Arlette Kouwenhoven’s The Fehrs: Four Centuries of Mennonite Migration will be launched at the Mennonite Heritage Centre on June 6 at 7:30 p.m., with additional readings at McNally Robinson’s Winnipeg and Saskatoon locations and the Mennonite Historical Society of Saskatchewan.
Mennonite Heritage Centre (Winnipeg)
When: Thursday, June 6 at 7:30 p.m.
Where: Mennonite Heritage Centre (600 Shaftsbury Blvd on the Canadian Mennonite University Campus)
Cost: Free
Mennonite Historical Society of Saskatchewan (Saskatoon)
When: Sunday, June 9 at 2:30 p.m.
Where: Mennonite Historical Society of Saskatchewan (Room 900 – 110 La Ronge Road, Saskatoon)
Cost: Free
Website: http://mhss.sk.ca/events/index.shtml
McNally Robinson Booksellers (Saskatoon)
When: Monday, June 10 at 7:00 p.m.
Where: McNally Robinson Booksellers (3130 8th Street East, at Circle Drive) in the Travel Alcove
Cost: Free
Website: http://www.mcnallyrobinson.com/saskatoon_events?page=15&
McNally Robinson Booksellers (Winnipeg)
When: Wednesday, June 12 at 7:30 p.m.
Where: McNally Robinson Booksellers (1120 Grant Avenue) in the Travel Alcove
Cost: Free
Website: http://www.mcnallyrobinson.com/winnipeg-events?page=30&
About The Fehrs: Four Centuries of Mennonite Migration (http://www.mennonitemigration.com/)
Dutch anthropologist Arlette Kouwenhovenfollows the footsteps of 16th century Old Flemish grain merchant Gijsbert de Veer and his descendants, describing their whereabouts in Amsterdam, Danzig, the Polish Werder, the villages in the Russian steppes and later the Canadian prairie, to finally arrive in the Mexican desert, where they live today in one of the last communities that refrains from the use of electricity and cars.
The story of the Fehr family is representative of what happened to tens of thousands of Dutch and Flemish Mennonite families. It is an amazingly rich, yet often tragic history that deserves to be told in detail.
Kouwenhoven published this book in the Netherlands in 2011 where it was well received.
The English translation includes a previously unpublished essay about the DeFehr branch of the family that took a completely different path and can be seen as representing the economically and socially more progressive members of the Fehr family.