Courage and Perseverance: Philipp Schneider and Gottlieb Sayler Family History

This family history has been written to provide a sense of how historical events, such as life under a feudal system of government, religious upheavals, wars, and political revolutions affect the daily lives of people. The story begins with identifying where our ancestors lived in the Germanic provinces of Western Europe and continues with the reasons why they left their homes to begin a new life in the Eastern European area of southern Russia. After making the difficult journey to Russia, they endured extreme hardships of establishing homes and making the land productive. But as time went on, land shortages, wars and political problems forced them to seek opportunities in the United States and Canada where land became available. This book has been written to provide information to make our family history understandable. In centuries past, unless there were church records, there is very little information about the peasant people. Only the nobility had the luxury of receiving an education or having a written record of their lives. The book is also about our relatives who came to the USA during the 19th and 20th centuries. Public records, such as immigration records, land records, naturalization records, birth certificates, church and cemetery records provided information for this story. Unless people kept a dairy about their daily lives, these stories may be difficult to find. Describing their lives in a proper historical setting, while trying to convey to the reader an accurate eye-witness account has been challenging. There are also languages, cultural and religious differences that make the story interesting, but are difficult to describe. However, since this could be the only written account of our grandparents that may be available, it could serve as an insight about these enterprising pioneers who provided opportunities for their children and grandchildren far beyond anything they could have imagined. Perhaps, someone in each family will write a sequel to this story about their parents.