Village Coordinator Reports 2007
Villages A-F
| A | B | D
| E | F |
Villages G-L
| G | H | J
| K | L |
Villages M-R
| M | N | O
| P | R |
Villages S-Z
| S | T | V | W | Y | Z
|
VC Newsletter Editor Michael Frank
Ährenfeld / Aehrenfeld, Saratov, Volga
Ahrenfeld Web
Site ~ with the village of Kratzke
2007 Villages Report for Kratzke and Ährenfeld
This year has been rather quiet in the area of large-scale data
acquisitions for the Volga German colony of Kratzke and her daughter colony of
Ährenfeld. Recent listings from the Volgograd Archives indicate that there
are some parish records (birth, marriage, and death) available there for
Kratzke, and we are actively trying to obtain them.
Of those surnames prominent in Kratzke, only two have been traced
successfully back to central Europe: Michaelis to Monsheim (Kurpfalz) and Mai
to Spachbrücken (Hesse-Darmstadt). Others are under active investigation, but
the searches have yet to be fruitful.
There continue to be two to three personal inquiries a week, driven mostly
by people who discover the Kratzke web site -- even though it is no longer
being actively maintained. Most of the recent inquiries have been coming from
Argentina, Germany, and Russia.
Dona Reeves-Marquardt and Nadine Hepp continue to research various lines
and feed new and corrected information into the database, which I maintain.
Their assistance is invaluable! In January 2006, we lost Marie Dietz Krug of
Oakley, Kansas, who had been faithfully scouring the Western Kansas newspapers
for birth and engagement/marriage announcements as well as obituaries for the
descendants of Kratzke families. We're still looking for another volunteer to
take on that enormous task.
At the AHSGR 2007 Annual Conference in Hays, we had the pleasure of viewing
a rendition of the Kratzke Lutheran Church, which had been painted by local
artist Michael Boss. Ruth Schultz, whose ancestor Karl Jakob Früauf was
pastor in Kratzke from 1801-1815, is now the owner of this beautiful painting.
The structure that Mr. Boss depicts is that of the church building constructed
in 1899 with a rather unique architectural design that placed the trancept at
the entrance to the building, rather than in the middle or toward the front of
the nave, which was more common for the time period. This structure, minus its
steeple, is still standing in the colony and has been used most recently for
the storage of grain and farm implements.
Respectfully submitted,
Brent Mai
AHSGR Colony Research Coordinator
Kratzke & Ährenfeld
Alexanderfeld, North Caucasus
Village Coordinator Report on the North Caucasus Colonies
My efforts for the past number of years have centered on the acquisition of
data covering all the German settlements in the North Caucasus of Russia.
It has been my desire to locate the Lutheran Church records similar to
those used by Igor Pleve for the Volga German research which have proven so
highly beneficial.
Thus far, from a variety of sources, I have varying degrees of information
on 65 villages through which I have fortunately been able to help people with
their inquiries in most cases, some of which have come from overseas.
It becomes unfortunate when all they have is a notation stating that an
ancestor of such and such a name was born in the Caucasus. A chronological
listing of names with associated villages that could be gleaned from the
church records would be invaluable for such instances.
The Caucasus settlements were comprised of Mennonite, Bessarabian, Black
Sea, Ukrainian and Volga Germans, along with some from elsewhere, which in the
aggregate fostered the creation of a new breed of Germans in Russia.
Since I have passed my 90th birthday, it would be wonderful if someone who
has or is willing to cultivate the interest would step forward to carry on
this valuable work.
Respectfully submitted,
Arthur E. Flegel
Alexandertal (Neu-Schilling), Saratov, Volga
Alexandertal
Web Site
http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=dickkraus01
http://www.familytreedna.com/(osky4gedfnmjmq45axzgbh2m)/surname_det.aspx?group=Kraus
http://www.ahsgr.org/german_origins.htm
My small village saw another quiet year for 2006-2007. A few
Alexandertalers updated their e-mail addresses during the year. During my trip
to the Volga, I took pictures of a village close to Alexandertal. I sent small
copies of this, her village, to her since she no longer has access to the
Internet. She is now deciding which ones she wants me to enlarge.
As last year, most of my time has been spent on my responsibilities as the
Pleve financial liaison, on expanding the German Origins website which is
becoming quite large, and on Kraus and other DNA projects.
The Alexandertaler Kraus DNA is interesting. This family came to the Volga
from the Thuengen Barony in what is now northern Bavaria. Their male DNA shows
them to belong to rare Haplogroup G. Haplogroup is DNA-speak for "very
large extended family with a common male ancestor". So far, descendants
of Thuengen Kraus cousins in Stahl-am-Karaman, Doenhof, Schilling,
Alexandertal, and Unterdorf have been tested. All show, as they should, the
same male DNA. However, no other Kraus under any spelling, so far tested
worldwide, shows any such common descent with them for, at a minimum, the last
12,000 years! A couple of guys with other family names, appear to show descent
with them from the same male ancestor of about 1,000 years ago, so Kraus of
Alexandertal is a very rare bird indeed!
More information related to this report can be found at the sites shown
above.
Cheers,
Dick Kraus, Alexandertal VC
Alt-Danzig, Kirovograd
Concerning the villages of Alt Danzig by Kirovograd and Neu Danzig by
Nikolayev, securing documents from the Odessa Regional State Archive has been
quite fruitful this year (prior to the closing down of the Archive).
I am including here a list of the documents purchased this year along with
several other documents that were donated.
Odessa Regional State Archive
Fond 6-1-24 1800 Alt Danzig re. cattle disease and treatment G & R 17 pp
Fond 6-1-64 1801 Alt Danzig *not translated G & R 16 pp
Fond 6-1-65 1801 Alt Danzig *not translated G & R 24 pp
Fond 6-1-98 1801 Alt Danzig re. population report G & R 20 pp
Fond 6-1-356 1807 Alt Danzig re. Wormsbecher transfer & passport G & R
3 pp
Fond 6-1-607 1812 Alt Danzig re. Burbeck, Michelsohn, Mattesen, Stach, Berndt
and Giedd families requesting to relocate G & R 7 pp
Fond 6-1-1022 1816 Alt Danzig re. village welfare registry G & R 12 pp
Fond 6-1-3603 1834 Alt Danzig re. illegitimate child's death G & R 4 pp
Fond 6-2-10503 1846 Alt Danzig re. request to establish special prayer
meetings G & R 19 pp
Fond 6-2-10578 1848 Alt Danzig *not translated G 3 pp
Fond 6-3-15737 1853 Alt Danzig *not translated G 2 pp
Fond 6-4-23949 1859 Alt Danzig *not translated G 3 pp
Odessa Regional State Archive
Fond 252-1-29a 1816 Alt Danzig re. marriages and property transfers G & R
3 pp
Fond 252-1-79 1817 Alt Danzig re. transfer of Michelsohn from Alt Danzig to
Worms G & R 8 pp
Fond 252-1-212 1819 Alt Danzig re. transfer of Michelsohn from Worms to Alt
Danzig G & R 13 pp
Fond 252-1-527 1825 Alt Danzig re. Leitner passport to travel back to France G
& R 7 pp
1826 Alt Danzig re. Karch request to travel back to Bavaria G 2 pp
Fond 252-1-11510 1848 Alt Danzig re. Pritzkau and Giedd elected councilmen G
& R 14 pp
Odessa Regional State Archive
Fond 6-1-6448 1842 Neu Danzig re. Brokofsky, Hamann, Herbold and Dickhaut
households G & R 72 pp
Fond 6-1-6921 1843 Neu Danzig re. Meth transfer from Grossliebental G & R
24 pp
Fond 6-1-8271 1846 Neu Danzig re. Ockert transfer from Molotchna G & R 36
pp
Fond 6-2-10643 1849 Neu Danzig re. Matthies, Buchholz, Kohl, Engel, Rink,
Wagner & Brokofsky families requesting to relocate G & R 35 pp
Fond 6-3-17428 1855 Neu Danzig re. Buchholz resettlement G & R 8 pp
Fond 6-4-18877 1858 Neu Danzig re. new church building G & R 54 pp
Fond 22-1-6a 1843 Neu Danzig re. families moving from Alt Danzig to Neu Danzig
G & R 16 pp
Nikolayev Regional State Archive
Fond 118-1-216 1924 Neu Danzig re. list of members of the Baptist church R 15
pp
*UNKNOWN SOURCE and fond
- 1803 Alt Danzig re. colonists, families R 2 pp (1st page missing)
- 1803 Alt Danzig re. permission to resettle Matthisen, Hübner and Giedd
families from Prussia R 1 p
*UNKNOWN SOURCE
Fond 6-98-432 1808 Alt Danzig re. colonists, families and animals R 6 pp
Curt. Renz
Village Coordinator for Alt Danzig, Kirovograd
Village Coordinator for Neu Danzig, Nikolayev
Alt-Schilling Saratov, Volga
Schilling Web Site
2007 Schilling Villages Report
The Schilling villages include Alt-Schilling, Schilling, Konstantinovka,
Neu-Schilling I and Neu-Schilling II, which are all Schilling daughter
colonies except Alexandertal, which is handled by Dick Kraus, and Neu-Beideck.
In the past year I have done considerable work in searching census and
immigration records in Ancestry. This searching added immigrants and
descendants of people from Schilling and has resulted in the addition of about
1000 people and related events to the Schilling database.
The Schilling mailing list, hosted by Rootsweb, has at times, been fairly
busy. There are about 50 subscribers. I count about 10 queries for information
on people from Schilling, besides the queries on the mailing list. The
Schilling web page now resides on it's own domain. See above. For anyone
interested, my Dobrinka and Schilling web sites are hosted on Computing Host,
and cost $10 for the web site and $9 for the domain registration.
I'm waiting on the translated 1850 and 1857 census records for Schilling
from Brent Mai. These records are coming from the Engels Archive, so who knows
when that archive will open up again. The building and remodeling people in
Russia don't get in any hurry.
Gary Martens
Village Coordinator for Schilling Villages
Alt-Schwedendorf, Swedish Colonies, Nikolaev and Kherson
See Swedish Colonies, Nikolaev and Kherson for combined report.
Amilchin (Emilchin, Emilcin, Amilcin) Volhynia,
Ukraine, Russia
Amilchin or Emilchin Village Report
There were no inquiries this year, and I've learned no new information.
Judi Malinowski, VC
Anton, Saratov, Volga
Anton (Sebastianowka) Village Report for 2007
Not much activity for Anton has taken place this year. The Anton map has
not been completed because of many missing names for the year of 1940. I am
still waiting for this news from my Anton contact in Germany.
