From William Philip Schlarb

Responding to On the Founding of Schlarbhofen

My name is William Schlarb and I just discovered the Official Schlarb Page, more particularly the story about the Yugoslav Schlarbs. I’m excited about that because there’s a possibility that Niklaus Schlarb who wandered from Germany to Siwatz may be a forefather.

I’ll begin with my proper birth name – Willie Philip Adam Schlarb (I simplified that to William Philip). I was born in 1930 in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. My father Filip Schlarb, born in Novi Sivac (aka Siwatz), immigrated to Canada in 1927. Filip was born in 1892 to Jakob and Katharina Schlarb. His mother died when he was a young child and Jakob remarried and had at least 2 more children. Filip spoke fondly of spending much time with a grandmother, whose name I do not know, because he did not care much for his stepmother. I believe one of his stepbrothers, Heinrich, may have immigrated to Canada long after my father left home.

My dad also spoke of two uncles who were apparently involved in some large enterprises. One uncle, “Schlarbs Fleischhaker”, (I know of him only by his trade) ran an abattoir from which large shipments of carcasses were sent to other regions. The other uncle was “Zucker Schlarb” (again, I have only the trade name) apparently a magnate in the sugar business – I believe it had to do with sugar beets. So much for anecdotal info of Filip’s family.

In 1922 Filip married Margaret Kappes who would become my mother. The Kappes family lived across the canal in Stari Sivac where Margaret was born in 1902 to Friedrich (1871) and Katharina (1871). She was commonly referred to as “Riemers Gretel.” Her father’s trade was harness-maker. Margaret’s grandparents, Friedrich and Katharina Schugg, were descendants of German migrants lured to Austro-Hungary as were the Schlarbs to take up land.

Before my father, Fillip, left for Canada a girl, Katharina, was born. Shortly after his departure little Katharina, about 18 months old, died of a childhood illness (likely diphtheria). In despair my mother then left Yugoslavia to join her husband in Regina, Canada in 1929 and shortly I was born.

With my wife Sharon, I now reside in California.


Received from Wendy Schlarb Wright as posted on the Facebook SchlarbTastic group, April 16, 2007.