Link to Wenzel Tribal Page. Contact art.fors@shaw.ca

For Miner family information: Thomas Miner Society: 
 http://tmsociety.org

Wenzel, Tonn, Mehrer etc:  contact rengelken@comcast.net 303-438-8015 (Roger  Engelken)

Wenzel Family History
 by Henry Ross Dodge - December 1978

The history of the Wenzel's in this Genealogy, begins in Danzig, West Prussia in the  early 1800's and continues until the present time in America.

Matthias Wenzel, the first one of whom we have any information on, lived there. He  and his wife, Regina Zimmermann are known to have had at least three sons, Samuel,  Karl and Heinrich. These sons were born in a Government Compound or District, of  Danzig, Elbing County, West Prussia. It appears that due to conditions at that time,  a great number of the families moved to Russia, and settled in compounds or colonies  there. Most of those who later settled in North Dakota and Saskatchewan were from the  Baltic States or Sea area.

The Wenzels we are writing about moved in 1846 into a Government Army Base in Russia.  At the time or shortly before, they were Catholic, but soon joined the Lutheran faith.

Matthias and his wife, Regina died and are buried in the Blumentaller Cemetery, in  the Colony of Blumenthal, Volhynia, Russia.

In the late 1800's many of the families emigrated to America and other parts of the  world. The families were not permitted to take much with then when they left and had  very few possessions and little money.

Some records in the family show that four brothers and one sister came to the United  States in 1899, but the records here, will show different dates as have been verified  by the descendants of the different families. We are sure that Karl and Heinrich came  in 1899 as the record shows that they left Europe June 1st and arrived in North  Dakota at Willow City, on June 22nd 1899. We find no record of when Samuel arrived.

We find that most of the families first came to the Dakotas and then settled in  Canada and other parts of the United States.