Jacob Besler’s Long Journey to Canada Part One: From Landestreu to Liverpool

I’ve written before about my grandfather’s life in Galicia here, and earlier about his arrival in Canada here. But only recently have I been able to fill in some gaps in between: how did he get from his small village in Galicia to the Canadian prairies? Here’s what I learned.

As the third son in the Besler family Jacob’s prospects in the tiny village of Landestreu were slim. Lured by the prospects of his own farm in Canada Jacob decided to seek his fortunes overseas. Everyone in Landestreu was related to each other so he likely had heard about villagers who had emigrated to Landestreu Saskatchewan. Accompanied by cousins Johann Kendel and Philip Besler he made his travel plans and in the spring of 1902 began his journey.

Jacob probably hadn’t ventured too far from his home in his life so he would have excited but on the other hand nervous about leaving Landestreu for good. The first step in the journey would have been to travel to one of the nearby towns to catch a train. The Galician Railway was extensive with about 1540 kilometres of lines connecting the eastern part of the Austro Hungarian Empire with Vienna, Berlin and Warsaw. 

The Lemberg-Czernowitz Line was built in 1866 and included a station at Stanislau (now Stanisławów), the closest to Landestreu. If the travellers were lucky they would have been transported by horse and cart. Jacob’s passport listed his occupation as Wagner (wagon driver) so he may have had access to a cart which would have shortened the nine hour walk. Once in Stanislau they would have boarded a train for the first step of their journey to Lemberg (now Lviv).

Stanislau Station https://sudilovski.livejournal.com/77246.html

Lemberg Station Interior https://sudilovski.livejournal.com/77246.html

Lemberg reception building https://sudilovski.livejournal.com/77246.html 

 

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In Lemberg Jacob and his cousins would have visited one of the many travel agents whose windows were decorated with posters meant to lure travellers in. They would have discovered that it was cheaper to travel to Canada instead of the US as the government subsidized the emigration cost via a fee paid to travel agents for each immigrant they booked. They also would have discovered that an indirect route to Canada was cheaper than a direct journey. That meant sailing from a port such as Hamburg, Bremen, Antwerp, Danzig, Stettin or Rotterdam to Grimsby, Humber or Hull in the UK. 

A train would then take them to Liverpool where they would board a ship sailing to Canada. The package they purchased would have included the cost of food and lodging, train ticket to the port, steamship ticket to Hull, train ticket to Liverpool and steamship ticket to Canada. The cost was about $40-50 or about $2000 in 2023 Canadian dollars, a not insubstantial amount of money. The group paid the sum and headed off on a journey that would have taken about 3 weeks in total.

 

The only passenger lists easily accessible for this period are the Hamburg passenger lists. I was unfortunately unable to find Jacob and his companions on any of lists for ships sailing from Hamburg to either Grimsby or London in the spring of1902. It’s most likely that they sailed to the port of Hull/Grimsby, probably via the Wilson Lines as the train trip to Liverpool was the shortest route to a port in terms of time and distance.

Special immigrant trains left Hull at 11 am on Monday arriving in Liverpool at 2 to 3 pm that day, though trains could run on an “as needed” basis linked with the regularity of Wilson Line steamships. The railway carriages left directly from Victoria Dock in Hull and ended at Riverside Quay in Liverpool - the travellers weren’t allowed to visit either city as officials didn’t want to chance disease ridden migrants mixing with townsfolk. The immigrant trains took precedence over others due to their length - there were sometimes so many emigrants that 17 carriages were pulled by one steam engine. Baggage was stored in the rear four carriages. The trains were low standard 3rd class carriages equipped with wooden benches to sit on and no toilets.

 

Paragon Station Hull, photo by Richard Croft

Once in Liverpool the travellers would stay in immigrant lodging houses until their ship to North America was ready. The stay could take from 1-10 days. The Dominion sailed for Quebec on a Thursday so Jacob and his companions would have had a few days to cool their heels. 

Liverpool Mercury June 2 1902 findmypast.co.uk

The Dominion was a huge ship weighing 7.000 tons, built in Belfast in 1894 and originally named the Prussia. It was purchased by the Dominion Line from the Hamburg America Line in 1898 and renamed the Dominion. The ship measured 445 feet by 50 feet and could carry 1120 passengers: 200 1st class, 170 2nd class and 750 3rd class. In 1902 the ship had already crossed the Atlantic three times, heading for Portland in January, March and April. The June crossing to Quebec was the first and only of the season as the season for travel to Canada was short due to ice in the St Lawrence River.

