Nedka Bagrianova Evanova had been a widow for fourteen years and cared for her two daughters Evanka and Rositsa who were now sixteen and fourteen. Life was not easy for a widow at the turn of the century and Nedka was looking for the best manner in which to raise her daughters.
A woman known to Nedka had been contacted by Dr. John Kellogg at the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan. She was promised an expense paid trip and employment at the sanitarium if she would bring the doctor a live culture of Bulgarian yogurt (bacillus bulgarus). Dr. Kellogg believed the yogurt to have health rejuvenating properties.
One day the friend told Nedka that due to some circumstance she was not able to make the trip to America. She was offering Nedka this chance to change her lifestyle, and Nedka quickly took it. In April 1912, with yogurt in one hand and Evanka in the other they started for America. I do not remember the reason but Rositsa was left in Bulgaria, I suppose with family, and was to join her mother and sister in Battle Creek a year later.
They traveled by train from Bulgaria to France, crossed the English Channel, then back to a train in England to the port of Southampton. The tickets that had been purchased for them to cross the Atlantic Ocean were for third class or steerage passage with the White Star Line of steamships. When they arrived at the ticket office to check-in, they were told the ship had been overbooked and they would have to take the next available ship. They did take the next boat and arrived in America. The ship they were bumped off of was the TITANIC, which struck an iceberg on April 15th and sank with over 1500 passengers.
Nedka and Evanka arrived in Battle Creek, Michigan and presented the yogurt and the letter from Dr. Kellogg for the promised employment. Nedka continued to work at the Battle Creek Sanitarium for quite a few years. She died July 3, 1936 at the age of 63.
Evanka and I stayed in contact by writing until my sister Mara and I came to America in September 1912. We continued our courtship until 1915 when we were married in Battle Creek, Michigan.
also do you know anything about Nedka's husband Evanov was he also Protestant?
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From: Jon Colchagoff
Sent: Wednesday, December 4, 2002 10:57 PM
To: Dimitrov, George I.
Subject: Re: Bagrianov
Georgi Delchev Evanov is what I have been told was his full name. Born in 1870 in Panagurishte, Bulgaria. Died in 1898 of spinal meningitis. He may have died in Samokov because Evanka was born in Samokov in 1896 and was schooled at the "American school" in Samokov.
I have recorded in my notes that Georgi and Nedka were Protestants but I can not confirm it.