The International Rabbit 8/25/11

 

Paying Homage to Those Who Came Before Us...

By Janet Iles

Have you ever attended a church service in a cemetery? Have you ever had a picnic in a cemetery? I have done both on the same day. It was a special church service, but it was not just a memorial service.

I am a descendant on one of the early settlers in Markham Township, York County, Ontario. They were the Stober family (Stiver) who came to Canada as part of a group under the leadership of Johannes Albrecht Ulrich Moll, alias William Berczy. The group arrived in the area in the fall of 1794 after spending a couple of years in the Genesee Valley of western New York State.

In 1994, the Markham Berczy Settlers Association,a newly formed organization had a grand gathering of descendants of about 25 early families on the Saturday at the Markham Fairgrounds. They held a Berczy Settler Memorial Service on the Sunday at the Bethesda Lutheran Cemetery but my mother and I were unable to attend.

Fast forward ten years, a few of us dreamed up a research week. It ran from Monday to Saturday. It included time to visit, to research, to travel around the area and to hear lectures. The culmination was the church service of the Bethesda Evangelical Lutheran Church  celebrating their 210th  anniversary.

Chairs were set up amongst the tombstones. I was sitting amongst the stones of my Stiver connections. It was beautiful to worship there. Lorne Smith shared our ancestors’ story of coming to Canada. It was quite emotional.

Following the service, we all enjoyed a picnic lunch amongst our ancestors. Some of the elderly folk of the area spoke in German. The first church of our ancestors’ was on the lot of the burying grounds.