The Keller family tree as it can be traced now spans 9 generations and goes back as far as 1777 to Peter Keller (1785) and his wife Magdalena nee? (1777) who immigrated to Rastadt, Russia (Now in Odessa Province Ukraine) - Russian Census 1811. This settlement was named after Rastatt, Germany, in what was then the Baden dutchy, the region that Peter Keller and ancestors were originally from.
Our family tree also shows that Great Great Grandmother Elizabeth was from the Wandler family before marrying Great Great Grandfather Jakob Keller. The 1811 census also shows that this branch of the family (the Wandlers) were from Alsace, a region that is now in France but at the time Germanic, and were also amongst the original migrants out of the Germany region to Rastadt Russia.
Grandpa Adam Keller Jr.’s naturalization certificate indicates he was from Rastadt, Russia (Now in Odessa province Ukraine) - Misspelled on the back of the certificate.
Eventually, as times became tough in Russia, our family moved to Saskatchewan, Canada, responding to the fact that there had been a settlement named Rastadt formed there.
There were 3 “Rastatt"s (4 if you count Rastatt Kazakstan, but our family was not involved with that one)
I decided to take a trip to see the Region around Rastatt, Germany in what is now the state of Baden Wurttemberg in the Rhine Valley on the edge of the Black Forest. This is where it all started. These pictures and this information are from my travels. I have lots more pictures.
A Long Long Long Time Ago - Rastatt, Germany:
Records are somewhat lost for our family for this time but we know it was before 1811. Peter Keller (b. 1785) lived in this region and moved to Rastadt, Russia, with his family.
The Bavarians essentially ruled this region, although there were a great deal of nobility and smaller states such as the Baden Dutchy.
To the north of Rastatt is a region with many castles; some of the most elaborate that Disney based their vision of their fairytale castles on.
Records indicate that Peter Keller was from Neupfalz. Neupfalz is probably a misspelling of Neupotz, Germany. There is a record here of a Johann Petrus Keller born in 1786 (about right) that moved to Rastadt, Odessa. This is probably our Peter Keller.
This is an area of Germany that includes the Rhine Valley, much of the black forest, stretches up and down from the corner border with France near Stuttgart and Heidelberg... In fact Rastatt Germany is right there in the middle. Since we know that the settlers of Rastadt Russia named their town after Rastatt Germany it is obvious that our ancestors are from the Rastatt Germany region which is close to Neupotz, Pfalz. Neupotz village, in particular, is known for its vineyards (some pictured below).
Following this, we know the Kellers emigrated to Russia to homestead fruit orchards or grape vineyards. These are the forms of agriculture common to this Rhine Valley/ edge of the Black Forest region in Germany.
Rastatt, Germany, is surrounded by Forest to the east (Dense black forest of the brothers Grimm fame), and the Rhine river and France to the west.
There are many bath towns (Baden) in this area- Germans come to these towns to soak and “take the cure"
There are a lot of Keller graves in the graveyards. In this region, Keller is a very common name.
A Legend - Burkhart Keller Von Yburg - A Knight that lived in the Castle Hohenbaden near the main bath town (Baden-Baden) in the Rastatt region. This legend involves a famous painting, the Kellerkreuz (Keller’s Cross) that still stands on the path to the castle ruins, and the KellerBild (a park over a supposed pagan temple from the legend) that is today housing a ranger station and walking paths in the middle of the dense forest near Baden-Baden. This story comes from the 1400’s. Not sure if we are directly descended from Baron Burkhart Keller but it is likely that he is distant family.
The Legend goes that the Knight Burkhardt Keller was walking back up to the castle from the village one evening when a nymph appeared to him. She seduced him and convinced him to come back for a series of nights and dig a large hole where she was. She was having him dig up her pagan altar. When the altar was finally revealed, she killed him. When his brother found his body and the pagan altar the next day he smashed and destroyed the altar in his rage and buried it. On the site where Burkhardt Keller died he had a large stone cross erected. This cross still stands along the Kellerkreuz (Keller Cross) path from the castle today symbolizing the rejection of paganism. There is a forestry station/park deeper in the forest and not far away called the Kellersbild (Keller's Image) said to be on the site where the pagan alter is deep beneath the ground.
This is one of many stories of this kind about the Black Forest. It is easy to see where the Brothers Grimm got their ideas. The Black Forest is a dense place and a macabre inspiration.
There is also a well known poem here:
I walked along the Kellerkreuz path and visited the top of Hohenbaden Castle:
In the walls of the Hohenbaden Castle ruins is an old harp. Apparently the world largest harp (not sure). The castle is on the top of a small mountain so the wind blows hard. The wind blows through the harp and plays it all day long. It's an eerie sound. See the following video (sideways):
The Keller name -Judging from the farming that is done in the region, the fact that we know our ancestors to be farmers, how the Germans serve/store wine and beer, and the fact that families owe their name to their ancestors occupations, we can assume that our ancestors had vineyards and/or cellared wine and/or beer. Beer and wine are most often served in gathering places in the cellars of the places where it is brewed. I used to think that they cellared beer, but the Rastatt region is packed with vineyards and this is most likely the business that our ancestors were involved in.