There was news from Brent Mai that the 1835 census for Anton and seven
other villages had arrived but were yet to be translated. Interested families
are patiently waiting for the translation. Supposedly, only the head of
households' names appear and not the names of the spouses. This census will
help bridge the gap between early censuses and later ones.
I am interested in knowing if anyone has done his or her family DNA. This
approach seems to have interesting results. If someone has done their DNA and
would be willing to share some of the results, I would like to include this in
the Anton collection.
Photos from people who visited Anton in recent years are still being
collected to be put on CDs. These photos show some homes and businesses of our
ancestors in early Anton.
I will be happy to answer any inquiry if I know the answer. If anyone has
information they think would be helpful to the Anton research, please send a
copy to be added to the collection.
Betty Muradian
Anton Village Coordinator
Balzer, Saratov, Volga
Balzer Web Site
2007 Village Report for Balzer
2007 has been a good year for Balzer research. Only one newsletter was
published, but we hope to get another one out before the end of the year.
Subscriptions remain above 50 persons.
I received emails from several researchers requesting help and back issues
of the newsletter. Some of these were from Germany and one from Russia.
Assistance ranged from being able to connect the researcher's information to a
surname chart from Russia, to not being able to help at all. It's the old tale
of the big gap between 1857 and 1900. I hope these contacts led to some new
AHSGR memberships.
The news from Brent Mai this week is extremely welcoming. We look forward
to receiving the translated 1834 census and hope the one for 1857 will follow
soon.
In April, two workshops were presented at the California Heritage Fest.
Draft copies of our German research were given out to ten people for their
review and comments. As a result, the Balzer group plans to publish their
research of Volga Germans Settlers identified in Isenburg Church Records.
Research over the past five or so years has resulted in identification of over
150 Volga settlers. Emphasis is on the settlements of Balzer with 91 and Moor
with 25. However, Kutter had 9 first family baptisms while Messer had 15, two
were from Galka, one from Schilling, and 16 from Norka. All are included in
the book. All of the baptisms and most of the marriages are not available in
any other publication. Prepublication reservations are now being taken. It is
hoped that this book will encourage other village coordinators to research the
Isenburg records for the first settlers to their villages. VCs for above
villages should contact me for complementary copies.
Finally, we were able to find a great researcher for the Franken area of
Bavaria. His name is Karl Greim. He may be reached at hofgenealoge@freenet.de
.
Wayne Bonner
AHSGR VC for Balzer/Moor
Bangert, Samara, Volga
2007 Annual Report for Bangert
The village of Bangert had no inquires but the database is alive and
active.
The German astronaut, Thomas Reiter, spent 6 months in the International
Space Station. He had also spent 6 months in the Russian spaceship
"Muir". No other astronaut has spent a year away from Mother Earth.
He is a distant cousin and has ties to the village of Bangert. This
information has been entered into the Bangert database.
Paul Koehler
Village Coordinator for the Village of Bangert and Stahl am Tarlyk
Bergdorf, Glückstal, Odessa, Kherson
See Glueckstal Colonies Research Association for combined report.
Borodino, Bessarabia
Borodino Web Sites:
Genealogy
History
Village Report for Borodino, Bessarabia
It's been another busy and productive year.
More and more descendants of the Borodinians around the world are
discovering my web site on Borodino / Bessarabia. This is very good news for
my web site.
The genealogy continues to grow every week and I cannot even begin to tell
everyone who have been so generous how much others and I appreciate everyone's
efforts.
For those who have not visited the site I have different methods of dealing
with the family charts. I have gone into the records and placed them onto the
site as-is. There are no corrections, deletions, or speculations. They are
what they are. Then I took these names and tried to match children with their
parents, and I have clearly marked these as speculations. The next part
contains the family charts of people who have sent me their information which
may be the same or slightly different from the records. I've then placed all
my e-mails and letters under each section. There are names from A to Z. There
are individual family pages with stories, letters, and photographs.
Connected to all of this are my own personal ties to Borodino through both
my maternal grandparents, Ludwig Michaelovich Hein and Christina Schweikert (Schweigert/Schweickert).
Both were born in 1885 in Borodino. I knew them both and heard many stories
about Borodino and nearby villages. To add to this, my paternal side was also
German-Russian who settled in and around Worms/Odessa, South Russia. By the
time I found most of my ancestors, I discovered their lives and migrations
cover the area from Bessarabia to Tifilis in the Caucasus Mountains. It has
been a great adventure and I have shared much of it with you.
The Remmick home page is located at: http://www.remmick.org/Remmick.Family.Tree
. My husband's families, (Hubert, Jost, Goetz, and Hummel) were also German
but ended up in and around Temesvar and Arad in Romania. Because of this, I've
learned about an area where some of our German-Russians may have stopped for a
time before continuing to Russia. One family of mine, the Pfaffs did just
this, before heading to the Odessa area.
I have many kinds of maps. I've lost count. I must have hundreds of
photographs. When you have time, please stop by and take a look. Who knows,
you might find ancestors or information of interest.
My German-Russian House Recipe Site is also becoming larger and larger
because of all the generous people. This can be found at: http://www.remmick.org/GRHouseRecipes/Page1.html
. It includes not only recipes, but it's also filled with photographs with
German-Russians who have traveled back into Borodino and taken photographs.
I've tried to discover what food was eaten while our ancestors lived in
Borodino and some recipes show step-by-step ways to cook a particular food.
Some people have sent photographs to me of their favorite cook like their
grandmothers or aunts. Many people have already set up websites and therefore
there are a huge number of links.
I have other pokers in the fire, but have to admit, due to my aging parents
and adding an addition to our home, I may not be replying as quickly as I have
in the past. But I will reply and get YOUR Borodino family's page up and
running as soon as I'm able.
I'd also like to thank Ingrid Ruele who has gone into the records in places
where I never could have reached and has willingly shared.
Judy Remmick-Hubert
Village Coordinator for Borodino
Brunnental, Samara, Volga
Brunnental Web
Site
Passenger Lists by Year: http://www.brunnental.us/brunnental/passeng.html
WWI Draft Registrations by last name: http://www.brunnental.us/brunnental/ww1draftregistration.html
BRUNNENTHAL/BRUNNENTAL Listserv: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/RUS-SAMARA-BRUNNENTAL/
EWZ Films: http://www.brunnental.us/brunnental/EWZindex.html
Brunnental, Samara, Volga, Russia 2007 Village Report
I continue to search daily to expand my research on each family from
Brunnental. I am trying to search each of the following items to round out the
family information:
1) US Federal Census -- 1900/1910/1920/1930
2) Passenger Lists - some new info has been added!
3) WWI Draft Registrations
4) WWII Enlistment Records
5) Public Records
6) SSDI or other state death indexes
7) Obituaries
8) Photographs
9) Family stories
10) Naturalization Records
11) Burial records
12) Canadian Census Reports - 1901 & 1911
NEW INFORMATION I want to say that I feel sometimes that I have
"exhausted" all sources, but then I find a brand new family that I
didn't have in my growing database (52,000 individuals)...this excites me and
spurs me on to "search for more families". Just this last week I
found a Jacob Hardt family who came early in 1890 from Brunnental to Marion,
Kansas. I spent over a week researching this family and with the help of
Harland Eastwood in Washington state, I was able to prove they were from
Brunnental. One of their sons, Rev. Henry Hardt was a Lutheran pastor in Red
Wing, MN which I discovered by finding his WWI Draft Registration. Each piece
of research led to another piece...which finally led to a collection of
obituaries on the web from the Odessa, Washington area which had an obituary
of the head of this family, showing he was born in Brunnenthal---bingo,
another family!! So, do not ever think that you research is done...it has just
begun :)
PASSENGER LISTS / WWI DRAFT REGISTRATIONS I've also put together a
comprehensive report which contain the Passenger List data by date of arrival
and also the WWI Draft Registrations for all those from Brunnental by Last
Name alphabetically. These two reports can be found on our website, listed
above.
BRUNNENTAL LISTSERV We also have a listserv, where we can send an email,
which goes to everyone who has "subscribed" to the Listserv.
Directions on how to join can be found on our webpage. This is one way we are
able to communicate easily with everyone from our village who has email. One
single email does it all. I try to send out new information such as obituaries
or new ship list data, or anything else that is important to people.
We are trying to add new obituaries as we find them, and we post those on
our listserv, so anyone who is interested in this information should JOIN our
listserv by sending an email to: RUS-SAMARA-BRUNNENTAL-L-request@rootsweb.com
with the word "subscribe" (without the quotes) on the subject line.
The Brunnental website is listed above.
You can also browse through the past postings to the Brunnental LISTSERV on
Rootsweb, so it's a great place to make contacts and get the village name out
there:
EWZ FILMS Another new thing we did last year was to add a link to our
website for the EWZ Films that have been indexed by a number of people and
posted to the Odessa Website. To my amazement there were people from
Brunnental!
This site above shows those families from Brunnental. (Please go to this
site and really read through the information to get a full description of what
information is contained on the various films...it is exciting new
information.)
NEW RECORDS Last of all, we have received some new confirmation records
from Brunnental. They have been translated and indexed, but we are hoping to
get more before we release them. When they are released we will announce that
on our listserv.
Sherrie (Gettman) Stahl, VC Brunnental
Chasselois (Chasoil and Schasselwa), Samara, Volga (destroyed)
Village Report for Chasselois
As most of you know, the village of Chasselois was destroyed, and most of
the people who escaped fled to Mariental, Louis, and other nearby villages.
There have not been any searchers requesting information from this village. It
is spelled several different ways, but I prefer this spelling of the village.
I am constantly searching for information on Chasselois, and have written
about the massacre of the village in one of my Newsletters. There are no
pictures of this village to my knowledge, and the exact location is not listed
anywhere. I do know it was very near Mariental and Louis.
Thelma Mills Village
Coordinator - Volga Village of Chasselois
Dinkel, Saratov, Volga
Dinkel-Tarlyakovka Report:
I sit here in awe with what most of the VC's have done. I had my usual four
to five inquires concerning people in the village. I supplied them with all
the information I had concerning their families but never a complete history
as the 1850-1900 period for the most part is absent for my people. I supplied
two booklets regarding Dinkel and its people to those that wanted it. For
those people who might be interested in Dinkel directly or indirectly, I have
the original 1767 list of people, the 1798 list, and the 1850-57 Census of
Dinkel-Tarlyakovka. I am still trying to finalize all my names and information
into a complete form.
