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The executive board of the Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society was comprised of the following individuals in 1997: Adolf Ens (Winnipeg), Henry Ens (Reinland), Bert Friesen, Vice- President (Winnipeg), John A. Friesen (Winnipeg), Otto Hamm (Morden), Elmer Heinrichs (Altona), Marianne Janzen (Winnipeg), Vic Janzen (Steinbach), Lawrence Klippenstein (Winnipeg), Irene Kroeker (Steinbach), Martha Martens (Horndean), Matthew Neufeld (Winnipeg), Alf Redekopp, Treasurer (Winnipeg), Ken Reddig, President (Winnipeg), Conrad Stoesz (Winnipeg), and Richard Thiessen, Secretary (Winnipeg). John A. Friesen, Elmer Heinrichs, Vic Janzen, and Matthew Neufeld were new to the board, having been elected at the annual meeting in Steinbach early in the year. Unfortunately, John A. Friesen passed away suddenly on July 18, 1997 in Zaporozhe, Ukraine, while on a tour. He was the author of two books, Against the Wind: The Story of Four Mennonite Villages in Southern Ukraine (1994) and Field of Broken Dreams: Mennonite Settlement in Seminole, West Texas (1996). The board met twice during 1997, March 19 at the Mennonite
Heritage Centre and October 15 in Winkler.
At the board meeting held in Winkler on October 15,1997, the Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society accepted in principle the invitation to work in partnership with the Comite Pro Archivo Historico y Museo Menonita in the development of an archives and museum for the Mennonite community in Mexico. The formation of this partnership comes on the heels of events held in Mexico to commemorate seventy-five years of Mennonites in Mexico. The society was approached by George Rempel, a representative of the Mexican group.
In discussions that followed, the Manitoba society agreed that it could provide expertise and
information, and assist in the raising of funds. For this effort, the Manitoba society would retain
10% of the funds raised for this project for administrative purposes. Following board approval,
a committee was struck to draft the final agreement and to manage the funds.
uring the summer, the Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society was awarded a Summer Career Start grant to hire aa student who could help translate some of the Russian language documents recently acquired by the two Mennonite archives in Winnipeg. Serge Chneiderman, a recent emigre from Ukraine, worked for eight weeks on a number of items. The bulk of his work revolved around the compilation of a detailed inventory of twenty-nine microfilm reels of documents held in the St. Petersburg Historical Archives. Chneiderman, who has a Jewish background, had no knowledge of the Mennonites before
he began the project. However, by the end of eight weeks, he was quite interested in what he
had translated. The inventory has been made available to several Mennonite archives in North
America.
Volume II of the West Reserve Historical Series, entitled "1880 Village Census of the
Mennonite West Reserve" is scheduled to be released early in 1998. The 500 page volume,
retailing for $30.00, will be divided into six sections.
The first and second sections will be a reproduction of the original census carried out by
the West Reserve officials in 1880, along with the inclusion of individual text records pertaining
to each village, covering the years 1880-82.
The third and main section of the volume is a listing of all families in the 1880 census,
along with supplemental data. This data, provided by a number of researchers and genealogists,
includes information on the origin of the family in Russia, the names of parents and siblings,
additional family information, and cross-references to other records and publications containing
additional information.
The last three sections contain profiles of bishops, ministers, and deacons in the West
Reserve, a reproduction of the 1891 federal census of the West Reserve, and a detailed list of
ship passenger lists fro Mennonites arriving in Quebec in the years 1880-1896.
This volume compliments the first volume in this series, which was a reproduction of the
Reinl nder Gemeinde Buch, and will be an invaluable source for anyone whose ancestors settled
in the Mennonite West Reserve in the 19th century.
The Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society's Internet website, first launched in 1996, has
become a popular place for certain web surfers to visit, especially if those web surfers are
interested in learning more about Mennonites. The most popular files are those associated with
the Prussian-Russian Mennonite Genealogy pages. These files, described in more detail in the
December 1996 issue of the MMHS Newsletter, contain the names of thousands of Mennonite
found in church and civic records of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. Many of these files havebeen contributed by Adalbert Goertz, a well-known Mennonite genealogist, although others from
throughout Canada and the US have also contributed. At certain points during the year, the site
has been averaging around 40 hits (visits) a day. The society's homepage can be found at:
http://www.mmhs.org.
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