Alsace, France:
After the world wars, the Alsace and Lorraine states became French. These regions were traditionally German/Bavarian.
The Russian Census from 1811 indicates that the Wandlers were from Alsace. This is a region directly bordering Germany now near Rastatt.
Strasbourg and the EU parliament are in Alsace, as well as the cute village on Strasbourg of La Petit France.
This area of France is known for very vertical and unique foods such as fine pastry baking and Fois Gras, etc…
The Alsacian wine route is part of this region; one of the most authentic rural France experiences you can take part in.
I also visited the EU Parliament in Strasbourg while I was there.
A Long Long Time Ago - Rastadt, Russia (in Odessa Province):
The area this settlement was in is now called Poriccja and is about 2 hours north of the city of Odessa, in Odessa Province, Ukraine.
Our ancestors settled with many other Germans from the area of Rastatt, Germany in Rastadt, Russia (now in the province of Odessa in the Ukraine)
They did not live in the city of Odessa. Rastadt is about 2 hours drive north but still in the province of Odessa. Although, for a short period of time after grandpa Adam Keller Jr. was born the family moved to a couple of places in Siberia and south of the tip of the Black Sea (probably to the east of the sea). From this place they finally left Russia for Canada in 1914.
It was no wonder that when Czar Alexander of Russia issued an invitation, in 1803, to enable farmers and craftsmen to settle the sparsely populated Steppes above the Black Sea, scores of Alsatian families, and families from the closely related neighboring German lands responded to his offer. Despite the fact that French authorities soon forbade out-going migration, the desire to own land under more favorable conditions pushed these hopeful colonists onward. Emigration was halted briefly, due to the military campaigns being waged by Napoleon. But by the year 1808, despite these obstacles, migration continued again.
On the Alsatian side of the Rhine, French officials tried in vain to halt the movement of people. But if the restless Alsatians were forbidden to emigrate through the proper channels, they simply disposed of their property discretely, and slipped out of the country by night, availing themselves of the cover of darkness and paths that were seldom traveled.
Germany did not exist as a unified nation at the time. The peasants of northern Baden and the south Palatinate (Rheinpfalz) weren't much better off than their Alsatian neighbors. In fact, some areas of the south Palatinate had come under French Rule at this time. Weary of war and economic hardship, many sought greener pastures on the Russian Steppe.
And so, families carrying the names of Baumgartner, Voller, Baumann, Keller, Scherr, Welk, Dosch, Hager, Klein, Kramer, Schwab, Wolf, Schneider, Wagner, Gross, Vetter, Feist, Kraft, Schwan, Roehrich, Mastel, Hulm, Burgad, Braunagel, Wald, and many others, said farewell to their friends and families in the ancestral homeland and began the long, nearly two thousand mile journey to South Russia. Along with others from several German states, they vanished into the east, part of a large migration of Germans to Russia. We today can only guess at the heartbreak they must have felt, as they left familiar faces and surroundings for the vast, treeless, empty, and as yet uncultivated Russian Steppe.
- https://library.ndsu.edu/grhc/history_culture/history/saintspeterpaul.html
The Russian Czarist system welcomed settlers from Germany in the same way Canada eventually welcomed homesteaders. Russians themselves were not sophisticated farmers.
This region would have been dryer than the Rhine Valley in Germany where they were from and similar to Kelowna Canada.
Some current pictures (not my pictures):
Our family grew fruit and vineyards.
This was harder than it was in Germany, but they had the skills necessary.
Our German ancestors kept to themselves and retained their German language and culture. They did not marry into Russian society. This was an isolated area and settlements. We did, however, take a liking to perogies, borscht, and cabbage rolls… obviously!
1811 Russian Census:
1811 Russian Census:
There is nothing left of the original Rastadt settlement. It was completely destroyed in WW2. A town was re-built but this is not the original town
More old pictures and info can be found here: http://www.rollintl.com/roll/rastadt.htm
On this site, Adrian Broch wrote:
"On the subject of Rastadt, I can confirm that there are in fact two places called Porechiye (read former Rastadt) - but they are both on either side of the Tschichikleya River. However, I can't confirm the location or existence of "New Rasdadt" in the location on your map. The town still does exist on the original site. The church was completely destroyed, but some of the old buildings do still stand, if dilapidated. The former school is a shell, close to the centre of town, and two blocks away from the centre is the cemetery, which still has the remnants of many German settler's graves. At the western end of town, there is a collection of very old buildings.
When I traveled to Rastadt earlier this year (1999), I went to the eastern end of town, past some old buildings which I understood to be an old mill, and reached the end of town, as it seemed. The Tschichikleya River swings to the north upstream at this point, and in the distance, 1-2 km away, is Gradolka. I understood Muenchen to be right there at the eastern end of Rastadt, but I could not identify it. I understand it was a small place, as the residents came to Rastadt for church since they did not have their own.
