Mennonite
Historical
Society
of Alberta

  1. Canadian Mennonite Board of Colonization fonds

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    Title and Physical Description

    Canadian Mennonite Board of Colonization fonds. – [originally created 1920-1962, copied ca. 2000], 2000-2004. – 1.8 m of textual records. – 36 microfilm reels

    Administrative/Biographical History

    The Canadian Mennonite Board of Colonization (CMBC) was established on 17 May 1922 to provide assistance to Russian Mennonites who suffered from famine and political upheaval at the end of the First World War. David Toews of Rosthern, Saskatchewan was chosen as its chairperson. The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) agreed to facilitate the refugees’ resettlement by offering transportation on a credit basis. The first refugee families arrived in Canada in July 1923, and continued until 1930 when the Canadian and Soviet governments curtailed immigration. Over 21,000 Mennonites immigrated to Canada during this period. The CMBC guaranteed the repayment of the CPR travel debt, which was settled in 1946. In 1947-1951 the CMBC supported a second wave of immigration from refugee camps in Germany, and in 1961-1964, a third wave of immigrants arrived from South America.

    Scope and Content

    The fonds consists of microfilm copies and photocopies of registration forms, dated 1920-1930, 1947, 1949, and 1962. Each form lists names, birth dates, and birth places of members of a nuclear family, and dates and places of their origin, voyage, and settlement in Canada. Includes some instructions and correspondence of Judith Rempel, who led a project to index the names, ca. 2000-ca. 2004. Includes a digital index to the CMBC registration forms, 1947-1964.

    Source of Acquisition

    Purchased from Mennonite Heritage Centre, Canadian Mennonite University, Winnipeg, ca. 2000.

    File List

    1-1  CMBC  registrations introduction, instructions to indexers, correspondence. – [ca. 1995], 2000-2004

    1-2  CMBC registrations 1-99. – 1923 June-July

    1-3  CMBC registrations 100-199. – 1923 July-1924 Jan.

    1-4  CMBC registrations 200-299. – 1923 July-Nov.

    1-5  CMBC registrations 300-399. – 1923 Aug.-1924 Jan.

    1-6  CMBC registrations 400-499. – 1923 July-1924 Jan.

    1-7  CMBC registrations 500-599. – 1923 Aug.-Sept.

    2-1  CMBC registrations 600-699. – 1923 Sept-1924 Mar.

    2-2  CMBC registrations 700-799. – 1923 Aug.-1924 June

    2-3  CMBC registrations 800-899. – 1923 Oct.-1924 July

    2-4  CMBC registrations 900-999. – 1924 July

    2-5  CMBC registrations 1000-1099. – 1924 July-Aug

    3-1  CMBC registrations 1100-1199. –  1924 Aug includes annotation

    3-2  CMBC registrations 1200-1299. – 1924 Aug.

    3-3  CMBC registrations 1300-1399. – 1924 Aug.

    3-4  CMBC registrations 1400-1499. – 1924 Aug.-Sept.

    3-5  CMBC registrations 1500-1599. – 1924 Sept.-Oct.

    4-1  CMBC registrations 1600-1699. – 1924 Oct.-Dec.

    4-2  CMBC registrations 1700-1799. – 1924 July-Dec.

    4-3  CMBC registrations 1800-1899. – 1923 July-1924 Dec.

    4-4  CMBC registrations 1900-1999. – 1920 Oct-1925 Sept.

    4-5  CMBC registrations 2020-2099. – 1925 Oct.-Dec.

    4-6  CMBC registrations 2100-2199. – 1924 Sept.-1925 Nov.

    5-1  CMBC registrations 2200-2299. – 1925 Mar.-Nov.

    5-2  CMBC registrations 2300-2399. – 1925 Apr.-Nov.

    5-3  CMBC registrations 2400-2499. – 1925 Apr.-Nov.

    5-4  CMBC registrations 2500-2599. – 1924 Jan.- 1926 Feb.

    5-5  CMBC  registrations 2600-2699. – 1922 Aug.- 1926 Feb.

    5-6  CMBC registrations 2700-2799. – 1923 July-1925 Aug.

    6-1  CMBC registrations 2800-2899. – 1923 Aug.-1925 Sept.

    6-2  CMBC registrations 2900-2999. – ca. 1925 Sept.-Oct.

    6-3  CMBC registrations 3000-3099. – ca. 1925 Oct.

    6-4  CMBC registrations 3100-3199. – 1925 Sept.-Oct.

    6-5  CMBC registrations 3200-3299. – 1924 July-1926 Mar.

