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Family
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Family
Marriage: Children:
  1. Katie Rott: Birth: 3 FEB 1895.

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Notes
a. Note:   Michael and Elizabeth were desendents of German families who had moved to Russia from Germany in the aftermath of the colonization policies of Russia's Empress, Catherine the Great in the period beginning in 1763. It is not definitely known just where the Langs and others who later became related through marriage (Rotts, Bauers, Kreises, Wahls, Meidingers, etc.) Lived in Germany, but speculation and remembrances of stories told indicate they may have been from the Kassel area in north central Germany. Likewise, it is not known definitely just where in Russia the forebears of Michael Lang setteled but it is believed to be in the Ukranian sector, near the Black Sea. Tsar Alexander I, the grandson of Catherine the Great, launched a campaign in 1804 to settle German colonizers in the Ukraine and in Bessarabia. It is possible that the Langs were part of that colonization effort.
 As were those who left Germany at the inducement of Catherine the Great, those who migrated to Russia in following years were seeking relief from the burdensome taxes and military conscription brought about by continual European wars and the demands of the Purssian Army. Farmers by nature, they were ripe subjects for the colonization promises - - - religious freedom, 30 uyears exemption from taxes, military service exemption, interest-free loans to build houses and to buy equipment, free transportation to Russia. The search for dignity and freedom seemed to lie outside the homeland.
 Promises faded in the realities of politics and the whims of political rulers. By 1870-1880 there were new frontiers in America and new promises upon which to build one's future. Michael Lang and his young wife were among those to whom America Beckoned. They came to the United States in 1877, settling first near Yankton, then Dakota Territory.
 On March 18, 1885 Michael Lang appeared before Judge A. J. Edgerton in Hanson County, Second Judicial District, Dakota Territory, to become a naturalized citizen of the United States, legally renouncing what he had never felt - - allegiance to the sovereigns of Russia.
 Michael Lang filed a homestead claim in 1887 on land in Hanson County, Dakota Territory, near Emery, the entry covering Lots 1, 2 S 1/2 NE 1/4 Sec. 9, T. 100 N., R. 58 W., 5th p.m., Dakota Territory, dated Jan. 26, 1887.
 Michael's wife of over 25 years died in 1904, and in 1905 he married Christina Meidinger Rott, the Widdow of Christof Rott who had been killed in a fight with several men.
 The Lang-Rott family moved from South Dakota to Underwood, N. Dak. in 1907 and in 1910 to Lamont Township, Sheridan County. The location was 7 miles east of McClusky where Michael Lang acquired a section of farm land. The family lived for a time in a sod house, built near a spring. Michael retired from farming in 1925.
 Michael Lang married briefly a third time in his later years, and lived for a short time in California but was divorced and returned to the McClusky area to make his home with his family, mainly the August and Ben Langs. He died at the home of J.C. Wahl of McClusky (Leah's father) who was, in 1939 the only other person then living in Lamont Township of the original group of German families who left Russia for America in 1877.



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