A Polish Mennonite

There have been ethnically Polish Mennonites for centuries.  That's where surnames such as Rogalsky, Sawatsky, Tilitsky, and Petkau come from.  Their forefathers were ethnic Poles, almost certainly Catholic, who became Mennonites in the 18th century or earlier.  But very few ethnic Poles have become Mennonites in North America.  One of those was John Glen #319928 (1864-1939), who joined the Kleine Gemeinde near Jansen, Nebr., having been baptized in 1891.

I came across him because he was friends with my grandparents, Cornelius #7529 (1884-1950) and Margaret Siemens; and his life intrigued me because as a Polish convert in Nebraska he was not a typical KG member.  Although he had children, none of them had any children; so he has left no descendants to research him and to preserve his memory.  So I have taken that task for myself; and he has proven to be quite an interesting, if elusive, person.

First, I decided to find his immigration record, but that proved to be a fruitless search, even with the search capabilities of Ancestry.com.  I also checked the Mennonite immigrant lists in Clarence Hiebert's book Brothers in Deed, Brothers in Need: A Scrapbook About Mennonite Immigrants from Russia, 1870-1885 and David Haury's book Index to Mennonite Immigrants on United States Passenger Lists, 1872-1904 but found nothing.  I suspected that I didn't have his Polish name and that "John Glen" was an Americanized version and that he had used his Polish name when he arrived.

So then I decided to narrow it down by finding his year of immigration in the census records.  But he reported variously that he had immigrated in 1874, 1884 (mentioned twice), 1885, and 1886.  That didn't help much.  But I did note that he said he had been naturalized, mentioning 1913 twice and 1915 once.

So I decided to look for his naturalization record since it should give his immigration date.  If either of the two years of naturalization was correct, he should have been living near Meade, Kans., since the Kleine Gemeinde had migrated there as a group in 1908.  When I searched in Ancestry, I found an index card for him in Meade, Kans., on 28 October 1913.

Naturalization index card for John Glen, 28 October 1913, Western District Court of Missouri, ARC: 572253; Records of District Courts of the United States, Record Group 21; National Archives at Kansas City, Missouri, accessed at Ancestry.com on 5 November 2016.

His naturalization card gave me a month of arrival (March 1884) and a port (New York City).  Fortunately, there were only two passenger ships that arrived in New York City in March 1884.  But Ancestry still couldn't find him with an automated search, so I browsed the records individually.  With only two ships, that was doable.

It took a while, but I came across a "Jan Glein" traveling in a group of 24 single men, mostly young, from Hungary, who arrived on 3 March 1884, on board the S.S. California from Hamburg.  The Kingdom of Hungary was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at that time, so that fit the fact on the naturalization card that he had been a subject or resident of Austria. But he gave an age of 24, meaning that he would have been born in 1859-1860, while the naturalization card gave a birth date of 10 May 1864.  But no one else on those two ships was even close, and enough of the facts fit so that I concluded it was probably he. 

Here is his name from the passenger manifest:

Passenger Jan Glein, Passenger Manifest of Vessels Arriving New York City, 3 March 1884, ship California, page 2, line 61.  Accessed at Ancestry.com on 2 December 2016.

Later I found him in the 1885 census records in Nebraska but not in the 1880 census records anywhere in the US (using the Ancestry search).  I also went manually through the entire 1880 Jefferson County, Nebr., census records, since that is where he was in 1885, but didn't find him.  So that was another piece of evidence that he arrived between 1880 and 1885.

I was so excited that I had manged to track down a single individual who changed his name shortly after arrival!  But of course, I wanted to find out who his parents were.

He Became a British Subject

My great-grandfather Gerhard T. Siemens #6463 (1834-1908) immigrated to Canada in 1874 and was naturalized, thereby becoming a British subject.  (All Canadians were British subjects until 1947.)  I wanted to know more about his naturalization.  Here is the little bit that I have found - it may give you some ideas for searching for the naturalization of your Canadian ancestor.

First, the 1901 census asked when a person was naturalized, and the enumerator recorded that he immigrated in 1874 and was naturalized in 1882 (circled in red).

Gerhard Siemens household, 1901 Canada census, Morris Municipality sub-district, Provencher district, Manitoba, p. 4, household 30, lines 4-12.  Accessed at www.ancestry.ca on 29 June 2014.

This, of course, is better than nothing; but it's not a primary source.  Gerhard told the enumerator who wrote it down.  We hope that Gerhard remembered the right date, that he wasn't distracted, that he didn't stutter, that the enumerator heard him correctly, that there wasn't a baby crying at that moment, that the enumerator didn't forget to ask him and just filled in some number.  It's a secondary source.

I have obtained Gerhard Siemens' Saskatchewan homestead file from 1907, and he affirmed that he was naturalized before 1889 in Manitoba.  That fits with what the 1901 census stated, so that is a confirmation.

Sworn statement of patentee Gerhard Siemens,  7 February 1907, homestead file #1239121, Land Registration District of Assiniboia, Regina, Saskatchewan accessed online at Saskatchewan Archives Board Homestead Index 1872-1930, Reference #S 42.1239121, http://sab.minisisinc.com on 16 April 2014.

Detail of homestead statement above.

But I would still like to have a primary source.  Citizenship and Immigration Canada holds the naturalization records for 1854 to the present, but the original records for naturalizations before 1917 have been destroyed.  Only a card index remains, and there is not much information on the card index.  A Canadian citizen or resident can make an Access to Information request and pay 5 CAD to get a copy of the index card.  I am neither, but fortunately I have cousins who are Canadian citizens, so they ordered a copy for me.

The index card was rather sparse, but upon close examination it does give the answer.

Gerhardt T. Siemens naturalization card, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, file #032790-85.  Index card from Access to Information request on 24 August 2016.

So what are the results?  It has his name (Gerhardt T. Siemens) and date of birth (34/05/21, which is 1834 May 21, his new-style birth date).  And it shows that he was born in the USSR, which means that the card index must have been made sometime after 1922, when the Soviet Union came into existence (otherwise it would have shown Russia as his birth country).  But the document is a primary source to the fact that he was naturalized, something that the 1901 census and his homestead application do not do.

There is also a mysterious section of "actions," which appears to be the record of correspondence between officials.  These are all dated in 1885 and 1886 - was Gerhard naturalized at that time instead of 1882 as the census reports?  Does the pre-printed "85" at the end of the file number "032790-85" indicate that his citizenship was granted in 1885?

But at the lower right of the white card, there is a faint date.  I had to look carefully even to find it.

I am quite sure that it reads "85/12/23," which would be the date 23 December 1885.  When combined with the dates of the correspondence happening in late 1885 and early 1886 and the preprinted "85" on the form, this makes me think it is his naturalization date!

Why did the 1901 census enumerator record 1882 as his naturalization?  I don't have an answer.  But by 1907, it seems as though Gerhard was uncertain about his naturalization date, since he wrote "before 1889" on the homestead application.  I think 23 December 1885, is the best date for his naturalization, although the evidence is conflicting.
   
IMPORTANT NOTE - If your ancestor was naturalized after 1917, which would include the Russländer immigrants, then much more information is listed on the card index, which might make you more eager to send off for the file.