Leroy Nikolaisen, VC
Dobrinka, Saratov, Volga
Dobrinka Web Site
2007 Dobrinka Village Report
In the past year I have done considerable work in searching census and
immigration records, in Ancestry. This searching added immigrants and
descendants of people from Dobrinka. This work has resulted in the addition of
about 750 people and related events to the Dobrinka database.
The Dobrinka mailing list, hosted by Rootsweb, has at times been fairly
busy. There are about 35 subscribers. I count about 20 queries for information
on people from Dobrinka, besides the queries on the mailing list. I also
received, via email, pictures of the current Dobrinka village from someone in
Russia. These pictures are displayed on the Dobrinka web page which now
resides on it's own domain. See directions to website above.
By now I had expected the order for the 1834, 1850 and 1857 census records
for Dobrinka to be filled. These records were ordered from the Volgograd
Archives probably a year ago, and paid for by people connected to the Lower
Volga Village Project. Since Volgograd fills orders rapidly and is now
accepting payment via Western Union, I hope these people didn't get taken by
the middlemen who were supposed to deliver the money to the archives.
Gary Martens
Village Coordinator for Dobrinka
Dönhof, Saratov, Volga
Donhof 2007 Village Report
There have been a few inquiries this year for Donhof including an inquiry
from Russia. I continue to compile records for Donhof including the following:
Census records for Donhof for 1775, 1798, 1834, and 1857.
Obituaries for Donhof settlers in the Northern Colorado area, primarily in
Windsor, Greeley and Ft Collins. Church records for St. John's Evangelical
Lutheran Church in Windsor, Colorado, which includes many of the original
Donhof settlers and their families. Naturalization records for immigrants from
Russia in Colorado Family surname charts for Donhof that came from
Headquarters that were submitted by members Personal family charts and
information that includes several different surnames from the Donhof area
In addition I have the 1775 and 1798 records for Huck and Balzer and have
the newest census records for Balzer on order from Brent Mai.
I also have early church records from Peace Lutheran Church in Sterling,
Colorado. It was founded by German-Russian immigrants in 1906 and was the
first German-speaking church in Sterling. I have cemetery records for
Riverside cemetery in Sterling, which often includes the name of spouse,
parents and place from which the deceased immigrated. These are a good source
of information for early German Russian settlers in Sterling and the
surrounding areas. Several small community cemeteries are also included.
We moved and continue to restore the original Peace Lutheran church.
Compiling its German Russian history is an ongoing project.
Karen Kaiser
Co-coordinator for Donhof
2007 Annual Report for Dönhof
The year 2007 has been pretty slow as far as research for the village of
Dönhof goes. We have had about twelve requests from fellow researchers for
the village and have answered them to the best of our ability from information
in our database. One of those requests came from Budapest.
Attendance at village night at convention in Hays, Kansas was down from
previous years as those locals attending the convention were not descendants
of Dönhof immigrants. We had five new people in attendance and two of those
were from the Northern Colorado chapter.
It is our understanding that Igor Pleve is currently working on charts from
our village so possibly we will have better news next year. It is also our
understanding that one chart had been finished and paid for but not yet
received, but we are unable to confirm.
Dick & Judy Leffler
Dreispitz, Saratov, Volga
Dreispitz Web Site
2007 Annual Report for Dreispitz
This is my second year as a Village Coordinator for Dreispitz. I have had a
number of inquiries during the past year. They were received from several
states, with one from Germany. Several were challenging, resulting in numerous
exchanges of correspondence.
I have the Dreispitz Censuses for 1798, 1834, 1850, and 1858, and Band 1 of
Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet 1764-1767. I am endeavoring to connect several
families in Dreispitz. This also is a challenge. Most of the people in
Dreispitz were related. If anyone has any records of residents of Dreispitz,
please share.
One project of interest was between Jim Osborne (Village Coordinator for
Brabander and Dehler) and me. Jim is a very good friend with Victor Chrisbens,
who is a brother to my Aunt Millie who came from Dobrinka. She married my
mother's brother, Gusteen Heinze, whose parents came from Dreispitz. Jim and I
were exchanging information and passing it on to Victor when Victor's daughter
also became interested in her father's family. I sent her all the information
I had on file and copies of newspaper clippings that I had received from Aunt
Millie, who passed away in 1998. The daughter is preparing a family history
for her father, who is 90 years old, and the only sibling living. You will
find the story "Russia to America" regarding my Aunt Millie on page
99 of "We Remember".
Another item of interest was the connection of a Heinze family with other
Heinze families. Rachel Heinze was one of twelve children born in Dreispitz.
She came to the US with her parents and three siblings in 1924. Rachel had
been trying to connect the Heinze relationship for several decades. We met at
the Convention in 1998 in Wichita, Kansas. (My mother's name was also Rachel
Heinze.) With information she furnished and with the Dreispitz Census, the
relationships were established. My great-great-grandfather and her
great-grandfather were brothers.
I have an Index of the documents in the Glenn Mueller collection, which
were submitted to Headquarters last year. Many had corresponded with Glenn and
would like to have copies from his records. I am able to check the index to
determine if there were anything of interest, and then refer them to
Headquarters to secure copies. I also suggested they check SOAR.
I prepared several family histories. I'm now receiving requests from the
younger generations for information on their families. These are children of
someone who purchased the history; and the children are now viewing the book.
It is my belief the younger generation is finally interested. It may be their
curiosity after finding their ancestors are Germans from Russia.
Another 750 obituaries have been added to the Lower Volga Obituary Project,
and at present have an accumulation to be added soon. People viewing the
project have asked me to include the obituaries of their families. Several
people are sending obituaries to me from newspapers and other sources. I check
several newspapers on the Internet every day.
I continue my volunteer work in the library for the AHSGR Golden Wheat
Chapter. I have donated the "History of Volga German Colonists" by
Jacob E. Dietz, and "The Old God Still Lives" by Ronald J. Vossler
and Joshua J. Vossler.
I was a volunteer for several hours Wednesday through Saturday at the
Registration Desk for the AHSGR International convention held in Hays in June
of 2007. We had a registration of 637. Only half of them had pre-registered.
It was great to see old friends, and to meet new friends, and VC's. I assisted
in the Lower Volga Region Meeting on Village Night. Driespitz is one of the
nine villages in this region. We had a large attendance, which was enjoyed by
all. It gives one great satisfaction in helping new researchers and exchanging
work and ideas with others. Ed Hoak told of his recent visit to Russia, and
had many pictures. Village Night is always my favorite portion of the
conventions.
The 1798 census is difficult to use when there are a number of villages for
each surname. This requires flipping back and forth to the index and trying to
locate the village. I have prepared an alphabetical list of the villages,
showing the symbols and the page number for each. This helps to save a lot of
time. I would be happy to share this list with other Village Coordinators.
Other projects are in the works for additional improvements.
Rachel E. Smith
Village Coordinator for Dreispitz
Eigenfeld, North Caucasus
See Alexanderfeld, North Caucasus for combined report.
Enders, Samara, Volga
Enders 2007 Village Report
It has been a relatively quiet year for inquiries for Enders, with only
about five requests for information.
Blanche Fritz, the former VC for Enders, contacted me recently. She was in
the process of moving and wanted me to have some of the documents she had
collected when she was VC. It turns out that many of them were narratives
about life in the village, old pictures and copies of documents. It was an
exciting and unexpected find. It was quite kind of her to think of me. I have
scanned through them, but have not yet read them in depth.
Respectfully submitted,
Randi Bolyard
Erlenbach, Saratov, Volga
Village of Erlenbach
I recently signed on as co-Village Coordinator for Erlenbach and will be
helping Hilda Weber. Not only am I interested in helping people find their
ancestors from Erlenbach and other Volga villages, I have a personal
connection to Erlenbach as my grandfather Heinrich Becker was born there. I am
working on a website for Erlenbach but don't look for it until sometime after
the first of the year. I think the website will help considerably with getting
information out there to other researchers and by encouraging those
researchers to share their data with the website. I'm looking forward to the
coming year.
Heide Langenbeck
Fischer, Saratov, Volga
Fischer Web Site
Fischer, Saratov, Volga
2007 Village Report for Fischer and Herzog
The interchange and exchange of data and general assistance for
Fischer/Herzog continues to be handled through the website now entitled
"The Volga Village Home Page for Fischer, Katharinenstadt and
Herzog".
This has been a somewhat slower year for the research and/or village
coordination effort. I received several requests for help or research by
e-mail. I posted the applicable data on the Query page of my website. Some
queries relate to villages other than Fischer and Herzog. We attempt to assist
these requests as well, by posting those queries to the 'query page' on our
site. In some cases, the applicable Village Coordinators were notified when I
had the addresses. It is evident that this has been a suitable method of
assisting researchers and our fellow members. Over 30 queries were related to
Fischer and other Colonies.
All Village Coordinators are encouraged to log onto my site and click on
the 'Query Page' link.
Roger A. Toepfer
Village Coordinator - Fischer and Herzog
Friedrichsfeld, North Caucasus
See Alexanderfeld, North Caucasus for combined report.
Glückstal Colonies Research Association
Glueckstal Web Site
Glueckstal Colonies Research Association Report (For the villages of
Glueckstal, Neudorf, Bergdorf, and Kassel, and their daughter colonies.)
The big news for the Glueckstal Colonies Research Association is that
another book is well on the way. Editor Homer Rudolf reports that a release is
planned prior to the 2008 joint convention of AHSGR and GRHS in Casper,
Wyoming (July 27 - to Aug. 3).
It now appears that the book will be more than 600 pages, and will include
a CD-ROM or DVD containing additional data. A variety of old records from New
Russia have now either been processed or have recently become available
including:
1) Church records of the late 19th and early 20th centuries
2) Migration records from 1818-1832
3) Early records of immigration to the U.S.
4) Resident lists and village maps for many Gluckstal villages, representing
the period from ca. 1920-1944 5) Martyrology records regarding Glückstalers
during the 1930s.
Other general topics that are in process:
1) Post 30-Years-War immigration from Switzerland to German regions, and
subsequently to New Russia
2) Immigration to New Russia after an interim stay in Hungary - or in
Poland
3) Education
4) Music
5) Pre-homesteading government land surveys.
Work continues on points of origin, ship passenger lists, GEDCOM files,
military history, religion, and the light and dark sides of the lives of
Gluckstalers.