From what I was told, the town of Rastadt was completely demolished by bombs during World War II so the current town of Rastadt was rebuilt on the other side of the hill. Before WW II, Rastadt was one of the largest cities in the Beresan District. "
When I traveled to Rastadt earlier this year (1999), I went to the eastern end of town, past some old buildings which I understood to be an old mill, and reached the end of town, as it seemed. The Tschichikleya River swings to the north upstream at this point, and in the distance, 1-2 km away, is Gradolka. I understood Muenchen to be right there at the eastern end of Rastadt, but I could not identify it. I understand it was a small place, as the residents came to Rastadt for church since they did not have their own.
From what I was told, the town of Rastadt was completely demolished by bombs during World War II so the current town of Rastadt was rebuilt on the other side of the hill. Before WW II, Rastadt was one of the largest cities in the Beresan District. "
Migration out of Russia:
Things got bad for our ancestors in the early 1900’s. The mood was building toward the Russian revolution (eventually occurring in 1917) and our ancestors were having their rights taken away and experiencing discrimination in a variety of ways.
Our family left in 1914 for Canada. Conditions would have shifted for the worse for our ancestors in this region as WW1 began in 1914 and involved Russia and Germany as violently opposing enemies. The Province of Odessa was marched on during the war.
Interesting to note that things started getting bad before 1910 and continued until 1933 at which time there would have been few Germans left in the region
Stalin created purposeful mass starvation in this area which he considered to be politically and ethnically incompatible with Russia from 1931-1933 - Millions died from starvation and this since been called the Holodomor. It was a dark time for the regions, and WW2 was even worse. Our family benefited from the decisions that great Grandpa Adam and Great Grandma Philomena made to leave.
A little talked about fact in our family is that Great Great Grandfather Jakob Keller and Great Great Grandmother Elisabeth (nee Wandler) emigrated with the Adam Keller Sr. family and young Adam Keller Jr.
It is also curious that from early 1900 to right before they emigrated to Canada, 5 of Great Grandfather Adam Sr. and Great Grandmother Philomena's children passed away. This must have been a very trying time. There is likely a very sad story to this, but nothing in the records.
But all was not to remain well for the German-Russians. In 1871 the Russian government took away the privileges that had been enjoyed by them as a condition of their colonizing. Soon their young men were compelled to serve in the Russian Army, and their children were made to learn the Russian language in their schools. Restlessness among the people would have come anyway, for their numbers had increased so dramatically during the decades of colonization in Russia, that they were running out of available land to buy for the establishment of new daughter colonies. But the policy changes instituted by the Russian Czar caused some of these Germans to look across the sea for a better future. America, with its immense plains and the promise of free land in a free country caused many to consider leaving Russia. In the Kutschurgan villages of Strassburg, Kandel, Selz, Baden, Mannheim, and Elsass, in the village of Krasna in nearby Bessarabia, and in Rosenthal of the Crimea, as well as throughout the other German colonies in Russia, a migratory tide was beginning to swell.
- https://library.ndsu.edu/grhc/history_culture/history/saintspeterpaul.html
- https://library.ndsu.edu/grhc/history_culture/history/saintspeterpaul.html
There is nothing left of Rastadt Russia now and the Ukraine is not the safest of places to travel right now because of the war, but instead I went to Krakow, Poland and the rural places around this city. This is close to the Ukraine. There I found grandmas cottage cheese perogies (prepared exactly as she did) at a restaurant whose name is translated in English to “Grandma’s House”. I have lots of pictures of this as well. I spent my birthday there and had them stick a candle in my plate of grandma’s perogies.
A Long Time Ago - Rastadt, Saskatchewan:
... and from there Macklin.
Settlements were formed in Canada and Kazakstan as people fled Russia. Rastadt Kazakstan still exists. Rastadt Saskatchewan was about 30 km south of Regina and I believe the town is called St. Joseph's now.
The town of Rastadt (now St. Joseph's) Saskatchewan was founded around 1910. When our family came over to Canada it is likely that they heard through letters about how well things were going for their German friends/family that had fled Russia earlier and settled in Rastadt Saskatchewan .
Our family decided to follow these other settlers years later but did not settle in Rastadt Saskatchewan. Rather they took homesteading opportunities not far away near Macklin.
This brings us to the farming in Alberta/Saskatchewan history that we know of; the life that Adam and Emily lived.
From there we have all spread out across Alberta and Western Canada.
Many people from Rastadt Russia emigrated to North America and settled in the Midwest U.S., as well. There is an archives collection out of North Dakota that honors the German settlers of Russia and some of their happy and tragic stories.
The Family Tree:
The following are screen shots of our family tree. This is searchable on ancestry.com . I compiled this from various other family trees available by other users.
These screen shots don't show a list of Adam and Emily's children but will show on an expanded version of the family tree.
This shows the tree following patriarchal lines from my great great great great grandfather Peter Keller (1784 - before whom the records trail seems to end) to me.
These screen shots don't show a list of Adam and Emily's children but will show on an expanded version of the family tree.
This shows the tree following patriarchal lines from my great great great great grandfather Peter Keller (1784 - before whom the records trail seems to end) to me.
Anton Keller overlaps in screen shots here
Adam and Philomena Keller overlap in screenshots here
Adam and Emily Keller overlap in screen shots here
