Stories

We have many first-person accounts from people in our lineage. Not all were DNA-related but each story gives color to the past and filled in many blanks in my understanding. 

The practice of the Mennonite (basically Baptist) religion was a common thread and connected people socially, if not spiritually. The unique tenet of this denomination is the requirement to avoid armed military service. Many, including my father, found this to be unrealistic. However, this  tenet was the motivating factor in the migration from the Netherlands, in the late 1700's to Germany and then, in the early 1800's, to South Russia (now Ukraine). In the 1920's and later, violence, epidemics, famine and the cruel communist government in Russia drove them to North America and elsewhere.

There are two main themes in our history. One is the "riches to rags" process in which the First World War, the Bolshevik revolution, and the succeeding violence , famine and epidemics destroyed the wealth that Klassens had previously enjoyed. By the early 1920's, everyone had become poor. The other theme is how faith in God enabled some individuals to be resilient. They bounced back without bitterness, if not financially. An influential preacher in our past was Heinrich Dirks, a missionary and then minister of the church in the Mennonite colony. His daughter, Evangeline, exemplified faith-based resilience as she lived through the worst parts of the 20th century.