Amalia (Fritzler) Schneider (1885 - 1926)

Born 27 Jan 1885 in Grimm, Saratov, Russia

Ancestors

Wife of Philipp Schneider — married 27 Jan 1902 in Grimm, Saratov, Russia

Descendants

Died 27 Jan 1926 at age 41 in Oakfield, Wisconsin

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Julie Mangano [send private message]

Biography

Mollie (Fritzler) Schneider was a Volga German.

Mollie (Fritzler) Schneider has German Roots.

Mollie (Fritzler) Schneider migrated from Russia (German) to Wisconsin, USA.

Family #170 in the 1897 Grimm census.

Birth Date and Place

• 27 January 1885
• Grimm, Saratov, Russia

Parents

• Johann Jakob Fritzler I
• Katharina Elisabeth (Schäfer) Fritzler

Marriage

• Philipp Schneider
• January 27, 1902
• Grimm, Saratov, Russia

Children

• Jacob Schneider, born 1903 in Grimm, Russia
• Eugenie (Schneider) Kaiser, born 1908 in Grimm, Russia
• Philip Schneider, born 1912 in Grimm, Russia
• Emma (Schneider) Helmer, born 1913 in Chicago, Illinois
• Amalia (Schneider) Hostettler, born 1916 in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin
• Lydia (Schneider) Dehne, born 1918 in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin
• Freda (Schneider) Grotegut, born 1920 in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin
• Amelia Schneider, born 1921 in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin
• Frederick Schneider, born 1924 in Oakfield, Wisconsin
• Carl Schneider, born 1926 in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin

Immigration

• She immigrated to the United States in 1913 with her husband, their children, and her brother Karl Fritzler and his family.

Death Date and Place

• 27 January 1926
• Oakfield, Wisconsin

Amalia "Mollie" Fritzler was the daughter of Johann Jakob Fritzler and Katharina Elisabeth Schaefer. She was born 27 January 1885 in Grimm, Saratov, Russia. She had at least two siblings, brother Karl Fritzler and sister Elisabeth Fritzler Trott. ^[1] She met and married her husband, Philipp Schneider, in Grimm.

Volga Germans lived a difficult life which did not resemble the original descriptions and promises of Catherine the Great. By the late 1800s, Volga German families began to immigrate to the United States and Canada, looking for a better life. Encouraged by the safe travels and good fortune of friends and relatives who immigrated, Mollie and her husband began to plan a move for their own family, along with her siblings and their families. It's unclear whether or not their parents were still living, or if they had other brothers and sisters. Regardless, these three siblings decided to immigrate to the United States together.

Their plans were delayed when brother Karl Fritzler was drafted into the Tsar's Army, which, in turn, only made their urge to leave Russia stronger. Volga Germans were pacifists and had been promised no conscription by Catherine the Great. A century later, the ruling Russians backed out of that promise and regularly called up Volga Germans into their Army. Somehow Karl managed to get a plum job as a guard for the Tsar, avoiding the dangerous battle fronts. At the conclusion of his service, he and his siblings began to finalize their plans to leave Russia.

Mollie and her brother Karl, along with their families, left Russia at the end of 1912. First they traveled by train from Saratov to Libau, Latvia, which at the time was territory of Russia. The trip to Libau took about two weeks. From there, a small ship took them on the first part of their ocean voyage from the European mainland to England. About two weeks later, they traveled from Liverpool, England, to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada on the S.S. Canada. The passenger manifest for their ship confirms the families travel along with other relatives and friends. (See a copy of the passenger manifest attached to this profile.)

Years later, her husband Phillip Schneider recalled their journey to America for his granddaughter Janelle Zimmermann, who documented the conversation. A DNA match between our two families introduced us and led to her generously sharing the information she had from her mother and grandparents. One note from her conversation with Phillip read, "He came to America leaving Grimm, Russia on November 27, 1912 and reached America January 13, 1913. They left by railroad to Libau, Finland." [1]

To my knowledge, Libau is a Latvian city. I double checked to make sure there wasn't another Libau in Finland; there was not. If they traveled to Libau, they traveled to Western Latvia. I thought it was curious that Phillip mentioned Finland at all, since the country is in an entirely different direction from Latvia.

