Earliest records show that Isaak Klassen’s father, Isaak (bef. 1753 – 1780), was born in Mielentz, Prussia shortly before 1753. Isaak (1776 – 1852) migrated from Mielentz, Prussia to Russia in 1804 and reportedly settled in Neuendorf, Chortitza Colony in the same year, according to B. H. Unruh accounts. In the 1806 Chortitza Colony Census he is listed in Neuendorf, and in the 1808 Census he is listed at Neuendorf #39. In the October 1816 Census he is listed at Neuendorf #33. The births of his first two children, twin boys, are not recorded in the Heubuden Church Register, possibly because they were born after the family left Prussia. Isaak and Katharina had most likely left Mielentz soon after their marriage to begin their move to Russia. Records show that they passed through Grodno, Russia on August 20, 1804. They travelled to Russia with wife, Catharina’s (Dyck) brother Peter, whose wife was Isaak’s sister Margaretha, and Jacob Isaak, Isaak’s younger half-brother.

     Jacob Isaak Klassen (1806 – 1882), moved to Schoenhorst, likely due to a marriage, where he died. His son, Jacob (1839 – 1916), moved from Schoenhorst to Schoendorf early in his marriage to Elisabeth Ens. They lived here until Elisabeth’s death in 1896, shortly after which, Jacob Klassen moved Gnadental in the Baratov-Schlachtjin colony, about 100 km west of the Chortitza Colony, where his son, Jacob J & Margaretha (Ens) Klassen were living. These lands had been purchased by the mother colony in 1871. Jacob J. Klassen, my wife’s grandfather, was born in Schoendorf in 1868, however, reference to the village of Gnadental is most common as his place of residence prior to emigrating to Canada. Jacob Klassen was elected as a preacher in the Nepluyevka Colony and ordained to the ministry in 1900, in the Baratov Colony.