    6-6  CMBC registrations 3300-3399. – 1925 Jan.-1926 June

    7-1  CMBC registrations 3400-3499. – 1926 Apr.-June

    7-2  CMBC registrations 3500-3599. – 1923 June-1926 Aug.

    7-3  CMBC registrations 3600-3699. – 1926 June-Aug.

    7-4  CMBC registrations 3700-3799. – 1926 July-Sept.

    7-5  CMBC registrations 3800-3899. – 1926 July-Sept.

    7-6  CMBC registrations 3900-3999. – 1926 Aug.-Oct.

    8-1  CMBC registrations 4000-4099. – 1926 Oct-Nov.

    8-2  CMBC registrations 4100-4199. – 1923 July-1929 Dec.

    8-3  CMBC registrations 4200-4299. – 1926 Apr.- 1929 Nov.

    8-4  CMBC registrations 4300-4399. – 1923 July-1926 Sept.

    8-5  CMBC registrations 4400-4499. – 1926 July-Oct.

    8-6 CMBC registrations 4500-4599. – 1926 Sept.-Oct.

    9-1  CMBC registrations 4600-4600.- 1926 Sept.-Nov.

    9-2  CMBC registrations 4700-4798. – 1925 Oct-ca. 1927 July

    9-3  CMBC registrations 4800-4899. – ca. 1926 July-ca. 1927 Aug.

    9-4  CMBC registrations 4900-4999. – ca. 1925 Dec.-ca. 1929 Dec.

    9-5  CMBC registrations 5000-5099. – ca. 1925 Feb.-ca. 1929 Oct.

    9-6  CMBC registrations 5100-5199. – 1923 July-1928 July

    9-7  CMBC registrations 5200-5299. – 1923 July-1929 Nov.

    9-8  CMBC registrations 5300-5399. – 1926 Sept. – 1929 Nov.

    9-9  CMBC registrations 5400-5499. – 1929 Aug.-Nov.

    9-10  CMBC registrations 5500-5599. – 1929 Aug-Dec.

    10-1  CMBC registrations 5600-5699. – 1928 Feb.-1929 Nov.

    10-2  CMBC registrations 5705-5799. – 1947 Apr.-Oct. [5800-7099 missing]

    10-3  CMBC registrations 7100-7148. – 1949 Jan. [7120-7146, 7149-7199 missing]

    10-4 CMBC registrations 7200-7299. – 1949 Jan.-Feb.

    10-5 CMBC registrations 7300-7379. – 1949 Jan.-Feb. [7380-10202 missing]

    10-6 CMBC registrations 10203-10233. – ca. 1962 via Paraguay

    10-7 CMBC index to registration forms (1947-1964). – [ca. 2004]

     

     

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  3. Passing on the Comfort travelling exhibit project collection

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    Accession 2012.025

    Title and Physical Description

    Passing on the Comfort traveling exhibit project collection. – 2005. – 0.5 cm of textual records. – 8 photographs

    Administrative/Biographical

    Passing on the Comfort was a travelling exhibit from Mennonite Central Committee featuring 18 quilts and comforters made by North American women and sent to the Netherlands by MCC following World War II.  For decades the quilts were in the care of a Dutch Mennonite woman whose home served as a refuge for Jews, hungry children and Mennonite refugees from Ukraine.   The exhibit was launched in Pennsylvania and was brought to Alberta in 2005.

    Scope and Content

    The collection consists of 8 photographs taken by Lillian Bartel at the launch of the book Passing on the Comfort, together with related news reports and brochures.

    Source of Acquisition

    Collected and donated by Lillian Bartel who was a key contact person when the exhibit came to Calgary.

    Related Material

    An Keuning-Tichelaar and Lynn Kaplanian-Buller, Passing on the Comfort:  The War, The Quilts, and the Women Who Made a Difference, (Intercourse, PA: Good Books, 2005). MHSA Library D 802 KEU.

  4. Welcome Home Community fonds

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    Accession 2023.001

    Title and physical description

    Welcome Home Community fonds. – 1996-2002. – 5 cm of textual records.

    Biographical/Administrative History

    The Mennonite Society for the Aid of Children and Families was formed by a group of Mennonite pastors and laypersons in early 1996 at the suggestion of the Hon. Mike Cardinal, Minister of Family and Social Services of the Government of Alberta. Its founding leaders were Ike Glick and Dave Hubert. By November 1996 the society had  contracted with the Ministry of Family and Community Services to develop a pilot project to assist families under stress through community living, inspired by the African proverb “It takes a whole village to raise a child”.  Operating under the name Welcome Home Community, it was established in April 1997 in an apartment building at 16415 Stony Plain Road in Edmonton. By June 1998 it relocated to 11009 – 127 Street. The project required a paid staff supported financially by the provincial government. Due to budgetary cutbacks, it closed in February 2002.

