Mervin Weiss, 1949 --, born Prelate,
Saskatchewan
It has taken me a long time to piece
together this family tree. I know from my grandmother's
patronymic that her father's name was Joseph, as it
was written on Elizabeth's Russian passport in 1924.
I know her mother's name from the Ship's record at the
time of immigration, and and from the signature on the
back of a photo.

The Russian Cyrillic, translated reads,
"Ivan Josephovitch Tichy, Elizabetha, wife, Karolina,
Magdalena, Alexander." See photo below. I cannot de-cipher
what is written above Magdalena's signature.
My uncle Jack Schafer's recollection
was that his grandfather, ie. his mother's father, was
born in Austria. But I know now that Joseph Tichy was
born in South Russia, because his father Anton Tichy
was born in Glückstal, Odessa district. I know
that Anton's father, Franz Tichy, was a village secretary
and property manager, rather than a farmer or land-owner.
If the Franz Tichy was not a colonist, his citizenship
would have been determined by his country of birth.
I am assuming he was born in the old province of Galicia,
part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Many such people
called themselves Austrians. A search of family surnames
in Austria today indicates that "Tichy" was,
and is, a common family name.
Records obtained from the Simferopol
and Kherson Archives refer to my Tichy family as Austrians.
Because they were never land-owners, they never became
Russian citizens. Franz Tichy was a village secretary,
and moved around South Russia, spending time in Bessarabia,
Glückstal, Odessa, Nikolaev, Kherson and Crimea.
At one point, Franz Tichy worked for the Falz estate,
which later became known as the very famous Falz-Fein
estate.

This appears to be a photo of my grandmother's
brother, Ivan, and his family, which may have been sent
from Russia to my grandmother in Canada, or my grandmother
may have brought it with her in 1925. (Ivan is the Slavic
variant of Johann.)
Children of Joseph Tichy and Magdalena Dorn: (married
in Kherson Catholic Church Parish 1881)
Nikolai - 1898, baptism record
Children of Elizabeth Tichy: see
Philip Schafer, under Schafer
Tree
A photo of my grandmother
Elisabeth Schafer, as a young woman, taken in Russia.
A photo of my grandfather
Philip Schafer, in a Russian uniform, 1912-1918.
I am guessing
that this is a portrait of my great grandmother, Magdalena
Tichy, daugther of Johann Dorn and Katharina Meinier
(Meinert). Andrew, my oldest Schafer cousin, has this
photo.
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Written in Cyrillic on the back-side: �To my dear godchildren Josef Tichy and Katharina Filipovna Schafer as a memento.�
This is a brother to my Grandmother. I believe he is Josef Josefovich Tichy. This photo would have been taken about 1915-1916. He was
born 16 Nov 1893 in Lvove Colony, Kherson region. He died about 1922 during the famine which followed the Civil War in Ukraine.
He married Cecilia Antonovna. I do not know her family name. They had 4 children, one of whom was Peter Josefovich Tichy, born 29 Jan 1922 in Taku-Eli, Crimea.
In October 1913, I met two of Peter�s children in Germany. They are my second cousins.
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See "The Tichy Family of South Russia"
printed in GRHS Heritage Review, March 2010. Click
here for complete version.