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Contact Mike
D. Martin has provided an 1888 document of Adventist Minutes that contains the first evidence I have seen that a Kansas Duerksen, related to the Dakota Dirksens, also became an Adventist in the 1880s.
Two Cornelius Durksens, both with wives named Elisabeth, were in Kansas in 1888. Both were from the same Russian Mennonite background and possibly related through a common ancestor to Cornelius Dircks.
One Cornelius arrived in Kansas in 1874 with his father Cornelius W. Duerksen, whom I have listed in the Brotherfield genealogy (not including his children) to include his emigration diary. But also because I believe he shares a common Prussian ancestor with the Dakota Dirksens.
This Cornelius descended from the Prussian David Dircks, whom I believe to have been a brother to Johann Dircks, from whom the Dakota Dirksens descended. I am hoping that the Mennonite DNA project will confirm, or deny this sibling relationship. A DNA sample from a confirmed male descendant of David Dircks is needed .
The first Cornelius (arriving in 1874) appears to have remained with Mennonite congregations, moving to Oklahoma after 1897, while the other Cornelious' (arriving in 1876) Adventist descendants came to California.
It is reported that many old world animosities were carried into America. The split, in Russia, between traditional Mennonite culture and the new (1860) Mennonite Brethren may have been an issue between these two Duerksen families.
1. Cornelius F. Duerksen (GRANDMA), a son of Cornelius W. Duerksen from Alexanderthal, married Elisabeth Isaak on 6 Nov 1881 in Kansas. Their second and third children are born in Goessel. The fourth is born 30 Dec 1887 in Hillsboro. It appears that after Elisabeth died in 1897, Cornelius went to Oklahoma and remarried. At least one of his relatives, Johann Funk Duerksen , a prominent Mennonite educator, also went there.
Middle names were uncommon among this immigrant group, but occasionally a middle initial indicating the father's first name, or a mother's maiden name, is used. The middle initial "J" used on the accompanying land sale document is logical to attach to the next Cornelius, referred to in the Adventist minutes.
2. Cornelius Duerksen (GRANDMA), 16 years senior to the first, arrived in Kansas in 1876, two years after the first Cornelius arrived. His son "C. C." became well known in the Shafter, California Adventist community. When this Cornelius' relatives arrived (also 1876) in Dakota Territory, they were part of the first Brotherfield Mennonite Brethren congregation . But then in 1881 they, and many others, left the Brethren to become Adventists.
The 1888 Adventist Minutes imply that the Kansas Duerksens, like their related Dakota Dirksens, were connected with the Adventists at least as early as 1888. The descendants of both groups are known to have drifted to California, all by then included in Adventist congregations, many at Shafter.
Thank you to D. Martin for these documents, so important to a better understanding of the earliest Dirksen/Duerksen Mennonite/Adventist connections. They are found on the page for Cornelius Duerksen.