One of the most exciting things that has happened is that, from a good
number of people, we have received and will be receiving family memoirs of
time spent in the Black Sea colonies, and possibly the trek to Poland in 1945,
exile in Siberia and the Urals, eventual return to Germany and/or immigration
to the U.S. and Canada.
Also newsworthy, the state Historical Society of South Dakota presented
GCRA with the Governor's Award for History, in the group category, at the
annual luncheon in Pierre on April 12. Long time GCRA members and supporters,
Marv and Del Paulson attended the luncheon and received the award on behalf of
GCRA. The award was given in recognition of the members of the Glückstal
Colonies Research Association who have contributed to South Dakota history in
the territorial and pioneer periods, by the documentation of the ancestry and
lives of the many South Dakotans who descend from a group of ethnic Germans
who colonized the Glückstal Colonies in South Russia before coming to
America. This group of unpaid volunteers has researched and produced
historical materials well known to our GCRA members. GCRA has presented six
books to the Society Archives in Pierre for use by their patrons.
For the Bundestreffen in Wiesbaden, Germany, this year, GCRA translated its
brochure into the German language. GCRA members who attended that meeting in
May, 2007, included Thomas and Janice Huber Stangl, Harold Ehrman, Homer
Rudolf, and Robert and Margaret Aman Freeman, along with Jerry and Pat Aman,
who live in Germany.
GCRA also continues to place its publications, including the twice-yearly
newsletter of 64 pages, in various archives throughout North America, Europe
and Ukraine.
Submitted by Margaret Freeman and Homer Rudolf
Gnadenfeld, (Neu-Moor/Moor), Samara, Volga
Gnadenfeld Web Site
2007 Village Report for Gnadenfeld
Gnadenfeld, (Russian name Kirovskoye), a small "daughter" colony
of Moor, was located in the Samara Province, on the weisenseite (meadow side)
of the Volga, Quadrant E-5, Map #6 (Stumpp). It was in the District of
Krasny-Kut.
Due to its small population, I do not receive many inquiries. This past
year I did assist two people researching Gnadenfeld families, and several
people seeking information on families from the "mother" colony of
Moor, (Russian name Klyuchi).
I continue to collect surnames from Gnadenfeld and the "mother"
colony of Moor, including ship records, declarations of intent, naturalization
records, census records and obituaries.
Irma A. Waggoner
Village Coordinator, Gnadenfeld
Graf, Samara, Volga
See Ober-Monjou, Samara, Volga for combined report.
Grimm, Saratov, Volga
Grimm Web Site
Grimm Mail
List
Grimm Village report
There was a slight increase in requests for Grimm data this year, around
twenty, but we received bad news from Dick Kraus about a month ago. Igor Pleve
informed him than he cannot complete the 14 surname charts that have been on
order since the year 2000 even though he had promised us repeatedly that the
charts would be completed "by the end of the year". Reason given was
that the church records are not available, but Igor has told us many times
that those records were available. Dick Kraus has returned our $250 per chart
deposit and, of course, none of this was Dick's fault, but we are saddened and
don't know which way to go next.
Ken Leffler, Grimm Village Coordinator
Güldendorf, Grossliebental, Odessa, Kherson
The research for Güldendorf by Odessa has slowed down considerably this
year with the closure of the Odessa Regional State Archive. In the past, I
have purchased a number of documents pertaining to various people or events
from the village. I continue to search for and add to the obituary file but I
only include those who were born in the village.
Curt. Renz
Village Coordinator for Güldendorf, Odessa
Herzog, Saratov, Volga
Herzog Web Site
See Fischer, Saratov, Volga for combined report.
Hoffnungstal, Akkerman, Bessarabia
Concerning the continuing research of the people from Hoffnungstal in
Bessarabia, I am in the process of going back over several rolls of FHC
microfilm of family books for the village. When I initially extracted data
from family books more than 20 years ago, I didn't footnote the page or frame
of the data location and in order for a more accurate verification of the
research, I have undertaken this revision.
I have also decided to go back over the points of German origin for each
family and make a photocopy of the church record. This will necessitate a trip
to Salt Lake City as it will be less expensive to go there rather than to
order the number of microfilm to do this project.
Curt. Renz
Village Coordinator for Hoffnungstal, Bessarabia
Holstein, Saratov, Volga
Holstein Web Site
Report for the Village of Holstein
I had 15-20 contacts this year, including one from Argentina, one from The
Netherlands, two from Germany, and one from the village of Holstein. I
received a Kelln family compilation from a researcher in Canada. A copy will
be placed in the Holstein village file at AHSGR.
I enjoyed connecting the Holstein families using the first settlers list in
Pleve's book and the 1798, 1834, 1850, and 1858 censuses. Information from the
1816 census was included in the 1834 census. There are only two original
Holstein families for whom I don't have enough information to make all
connections through the 1858 census.
I am copying material that needs to be placed in the village file at AHSGR.
I hope to have that finished for the next convention.
Edith Bottsford
Village Coordinator for Holstein
Huck, Saratov, Volga
Huck Web Site
Huck Village 2007 Report
I received a surprising number of inquiries from researchers in Germany and
Argentina this year about their ancestors from Huck. Fortunately I usually can
provide some assistance to answer their questions. Thank goodness for online
translator programs or I would have no method of reading or responding to
messages in German and Spanish. I get a great deal of pleasure working to help
e-mail requests like those. Some of those researchers have little information
other than the names of their parents and (sometimes) grandparents. The
equivalent of the Ellis Island ship passenger list site would be a boon for
researchers in South America.
The Huck web site hasn't exactly flourished this year. Previously there was
a page entitled "Surnames From Huck (and source of record)" and its
intent was to list surnames in the databases of Huck researchers, even though
those names were not the surname of interest to the owner of the database.
While I thought this would provide additional splinters of data to other
researchers, the idea didn't work because persons visiting the Huck site would
confuse that page with another entitled "Surnames Being Researched".
After replying to many messages that the "Surnames From Huck" page
was not a direct link to a person actively researching a particular name, I
removed it from the site. The title obviously didn't work and while there was
text on the page explaining what the data was, the page was too confusing.
Our researchers continue to wait for the discovery of records from the 1858
to 1888 period. Reports of some isolated records from the period are being
investigated, but progress is slow. The plan to obtain a copy of the complete
1834 and 1857 census records continues to move sideways because the original
data has not been received for translation. Our two-year wait is less than
others who have been waiting for records but we remain hopeful the data will
be received soon.
I enjoy reading the yearly reports from other coordinators because they
often give me ideas of something to try for Huck. I've been busy this year but
vow to spend more time for the village next year.
Dennis Zitterkopf
Husaren, Saratov, Volga
Husaren Web Site
2007 Village Report Husaren (Yelshanka), Saratov, Russia Sheri Rose and
Alexander Rollhauser, Village Co-coordinators
It has been an exciting and enjoyable first year. We have steadily been
adding new information to our database. Alexander has been working on several
projects this year.
He has been adding church book information monthly. He has compiled
specific information, i.e., deaths, births and marriage information for many
families from Husaren. Here is a sampling of his collection:
1804
Geboren/born Maria Ursula Neumann
Am/on: Dec. 23
Getaufaft/ Baptized on Jan. 1
Eltern/ Parents: Johannes Neumann & Maria Margarita born Schell
Taufpaten/ Godparents: Anton Rollheiser and his wife Maria Ursula (Priest?)
This is an interesting entry as it says only one child Barbara left,
however he had children Alive here in America.
1889
Gestornben/ died: Michael Rollheiser
Am/ on: August 7th
Alter/ Age: 69 years old
Hinterbliebene/ the bereaved: His wife Katherina born Schiefelbein, Schoenfeld
so stands in book, and his child Barbara age 19.
Alexander has compiled nearly 330 entries such as these from 1804-1917. He
has also obtained 1858 census information for about 35 families.
Recently Tanja Schell has found Sergie Dukart in Omsk, Siberia, Russia on
her last visit. He has an older aunt who was born in Husaren. I am hoping to
have a village map put together at some point in time.
There are not many requests from anyone. There are only a handful of active
researchers for the village. The surnames most researched are Rollhauser,
Kamlowsky, Braun, Dukart, Neumann and Schiefelbein.
Alexander also started a website for the village. The exciting thing about
our site is that it is in three languages. Alexander speaks Russian and
German. I speak only English and a little Spanish. Tanja Schell translates for
me from English to German for Alexander. Gabriel Spahn of Argentina translates
to Spanish.
It has been a very rewarding experience so far.
Sheri Rose
Village Co-coordinator
Der Bericht für Husaren, Gebiet Saratov in Russland für das Jahr 2007
Dorfkoordinatoren: Sheri Rose und Alexander Rollhäuser
Das vergangene erste Jahr unserer Arbeit an diesem Projekt war sehr schön
und aufregend. Unsere Datenbank wurde stets mit neuen Informationen
angereichert. Alexander beschäftigte sich gleich mit mehreren Projekten.
Jeden Monat fügt er neue Angaben aus den Kirchenbüchern hinzu. So weit hat
er verschiedene Angaben zu den Geburten, Trauungen und Totenmeldungen für
viele Familien aus Husaren dazugegeben.
Hier erstmal ein Auszug daraus:
Das Jahr 1804 Geburt: Maria Ursula Neumann Datum: Der 23. Dezember, die
Taufe: Der 1. Januar Eltern: Johannes Neumann und Maria Margaretha, geb.
Schell Taufpaten: Anton Rollheiser mit Frau Maria Ursula Priester: Keine
Angaben
Hier noch ein interessanter Auszug. Der Mann soll eine einzige Tochter
namens Barbara hinterlassen haben, dabei hatte er mehrere Kinder, die nach
Amerika gingen und sich dort niederließen:
Das Jahr 1889 Gestorben: Michael Rollheiser Datum: Der 7.August Alter: 69
Hinterbliebene: Ehefrau Katarina, geb. Schiefelbein, Schönfeld (sic!) und
Tochter Barbara, 19
Bisher fügte Alexander bereits um die 330 solcher Angaben aus den Jahren
1804 bis 1917. Außerdem fand er Informationen zu nahe 35 Familien in Husaren
in der Volkszählung aus dem Jahre 1858.
Außerdem haben wir neulich Kontakt mit Sergey Dukart in der russischen
Stadt Tomsk in Sibirien aufgenommen. Er hat eine ältere Verwandte, die in
Husaren geboren wurde und dort aufgewachsen ist und nun in Deutschland lebt.
