Jacob Ratzlaff family emigration to USA

Mennonites settled in Russia in the 19^th century for various reasons.  The St. Petersburg government gained control of South Russia during this time and wished that the fertile steppe be converted into valuable farmland.  In Volhynia, the Russian serfs were being freed and the landowners needed knowledgeable farmers to work the land.  Many Germans, including Mennonites, Lutherans and Baptists, were invited into Russia because of their acumen for working the soil.  Some, like the Mennonites in South Russia, were granted special privileges excusing them from military duties or exempting them from taxes.  By the mid-century mark, Ukraine was dotted with German colonies; farmers or cottage industrialists who did not assimilate with the native Ukrainians and Russians.  As time wore on and the nationalistic spirit grew, the Russian government began to desire that the Germans living in their midst become more “Russian” in culture so it instigated changes in its former policies that were favorable to the German colonists.  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Germans_in_Russia_and_the_Soviet_Union)

Mennonites in Volhynia and South Russia greatly valued their German heritage and had no desire to assimilate with the native Ukrainians or Russians.  Furthermore, their religion forbad them military service, so they began to leave Ukraine.  The mass exodus of Mennonites began in 1874 as they began to find new homes in the U.S.A., Canada, and South America. (http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/U568.html)

The Jacob Ratzlaff family also began to look into leaving Volhynia.  In 1893 most of the family packed up and left, bound for Marion County, Kansas.  A generous resident of Marion County, Bernard Jantz, paid the travelling fare for the Ratzlaffs.  The travelling party consisted of 21 people and they boarded the SS Polaria, bound for Montreal, Canada.  The SS Polaria was a ship of the Hamburg-America Line and departed Hamburg, Germany, on June 10, 1893.  After a brief stop at Antwerp, Belgium, on June 14, 1893 the ship embarked on its cross-Atlantic voyage and reached Montreal, Canada on June 27^th.  (http://www.norwayheritage.com/p_shiplist.asp?co=haaml)

Members of the Jacob Ratzlaff family who made the voyage were:

     Jacob and Anna,

     Henry (Heinrich), wife Katherine and their children Tobias and Karolina,

     Bernard and his wife Marie,

     Adam,

     Lena (Helene),

     John (Johann).

Jacob and Anna's other two children, Eva and Andreas, both stayed in Russia at this time.  They both would travel to the U.S.A with their families at later dates.

Bernard and Maria’s names appear on the first page of the manifest of the SS Polaria where they are listed as farmer and wife:

The names of the rest of the Ratzlaff party appear on the second page:

Joining the Jacob Ratzlaff family on the voyage was an Andreas Ratzlaff (note that this is NOT Andreas Ratzlaff, the son of Jacob Ratzlaff) and his wife Maria.  The SS Polaria manifest gives Andreas and Maria’s ages as 60 at the time of the voyage in 1893.