Maritime Monday: S/S Lake Southwark and the Dimovsky Family

S/S Southwark [1]

Earlier this year, I wrote a couple of articles about Dimovsky families who immigrated to Canada in the late 1890s. They were Doukhobor pacifists who left Russia, seeking a life free from religious intolerance. For a brief explanation about how Doukhobors came to be in Canada, see Family History Through the Alphabet – S is for …

Today’s post is the third and concluding article in this 3-part series. Part 1 (those who arrived in January 1899) is available at Maritime Monday: S/S Lake Superior and the Dimovsky Family. Part 2 (those who arrived in June 1899) is available at Maritime Monday: S/S Lake Huron and the Dimovsky Families.

September 9 (tomorrow) marks the 109th anniversary of the S/S Southwark’s arrival at Quebec City. The ship’s manifest, which is complete, shows one group of people, surnamed Dimovsky. These individuals consist of Danila Dimovsky, with presumably his wife Anna and their young daughter Agafia. [2]

The Southwark departed Liverpool, England on 31 August 1905. On board were 649 passengers, 182 of whom were “Doukhobors exiles from Yakutsk, Siberia”. [3] This “second wave of Doukhobor immigration” lasted from 1902 to 1906. [4]

Upon the ship’s arrival in Canada on September 9, a small group of Doukhobors (but not Danila, his wife or their child) were quarantined, some until October and others until mid-November 1905. [5]

Like the other Dimovsky families about whom I’ve written in this series, I don’t know if or how Danila, Anna and Agafia are related to my husband. (Dimovsky is a spelling variation of Demofsky, later Demosky, later still Demoskoff.)

Sources:

1. Photo of S/S Southwark (built 1893), digital image, Norway – Heritage (http://www.norwayheritage.com : accessed 18 January 2014).

2. Steve Lapshinoff & Jonathan Kalmakoff, Doukhobor Ship Passenger Lists 1898-1928 (Crescent Valley: self-published, 2001), 110.

3. Lapshinoff, Doukhobor Ship Passenger Lists 1898-1928, 110.

4. “Index to Doukhobor Ship Passenger Lists”, Doukhobor Genealogy Website (http://www.doukhobor.org/Shiplists.htm : accessed 18 January 2014), “Arrivals in 1902-1906”.

5. Lapshinoff, Doukhobor Ship Passenger Lists 1898-1928, 110.

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.