Wir versuchen uns mit der Frau ins Kontakt zu setzten, um Hilfe bei der
Zeichnung einer Karte von Husaren zu bitten.
Soweit hatten wir nicht viele Anfragen bezüglich den Familien aus Husaren.
Es gibt einige Familienforscher, die sich hauptsächlich mit den Familiennamen
wie Braun, Dukart, Kamlowski, Neumann, Rollhäuser und Schiefelbein
beschäftigen.
Alexader eröffnete eine Webseite für Husaren. Das tollste an ihr ist die
Tatsache, dass sie in 3 Sprachen geführt wird. Alexander spricht Deutsch und
Russisch, ich, Sheri Rose, Englisch und ein wenig Spanisch, Tanja Schell hilft
mir manchmal mit den Übersetzungen aus dem Englischen ins Deutsche und
Gabriel Spahn aus Argentinien fertigt unsere Übersetzungen auf Spanisch ab.
Mit freundlichen Grüßen,
Sheri Rose
Hussenbach, Linevo Ozero, Saratov, Volga
Hussenbach Web Site
Hussenbach 2007 Village Report
Requests for Hussenbach (Linevo Osero) information have been very light
this year. However, I have received requests for the following:
Russia - Leis
Propp, Fuchs, Tittel, Dietel
Denmark - Keif/Kaib
Germany - Leis (2 contacts here)
Argentina - Waigandt, Mohr, Ditter, Taag, Littke
U.S. - Haun, Helzer, Schwabair
Louise Potter
VC Hussenbach, Linevo Osero
Johannestal, Berezan, Odessa, Kherson
Johannestal Web Site
Village Report for Johannestal (Beresan, Odessa)
This has been a rather quiet year as far as queries are concerned: I
received only three. I made several small updates to my Johannestal website
(see above) and one large one. I linked the list of the early settlers to
entries in the Stumpp book and the 1858 census.
Working with the Beresan District Odessa Regional Interest Group, most of
the available birth, death, and marriage records from the Nikolaev archives
have been translated and placed on the web. Thus there are now 1833-1885, and
1899-1917 BMD records available for Johannestal.
Ray Heinle
Village Coordinator, Johannestal
Josefstal / Schwabe Khutor, Saratov, Volga
Josefstal Web Site
Edward R. Gerk G054
621 Grandview Road
Kelowna, BC V1V 2C8
Canada
tgerk@shaw.ca
2007 Annual Report for Josefstal
There is not much to report for Josefstal this past year. I am working on
revamping the entire web site in order to place more material online.
I have had no requests this year, probably because my cousin in Germany and
I try to be proactive and contact as many people as we can as soon as we get
their names.
We are both working on a book on the history of Josefstal, which we hope
will be ready next year (2008). It will be in German.
We've received a large number of documents from the archives, including now
from the Communist era. I am being very careful with these because they are
not necessarily "accurate", although any dealing with birth
information is still useful.
Ted Gerk
Village Coordinator for Josefstal
Jost, Samara, Volga
Jost Web Site
Jost Village Report
"The remains of Jost are just mounds where the houses were knocked
down. All is overgrown with grass," reported by the Laub Village
Coordinator on her visit to Jost.
I didn't have much to go on when I became the Jost Village Coordinator in
August 2006. But information is slowly coming in and being added to the
database as time permits with information gathered from obituaries, census
records, and ship lists. I have also added the 1798 Jost census and Jost birth
records 1794-1810. So far, there seems to be a gap from about 1810 forward
to1850. I hope to acquire any 19th century census records, but that may be a
long time coming. I welcome your suggestions.
There have been a number of inquiries for Jost surnames over the past year,
including Axt, Bischel, Flach, Fuchs, Horn, Meisner, Metzler, Reinhardt,
Rudolph, Schafer, Schledewitz, Stier, Tag, and Wenig. Among the seekers are
several Jost descendants in Germany who just recently left Russia. Amazingly,
one of these German contacts is a direct link to my grandmother; another is a
direct link to an aunt whom I was able to pass along to my cousin. It is a
small world. These individuals have contributed relevant translations from the
Russian memory lists, family photographs and histories. My German is improving
with the help of Babelfish and a good German-English dictionary.
The newly revised Jost website can be found above and is in place thanks to
the help of a young descendant. I have posted ship list extractions, memory
list extractions, and family photographs. The site has been well received and
has generated several new contacts.
I've also created the RUS-SAMARA-JOST mailing list through Rootsweb to more
easily keep in touch with Village descendants and share information.
Jost is beginning to come alive!
BETH MUELLER (Rohn) DAVENPORT, Jost VC
JOST-Popovkina -Stier, Wenig, Ehoff, Schwimle
LAUB-Tarlyk -Merk
STRAUB-Skatovka -Schwabenland
KUKKUS-Wolskoje -Herzog
ENDERS-Ust Karaman -Mueller, Schneider, Maier
SCHILLING-Sosnovka -Mueller
BALZER-Goloi Karamysch -Roehrig
WALTER-Grechinnaya Luka -Rohn, Gies, Lichtenberg, Rets/Dietz
Kamenka, Saratov, Volga
Kamenka Web Site
Village Coordinator Report for Kamenka A Volga Colony
There have been many requests from Argentina this past year. Some I have
been able to help after translating the messages with Babelfish. I receive
quite a number in English from South America as well. There is the timeframe
between the 1850 Kamenka census and the time that their grandparents left
Kamenka or another village, which creates the problem in their ancestral
research.
From the EWZ records I have extracted the names of those that list their
place of birth as Kamenka. This has proven to be most interesting since some
of the people came to the U.S. as Displaced Persons whom I have met at AHSGR
conventions. A person who attended the AHSGR convention in Hays, Kansas last
June is listed in the EWZ files whose parents were born in Kamenka.
The file that I used for extraction is: http://www.odessa3.org/collections/war/ewz/ewzindex.html
The EWZ Antraege (Applications) files consist of over 400,000 applicants
for naturalized German citizenship by ethnic Germans during 1939-1945.
I have available the 1834 and 1850 Kamenka census. The First Settler Lists
of 1767 and the 1775/1798 Kamenka censuses are available from AHSGR.
Respectfully submitted,
Rosemary Larson
Kassel, Glückstal, Odessa, Kherson
See Glueckstal Colonies Research Association for combined report.
Kautz, Saratov, Volga
Kautz Web Site
Village Report for Kautz, 2007
Michael Frank, VC
This year I published Volume 9 of Unsere Leute von Kautz (Our People
from Kautz) on compact disk. It contains 212 indexed pages. With the many
clickable charts, reports, and lengthy individual pages within these 212
pages, the actual count is over 2,700 pages. The previous 10 volumes of ULvK,
published by Elaine Frank Davison, also reside on the disk (Volume 3 consists
of 3 separate volumes). I mailed approximately 80 CDs to those interested in
Kautz with whom I had communicated over the last six years and who had
previously ordered either charts or earlier versions of the Kautz CD. During
the preparation of this volume, I received a lot of new material from these
same people and a lot of positive feedback from this effort.
The new volume contains:
A tribute to the life of Elaine Frank Davison, previous Kautz Village
Coordinator, photos growing up, unpublished writings.
A pictorial of Johann Conrad Frank and Eva Elisabeth Schreiner (my
great-grandparents) and their eight children and multitudes of grandchildren.
Kautz Village Map (good quality scan) with resident families listed.
Amazing Kautz Pictures from Dan and Pat Bing taken May, 2007.
Wonderful memories of growing up by many individuals.
Photographs of German-Russian bands in Walla Walla, Washington.
All the 22 known first families of Kautz, their descendant and genealogy
charts (as currently known) and other biographical information related to
these families.
Excellent scanned copies of all 20 oversize Kautz surname charts obtained
from Russia.
Known Kautz births (1767-1939) by Date, by Name, and by Family.
Kautz births (1767-1800), most individuals listed with a descendant chart.
Kautz Deaths (1872-1918) by date and family from Igor Pleve.
Deaths recorded in the Kautz database 2000-2007, by date and name.
From the Kautz database, Dietel and Hussenbach births, and all Russian
births by name and village.
Kautz family photographs not previously published.
Family charts, more recent family photographs, interviews, Confirmation
photos.
Citizenship documents, postcards, and obituaries.
Audio clips of my grandmother, Maria Catharina Knaub, and aunt Elaine Frank
Davison.
Snippets of copies of church records (1600's to 1700's) from the Frank
ancestral village, Schriesheim, Germany.
Scores of family photos of my great-grandparents their descendants.
Other Information:
With the help of data from Gary Martens I helped to identify Benzel as a
first-family-of-Kautz surname and worked his information into the Kautz
database.
I communicated with Ida Frank whose grandfather was born in Kautz in 1896.
Her brothers and sisters and families now reside in Hanover, Germany having
emigrated from Kazakhstan. Photos and story appear on the compact disk.
Helped Dan and Pat (Bethke) Bing with a Kautz compact disk, Kautz village
map, and video of Elaine & George Davison's 1991 trip to Kautz, in
preparation for their trip to Kautz in May, 2007. Dan and Pat captured
wonderful photographs and have great and bittersweet memories from their trip.
Many obituaries related to Kautz descendants were processed. Most were
submitted by Henry Schmick. Henry and others continue to perform a great
service in making these obituaries available on the GV listserv.
I have requested a page count of Kautz records at the Volgograd archives
from Mila via Gary Martens. With a page count, I should know the cost of
acquiring these more-recent Kautz documents before placing an order.
Brent Mai has informed me that there are Kautz records from 1834.
Considerations are being made for their purchase and translation.
Answered about 20 queries for the year regarding Kautz. I typically send
descendants charts and other information with each reply. Almost all are
handled via e-mail. Some need information from the Kautz database. Others
request surname charts and/or the compact disk. Most provide additional
information about their families.
This year brought sadness with the death of my uncle, George Frank, of
Walla Walla, Washington on August 7, 2007. He is the last of his brothers and
sisters to pass on, the eighth of nine children of Johann Conrad Frank and
Maria Catharina Knaub who were born and married in Kautz. His passing was well
attended and wonderfully received and brought many Frank cousins and friends
together for the celebration of his life. George was very supportive of
genealogical research on behalf of Kautz descendants.
Klosterdorf, Swedish Colonies, Nikolaev and Kherson
See Swedish Colonies, Nikolaev and Kherson for combined report.
Köhler, Saratov, Volga
Koehler 2007 Village Coordinator Report
My name is David Haspert and I will be taking over from Joe Gareis as the
Co-Village Coordinator (VC) for Koehler.
