Leon and Rae Tessler: Settling in Saskatchewan
Interviewee:
Tessler, Leon
Interviewee:
Tessler, Rae
Location:
Vancouver, BC
Interviewer:
Dodek, Irene
Date:
Monday, April 29, 1991
ID:
Digital audio recording #: 19.91-01 ID: Rae what’s your full name? Is Rae short for something?
RT: Rachel.
ID: Rachel.
RT: That’s the only name I have is Rachel.
ID: Rachel. And your maiden name was?
RT: [Freidgut].
ID: [Freidgut].
RT: Yes, and I was born on a farm in Lipton, [Saskatchewan] which was a Hirsch colony and my mother came over to that colony with four children and a nephew. My father was still in the Russian army.
ID: She came by herself?
RT: She came herself with the four children. My two older brothers and my two older sisters and a nephew, Sam Rabinovitch, whom you must know. And we were given a piece of land, but there was nothing but a shack, a farmhouse, and really I don’t think it was worth living in but it was the best we had. The first thing my mother did was plant a vegetable garden because she had to feed her children. Well, when my father came out of the army he immediately left Russia and he came over with somebody else, I don’t remember, somebody in the family. I think it must have been my uncle [Mr. Greisdorf] who eventually married my mother’s sister. We lived there and then we moved to [Kelliher], Saskatchewan because my father wanted to open up a store.
ID: Before we go onto that, what year were you born?
RT: I was born in 1908.
ID: Okay, so how old were you when you moved to [Kelliher]?
RT: Well, I couldn’t have been more than a couple of years old, maybe less than that, because my father didn’t want to stay on the farm. He wasn’t a farmer. And my youngest brother was born in [Kelliher] and that made us a family of six.
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