I was able to locate the passenger list for Jacob’s voyage from Liverpool. His name was misspelled as “Pessler”, a common error. The Landestreu party were 3 out of 722 third class passengers, the new and improved term for steerage class. It was interesting to note that English, Scottish and Irish passengers were listed first, before the “foreigners”. Included in this group were 75 British Home Children ranging in age from 3 to 18. All third class passengers were bound for Quebec. The 99 second class and 40 first class passengers were bound for Montreal. 

findmypast.co.uk

The morning of June 5 was cool and overcast with a light breeze. The 861 passengers queued up and boarded the Dominion. Under the command of Master Jones the ship began the 9 day trip to Quebec.

To be continued …

Branching Out: The Beslers of Landestreu

Heimat Galizien im Bild,  Hilfskomitee der Galiziendeutschen 

I've been researching my grandfather’s family in Galicia lately which is a perfect lead in for this month’s topic. The picture above is Landestreu, Galicia. My grandfather Jacob Besler left his home there in 1902 at the age of 18 to emigrate to Canada. He never returned to his homeland and never again saw most of his family. I don’t know if he exchanged letters with his family. If he did the letters have not survived. He was busy raising his own family and trying to survive in the harsh climate of Saskatchewan but he must have thought of his parents and siblings and wondered what became of them. Here’s what I discovered.

My grandfather was the 8th of 10 children born to Johann Heinrich Besler and Maria Barbara Baumung as well as the youngest son. Large families were common in the village of Landestreu and land was scarce. Most of the inhabitants of the village were described as Grundwirts or Landwirts which translates to farmer in English. A promising future was not in store for young Jacob so his decision to emigrate to Canada made sense. You can read my earlier blog post about his journey here. 

Survival into adulthood was difficult. Many children in these large families did not make it past their first year. Heinrich and Barbara’s first child Johann Christian was born in 1868. Their next four children died young: Katharina Elisabeth born in 1871 lived 2 1/2 months and died of Schwäche (weakness), Johann Philipp born in 1872 lived 8 months and died of Zahnen (teething), Jakob Adolf born in 1874 lived to 6 1/2 and died of Auszehrung (weakness/emaciation, possibly tuberculosis) and Maria Katharina born in 1876 lived just 3 weeks before succumbing to fraise (infant spasms). In other families masern (measles), keuchhusten (whooping cough) and rachitis (rickets) claimed many children, causes of infant mortality that we don’t see any more. Luckily for the Beslers their last 5 children were healthy and lived well into adulthood.

Heinrich died on 28 Nov 1912 at the age of 69 from some sort of cranial issue, perhaps a stroke? (Gehirnenig). Barbara died on 26 Oct 1920 at the age of 73 of Alterschwäche (old age). When Jacob married in 1915 he noted that both his parents were dead which leads me to believe that he did not receive letters from his family once he settled in Canada. Perhaps mail wasn’t coming through during WWI leading him to guess that they were dead. 

Record book of deaths. Ugartsthal-Landestreu commune agad.gov.pl

Once the senior Beslers died their oldest son Christian took over the family residence House #7. He had married Eleonora Löwenberger in 1895 and was listed as a Grundwirt or Landmann.

Record book of Weddings, Ugartsthal-Landestreu commune, agad.gov.pl

The couple had 8 children that I know of. I don’t know when or where Christian or Eleonora died nor the fate of 4 of their children.  Fred and his wife Minnie emigrated to Canada, settling in Winnipeg. My mother was close to their daughter Eleanor. Minnie and her husband Wilhelm Schick settled in Toronto. John settled in Toronto as well. 

I wasn’t able to determine the fate of Johann Georg Besler born in 1878. Perhaps he died young or moved to another village in Galicia.

Eleonora Besler married Johann Friedrich Lowenberger in 1896 and had 9 children that I know of. Friedrich died in 1920 of the Spanish Flu, one of a number of relatives that succumbed to the deadly virus. I don’t know of Eleanor’s fate but she remained in Europe. Two of the 9 children emigrated to Canada: Fred and his wife Hedwig and George and his wife Irma settled in Toronto.

Katharina Besler married Johann Reihl in 1913. They had one child that I am aware of. I do not know their fate.

Finally Dorothea Besler married Rudolf Kandel in 1906. This is the only sibling that my grandfather even saw again. First Rudy then Dorothy emigrated to Canada in 1912 with their two eldest children. They settled in Brandon Manitoba. My mother has fond memories of her Aunt Dorothy and stayed in touch with her cousins even when she moved to Toronto.

Hamburg Passenger Lists 1850-1934, ancestry.ca

Jacob and Dorothy were the lucky ones as they left Galicia before the first World War. The inhabitants suffered greatly but many residents remained even after the territory was divided after the War. Things improved in the inter war years but little did they know that the worst was yet to come in the form of World War Two. 

