Ned/Nathanial PELSER/PELZER
Ned
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Ned Pelser's birth place.  |
The child of Daniel Pelser. The name Pelser may be spelled Pelzer or Pelcer. The story goes (from Mom) . His name was changed from Nathaniel Pelzer to Ned Pelser when he immigrated to Canada in order to be more "Canadian" and less "German".
On his Canadian naturalization papers he stated he is from northern Russia and is Russian Slavic. But on other documents he is listed as German. His passport (from Moms memory) was German.
Slavic decent is described as a branch of the Indo-European family including Belarusian, Bulgarian, Czech, Polish, Serbian and Croatian, Slovene, Russian, and Ukrainian. He read and wrote German and Russian.
I do not have much information about his life in his birth country. Except that he came from a large Lutheran family with 8 siblings near Warsaw. His fathers name is Daniel Pelzer, born in 1868 in Janow Poland. His mother is presumed to be Ludwicka Luise Mantik born in 1875 also in Janow Poland.
A lot of questions remain. Historical documents are available for Galizien German decendants which is the group his family belongs too. They located to Poland for work, remained in large German groups and were given the opportunity to re locate back into Germany in 1939. Our grandfathers family chose to move back to Germany at this time. But research is difficult as documents are in German. Future blogs will focus on Ned's parents and the history of Galicia during their time.
2 years before the start of WWI, at the age of 16 Ned travelled by himself to Canada on the ship named MV "The Montreal". The ship left from the port of Antwerp Germany. And upon arrival on Mar 21st 1912 into the St John harbour in New Brunswick, Ned had learned to read and write English. On ships documents he listed his Canadian destination as Lumberg, Saskatchewan where his sister Bertha was believed to have lived.
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| Antwerp Harbour - early 1900s |
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| St John New Brunswick 1912 |
(Check back for a post dedicated to German Immigrants into Canada through St John Harbour.)
It is presumed Ned would have boarded a train upon arriving into Canada and headed directly up to Saskatchewan where his sister Berta lived. There are legal documents recording him working in various towns near Lumberg.
- 1916 Ned is in Balcarres Saskatchewan as a farm labourer
- 1917 Ned is in Outlook, Saskatchewan
- 1919 Ned is in Leader, Saskatchewan
This area of Saskatchewan had a large population of German immigrants. Further information will come in future posts.
1921 Ned lived in Prelate, Saskatchewan - Prelate is most likely where Ned met our grandmother Olive Hunter. Olive was the school teacher in the area. In a 1921 census he was 25 years old. He owned his home, which had four rooms made of wood on Main Street. He had two lodgers, John Glock (a musician age 24) and Howard Law (a ledger ...age 17). He lists himself and both parents as being born in Russia and his nationality as Russian and his racial origin as Polish. (which are discrepancies from earlier documentation and verbal records through Mom). He is listed as able to read and write English and Russian, not French.
In 1922 Ned applied for Canadian Naturalization(Canadian citizenship). And on May 16th 1923 he was approved #242552 and swore the Oath of Allegiance as follows:I Ned Pelser of the Prelate Village of Saskatchewan Swear by almighty God that I will be faithful and true allegiance to his majesty King George the fifth. His heirs and successors according to the Law...so help me God
At this time Ned had trained to become a jeweller and clockman. He had his own shop.
This letter is a copy of his Canadian naturalization confirmation.
Ned married our grandmother Olive in 1923 in Leader, Saskatchewan.
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| Ned Pelser - sitting in front of Olive (our grandmother) piano - the piano is gone but the metronome on the piano is still around and I'm sure the sheet music is still at Moms house) |
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| Ned as a young man with unknown person..(his brother. a friend...?) |
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