Author: Dion Martens

The high-level details of John D. Reddekopp’s life which form the basis of his chapter in Lineage are drawn primarily from family knowledge. Below are photos from various stage of his life, along with an audio recording of him. Studio photo of John D. Reddekopp taken in 1947 Photo of John D. Reddekopp taken around…

The details of Heinrich D. Martens’s remarkable life which are included in Lineage are drawn from family oral history, as well as several other resources, including: The remarkable but scarce Hague-Osler Mennonite Reserve: 1895-1995 book Leonard Doell’s book, The Bergthaler Mennonite Church of Saskatchewan Leonard Doell’s article on the Spanish flu Leonard Doell’s article on…

David Martens and part of his family at their homestead in Neuhoffnung, Northwest Territories (now Saskatchewan). The photo was taken in 1898. David is pictured holding his infant son Cornelius, who died of diphtheria less than a year later. His wife, Helena Falk, holds their youngest at the time, baby Helena, while their daughter Katherina…

The details of the life of Jakob Höppner II included in Lineage are drawn from his entry in the GrandmaOnline database (#2646). A photo of Jakob Höppner and Anna Brandt, from GrandmaOnline, submitted by Robert Peters. A photo of Jakob Höppner, from GrandmaOnline, submitted by Robert Peters.

The tragic story of Anna Brandt witnessing her mother and younger sibling drown in the Molotshna River is recorded in Delbert Plett’s Pioneers and Pilgrims: The Mennonite Kleine Gemeinde in Manitoba, Nebraska and Kansas, 1874 to 1882 (page 185). According to some oral history, Anna’s mother drowned with her younger sister, however genealogical records in GrandmaOnline…

Dutch anthropologist Arlette Kouwenhoven researched the de Veer/Fehr family line extensively for her remarkable book, The Fehrs: Four Centuries of Mennonite Migration. Unless otherwise noted, the information below comes from Kouwenhoven’s extensive work digging into original archival sources: Benjamin was born in 1733 in Klein Mausdorf (now Myszewko), about 40 km from Danzig (Gdańsk). That…

Many resources outline details on Jacob Höppner, including: Jacob Höppner – Encyclopedia Entry Georg von Trappe’s 1786 Invitation to Mennonites (original here) The Priviligium Negotiated with Imperial Russia Mennonite migration out of the Vistula Delta (see page 52) The Emigrations from Prussia to Russia, towards a Revisionist (Chortitza/ Old Colony) Interpretation of Mennonite History (see…

Dutch anthropologist Arlette Kouwenhoven researched the de Veer/Fehr family line extensively for her remarkable book, The Fehrs: Four Centuries of Mennonite Migration. Kouwenhoven drew on original archival sources to reveal: Benjamin de Veer was the grandson of Gijsbert III and Catharina von Roy, and the only child of Cornelius de Veer. His mother’s name is…

Dutch anthropologist Arlette Kouwenhoven researched the de Veer/Fehr family line extensively for her remarkable book, The Fehrs: Four Centuries of Mennonite Migration. Kouwenhoven drew on original archival sources to reveal: The de Veer family once prospered through the grain trade, but that prosperity did not last. War disrupted markets and reduced demand. The Thirty Years’…

In 1967, De Nederlandsche Leeuw, a Dutch genealogical publication, released a detailed genealogy of the de Veer family, which was authored M. R. H. Calmeyer, J. H. de Veer and J. F. van West de Veer. Forty years before that, Calmeyer, then a Dutch military officer, had self-published his own research on the de Veer…

To piece together details of Nicolaes Harnasveger’s life, I am grateful to Dr. Jaap Geraerts (academia.edu; livesandletters.ac.uk), Dutch genealogist Odette Franssen (geneanet.org), and historian Barry Teichroeb (mooserungenealogy.com) for sharing background research and their personal correspondence. “26 May 1554 (burial of a child of) Hernisveger, Claes Jacopsz. Burial place: Old Church. On the 26th received from Claes…

In Lineage, Jakob Claesz. Harnasveger is an armourer drawn into dangerous currents not by grand ambition, but by deep personal conviction in a time when believing differently than the authorities required was a crime. What follows here steps out of the realm of historical fiction and into archival records. Court examinations, sentences, and correspondence from…