FM Goossen Family

One of the most interesting things about posting a family history blog is meeting distant family members who are also interested in the family history.  I've been contacted by numerous Ratzlaffs, to whom many I can easily trace my relationship.

Recently I was contacted by a grand-daughter of Florentine (Ratzlaff) Goossen.  Florentine was born in Leeleva, Volhynia, in 1904, to Andreas and Susanna (Wedel) Ratzlaff and was an older sister to my grandfather, Albert Ratzlaff.  Florentine married John D Goossen, son of Franz Goossen (FM for short) of Marion County, KS, in 1924 at the Alexanderwohl Mennonite Church and the family made their home a mile south and about 5 miles east of Hillsboro, in Wilson Township.  Florentine and John had 7 children who were cousins to my father, Norman Ratzlaff, and I think my Dad palled around with these Goossen boys quite a bit when they were young.  Dad has told me numerous stories about this family's adventures; most of the sons were involved with motorcycles, airplanes, etc, and as I understand it, one of them even busied himself by prospecting for gold in the mountains of the western United States!  Several of the boys moved to Farmington, New Mexico, when they grew up.

The Goossen family was among the Russian Mennonites emigrating to the US from the Molotschna Colony.  The Goossens traveled to the United States aboard the SS Vaderland in 1877 (the same steamship that brought my great great great grandmother Anna (Koehn) Ratzlaff to America in 1874 as well as my great great grandfather Heinrich Wiens in 1876).  Much more can be learned about the Franz Goossen Family at http://www.fmgoossenfamily.com/WP/.