For the last five years I have been working mostly with Barb and Nick
Bretz, the other Village Coordinators for Koehler, researching the families
from the village. Together, with the help of many family members, we have
accumulated a database of over 20,000 descendants and their spouses. This
would include records going back to Russia, and the families that immigrated
to America, Canada, Argentina, Germany, and other countries.
In an effort so save our ancestral records, we are accumulating historical
and vital records. This would include birth, marriage, death, cemetery,
immigration, and naturalization records. With the help of family members, over
700 obituaries are included. We would very much like to hear from you as well.
See the e-mail addresses above to contact me or Nick and Barb Bretz.
The AHSGR is doing something similar to this at the national level through
the Save Our Ancestral Records or SOAR program. If we can secure funds, we are
hoping to have the Russian church records (births) transliterated this year
David Haspert
Co-Village Coordinator, Koehler
Kolb, Saratov, Volga
Village Coordinator Report for Kolb
As VC for the village of Kolb, I have not been able to attend the annual
conventions for several years due to family health problems. I miss the
village nights and the connections with other researchers.
I get about ten to twelve requests per year. These requests are not always
for Kolb families but for the area in which I live. I am able to help about
half of them.
Kolb and Frank villages were situated close together so the information I
happen to get is shared with Doris Evans and she adds it to her Frank-Kolb
database. Some birth and death records for Kolb have been ordered from the
Volgagrad archives. We are anxiously waiting for them to arrive. The years
listed will hopefully fill in the missing links for some of us. I personally
hope to make the connections to my Koch families, for which there are dozens.
Thelma Koch Sprenger
Kolb Village Coordinator
Konstantinovka, Samara, Volga
Konstantinovka Web Site
See Alt-Schilling Saratov, Volga for combined report.
Kraft, Saratov, Volga
Kraft Web Site
Kraft colony had not had a full time coordinator for about 15 years. When I
assumed that responsibility in the spring of 2007, AHSGR was able to provide a
database containing 70 surnames and 264 individuals. We now have 446 surnames
and just over 3000 individuals. Virtually all of these individuals were either
born in Kraft or were living in Kraft when they immigrated to the Americas.
All entries are documented.
My priorities for the coming year are to continue to add to the database
and to try to re-identify other Kraft researchers. If it has been some time
since you tried to communicate with the Kraft Village Coordinator, I'd really
appreciate it if you would get hold of me. This, not only because I think I
can provide new information for you, but I'd like to add the documented
information you have to our database.
There were a number of people who helped me to hit the ground running, but
I'd particularly like to thank Dennis Zitterkopf and Janet Laubhan Flickinger
for their patience.
Ron Burkett, VC for Kraft
Kratzke, Saratov, Volga
Kratzke Web Site
See Ährenfeld / Aehrenfeld, Saratov, Volga for combined report.
Kronental, North Caucasus
See Alexanderfeld, North Caucasus for combined report.
Kukkus, Samara, Volga
Kukkus (Wolskaja) Village Report for 2007
During this past year there have been various requests for information. One
such request was from a small town just several miles away from me. The
request was for the book, "Kukkus, a German Village on the Volga".
The book is still available at the Central California Chapter of AHSGR in
Fresno. Our problem was that this person had never heard of the Fresno Chapter
or the AHSGR. So, it seems that we still have work to do to acquaint our
younger people with their past history. He had heard of the book from a
relative and his family has plans to go to Russia to visit their ancestral
villages on the Volga.
I am still requesting Kukkus photos from people who have visited Kukkus and
are willing to share their experiences with us. I thank the people who have
already participated in this project and have let those of us who will never
get to travel to the Volga, experience the thrill of seeing photos of the
village where our ancestors lived. In some instances, it is very poignant to
witness the slow demise of this German village, although the Russians who live
there now seem to take care of some of the homes. They have turned one home
into a small Russian Orthodox Church, not as imposing as the destroyed Kukkus
Church which once stood over the village. All the Kukkus photos will be placed
on CDs and sent to interested people for only the cost of the postage.
There might be positive news on the missing censuses of Kukkus. I received
a message from Brent Mai stating that he had received eight 1834 censuses,
Kukkus not included, but that the rest might be sent by the end of the month.
We will wait patiently for the translation of those censuses already received
and wait for the others, including Kukkus, to be received and translated.
Additionally, since DNA is becoming so important in tracing ancestors, has
anyone had their DNA studied, and if so, be willing to share the results with
the Kukkus genealogy researchers? In the future, DNA promises to be a very
positive tool for genealogy research, or at least an interesting pursuit.
I plan to visit Germany in early summer and travel with my Ohlberg relative
who was born in Russia, taught English in St. Petersburg, and now lives in
Germany. We plan to go to the villages where our ancestors lived.
Betty Muradian
Kukkus Village Coordinator
Kulm, Bessarabia
BESSARABIAN VILLAGES REPORT 2007
As is well known, the region known as Bessarabia no longer exists. Its
northern portion has become the small, impoverished nation, Moldova, while the
southern area is a part of Ukraine.
Since the fall of Communism, the originally resettled refugees for the most
part now in western Germany continue to keep a close watch over the region of
their origin. They have collected funds to refurbish important buildings and
have completely restored several churches, with the observation that while
they have no ulterior purpose in doing this, their altruistic viewpoint is to
make these beautiful edifices available as non-denominational houses of
worship for all peoples of all faiths to enjoy. Throughout the years, they
lead tours into the area to try to help raise the standard of living of the
current inhabitants. As an indication of their continual oversight, on
September 8 and 9, 2007 the fourth annual Market Days were again held at
Tarutino which encourages people from all over to bring goods for sale as it
was done a hundred years ago thereby helping bolster the region's economy.
Since the publication in 2005 of my comprehensive "Extended
Relationships of the Kulm, Leipzig, Tarutino Communities in Bessarabia,
Russia" many people were able to trace their family lines associated with
these villages. It has also generated correspondence from all over the USA,
Canada, Germany and other places on the globe. Some have augmented the
information they found thereby enhancing my database and providing additional
information for others searching their family lines.
July 15, 2007, I was invited to speak for the Bessarabian Flato Family
reunion that brought people from all parts of this country, Canada and Germany
to Lodi, California. This was an excellent and rewarding gathering for those
in attendance.
It is my hope and intention to maintain this Bessarabian connection as long
as my physical and mental capabilities permit, but considering my age, I will
gladly relinquish the work to anyone who may be willing to take it over.
Respectfully submitted,
Arthur E. Flegel
Leichtling, Saratov, Volga
Leichtling Web Site
www.leichtling.com
www.boydhouse.com/leichtling
2007 Village Report for Leichtling
Saratov, Volga River Area
This year has been a busy year for the Leichtling Website. Although inquiries
were low, we have worked hard to collect more information about the village
and names of those who lived in the village. Although inquiries were low,
people viewing the website has increased greatly. I attribute this to more
self help items on the website.
This year we completed the website village database. It is "on line"
and free at either of the websites listed above. The database consists of
everyone known to have ever lived in Leichtling. They are arranged in family
groups and are searchable. The database can be viewed in English, German or
Spanish.
In addition to this database, the 1767, 1834, and 1850 census records are now
online and available for viewing on the website also. It is in English and
indexed. There is also a cross index of families to each of those census
records
A "surname variation" list was added to the website also. This list
can be used to see how surnames were spelled differently throughout the
various censuses of the village. It is for Leichtling village only, but may
apply to others.
A "Move In and Out" list was also added. This list is of people
moving into and out of Leichtling throughout the years. Everyone in Leichtling
should be checked against this list. It may tell you to what village your
ancestor moved from Leichtling.
There is much more on the website.
Check it out!
Darryl Boyd
Leichtling Village Coordinator
Leipzig, Bessarabia
See Kulm, Bessarabia for combined report.
Lillienfeld, North Caucasus
See Alexanderfeld, North Caucasus for combined report.
Louis, Samara, Volga
Louis Web Site
Louis Village Report
My Village report on Louis is rather short. I do not have too many requests
for information for this Volga village. I did receive several pictures of
Louis from Viktor Kink, whose ancestors used to live there. One of the
pictures is the house where they lived. Another is of the beautiful Karaman
River by Louis. Viktor also wrote a few paragraphs about his people. I have
featured it all in my September Newsletter.
Most of the information that I receive (concerning my Villages) is usually
featured in my newsletters, sooner or later. I look forward to publishing the
newsletter, and many people have been so good about sending me pictures and
articles. These newsletters are also sent to AHSGR and appear in the
Mariental/Louis/Chasselois files there. I publish them every quarter. When my
daughter finishes her schooling on Web Page design, she will be adding all of
my newsletters to my web page. Hopefully this will occur during the next year.
The different censuses that I have on Louis are listed in the newsletters.
Thelma Mills
VC for the Volga Village of Louis
Marienbrunn, North Caucasus
See Alexanderfeld, North Caucasus for combined report.
Mariental, Samara, Volga
Mariental Web Site
Village Report for Mariental
Greetings to one and all.
The first thing I want to mention is that this year's Convention in Hays
was one of the best I have ever attended. Mostly because of all of the new
members who joined who were associated with either, Mariental or Louis. It was
a most interesting convention meeting all of these people. I also met many
whom I have been in contact with through the years, and had never met before.
I knew that the area was a big Volga German area, and was so pleased that so
many were longing for information of their ancestors. What a great time we
had. What a great time for my daughter, Theresa Lynn Sheaffer, to have been
included in Village night. It was a fantastic night.
My daughter will be learning and will eventually be my replacement if
something ever happens to me. She will be a credit to the Association. At the
present time, she is working on the SOAR packets, and enjoys doing that. It
will help her learn about our people. She is also taking a Web Page course, so
that she will take over my web page, doing all of the updates and new
information I have accumulated, but haven't been able to post onto my web
page. I will have to mention that she loves going to the AHSGR Conventions,
and meeting the people. I featured her in my June Newsletter. For those who
would like to be added to my Newsletter list, please send me your e-mail
address. I would much prefer to send it out via e-mail because the paper
newsletters are quite costly. I had to cut out the color on the ones I sent
out through the mail (too bad, because they look so much better in color).
I am still working on my book about my parents. It is taking up a lot of my
time because I keep adding more to it. It is going to be an e-book (through
Adobe Acrobat), full of pictures and stories of my ancestors, and my family. I
love the stories. It will be a "living book" - so called because
when a new soul enters our family, or a new marriage, etc. I can just add what
I want, burn a new CD, and whoever wants a copy can let me know.
