I is for Ignatz Ganas - 2017 A to Z Challenge

Ignatz Ganas is my maternal Grandfather.  Family lore from my mother makes me especially curious about him.

Here’s what I know for certain:

·         Vitals

o   Born:              29 June, 1870  Chorzalki, Poland

o   Immigration:  17 August,.1893 Baltimore, Maryland, USA

o   Married:          18 October, 1898  St. Paul, Minnesota, USA

o   Died:               12 January, 1940 St. Paul, Minnesota, USA

·         His mother’s family owned an inn (tavern)

·         His father died in 1873

·         His mother remarried in 1876

Based on my mother’s stories, his youth was different from my other ancestors.

At some point he was sent to live in Berlin with his mother’s twin brother who was a tailor.

Why?

Was he sent to be an apprentice to his uncle?  Seems a reasonable guess because he did learn tailoring and taught it to my mother.

When?

What was the age at which boys became apprenticed? Perhaps I can learn this and make a guess at his age.

When he was 16 years old he left Germany to avoid conscription into the army.

This makes sense because his father, Joseph, was in the military when he died. I’ve not yet been able to find any military records.  An 1873 church record shows Joseph as a “deceased soldier”

If he left Germany at 16 and came to the US at 23, where was he and what did he do for those years?

My mother said that he spoke 6 languages so he probably spent time in several European countries?  Which ones?

How did he manage?

Did he make use of his tailoring skills?

Was he an itinerant laborer? 

My imagination comes up with all kinds to possibilities, some grand, some very ordinary.

Come visit me in my dreams, Grandpa, and tell me all about it.