From Libau, the families took a small ship to Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, England, commonly referred to as Hull. This was the first time I had heard the town mentioned in connection with my family's history, so I decided to find out what ships sailed there from European ports. There were two shipping lines that provided passenger service:

• The Wilson Line of Hull, England
• F.A.A., an acronym for the Finnish Steamship Company

The Wilson Line mainly transported passengers between Norway and England. F.A.A. transported passengers from Helsinki and Libau to Hull. Because Phillip Schneider clearly mentioned Finland in his story about his journey to America, I believe that he meant they boarded a Finnish ship, not that they actually traveled to Finland before heading south and west.

Wikipedia shows the Finnish Steamship Company, Finska Ångfartygs Aktiebolag, was also known as F.A.A. [2] Their ship, the S.S. Titania, was primarily used to transport emigres from Finland to Hull. It made stops along the way in Libau and Copenhagen, picking up and transporting Russians and Jewish Latvians. [3]

I searched for a copy of the F.A.A. passenger lists from 1912. Copies of the passenger lists up to 1910 and after 1918 exist; the lists for passengers traveling between those years are either not available or were destroyed. [4]

According to the Genealogical Society of Finland, while some ships traveled from Helsinki to Hull, some ships carried Russians directly from Libau to Hull. "Apart from Finns, the volumes record thousands of Russians, a number of Estonians, Latvians and Livonians. Many of the Russians have Jewish names, but even ,German names are common</ii>...It is unclear whether all Russian emigrants travelled by way of Hanko, since <i>F.Å.A. boats carried Russian emigrants from Libau to Hull without calling at a Finnish port." [5] (emphasis added)

According to Phillip Schneider, the journey on the S.S. Titania from Libau to Hull took four days, which means the two families arrived in England on December 15-18, 1912. The ship docked at the Riverside Quay, a dock built specifically to handle quick turnaround ocean vessel traffic at the port. A rail station adjoined the quay, allowing European travelers to conveniently board a train that took them to Liverpool where they would board larger ocean liners that headed to America.

The Fritzlers and the Schneiders spent 17-19 days in England prior to boarding the S.S. Canada. Some of that time may have been spent traveling. It's unclear whether the families were able to take a train directly to Liverpool or if they traveled south to London and then northwest to the port city.

According to historical records, once the passengers arrived in Liverpool, they were not allowed to board outbound ships until the day before or the day of departure. If they arrived earlier than that, they were forced to stay in a lodging house. Historically, the lodging houses had a reputation for being crowded and unsanitary. By the turn of the 20th century, often the steamship companies looked after the emigrants during their stay, putting them up in company-owned lodges. Although conditions in the early 1900s were better than those 30-50 years earlier, there were still complaints. It's difficult to imagine which was worse: lodging accommodations in the port city or steerage class on board a ship. Knowing this makes it clear how horrible the conditions in their homeland must have been, for all those Volga Germans to be willing to uproot their families and endure the long, uncomfortable journey to America.

After the families spent more a couple of weeks in a lodging house, they boarded their ship and departed for America on January 4, 1913. The voyage across the Atlantic normally took 10-11 days. Some ships traveling across the Atlantic made a stop in Ireland to pick up additional passengers. Since the S.S. Canada made the voyage in only 9 days, they probably bypassed Ireland and headed straight to America, reaching Nova Scotia, Canada on January 13, 1913.

Karl's brother-in-law remembered what the families paid for tickets on the steamers: $150 per adult, $75 per child, and $8 for an infant son under two years of age. Most likely they traveled 2nd class or steerage, and they brought plenty of black bread and sausage from home for the journey. Phillip recalled that the ship meals included bear meat and fish, among other things, and that, frankly, the food wasn't very tasty. Even with dipping in to their personal food supply, the families still managed to make their bread and sausage last more than a month, until shortly before they arrived in Chicago.

The ship landed in Nova Scotia, Canada. Passengers going to the United States were transported over the border where they were processed in Portland, Maine. From there the families took a train to Chicago where they stayed with two different families. Mollie and her family stayed with Herman Schuette, her husband's cousin, and her brother Karl and his family stayed with the Ahlbrandts.

Although their sister Elisabeth Trott also immigrated to the United States and settled in Wisconsin, she and her husband arrived in 1911.