In 1939 Poland was divided between Germany and the Soviet Union as a result of the Ribbentrop-Molotov agreement. One of the terms of this agreement was that those of German ethnic background were to be relocated from the Russian area to the German area. So the residents of Landestreu had to leave; likely they did not want to stay in Russian controlled territories though it was a difficult decision to leave their homeland. Always particular, the Nazis created Einwandererzentralstelle forms, translated as Immigration Centre documents. The documents were stored in the Berlin Document Centre and captured by the American army at the end of the war. Starting in 1939 hundreds of thousands of people were recorded as they packed up to leave their homes. 

In English Landestreu means “faithful land” and the Beslers were indeed faithful to their land. The family moved to Landestreu from Biedesheim in the Rheinland Palatinate in the late 1700s. The village was founded in 1783 and my 4x great grandfather Konrad Besler was listed on the first census of residents taken in 1788.   

 

Ludwig Schneider, Das Kolonisationswert Josefs II in Galizien

This was the only home they had ever known. Despite speaking German and worshipping in the Lutheran church their ties to German were very weak. They were moved to camps in German controlled territories in Poland and often into farms that were cleared of their original Polish inhabitants. The intent was that they would produce food and provide other services to support Germany and the Nazi war machine. 

The Galizien German Descendants has indexed many of the EWZ forms relating to Galizien residents.  The forms from 1940-1941 are available on Family Search to view. I was not able to find my great Uncles and Aunts though I did find a variety of more distant cousins. Then, by chance I realized I was looking at one of my mother’s cousins. Her record had not been indexed and I found it as I browsed the records looking for someone else.

Eleonora Besler was born on 13 May 1900, the second daughter and third child to Johann Christian Besler and Eleonora Löwenberger. Her birth record is not yet available but I located the record of her marriage to Jakob Weiss on 15 February 1920. 

 

Record book of Weddings, Ugartsthal-Landestreu commune, agad.gov.pl

After her marriage she lived a quiet life in Landestreu, until she presented herself and her 17 year old daughter Alwine to authorities in Pabianice on 23 February 1940. They had been moved from their home in Landestreu to nearby Manasterczany then to Zdunska Wola, near Łodz for processing. Today this is a 10 hour drive. Eleonora and Alwine likely spent many more hours on a train to get to the relocation camp. The photos are poignant. They look apprehensive and rightly so. They were headed to an unknown future in a new town. They were separated from Jakob who had apparently already been relocated. The form notes that they are of Polish nationality, the Evangelisch (Lutheran) religion and of the Aryan race (not likely that anyone would say otherwise to this question!). They both wished to apply for German citizenship. At the bottom a physical description is added by hand. Eleonora is 156 cm tall, slim with blond hair and blue eyes. Alwine is 148 cm tall, slim with blond hair and light brown eyes.

Stamblätter 1940-1941, Deutschland Einwandererzentralstelle FamilySearch.org    

 

Their post-war fate is unknown but likely tragic given their location in the path of the advancing Soviet army.  It was a sad end to what began as hopeful emigration and emphasizes how fortuitous my grandfather’s decision to emigrate was.  

To conclude here is a German newsreel clip from early in 1940 showing Galician emigrants in the course of their journey. 

No names are provided but likely some of the people in this film were my family members. The enthusiastic greeting by the Nazis was no doubt put on for the camera - I’ve seen anecdotal evidence that their possessions were stolen and compensation for the loss of their lands never provided. Today Landestreu is in western Ukraine and has been renamed Zelenyi Yar. The fate of this area of the world is once again uncertain.

Coming Home 1919

On November 11th 1918 the First World War was officially over when Armistice was signed. However, the war continued well into 1919 for many Canadian soldiers. At the end of the war there were approximately 300,000 Canadians in Britain and Europe. Bringing everyone home was a huge endeavour. One this date 100 years ago my grandfather William Thomas Brooks was one of these Canadians anxiously waiting to come home. Here is his official service photo. 

I had written about his war service in an early blog post: click here to read Bill had spent the war in the Canadian Service Corps using his skills as a stenographer. On Armistice Day he was stationed in France at the CASC Depot at Beaurainville He finished the war with the rank of Corporal with his promotion going through on March 24 1919. 

He returned to England and was assigned to General Head Quarters. He celebrated Easter there on April 20th 1919.

Shortly after, in May, he was transferred to Rhyl, located on the north shore of Wales. There he worked as a Clerk.

The Town of Rhyl did its best to deal with the troops while they were stationed there. Due to shortage of large ships and post war strikes by working class Britons it took some time to ship the Canadians home. Rhyl experienced rioting in March 1919 before Bill's arrival. A mutiny at a camp for Canadian soldiers resulted in several deaths. 

From 2019 exhibit at the Canadian War Museum

Here are some adverts for entertainment that took place during Bill's stay in May of 1919. Since he kept these flyers he likely attended at least some of these events!

