Immigrants (1918-1941)

Between the two wars, a number of Estonian families left their homeland and relocated in Alberta. Many of them worked on neighbouring farms and established strong ties with Alberta's Estonian pioneers providing them with an easier transition. As the evidence suggests, it was common for many interwar immigrants to marry into other Estonian families expanding and strengthening Alberta's Estonian community.

Mechanized threshing machines made their appearance in the 1920s. Celebration of Jaanipäev included a Tug-o-war at the Estonian Hall in Medicine Valley area of Alberta in the 1920s. Friederich and Maria Bruckel emigrated from Krasnoufimsk, Russia in 1929. After a long train journey across Canada, they settled in the Big Valley area near Stettler, Alberta. Their daughter Elizabeth went to High Scool in Stettler and married Lawrence Tippie in 1939. Arnold, Alfred and Voldemar Matiisen pictured in Estonia in 1929. Alfred emigrated to Alberta in 1929, and he was followed by twin brother Arnold in 1937 and Voldemar in 1948.

Alberta's Estonian Heritage