Esak, Petru and Domnica

Petre and Domnica Esak came from Boian, Bukovina. Domnica was the daughter of Toader and Sanda Toma. Petre and Domnica were married in 1893.

They first lived with Petre’s widowed mother and two sisters. However, in 1899, they decided to emigrate to the New World. By this time they had four children Peter Jr., John, Eleana and Sanda who was 5 months old. On the trip across the ocean, Mrs. Esak was sick constantly so the captain and his wife would take baby Sanda to their cabin and look after her. By the time they landed at Halifax, the captain and his wife had so become attached to the baby that they offered the Esaks a substantial sum of money. Mrs. Esak refused to give up her baby.

When they arrived in Edmonton, they journeyed as far as Andrew and spent the first winter with Morariu’s (Morie’s). Next year they settled on a home¬stead in the Desjarlais district, a farm with excellent soil. A number of other children were born; Mike, Mary, Anija, Catrina, George and Bill. Anit§ and Catrina died in childhood and are buried at Desjarlais. In 1920 the family moved to Boian and a year later Domnica Esak died of pleurisy. Petre lived to be 84 and spent the twilight years of his life living with his oldest son, Pete Esak, and family.
Peter Jr. married Ana Yurko and lived most of their lives at Desjarlais.
John remained single and lived at Pierceland most of his life. He died at the age of 85 in Vegreville.
Elinka married Nick D. Toma but died in childbirth at age 20 and is buried in Gold Creek cemetery.
Sanda married Andrei Lutic and raised a large fam¬ily. George left home at age 20 and went to Detroit to seek a job. He was struck by a car and killed. His father had the corpse brought back home and he was buried at Boian St. Mary’s Romanian Church. Mary married Nick Fedoreak in 1920 and operated a store at Desjarlais ferry crossing, south bank of the river. In 1928 they moved to Willingdon and operated a store till 1953. Nick passed away in 1950. They had four children, Pearl, Helen, Don and Sylvia.
Bill, the youngest, finished school at Boian, then attended Vegreville High School. He worked as an accountant for many years at Dawson Creek. He is married and has 2 boys and a girl. They reside in Dawson Creek.