Biographical Information - Connie Dahlke
For further information about the Rott family history,
go to this website page: http://library.ndsu.edu/grhc/history_culture/history/jrottfamily.html
Connie Dahlke was born in Walla Walla, Washington,
the great-granddaughter of Joseph and Christina (Kessler) Rott,
both born in Glückstal, So. Russia.
Her mother and grandmother were born in Logan County, North
Dakota.
"As a child, I remember my German-Russian grandmother
speaking German with her brothers and sisters when they came to
visit her in Oregon, but most of the time my grandparents spoke
English once they moved to the West Coast," says Connie.
"My grandmother did teach me to count in German, and it
was 'oi, zwoe, droe' rather than the 'ein, zwei, drei' which I
later learned in German language class in high school."
"When I was ten years old, it was my Dad's mother
who taught me to crochet. My
grandmother had English surnames, but it turns out that her maternal
grandmother descended from the Wohlleben family who fled the Saarland,
Germany area during the Palatinate Exodus of 1708-1709."
"On my German-Russian side, the Joseph Rott family
immigrated from Glückstal, Russia to Eureka, South Dakota
in October 1889. Joseph Rott arrived with US $300 in his pocket
and a family group of four adults and four children to provide
for. The next spring they filed on a homestead claim
in Logan County, North Dakota.
By that fall, Joseph Rott had become a Seventh-day Adventist
and became a leader and supporter of the Adventist church in Logan
County."
"I have looked many years for pieces of handwork
which my great-grandmother or her daughters might have made, but
have turned up empty-handed. Working
on the crochet project for the bicentennial book, The
Glückstalers in New Russia and North America: A Bicentennial
Collection of History, Genealogy & Folklore, was
personally rewarding - I even discovered that some of the photos
sent in were of pieces crocheted by distant relatives of the Rott-Kessler
families."
"My hope for this crochet project and the patterns
is that this become part of a 'living history' which people can
participate in and help preserve the accomplishments and history
of our ancestors. I am truly indebted to all those who took the
time and effort to photograph their collections of German-Russian
crochet work."
Connie is a Registered Dietitian, having completed
the Dietetic Internship at Loma Linda University in 1973. She is also compiling a German-English hymnal.
She is married to Ron Dahlke and they have two adult children.
