EastMenn Historical Committee Report - 2008

The commitee consists of the following members: Jacob Peters--chair, Ernest Braun--secretary, Henry Fast--MMHS Local History Rep., Jacob Doerksen, Orlando Hiebert, Ben Funk.

It met as a whole three times in 2008 ( January 26/April 26/October 25), and the executive met on an ad hoc basis between sessions for ongoing business. Structurally the committee operates under the MMHS Local History Committee umbrella.

On April 5, 2008 EastMenn shared responsibility with MMHS Genealogy and MHV for a Family Roots/History Day at the Mennonite Village Museum, presenting two village histories, Schoenwiese and Friedrichsthal.

Specifically, EastMenn has undertaken several projects, which are at varying levels of completion. Under the supervision of Adolf Ens of MMHS, EastMenn has committed itself to complete Volume Four of the original East Reserve Historical Series conceived by the late John Dyck, and has seconded Henry Fast and Ernest Braun as front men for the task. 2008 saw major advances towards completion of the project, which is expected to see publication in May 2009.

Another project undertaken in 2008 was the acquisition of a complete set of 1940’s aerial photos of the ER in both hard copy and digital form. Thanks to a generous grant from the D.F. Plett Foundation, this project has been funded and is ready to move forward. There has been a setback in that the Ottawa office has been reluctant to undertake such a huge challenge. At this point alternatives are being explored, one being to do the work ourselves at the Inter-Governmental Affairs office in Winnipeg. This project is the first step towards a long-term project of EastMenn, which is the republishing of an Atlas of the East Reserve. This atlas would feature not only the location of villages (revised in the light of recent research), but also the location of original water courses, private and district schools, early trails, cemeteries, settlement patterns and homesteads, and so on. A feature now possible would enable GPS coordinates to be established for noteworthy places that have disappeared entirely.

During the year, the decision of the Rural Municipality of Hanover to remove all road markers bearing names prompted EastMenn to meet with the councilors involved in Heritage matters (Works and Operations) to express concern about the further disappearance of these vestiges of our heritage. Clearly the matter of signage and cairns will become part of the mandate of EastMenn, although at this point a specific action plan has not been determined.

Finally, another small contribution that EastMenn made to ER research in 2008 was to place copies of the Chortitzer Mennonite Church Brotschuld registers at MHC.

Submitted by Ernest Braun and Jacob L. Peters