    Custodial History

    Following the dissolution of the Mennonite Society for the Aid of Children and Families, its records were stored in the office of Mennonite Central Committee Alberta in Calgary.

    Scope and Content

    The fonds consists of memoranda, correspondence, reports, an audit statement, brochures, procedures manuals, newsletters, calendars of events, and a news clipping.

    Source of Acquisition

    The fonds was donated by the Mennonite Central Committee Alberta.

    File List

    1-1  Welcome Home Community records. – 1996-1997

    1-2 Welcome Home Community records. – 1998-1999

    1-3  Welcome Home Community records. – 2000-2002

     

  5. Wilhelm Hiebert family fonds

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    Accession 2008.016

    Title and Physical Description

    Wilhelm Hiebert family fonds.  – [ca. 1988-ca. 1991]. – 2 cm of textual records

    Administrative/Biographical History

    Wilhelm Hiebert (1847-1908) and his wife, born Katerina Esau (1849-1940) were Mennonites who migrated from Russia to Chortitz, Manitoba (now called Randolph, Manitoba) in July 1875. Wilhelm’s ancestry has been traced back to Peter Hiebert (b. 1818). Katerina’s ancestry has been traced back to Benjamin Defehr or Fehr (b. 1818). A committee consisting of their grandchildren produced a 125-page compilation of the family genealogy ca. 1988, and a family reunion was held in 1988.

    Custodial History

    The fonds was given to Judith Rempel by Vern Hiebert.

    Scope & Content

    The fonds consists of the family genealogy, song sheet used at the 1988 family reunion, additional genealogical notes and hymns, one item of correspondence, and a poem by Wilhelm Hiebert.

    Source of Acquisition

    Gift by Judith Rempel, 2008.

    Notes

    Accession 2008.016
    Last updated by Jim Bowman, 23 November 2017

  6. Argentina. Director General de Inmigracion fonds

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    Accession no. 2005.037 (oversize, CDs)

    Title and Physical Description

    Argentina Director General de Inmigracion fonds. – 1930. – 12  oversized sheets of textual records. – 5 compact disks (93 digital images).

    Administrative/Biographical History

    The Director General de Inmigration of Argentina (D. Jorge Tomkinson in 1930) administered government policy with regard to immigrants.

    Custodial History

    The original documents were purchased via eBay from an anonymous manuscript dealer and then donated to Mennonite Historical Society of Alberta by an anonymous donor in 2005.

    Scope & Content

    The fonds consists of passenger lists of Mennonite immigrants from Russia to Argentina, en route to Paraguay, who arrived aboard the steamships General Belgrano and Apipé in 1930, with a covering letter from the Compañia Argentina de Navigacion. The original passenger list of the Apipé is missing, but the digital images of the entire fonds are available.

    Language

    The material is in Spanish.

    Notes

    Last updated October 2017 – Jim Bowman

  7. Peter Rempel fonds

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    Accession 2015.011

    Title and Physical Description

    Peter Rempel fonds.– 1961-2004. – 0.5 cm of textual records

    Biographical History

    Peter Rempel, 1925-2020 , was born in Moscow, USSR, and emigrated with his family to Manitoba, Canada in 1926. In 1936 they settled at Vauxhall, Alberta. He studied at Mennonite Brethren Bible Schools in Vauxhall and Coaldale. In 1948 he married Mary Baerg, and worked as a farmer, a city bus driver, and a carpenter. In 1961 he was ordained, and in in 1963 he was the founding pastor of Lendrum Mennonite Brethren Church. In 1969 he resigned from the pastorate in order to establish Youth Orientation Units (Y.O.U.), a rehabilitation program for delinquent youth located on a farm near Warburg, Alberta. In 1990 the  Y.O.U. program was closed.  Peter Rempel died October 26, 2020.

    Custodial History

    The register of marriages was in the possession of H.E. Dyck.

    Scope & Content

    The fonds consists of a register of marriages performed by Peter Rempel, 1961-2004, including the dates, names of the couples, and locations.