Thelma Mills
Village Coordinator
Volga Village of Mariental
Markosowka, North Caucasus
See Alexanderfeld, North Caucasus for combined report.
Messer, Saratov, Volga
Messer Village Coordinator's Report - 2007
Greetings to all other village coordinators from Messer (Ust-Zolikha). I
have been the VC for Messer since the Seattle Convention in 1992. This has
been a very good year. The database has 1,735 names and 637 marriages. This
village was established on July 7, 1766 with 397 residents and in 1926 the
town population consisted of 3,575 residents. The farmland allocated to this
village wasn't good for farming, so this village was known for its industry.
At one time there were more than 600 Sarpinna (a type of cloth similar to
gingham) weavers.
I have a mailing list of 48 names for Messer of which eight do not belong
to AHSGR but have submitted data for the database. I attended the 2007
convention and had a fair turnout at my table. I have updated a comparison of
the Messer 1775 and 1798 census records in alphabetical order.
This year I have had 10 inquiries about Messer, all by e-mail. This is up
from one last year. Some of the families that were being researched were:
Spume, Geis, Meisinger, Muss, Weigandt (Argentina), Lauer & Heidi.
I have ordered the 1834 and 1857 census records from Brent Mai. I have not
received them as of this time and hope to receive them sometime near the end
of this year. This will be a great help in understanding the Messer data.
Submitted by:
Bob Weigand
AHSGR VC for Messer
Molochna Colony Mennonite Villages
Mennonite Villages Report
Hildegard Wasnick, VC
I have not had very many requests in the past year, probably only one or
two, which I do try to answer as best I can. I have spent most of my time
translating obituaries from German to English.
For a period of about five years, I subscribed to a German newspaper called
"Der Bote". Each issue has from two to five obituaries. These obits
are very informative. First they give a detailed account of the funeral
service and then they include the life story of the deceased. Once I started
reading these obits, I felt that the life stories should be preserved and I
started to translate them. At the present time, I have several ready to send
to headquarters.
From time to time there are other articles in the paper that I feel would
be of interest to genealogists. I also try to translate these and send copies
to Lincoln. Most recently I found an article about the village of Felsenbach
in the Borozenko Colony. I had never heard of this area. After reading the
article, I felt that it too should be preserved. The Borozenko Colony was
founded about 1864 and existed until 1943. Mr. Sawatzky returned to the
village of his boyhood after 55 years and describes what he finds. Sadly, the
village has been completely destroyed. Mr. Sawatzky also mentions the names of
several other families that were once residents of Felsenbach.
One word for which I have been unable to find a translation is Burjan. From
the way the word is used, I assume it is an obnoxious weed of some sort. If
anyone knows what it is, please let me know.
Moor, Saratov, Volga
Moor Web Site
2007 Village Report for Moor
2007 has been a good year for Moor research. Only one newsletter was
published, but we hope to get another one out before the end of the year.
Subscriptions remain above 50 persons.
I received emails from several researchers requesting help and back issues
of the newsletter. One of these was from Germany. Assistance ranged from being
able to connect the researcher's information to a surname chart from Russia,
to not being able to help at all. It's the old tale of the big gap between
1857 and 1900. I am hoping these contacts led to some new AHSGR memberships.
The news from Brent Mai this week is extremely welcoming. We look forward
to receiving the translated 1834 census and hoping the 1857 eventually will be
found. Past research by Dr. Pleve indicates that it does exist.
In April, two workshops were presented at the California Heritage Fest.
Draft copies of our German research were given out to ten people for their
review and comments. As a result, the Balzer group plans to publish their
research of Volga Germans Settlers Identified in Isenburg Church Records.
Research over the past five or so years has resulted in identification of over
150 Volga settlers. Emphasis is on the settlements of Balzer with 91 and Moor
with 25. However, Kutter had 9 first family baptisms while Messer had 15, two
were from Galka, one from Schilling, and 16 from Norka. All are included in
the book. All of the baptisms and most of the marriages are not available in
any other publication. Prepublication reservations are now being taken. It is
hoped that this book will encourage other village coordinators to research the
Isenburg records for the first settlers to their villages. VCs for above
villages should contact me for complementary copies.
Finally, we were able to find a great researcher for the Franken area of
Bavaria. His name is Karl Greim. He may be reached at hofgenealoge@freenet.de
.
Wayne Bonner
AHSGR VC for Balzer/Moor
Mühlhausendorf, Swedish Colonies, Nikolaev and Kherson
See Swedish Colonies, Nikolaev and Kherson for combined report.
Neu-Danzig, Nikolaev, Kherson
See Alt-Danzig, Kirovograd for combined report.
Neudorf, Glückstal, Odessa, South Russia
See Glueckstal Colonies Research Association for combined report.
Neu Moor, Saratov, Volga
2007 VC report for the colony of Neu-Moor
Neu-Moor (Russian name Pogranichnyy), was a "grand-daughter"
colony, formed in the 1920's by people living in the "mother" colony
of Moor. It was located in the Balzer District on the Bergseite (west or hilly
side) of the Volga River, and was approximately 30 - 40 miles from the
"mother" colony of Moor.
Very little information is available on Neu-Moor. So far there has been
only one person seeking information on this colony.
Irma A. Waggoner
Village Coordinator for Neu-Moor
Neu-OberMonjou, Samara, Volga, Russia
Neu-OberMonjou Web
Site
See Ober-Monjou, Samara, Volga for combined report.
Neu-Schilling I and II, Samara, Volga
Schilling Web Site
See Alt-Schilling Saratov, Volga for combined report.
Neu-Straub, Saratov, Volga
Neu-Straub Web Site
Village of Neu-Straub 2007 Report
I have had very little activity this past year. I received a letter from
Germany from a lady who described this village as she remembered it from her
youth and will share this information with those who may be interested.
I've not received any names of new individuals interested in the research
of Neu-Straub. I do have a Russian surname list of the 1857 census with only
two surnames who resided in Neu-Straub: Keil and Heintz, my research names. I
would appreciate hearing from anyone interested in sharing their Keil and
Heintz information.
Lillian Larwig, Village Coordinator of Neu-Straub
Neu-Yagodnaya, Samara, Volga
Neu-Yagodnaya Web Site
See Schöndorf, Samara, Volga for combined report.
Nieder-Monjou, Samara, Volga
Nieder-Monjou Web Site
2007 VC Report for Nieder-Monjou
Throughout the past year we received six queries concerning the following
Nieder-Monjou surnames: Anschutz, Binedell, Bisterfeldt, Hicks, Rauschenbach,
and Stoppel. These included queries from Russia, South Africa, and our first
query from Germany.
I extracted the information that may be of interest to Nieder-Monjou
researchers from the Einwandererzentralstelle (EWZ) Anträge indexes found at
Odessa: A German-Russian Genealogical Library (http://odessa3.org/). This
information has been posted on the Nieder-Monjou web site.
Co-Village Coordinator, Michael Grau, represented Nieder-Monjou at the 2007
AHSGR convention at Hays.
We continued to research families from Nieder-Monjou, primarily those who
immigrated to central Kansas.
You may visit the Nieder-Monjou web site, shown above.
Michael Grau and Steven Grau
Oberdorf, Saratov, Volga
Oberdorf Web Site
Oberdorf Village Report for 2007
The Oberdorf web site continues to attract new researchers. Most of the
researchers cannot connect to the 1858 Oberdorf Revision List due to the
minimal amount of church and civil records post 1858. A couple of the new
researchers have been able to connect to the 1858 Revision List, and they were
handed off to the mother colonies' village coordinators and to the owners of
the applicable surname charts.
I continue to update the Oberdorf web site with new ship extractions. The
Hamburg Ship Lists available on the Ancestry web site has been a new source
for Oberdorf people that immigrated to Argentina. The Canadian Border Crossing
cards have also become available on the Ancestry web site, and they have
supplied additional clues regarding Oberdorf families.
New researchers Jerre and Irv Kaufman have contributed the history of
Johann George Schaefer born about 1889 in Oberdorf (the son of Gottfried
Schaefer born about 1859 and Elisabeth Asmus born about 1860). Johann George
Schaefer was a victim of the Great Purge. Included in the history is the fate
of Johann George's wife and children sent to forced labor camps and the later
resettlement in Germany of the widow and the one child that survived the labor
camps. The web article (under the Reminiscences tab on the Oberdorf web site)
also contains photographs and copies of letters sent to a relative in the
United States.
In the past year, I have identified two of the first Oberdorf families that
left for America. The earliest documented emigration from Oberdorf was in late
December 1886 per the History and Geography Dictionary of Saratov Province
by A.N. Minkh. One of these emigrants from Oberdorf was Friedrich Kerbs (b abt
1864), who arrived at the Port of Baltimore on 12 Feb 1887 on the ship
Hermann. Through Naturalization Records and U.S. Census Records, I have
verified that this Friedrich Kerbs on the ship Hermann was indeed from
Oberdorf. A second family was the Johann (Johann Jacob) Kuxhaus family. This
family, including his wife, Mary Elizabeth Hergert (b abt 1861) and sons
Heinrich Kuxhaus (b abt 1884) and Jacob Kuxhaus (b abt 1886) was verified
through genealogy reports submitted by Oberdorf researchers and the 1900
Oklahoma census. The same ship manifest has several other families (Rusch,
Weigand, (additional) Kerbs, Fritzler, Zwetzig, Muth and Becker) that are most
likely from Oberdorf. Copies of the Ship Hermann manifest can be found on the
Oberdorf web site under the Immigrant Ships tab. This was an exciting
discovery from a historical standpoint for the village of Oberdorf.
Teri Helzer, Oberdorf Village Coordinator
Ober-Monjou, Samara, Volga
Obermonjou Web Site
Ober-Monjou
Mailing List
2007 Village Report Villages of Obermunjou, Neu-Obermunjou, Zug, Wittman,
Graf.
My villages are mostly centered in the upper Volga area and I have been
getting a number of requests for help. A few of these requests have come from
Germany, Canada, the U.S. and even from South America.
Below, I have listed the villages and updates that I have received.
Obermunjou
In 2007 I received from Dr. Pleve the marriages from 1852, 1853, 1854, 1855,
1856, 1857, and 1860. I have requested that he send me the marriages for 1839,
1840, 1858, 1859 and a few other church records that people have requested
that I get for them. I received a number of inquiries from a few people, about
one or two a month, mainly those with connections to Ellis County. I have sent
headquarters a copy of the complete census books I have for 1850 and 1857 for
the archives.
