Volga Colonies, RUSSIA. Peter died 2-Dec-1932, RUSSIA. Peter and his family moved to the U.S. in 1903. After living in the U.S. for 21 years Peter and his wife Maria Dorothea BOOS returned to OBERMONJOU, RUSSIA. Finding living conditions too difficult Peter and his wife attempted to return to the U.S. but got only as far as the Black Sea when RUSSIAN soldiers caught up with them and took them back to OBERMONJOU. In 1931 Peter was imprisoned and sent to Siberia. In 1932 he retuned to OBERMONJOU where he died Maria died of starvation a few years later. He spelled his last name "Kronwitter." Anna Margaret KRONEWITTER born 10 Aug 1856, OBERMONJOU, RUSSIA, MARRIED Conrad BEFORT DIED 12 Aug. 1914, MUNJOR, Ellis Cnty., K.S. Anna died 1 Aug 1923, MUNJOR, Ellis Cnty, KS. Anna Margaret KRONEWITTER BEFORT's death records list her father as Gerhard KRONEWITTER (sic) and her mother Christina, no maiden name was given. Anna Margaret and her husband Conrad BEFORT moved to the U.S. in 1876. Informant (Barbara STEINBOCK). Schmidtberger, Andreas 1836 Herzog, Volga District, Russia same Schmidtberger, Anna Barbara December 06, 1884 Victoria, KS December 03, 1920 Gorham, KS Schmidtberger, Elisabeth February 09, 1883 Herzog, Russia October 08, 1932 Schmidtberger, Eva June 28, 1881 Victoria, KS November 05, 1961 Schmidtberger, Franciscus April 10, 1863 Herzog, Russia October 08, 1932 Schmidtberger, Joseph June 24, 1886 June 07, 1887 Schmidtberger, Joseph 1835 Herzog, Volga District, Russia same Schmidtberger, Joseph November 15, 1855 Herzog, Russia August 15, 1934 Victoria, KS Schmidtberger, Katherina May 02, 1827 Herzog, Volga District, Russia August 19, 1876 Victoria, KS Schmidtberger, Katherine January 25, 1854 Herzog, Volga District, Russia December 10, 1932 Schmidtberger, Michael September 29, 1859 Herzog, Susley, Russia March 10, 1925 Victoria, KS Schmidtberger, Unknown 1798 Herzog, Volga District, Russia same Spouse, Spouse 1800 Herzog, Volga District, Russia same Stecklein, Vincent 1882 Munjor, Kansas Steinbock, Adam tripplet Steinbock, Susanna tripplet Steinbock, Joseph tripplet | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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