My Grandma's life here, was a good example. However, I keep thinking about how she came to this country and left her family somewhere else. My Great Grandpa brought all of his adult children and they were all married. For several of them the in laws came along so there were several large families in a group. Most of these people had lived in the same place in Russia and many were related.
However , in Grandma's case , as far as I know, she didn't have any relatives in the area. There apparently were some relatives in Illinois but I don't know if there was contact...maybe some letter writing. Most of the family communication was in German so I may have missed some things.
One of her brothers did show up in about 1947. One day a stranger got off the train in the village. He had no coat or baggage. He asked where CK lived. He was about 200 meters from his sister's house. He was a big surprise as they didn't know that he was coming. He visited for seven days and got back on the train and was never heard from again. So some of the pioneers had to be strong to leave and lose family.
Some people did come to the homestead as one and no family. However, many of the homesteaders came as family groups. My Mennonite neighbors came from the USA in large family groups.
Grandma's children were large. Her four sons were all over 6 ft. tall. Her four daughters were large women . When they all visited grandma, the men sat in the kitchen at the table and the women sat in the living room. The grandchildren tore around the farmyard.
So as well as being strong physically they had to be strong emotionally as well.
