Calgary, Alberta
The first group of German-speaking immigrants arrived in Calgary in 1892 from Yagodnaya Polyana having gone to Endicott, Washington, first. Another group of Volga Germans arrived around the turn of the century from Alexanderdorf (Caucasus), where their ancestors had moved several decades earlier. They settled in an area northeast of downtown Calgary that became known as Riverside but was called Germantown during the early settlement years. This area was annexed to the city of Calgary in 1910.
The following families are know to have immigrated to Calgary:
Deines from Norka
Geier from Yagodnaya Polyana
Gerlitz from Yagodnaya Polyana
Kromm from Yagodnaya Polyana
Litzenberger from Yagodnaya Polyana
Luft from Yagodnaya Polyana
Morasch from Yagodnaya Polyana
Poffenroth from Yagodnaya Polyana
Repp from Yagodnaya Polyana
Rolheiser from Schuck
Schewalje from Brabander
Schneidmüller from Yagodnaya Polyana
Schulmeister from Kamenka
Wittig from Pobochnaya
- Scheuerman, Richard D. & Clifford E. Trafzer. The Volga Germans: Pioneers of the Northwest (Moscow, ID: University of Idaho Press, 1985): 174.
- Williams, Vicky. Calgary, Then and Now (Calgary: Bodima, 1978): 113.
- Calgary (wikipedia)
- Settlement history of "the Germans" in Calgary between ca. 1900 and 1914 (Univ. of Alberta)
Pre-Volga Origin
View of Germantown looking east towards Calgary; the Langevin Bridge connecting the village to the rest of Calgary (ca. 1900)
Source: "Calgary, Then and Now," p. 113.