Imperfect Oral History

Oral Histories are a valuable but imprecise tool in the study of genealogy. Although simple information such as names and birth dates can be easy to recall and pass on, important events and histories can suffer from imprecise hearing and interpretation as they are passed from family member to family member. Sometimes the information does not add up. This becomes even more challenging when you are faced with a relative who is a very private person or who wants to forget their past.

I recall visiting my great-grandmother shortly before her death April 13th, 1973. I did not know this frail woman on her death bed very well, but my mother was very forthcoming in expressing the importance of this visit. Unlike many children, I was not sheltered from death and was familiar with human mortality. Prior to this I had experienced the death of my maternal grandfather at age 3 (I recall visiting the funeral home for the viewing with my family), and my step great grandfather, husband to the frail woman before me, had been buried only two months prior to this visit.

The stories of my German/Russian great grandmother’s immigration to America were often told in the family. I remember hearing how her father was a Lutheran minister, and how late at night a group of men came knocking at the door of the families house, and took her father away after finding a bible in the house. He was never seen again. My great grandmother opposed her mother’s decision to remarry and left for America, residing with some former residents from her native village.[1] I admired the strength of the woman and the principles that caused her to leave for America, but it was not until almost 50 years after her death that the truth of her immigration and hard life came to light.

A letter addressed to my great grandmother, written in German and translated after the death of my great aunt, revealed aspects of the oral history previously unknown. It revealed a much different situation to the story I had grown up with. The letter indicated that my great grandmother was following her sister and her sister’s husband who had left for America a few years before her. She intended to join these two and aid them in preparing for the immigration of the rest of the family. However, when she arrived, instead of being greeted by her sister’s family, she was alone.[2] Unbeknownst to my great grandmother, her sister’s family had decided to return to their native village. Shortly after she arrived in America, the Russian borders were closed due to World War I and her family could not get out to join her in America. At 16 years old, and not knowing any English, she was alone in a new country. She stayed with some recent immigrants from the same village, and married their eldest son, Henry S. Stieber. This marriage lasted only a few years before he was killed in an accident. The marriage resulted in three children of which two survived. Widowed at 22 she ended up back in the home of her husband’s family. However, this was not ideal. To rid himself of the obligation of this young family, her former father-in-law would drag the young, widowed mother to the bar with him, in the attempt to find her a husband. She married again a year later and had eight more children.

In addition the discovered letter, a search of the records of Louise Michel’s native village of Dietel, a German, Lutheran colony established 1767 in the Volga region, calls to question the story of her father as a Lutheran minister. If her father were a minister in the church, he was not the senior pastor, as the senior pastor for the Dietel church, August Julius Tiedemann, served from 1893-1927, so neither the dates nor the surname of the pastor match.[3] However, it is possible that her father served in the church. It is also possible that the disappearance of her father was not connected with the church or discovery of the bible.

My great grandmother had a hard life and did what she had to do to survive. From the stories I have heard of her reactions to different events, I have no doubt that she was the victim of abuse and possibly exploitation; although, I have no way of verifying these assumptions. I do know she loved her children dearly and did what was necessary to ensure their future without looking back. Unfortunately, her unwillingness to look back, has deprived us of a lot of her history.

[1] Donna Foster, interview by author, Yakima, WA. Sept 29, 2023. [2] Personal Letter to Louise Michel dated May 24, 1914. [3] The Volga Germans. “Dietel.” Page last edited on Oct. 12, 2020. https://www.volgagermans.org/who-are-volga-germans/settlements/original/dietel

Bibliography

Find a Grave. “Louise Michel Thormahlen.” June 4, 2022. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/240323329/louise-thormahlen

The Volga Germans. “Dietel.” Oct. 12, 2020. https://www.volgagermans.org/who-are-volga-germans/settlements/original/dietel