Re-Visiting the Past – A Visit to Gimli and Springstein and Winnipeg
How important is to understand our roots? It is important to understand your heritage and it will allow you to reconnect with your relatives. You will preserve your family’s unique stories and you might even understand your own medical history and it might improve your own well-being. Understanding your roots helps you develop your sense of belonging and your identity. You can also gain an appreciation for your family geography and you might uncover some surprises and mysteries. You will learn something new and have fun!
We started our tour of the Voth Family Heritage with a trip to Springstein, Manitoba and the old homestead. The house is almost 100 years old and has not been maintained. It can be a bit overwhelming to picture the 12 members of the Voth family who lived in the house and the work and hardship that would have been part of this “little house on the prairie”.
We followed our visit to the Voth Homestead with an amazing afternoon with Aunt Sue – sharing memories and stories, asking questions and learning about the joys and sorrows that live in harmony for a family growing up on the prairie. The family original settled in Marquette, Manitoba where they were eventually flooded out by the Assiniboine River and moved to Springstein, where they built the house in the picture.
We moved on to Gimli, Manitoba where Charles lived on Lake Winnipeg with his family while he went to Kindergarten. We found the house they lived in, the route he walked to school as a 5 year old and the schools attended by Charles and his brothers. We visited the Viking statue and walked the downtown. Gimli is a community in the Rural Municipality of Gimli on the west side of Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba, Canada. The community’s first European settlers were Icelanders who were part of the New Iceland settlement in Manitoba. We also visited the sight of the Gimli Glider…The Gimli Glider incident occurred 40+ years ago when an Air Canada Boeing 767 ran out of fuel at 41,000 feet, but the pilots successfully glided the plane to a former airfield turned race track for a safe landing. The plane lost all power, including its electronic instrument system, but the pilots were able to use the ram air turbine for emergency instruments and hydraulic support to maneuver the aircraft. The incident was caused by a combination of technical issues, organizational challenges, human error, and a misunderstanding about fuel measurements in the metric system. The pilots were later awarded for their outstanding airmanship.
The stories of our families are what we are made of. We all carry, within us, the people who came before us.
That is way better than “Ancestry.com” – go visit the places where your family came from. Hope you are having a great trip!
I know not everyone can do it but it is really quite emotional – even when it is technically not your heritage – it also helps to have Charles’ aunt here to tell some amazing stories.