Some history on Gerhard Reddekopp Grandfather

Gerhard Reddekopp was born on April 2, 1898, in Rosenhoff, Manitoba. His parents were Jakob Reddekopp and Katharina Enns Reddekopp. He was the third child in a family of twelve children four of whom died in infancy. His two older siblings were Jake and Tina and the six who followed him were Anna, Susan, Johann and Issac Nick and Abram. The family spent their first years in Manitoba, but when Gerhard was about six years of age, the family moved to Saskatchewan, where his parents farmed.

He married his first wife, Sara Wiebe, at an early age. It was the custom in his family to marry young. His brother Jake, for example, married at the age of 18 and had 12 children by the time he died at age 36. Tragedy struck early. Their first child, Sara was stillborn. Gerhard's wife Sara then became pregnant with twin girls, in 1922, his wife died giving birth to these two girls. Tina and Sara, they were born prematurely and they also died. They were so tiny they were buried inside shoe boxes.

That same year, on July 9, 1922, Gerhard married his second wife, Anna Klassen (our Grandmother). They were both 24. They farmed on their own along with the Reddekopp and Klassen families who all lived there. They attended the Bergthaler Church in Saskatchewan ( in Manitoba it was called the Sommerfelder church). The children followed quickly after the marriage-- first Ann, then Susan, George, the twins Martha and John, Katherine and Marge. In addition to this large family, they also had Anna's youngest sister, Margaretha, and her husband Johann, living with them for a few years.

In 1930 the family prepared to go to Mexico to follow the Mennonite migration there. Gerhard and Anna were not personally convinced this was the best move, but his parents and his older sister Tina (Reimer) were already there, so they gave into pressure. Marge was just a baby. Anna's sister and brother-in-law, Margaretha and Johann decided to stay in Saskatchewan.

Gerhard packed up his wife, and his seven young children, accompanied by his older brother Jake and his 12 children, his sister's family (Abe and Susanna Martens) and other family members. The only member of the Reddekopp family who did not move to Mexico was Gerhard's sister Anna (Goertzen). She could not persuade her husband to go.

Gerhard was the only available driver for the long gruelling trip to the Mennonite Colony of Greenfeld near Durango, Mexico.

copied from information compiled by Susan (Reddekopp) Schulz and Judy Schulz.

Further installments to come