Cross Cultural Communication: The Baier Family
I chose to focus on my dad’s family for this paper, because my mom’s family has extensive family records, and I have less knowledge about my dad’s family. I do know the basics in regards to the Baier family (my dad’s side). I know that my Grandpa Christian and Grandma Alvina are both first generations Americans. Prior to researching my family for this paper, I assumed my grandparents were from Germany, because my grandparents are German. However, it will come out that my family immigrated to the United States from the Ukraine in the early 1900’s. Both of my grandparent’s families would enter the U.S through Ellis Island and go on to settle down in North Dakota.
The information for this paper would come from interviews with my grandpa Chris, and using ancestry.com to research family documents. My goal for this paper is to highlight the information I pertain from my grandpa. I want to focus on this information, because I feel on a personal level it is more meaningful and holds an oral storytelling tradition to it, because of the focus on my grandpa I will be narrowing my topic to focus solely on his family legacy.
Prior to dissecting this family history, I am going to give some background information about my grandpa, since he will be the main narrator. My grandpa’s full name is Christian Albert Baier Jr. he is 96 years old. He still lives on his own in Glendive, Montana. He is very social and meets his friends (which he refers to as the boys) every day at 10:00 am for a cup of coffee. He also attends the local Lutheran church. He is the last of his siblings still alive. In the past two years, his older brother Prince passed away at the age of 101 and his sister Elsie passed away at 104. Grandpa Chris has an incredibly dry sense of humor and you probably won’t realize that a joke was even told. He likes to go on road trips, but is hard to impress. All in all, I think he is a pretty amazing, funny, and independent person and I am glad that I got to hold these interviews with him.
My great grandparents are JoAnna Schue and Christian Baier. They both lived in the Russian region of Odessa, which is present day Ukraine. They came over by steam ship in 1898. JoAnna and Christian met on the voyage to the U.S. They went through Ellis Island with their families and then settled on the outskirts of Krema, ND present day Hazen, ND. JoAnna and Christian Baier ran a farm were they would go on to raise their five children: Hulda, Elsie, Prince, Julius, and Christian Jr. Through ancestry.com I found out my grandpa and great grandparent’s education. According to ancestry. com my grandpa and his four siblings would only go to school up to the 7th and 8th grade, while JoAnna and Christian Sr. would only attend school through the 2nd grade. I found this interesting because looking at the past and comparing it to now I can see the growth in education for my family. My dad would go on with his siblings to graduate high school, and then I would go on the get my B.S. Each generation would acquire more education in their life time than the last. I did find it inspiring that even though the earlier generations of Baiers education may have been minimal they were still able to build a life for themselves and their family.
According to my grandpa Chris, his family immigrated to Russia from Germany. They immigrated when Catherine the Great was ruler of Russia. She was originally from Poland and was of German descent. Catherine the Great would open up free immigration into Russian territory for all foreigners. She encouraged immigrants to keep their cultures and languages and supported religious freedom. Many who immigrated to Russian territories found that they had more rights in their new lands than in their home countries. Catherine would not require immigrants to register and join military forces, which was a requirement of native Russians. With all of the promises and opportunities available, there was a large influx of immigrants and Germans made up a portion of this group.
During World War II my grandpa was discourage from joining the military by his older brother Prince. Prince joined the army and would go on to be a German interpreter for General Patton in East Africa. He would discourage my grandpa from joining, because of the dangers of it. My grandpa was the youngest son in his family, and this status would allow him not to be drafted. He would stay on the family farm and help produce crops and meat products during WWII. There is a very large German population in North Dakota and during WWII there was a lot of discouragement in regards to acting German. It was encouraged to be more American, which meant speaking English and letting go of cultural customs. This would roll over into the next generation. My grandparents would not teach my dad or his siblings German nor did they hold with their cultural traditions. A lot of the Baier family would choose to stay in the Ukraine, and would never immigrate to the U.S. During WWII and after the war the Ukraine would come under the control of the Soviet Union. My grandpa would not hear from his extended family until after the fall of Soviet Russia.
Grandpa Chris would meet my grandma, Alvina Mutzenburger in 1946–1947. She was from the next town over. They would have a brief courtship and be married in 1948. In 1955 they would move to Glendive Montana, where they would stay and raise their family. They had five kids: Larry, Judy, Renee, David (my dad), and Doug. My Dad would eventually move to Oregon, while the rest of his family would stay in Montana. My grandpa still lives in Glendive in the original pink house that he and my grandma bought and where my dad was raised.
I really enjoyed writing this paper. It brought me closer to my grandpa as well as my family history. I will continue to do a little more in-depth research into my family history and to expand it to my grandma’s side as well. I did find that it is a little harder to obtain all the information you want and you may not even be able to answer the question you are asking, but I still think that it is very rewarding. With the vast range of Russian territories and the state of the areas occupied by Russia throughout history it can be hard to find the right information. Since the original writing of this paper I did complete a DNA test through ancestry.com that did reveal a lot about my family history and migration. I feel that I know have a more complete knowledge of my family history after completing both this assignment and my DNA test.
Work Cited:
Ancestry.com. Retrieved November, 2015
Baier, Christian. Personal interview. 15 November 2016
DNA Origins. DNA Story for Haley Baier., https://www.ancestry.com/dna/origins/CE3CBD8A-0EB3-4528-AAF1-118C1BD83038