    Source of Acquisition

    Gift of H.E. Dueck, April 25, 2015

    Notes

    Accession 2015.011

    For further biographical information, see Anne Harder, Peter Rempel, Youth Worker, Pastor, Counselor : “The Road Less Travelled,” [Calgary] : Mennonite Historical Society of Alberta, 2003  BX 8143REM HAR;  Urie Bender, Stumbling Heavenward : the extraordinary life of an ordinary man, Peter Rempel (Winnipeg : Hyperion Press, 1984)  BX8143REM BEN 1954; and Peter Rempel, Y.O.U.   Peter tells the Story,  (Calgary: Mennonite Central Committee Alberta, [2010])  HV 9101 REM [2010].

    Last edited June 2023 by by Jim Bowman and Ted Regehr

     

     

  8. Tofield Gospel Church fonds

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    Accession 2015.011

    Title and Physical Description

    Tofield Gospel Church fonds. — 1927-1995. — 8 cm of textual records

    Administrative History

    In 1928 a group of 8 Mennonite Brethren families from Russia settled on a tract of land northeast of Tofield, Alberta known as the Trent Ranch. They established a Mennonite Brethren church which met in members’ homes. In 1936 the Trent Ranch colony dissolved, but a number of Mennonite Brethren families migrating from Crowfoot and other communities in Alberta contributed to the growth of the congregation. In 1940 it constructed a church building in the Lindbrook locality, 5 miles west of the town of Tofield, named Lindbrook Mennonite Brethren Church. In the 1940s a congregation of Evangelical Mennonite Brethren from nearby Ryley joined the church. In 1963 the congregation built a new church at Tofield and was renamed Tofield Mennonite Brethren Church. In 1977 the church was renamed Tofield Gospel Church, and in 1983 it moved again to a larger meeting house. By the mid-2000s the church was struggling and in 2006 it was released from membership in the Alberta Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches.

    Custodial History

    The fonds was in the possession of Corney Warkentin of Tofield, Alberta. He transferred it to H.E. Dueck.

    Scope & Content

    The fonds includes a history of the M.B. Church of Tofield (ca. 1984), congregational and Council minutes (1950-1991), and family registers (membership accreditation, 1927-1959).

    Source of Acquisition

    Gift of H.E. Dueck, Edmonton, 2015.

    Notes

    Accession 2015.011

    Language: German, English

    Last updated 2 February 2017 Jim Bowman

    Files Inventory

    1-1  History of the M.B. Church of Tofield. — [ca. 1984]
    1-2  Minutes, correspondence. — 1950-1959
    1-3  Congregational minutes : Book No. 2. — 1951-1956
    1-4  Minutes. — 1957-1959
    1-5  Minutes. — 1959-1962
    1-6  Minutes. — 1960-1961
    1-7  Minutes. — 1960-1961
    1-8  Notebook : accounts of fundraising, Tofield. — [ca. 1942-ca. 1945]
    1-9  Family registers (membership). — 1927-1959
    1-10  The Auto Repair Shop, Coaldale, Alta.  — [ca. 1940s]. – Advertising blotter.
    1-11  Council meetings. — 1983-1987
    1-12  Business meetings. — 1982-1991
    1-13  Statement of principles. — [ca. 1980s]
    1-14  Land titles, legal correspondence. —1982-1995
    1-15  Historical Commission, Mennonite Brethren Church.  — 1995
    1-16 Registration of Marriages, Peter Rempel officiated.  — 1961-2004.

     

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  10. Baergen, Marvin fonds

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    Accession 2004.054 and 2012.009 (all filed with 2012.009)

    Title and Physical Description

    Marvin Baergen fonds. – 1983-2003 (predominant 2000-2003). – 5 cm of textual records

    Administrative/Biographical History

    Marvin Baergen, 1946-    , was born in Tofield, Alberta. He married Suzanne Peters, and they had three children, Trevor, Cynthia, and Steven. Marvin worked for Corrections Canada most of his working life and lived in the Calgary area. In 2001-2002 he was chair of the Missions and Service Committee of the Conference of Mennonites in Alberta (renamed Mennonite Church Alberta in 2003)

     Scope & Content

    The fonds consists of minutes and correspondence related to Mennonite Church Alberta committees in which Marvin Baergen was involved: Missions and Service Committee, Executive Committee, General Counsel.  A detailed listof the files is included in the finding aid of Mennonite Church Alberta.

    Source of Acquisition

    Gift by Marvin Baergen, 2004

    Finding aids

    A detailed list of files is provided in the finding aid of Mennonite Church Alberta fonds.

    Notes

    Accession 2004.054 and 2012.009 (all filedd with 2012.009).

    Last updated June 2018 – Ted Regehr