'Tiger King' star Joe Exotic has an unbelievable connection to 18th century Russian empress Catherine the Great
Joe Exotic has been the only name anyone and everyone has been muttering for the past few weeks, since the release of the five-part Netflix documentary series 'Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness.' It is nothing short of chaotic, with Exotic in all his muddled glory headlining the series. He is a giant ball of confusion and literally everyone is obsessed with exotic animal zookeeper and reality star for the very same reason. Added to that, his long-running enmity with animal activist Carole Baskin is just the icing on the cake. His obvious resentment towards her and the fact that she drives him nuts is nothing short of entertaining.
The exuberant, mullet-headed, 56-year old big cat-breeder is enjoying his newfound fame, albeit from behind bars serving a 22-year sentence, but he hasn't stopped being part of people's conversations. So while he's still relevant, a new theory about his lineage has popped up on Medium that emphasizes a family history dating back 250 years.
Joe Exotic isn't even his real name, but just an alias that he uses for his reality shows. His baptismal name is Joe Shreibvogel, which sounds like a mouthful, and also was a major setback for him while he was growing up so when he had the opportunity to change his last name, he seized it. Joe Maldonado-Passage, as he is now referred to, is originally of German descent (as his birth name suggests) and his roots can be traced back to 18th century Russia, then ruled by Catherine the Great. In other words, his ancestors became an essential part of the history of American immigrants, back in the day. Here's all we know about this fantastic new theory, put forth by Jennifer Mendelsohn, an avid genealogist.
When the Seven Years' War had ended and begun to dissipate in 1763, German-born Russian Empress Catherine the Great, invited foreigners from across Europe to travel to the deserted lands along the river Volga and settle there. More than 25,000 German migrants set out to Russia to live the promised life in a land free of taxes, but full of economic opportunity, freedom of religion, and exclusion from military service. Joe's ancestors were among those that made this life-changing move.
The Russian empire thrived with content German immigrants for the next hundred years or so until a new regime came into power and jeopardized the benefits that they were initially promised with, especially the exclusion from military service. With their hands tied at this new development, the settlers had decided that it was once again time to move. In 1874, five people traveled to the American midlands where they began to scout for a suitable location as their permanent home. In 1875, the Volga settlers started planning out their move, and on July 8 of the next year, 108 families in total journeyed to their new homeland, arriving in New York via the SS Suevia from Hamburg (modern-day Germany).
Among those that arrived in the Big Apple that day were Joe's great-grandfather (who he was named after), 21-year-old Joseph Schreibvogel and Anton Schumacher, Schreibovel's future father-in-law and Joe's great-great-grandfather. They traveled west towards Ellis County in Kansas where they spent their first two months but didn't exactly fancy the location. So they continued further, arriving in Wheatland Township, where they settled themselves at a spot and established the town of Munjor, which is currently inhabited by a population of 217. This town and several neighboring ones where they began to settle were all named after towns along the Volga. Munjor gets its name from Ober-Monjou.
So Joe's family descended from his ancestors that settled in Munjor. The town, once fallow, eventually flourished with a minuscule population at first and they built their homes with saplings and prairie sod.
“If in the course of time they bettered their conditions, it is due solely to their industry, economy, and perseverance in the face of trying difficulties," says 1926 historical entry from a golden jubilee book commemorating the town.
The beginnings of Munjor were also marked by typical territorial squabble, something that it seems even Joe may have inherited as well. Apparently, there were “a long series of recriminations and quarrels which split the town into two factions," when they tried to set up a real estate company of sorts which would comprise of every resident as a stockholder. There was a “futile attempt to settle matters in the courts,” after which they came to an agreement and peace was finally restored.
Joe's father possibly harbored similar sentiments that urged him to travel about, just as his ancestors. According to New York Magazine, a century after Joseph Schreibvogel's move to the States, his grandson, Francis, left home in Garden City, Kansas and “began roaming north and south along the plains from Kansas to Wyoming to Texas, to begin raising racehorses. As a matter of fact, Joe moved about after high school as well - first to Texas, then to Florida and finally Oklahoma where he established G. W. Zoo in 1999.
Speaking of Catherine the Great, the Russian empress and her lover, Grigory Orlov, will now be subject of 'The Great', a new historical series on Hulu. Starring Elle Fanning and Nicholas Hoult, the show is slated to premiere on May 15.