A Fellow Hutterite Shares an Interesting Account of his Family's History

The Girl from Ukraine - Sarah's Story

 

We grew up with the story of our great-great grandmother 'Besorge Ankela': the mysterious disappearance of her husband, how she was left alone 'on the prairies' with three children, and how she then joined the colony at the invitation of her brother. The story would invariably finish with: "And that's why you're in the colony today, children!"

But the telling always left us with more questions than answers, always left us wondering at many things. And, as we made some discoveries about her life and times; the story of a woman called Sarah emerged from the shadows of a not-so-distant past.

Sarah was a child in a Ukrainian village; a teenage girl crossing the ocean to a new life in America; a hopeful young wife; a mother of three; and then a woman alone with her children, living in a time of great social and religious change for her people, the Hutterites. This is her story.

To read the rest of this very interesting and detailed historical piece of Hutterite and Prairie People  go to this blog: thoughtsfromlouiville