On June 2nd 1919 it was Bill's turn to return home:

This is the ship he sailed on, S.S. Lapland. When she returned to being a passenger ship after the war she could carry roughly 2000 first, second and third class passengers. As a troop ship she would have carried about the same number. On this voyage the Lapland carried 79 regular passengers and the remainder of the ship was filled with returning soldiers. 

From 2019 exhibit at the Canadian War Museum

On the page listing Corporal Brooks there were 178 soldiers listed so the ship was overflowing. Unfortunately the list with my grandfather's name is covered with another page but I spotted his number 510813: 

The Lapland docked in Halifax on June 6th 1919 and Bill was home. He was discharged on June 11th 1919. 

Bill was one of the lucky ones - he made it home without sustaining major injuries, though the experience was still likely difficult. Others were not so lucky - you can read about the experiences of Frederick Moorecroft 

From 2019 exhibit at the Canadian War Museum

and Percival, Arthur and Herman Moorecroft  

From 2019 exhibit at the Canadian War Museum

There were welcome home parades and a lot of excitement at the return of the soldiers.

From 2019 exhibit at the Canadian War Museum

These photos were taken by my grandmother Gertrude Kingswell at a welcome home parade in her hometown Kingston Ontario, exact date unknown.

In Toronto the celebrations continued into the summer with the CNE celebrating both Victory and a 40 year anniversary

But once all the parades were over it was time to try and return to normal life. The former soldiers were provided with assistance. This pamphlet, published by local churches, provided useful information:


And local businesses offered discounts:

It's possible that my grandfather took advantage of Mr. Walker's offer. He quickly found work and a place to live. The 1920 Toronto City Directory (which was compiled in 1919) listed him

My grandfather's war ended well with a job, and soon after a wife and family. He might not have spoken about his experiences during the Great War but no doubt they shaped the rest of his life. One hundred years later I'm glad that he returned home safely.

Oscar Lancelot Nicholls - Christmas Tragedy

World War One officially ended on November 11th 1918. However, the Great War continued on past that date for many Canadian soldiers. One such soldier was Oscar Lancelot Nicholls, cousin of my partner's paternal grandmother Adeline Lucinda Nicholls. 

Lance was born on February 6th 1894 in Bolsover Ontario, the son Robert Andrew Nicholls and Hannah Marie Dunn. He was the 2nd of 5 children. The family was listed in the 1911 Canadian Census:

Bolsover was a small town and Lance appeared to have ambitions beyond life on the farm. 

By 1913 he was living in Toronto working as a clerk at the Imperial Bank. 

His career in banking was cut short by the war  

Lance had transferred to Montreal and enlisted there on August 22nd 1917 at the age of 23. His C.E.F. is much slimmer than some others that I have reviewed as he he quickly transferred to the Royal Flying Corps on November 6th 1917.

Like many young men at the time he developed an interest in the new field of aviation. Canada did not have their own air force so aspiring Canadian pilots joined the British service. Lance was quickly sent to Hicks Field in Texas for training. According to Wikipedia Hicks Field operated as a training school from October 1917 through April 2018 for American and Canadian pilots. It was turned over to the Americans in 2018 for their exclusive use. 

His RAF file lists Lance's skills:

The Curtiss JN-4 was nicknamed the "Jenny". The Jenny was built by the Curtiss Aeroplane Company and used to train pilots at Hicks Field. Here's what she looked like:

Lewis Machine guns were designed in the US and manufactured in the UK and used extensively by the British army in World War One. It was the first gun fired from an aeroplane. Here is a Lewis gun mounted at the front of a plane.

And a Vickers gun was a British machine gun that was also used from planes as in this picture.

Duly trained, Lance was dispatched to England where he was posted to the Central Flying School in Upavon, Wiltshire for advanced training. Upon arrival he and his fellow cadets were granted commission as a 2nd Lieutenant as noted in the June 14th 2018 London Gazette.

Lance was still posted at the Central Flying School when the war ended on November 11th 2018. Despite that, he was still considered to be on active duty. This clipping from the Toronto Star tells the sad story of what happened next:

Lance's family were no doubt excited and happy that he would be returning to them in 1919. What a sad truth for them. According to the death register cause of death was a fractured skull. His RAF file was also slim and gave no further details of the maneuver that led to his death. Many young men died at the Central Flying School before and after the Armistice - flying was a danger endeavour in those days. 

Lance was buried in Upavon. His heartbroken family erected a memorial to him in the Bolsover Cemetery.

Lance is listed in the Canadian Book of Remembrance. Today is December 22nd and that is the day that his page is displayed for public viewing. He is one of 1,388 Canadians who died while serving in the British Flying Services, 100 years ago.