ESTEVAN, Sask. — A box of old photographs, a family mystery spanning more than 80 years and an unexpected connection to Bienfait have taken Shelly Frank all the way to Germany, in search of a grandfather she never knew. Now, she's hoping southeast Saskatchewan residents can help fill in the missing pieces of his life.
Her grandfather, Nick Zieglgansberger, came to Canada from the German state of Bavaria in 1929 and spent time living in the Estevan-Bienfait area before dying in a farm accident near Pilger, in northeast Saskatchewan, in 1942, when Frank's mother was just six weeks old.
During an interview with SaskToday, Frank reflected on her grandfather's life, her search for more information and the new series she created about her family's experiences.
In a social media post in October, Frank shared details about her grandfather's arrival in Canada and his time in southeast Saskatchewan.
"Our family barely ever talked about him," said Frank.
Frank said she used AI to trace her grandfather's origins to Garching, near Munich, Germany. She connected with Helmet, a local historian and photographer who identified the farm and family. She said the family keeps genealogical records dating back to 1400.
The years she is missing span the period from when Zieglgansberger arrived in Canada until he met Frank's grandmother at a parish dance near Fulda. She'd love to find out if he lived and worked near his brothers, Frank and Ludwig, in Bienfait.
Among the responses to her social media post was one from a person who said she used to be married to one of Ludwig's sons and could send photos.
Frank added that she is meeting with a member of a German-Ukrainian group in Saskatoon who has done some census research for her.
This spring, she went to Bavaria to find the family her grandfather left behind and filmed the experience as a short series called Coming Home. The first episode was about a box of her mother's old photos that started the process.
"I'm not done all of the episodes yet, which is why I have to release them one at a time and then my plan is to have to string together all of them in a cohesive way so that the whole story, it'll be about 20 minutes or so all together," she said.
New episodes are uploaded Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. A total of 13 will be created, she said.
"That's what I'm working on right now is finishing those so that they'll be ready when I promised they would come out," she said.
A family edition will be completed in both English and German, she said, because she can use AI to produce German-language narration.
"It's about how I connected. It's about how I met my grandfather and learned about my heritage for the very first time in my life. I'm in my 60s. We connected the Bavaria in Germany with the Bavaria in Saskatchewan."
While she was in Bavaria, she met with members of the Zieglgansberger family — cousins she hadn't met before.
Saskatchewan has a rich Bavarian history, she said.
The catalyst for the series came earlier this spring when her best friend, Maria Vandenhurk — a former southeast Saskatchewan resident who now lives in Toronto — suggested they meet in Toronto and then head overseas together so Frank could learn more about her roots. Vandenhurk was heading to the Netherlands for a family reunion.
It was just before the journey that they found out they both had family who had lived in the Bienfait area.
"We're sitting in the lounge waiting for our flight, and I tell her the story of this and that … and she goes, 'you're kidding me. That's your grandfather's name.' She goes 'I know that name'," said Frank.
They had no idea during their 12-year friendship that they had a shared connection to Bienfait.
Anyone with information about Zieglgansberger or his time in southeast Saskatchewan can contact Frank through her website.