Immigration Record ^{[2] [3]}

Name: Amalie Schneider

Gender: Female

Age: 27

Birth Year: abt 1886

Birth Country: Russia

Date of Arrival: 14 Jan 1913

Vessel: Canada

Search Ship Database: Search for the Canada in the 'Passenger Ships and Images' database

Port of Arrival: Portland, Maine, USA

Port of Departure: Liverpool, England

Birth Record for her Daughter Emma Schneider ^[4]

Name Emma Schneider

Event Type Birth

Event Date 25 May 1913

Event Place Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States

Registration Date 11 Jan 1966

Registration Place , Cook, Illinois

Gender Female

Race White

Father's Name Phillip Schneider

Father's Birthplace Russia Saratov

Mother's Name Amelia [sic] Fritzler

Mother's Birthplace Russia Saratov

Certificate Number 201862

U.S., Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Church Records, 1826-1945 ^[5]

Name: Amalie Fritzler

Gender: Female

Spouse: Philipp Schneider

Child: Emma Schneider

Church Name: Trinity Lutheran Church

Church Location: Chicago, Illinois

1920 United States Federal Census ^[6]

Name Amalia Schneider

Event Type Census

Event Date 1920

Event Place Fond Du Lac Ward 3, Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin, United States

Gender Female

Age 34

Marital Status Married

Race White

Race (Original) White

Relationship to Head of Household Wife

Relationship to Head of Household (Original) Wife

Birth Year (Estimated) 1886

Birthplace Russia

Immigration Year 1913

Father's Birthplace Russia

Mother's Birthplace Russia

Sheet Letter A

Sheet Number 2

Household Role Sex Age Birthplace

Philip Schneider Head M 35 Russia

Amalia Schneider Wife F 34 Russia

Jacob Schneider Son M 17 Russia

Alvina Schneider Daughter F 13 Russia

Philip Schneider Son M 8 Russia

Emma Schneider Daughter F 6 Illinois

Amalia Schneider Daughter F 4 Wisconsin

Lydia Schneider Daughter F 2 Wisconsin

Freda Schneider Daughter F 0 Wisconsin

Sources

1. ↑ 1897 Grimm (Lesnoi Karamysh), Russia Census List, Translated by Richard Rye, Compiled and Edited by John Groh, Contributor Henry Schmick; American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA; Published 2017; page 86, family 3170, line 8, Amalia Fritzler, daughter, age 12.
2. ↑ Ancestry.com. U.S., Atlantic Ports Passenger Lists, 1820-1873 and 1893-1959 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc., 2010. Original data: Records from Record Group 287, Publications of the U.S. Government; Record Group 85, Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service [INS] and Record Group 36, Records of the United States Customs Service. The National Archives at Washington, D.C. See: http://ancstry.me/2BcUkKp.
3. ↑ Ancestry.com. Canadian Passenger Lists, 1865-1935 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. Original data: Passenger Lists, 1865–1935. Microfilm Publications T-479 to T-520, T-4689 to T-4874, T-14700 to T-14939, C-4511 to C-4542. Library and Archives Canada, n.d. RG 76-C. Department of Employment and Immigration fonds. Library and Archives Canada Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. See: http://ancstry.me/2p0QXVf.
4. ↑ "Illinois, Cook County, Birth Certificates, 1871-1940," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q239-GG7H : 18 May 2016), Amelia Fritzler in entry for Emma Schneider, 25 May 1913; Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States, reference/certificate 201862, Cook County Clerk, Cook County Courthouse, Chicago; FHL microfilm.
5. ↑ Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) Archives; Elk Grove Village, Illinois. Source Information: Ancestry.com. U.S., Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Church Records, 1826-1945 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015. Original data: Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. ELCA, Birth, Marriage, Deaths. Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, Chicago, Illinois. See: http://ancstry.me/2CNZ3Tk.
6. ↑ "United States Census, 1920," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MFJP-Q72 : accessed 21 December 2017), Amalia Schneider in household of Philip Schneider, Fond Du Lac Ward 3, Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin, United States; citing ED 32, sheet 2A, line 4, family 281, NARA microfilm publication T625 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1992), roll 1986; FHL microfilm 1,821,986.

See also:

• http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/lines/finland.shtml.

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finland_Steamship_Company.

• genealogia. dot fi/emi/emi321ne dot htm.

• genealogia dot fi/emi/emi321ze dot htm.

• http://www.norwayheritage.com/articles/templates/voyages.asp?articleid=28&zoneid=6.

• http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/maritime/archive/sheet/64.

• Information from Dean Zimmerman, great-grandson of Mollie Fritzler, in the files of Julie Miller Mangano, Round Rock, Texas.

• Information from Ruth Kaiser Miller, great granddaughter of Mollie's brother Karl Fritzler, in the files of Julie Miller Mangano, Round Rock, Texas.