Connecting the Generations on the Mennonite Heritage Cruise

One of the most exhilarating experiences on the Mennonite Heritage Cruise is the linking of your family to the places we visit and the events we remember.  After all, most of the history that we study is essentially “family” history, because it has involved and affected families over the years.  This cruise gives you the opportunity to find your own family’s place in our shared Mennonite Heritage in Ukraine.

The Cruise has worked closely with the Genealogy Project Committee of the California Mennonite Historical Society.  Genealogists from this committee have participated in eleven of the past twelve cruises, including Jay Hubert, Jeff Wall, and especially Alan Peters, who has shared his genealogical resources on twelve cruises, and will again be the genealogical resource leader on the 2010 cruise.  A major source of collected genealogical information is the GRANDMA CD, a comprehensive database of Mennonite family information, that Alan will bring along in his laptop computer.  His version is the latest and continually updated version of GRANDMA, which now contains data on nearly a million individuals. Peters also gives an extremely popular illustrated "powerpoint" seminar on genealogy on the ship.

Discovering where YOUR family fits in!

Each cruise participant can receive a personal chart showing what ancestral records are contained in the current, constantly updated version of the GRANDMA database.  A pedigree chart, showing the names, dates, and locations of all known ancestors of each cruise participant will be prepared and distributed during the cruise for each person who provides us with the basic information requested on the back side of this sheet.  We need to know basic information about yourself and your parents, grandparents and, if possible, your great-grandparents, so that we can link you to the many individuals in the database.  Please provide as much as you know about your family background, and we will prepare a pedigree chart combining what you know with what information we can add from our genealogical database.  If you have MORE information than we request on the reverse side, don’t hesitate to send it to us also.  The more you can provide us, the more likely it is that we will find linkages in our records.

Your personal pedigree chart is provided as an important part of your cruise package.  However, because we are always seeking resources to help us secure additional records from Ukrainian archives, we are hoping that each cruise  participant will contribute to a special Ukrainian Archive Acquisition Fund of the California Mennonite Historical Society.  The suggested amount is US$50/Cdn$50. Of course you can give more than that and many passengers do.

Please make the checks payable to the "Center for M.B. Studies." which has an arrangement to deal with both US and Canadian currencies.

The contributions, which are tax-deductible, have assisted the Society to secure significant archival resources and records from government archives that have been open to us for only a few years.  Indeed, on more than one occasion, our typically generous cruise participants have responded “on the spot” when we became aware of a serendipitous opportunity for new materials that surfaced during the cruise itself.  Additional genealogical consultation and advice will be available from Alan Peters during the cruise itself, and the cruise provides many opportunities for the sharing of family stories and other genealogical information.

Find your own place in the history that we will be revisiting in Ukraine.  Send this sheet, with the information you can, to the following address:

Alan Peters,
1267 W. Keats Ave.
Fresno, CA
USA  93711-3108

If the Committee discovers that it needs more information from you, it is vital that we have an email address where we can direct our questions.  Please include your email address in the place provided on the bottom of the page.

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PERSONAL ANCESTRAL INFORMATION

Your Name:
date of birth:
place:
date of marriage:
place:

Your Spouse’s Name:
date of birth:
place:
 

Your Children:

1. Name:                                                    born:                                    place:
2. Name:                                                    born:                                    place:
3. Name:                                                    born:                                    place:
4. Name:                                                    born:                                    place:
  (use additional space if needed)

Your Father’s Name:                                                  Your Mother’s Name:
 date of birth:                                                               date of birth:
 place:                                                                           place:
 date of marriage:                                                        date of death:
 place:                                                                           place:
 date of death:
 place:
 

His Parents: (Your Paternal Grandparents)   Her Parents: (Your Maternal Grandparents)

Grandfather’s Name                                                    Grandfather’s Name
 born:                                                                             born:
 place:                                                                            place:
 married:                                                                       married:
 place:                                                                           place:
 died:                                                                             died:
 place:                                                                           place:

Grandmother’s Name                                                  Grandmother’s Name
 born:                                                                             born:
 place:                                                                           place:
 died:                                                                             died:
 place:                                                                           place:

Your Paternal Great-Grandparents:   Your Maternal Great-Grandparents:
(Add any information you know about your great-grandparents.) (Add any information you know.)

If you need more space to add further information, please use additional sheets or attach copies of any records you possess.  Each spouse should submit a separate sheet, since your ancestry will be different.

The email address where I can be reached is:

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