Neu-Obermunjou
There was no new information, but a few inquiries.
Zug
Last year I was able to get the 1857 complete census for this colony, one that
Pleve said didn't exist. Brent Mai has translated the 1834 census and has made
that available which has also helped. There have not been very many inquiries
for this village. I have sent headquarters a copy of the complete census book
I have for 1857 for the archives.
Wittman
I have received information for a number of families from Dr. Pleve on the
years 1816/1834 for this colony and received a few inquiries, a few from South
America. I have sent headquarters a copy of the complete census books I have
for 1857 and 1893 for the archives.
Graf
There was not much action from this colony, but I did find the 1874 family
list and I have requested Pleve to send the heads of families from this list.
I have sent headquarters a copy of the complete census books I have for 1834,
1850, and 1893 for the archives.
Although I'm not an official Village Coordinator for Rohleder and Luzern, I
have ordered a few marriage records to help a few friends connect their
families.
Since so many people in this area are from the mid and upper area of the
Volga I hope to start an Upper Volga Project with the hopes if sometimes even
doing an Upper Volga Colony Newsletter. I have collected a number of items
this past year from Dr. Pleve on a few colonies for which I have an interest,
but not from the Village Coordinator. These are named below:
Katharinenstadt
I am in the process now of receiving the rest of the 1857 census. It should be
completed by the end of October as well as a number of 1816/1834 census
families from that colony. I have sent headquarters a copy of the complete
census book for 1850 for the archives.
Louis
This year I received from Dr. Pleve the 1893 Family List (ordered a few
families at a time), and also marriages for the years 1892, 1893. Records for
the marriage years of 1848, 1849, and 1950 have been ordered and I am waiting
to receive these soon.
I have also received a few heads of families from some of the colonies that
I work with and have also sent these to Lincoln as well for the archives.
Kevin Rupp
Village Coordinator
Villages of Obermunjou, Neu-Obermunjou, Zug, Wittman, Graf
Orlovskoye, Samara, Volga
Orlovskoe 2007 Annual Village Report
Located on the Wiesenseite of the Volga, Orlovskoe was founded with 312
individuals in 1767 and ultimately grew to a population of 6,517 by the year
1912. Only 3,243 people remained in the village and in several surrounding
areas by 1926. The colony was named for the Orlov family, who were among the
staunchest supporters of Catherine II.
Approximately 1,750 individuals are listed in the village database, which
contains the names of people who were either born in Orlovskoe or who at some
time lived there. The main sources used include the Pleve Descendants Charts
for Bonacker and Erfurth, the 1798 Village Census, "Unsere Leute/Settlers
in Northern Illinois" (Chicago church records), family histories from a
dozen researchers, and "Orlovskaia on the Volga" by Jacob and Irma
Eichhorn (a history of Orlovskoe). We have since acquired the 1834 census,
which will be added to the database.
This year we received three inquiries for information. The first two were
from a man in Germany. He was searching for descendants of his uncle's ERMISCH
family and also for descendants of his own HERGERT family. We made a
connection to the Ermisch American 'cousins' but had no match for Hergert. The
third request was from a man in Argentina seeking information about his AXT
ancestors. We were unable to find a connection for him, so it was decided to
forward his inquiry to headquarters where it will be added to the list of
requests in the Winter Newsletter.
Respectfully submitted,
Carol Nesewich
Orlovskoe Village Coordinator
Paulskoye, Samara, Volga
Paulskoye
Web Site
2007 Village Report for Paulskoye
This year Paulskoyers have had a bit of luck. The 1834 Census, of which
AHSGR has long held a microfilm copy, has finally been translated and is
available for purchase via the AHSGR Store! Thank you Brent Mai and AHSGR! The
German Origins (GO) Project staff has also entered data for Pauskoye settlers
and I have checked it for accuracy. Thank you Dick Kraus! As part of that work
I have discovered errors in surnames when comparing the census records,
settlers records, and transport lists. Researchers need to be reminded to keep
an open mind considering the antiquity of the records and the transliteration
issues. For an example, it seems a Gottfried JOST family listed in the 1798
census should actually be JUSTUS; confusing since both surnames can be found
in Paulskoye. I encourage Paulskoyer descendants to compare your ancestral
knowledge as requested on the website by its coordinator.
Other inquiries
A U.S. inquiry about SCHIEFFERSTEIN, which lead to an exchange of information
about FISCHER (from Fischer), WEDE, GRUNE, and LEMP among others. An inquiry
from a German Russian living in Germany about JUSTUS ancestry. A continued
exchange of information with a Canadian German-Russian regarding BOXHORN
family. An interesting inquiry regarding HILGENBERG and DORN with Kansas roots
with a U.S. immigration of 1892 making it the earliest appearance of someone
born in Paulskoye to my knowledge.
Miscellaneous
EWZ files for HARDT and DORTMAN have been discovered and two requests for
copies of the Paulskoye village map have been fulfilled.
In closing, I would like to request that any Pauskoye researchers reading
this report, please revisit the Paulskoye website and verify your current
e-mail address; there are eight e-mail addresses that are no longer working
and no way to contact you.
Respectfully Submitted,
Tim Weeder, VC for Paulskoye
Pfeifer, Saratov, Volga
Pfeifer Web Site
Village Coordinator Report for Pfeifer
Volga Colony
Many requests for information have been received during the year. I have
been receiving requests for ancestral information from Argentina for other
Volga villages as well. I am able to help many of them or refer them to the
Volga village VC regarding their ancestry.
From the EWZ records I have extracted the names of those who list their
place of birth as Pfeifer. It is an interesting site. The file is http://www.odessa3.org/collections/war/ewz/ewzindex.html
The EWZ Antraege (Applications) files consist of over 400,000 applicants
for naturalized German citizenship by ethnic Germans during 1939-1945.
I have the 1850 Pfeifer census, which lists the spouses as well as the
heads of families. AHSGR has available the 1767 Pfeifer First Settler List and
the 1798 census for Pfeifer. Kevin Rupp has the 1834 and 1857 Pfeifer census
available.
Respectfully submitted,
Rosemary Larson
Pobochnoye, Saratov, Volga
Pobochnoye Web Site
Pobochnoye and Daughter Colony Schoenfel 2007 V.C. Report
There were probably 300 inquiries regarding Pobochnoye and Schoenfeld and
its descendents this year. Some were in German or Spanish. To those from
Argentina I usually responded in Spanish, German and English.
My cousin Alex Wilhelm in Speyer, Germany and I translated an article by
Dr. Pleve and others regarding the traveling of 29 families of settlers from
Darmstadt, Germany to Saratov in 1772. Immigration to Russia had ceased some
three years earlier, so these people were "illegals" or
"illegitimate". That is what the name Pobochnoye means in Russian.
The article had appeared in the Omsk, Siberia newspaper last year. Alex
translated the article from Russian into German. I translated it from German
into English.
Alex recently sent me photographs of Yagodnaya Polyana and Pobochnoye taken
by some of his Russian friends last month. It shows clearly how houses were
arranged in the village, with their "hof", outdoor summer kitchen,
etc.
In the upcoming edition of "Usu Leut" (Unsere Leute), a
newsletter of Yagodnaya Polyana, there will be a story and photos by Gene
Southwick, descendent of Pobochnoye. Last year Gene and wife Wilma visited
relatives in Pobochino, south of Omsk in western Siberia. This was a daughter
colony founded about 1906 by people from Pobochnoye. Most German people have
moved away to Germany in the past ten years.
A Yagodnaya Polyana and Schoendorf descendent, born in Kazachstan, was in
Florida in early October completing green card and immigration papers. He
filled out job applications and is trying to emigrate to the U.S. from
Hamburg.
Laurin Wilhelm
Reinhard(t), Samara, Volga
2007 Village Report for Reinhardt
In April 2007, I issued the first number (Volume 1, Number1) of the Reinhardter
Rundschreiben newsletter to my list of Reinhardt descendants and friends.
It was well received.
During the year, I've added two Reinhardt contacts through my listing as VC
on the AHSGR website and look forward to adding their family history
information to the Reinhardt database. No new contacts were made during my
attendance at the 2007 convention in Hays, Kansas.
An ongoing research project is to determine the reason why every immigrant
(that I'm aware of) came initially to Sheboygan, Wisconsin. With the help of
local historian Scott Lewandoske, I'm confident the answer to this question
will be found.
I'm currently heading a project to accurately locate every village listed
in the AHSGR Village List using the Google Earth program, and expect to have
this work completed well before the 2008 AHSGR convention. The computer file
resulting from this work will allow any Google Earth user to view a satellite
image of any village merely by clicking on the village name from an
alphabetical list.
Jerry C. Sitzman
Reinhardt Village Coordinator
Rosenberg / Umet, Saratov, Volga
Rosenberg
Web Site
Report for Rosenberg (Volga) - 2007 by Richard McGregor
This has been perhaps the quietest year yet for Rosenberg queries: only 11
and just over half being new enquiries. No new information or family material
has come to light during the year and the families in which correspondents
were interested were as follows: Fischer, Reizenstein, Meier, Kuxhausen,
Stricker/Weitzel, Ziegler/Horst/Armbruster/Koch, Weber, Schneider, Sceuermann,
Graff, Tahmig, Stricker and Heckman. A query was received about the name
Kriese but this was not a Rosenberg name, and there was a query on the reason
for the name Rosenberg. The website message board had also had a small number
of queries.
The above names are those which come up most regularly and probably
represents the relative size of family groups. It is my impression that
younger researchers are not particularly strongly represented among the
enquirers. This relative inactivity may represent the abundance of material on
the web but it seems unlikely. We are told that interest in Family History has
never been higher: this is not really reflected in the reports from VCs like
myself and it makes me wonder why. Working from England as I do leaves me a
little detached, especially at Convention time. Rosenberg was never a heavily
populated village, though over the years I have collected nearly 250 pages of
data, but it is hard to imagine that this represents all the family
information which could be known.
Professor Richard McGregor
Professor of Music
Division of Childhood, Adolescent, and Creative Studies
University of Cumbria
Rosenfeld, North Caucasus
See Alexanderfeld, North Caucasus for combined report.
Rosenheim, Samara, Volga
Rosenheim 2007 Village Report
I have received no inquiries about Rosenheim this year. I am planning to
contact Dr. Pleve to get census material I lack. This consists of the 1873
census and revisions. After that, I will have all census materials for the
village and will be able to provide better assistance to those who ask.
Respectfully submitted,
Randi Bolyard
Rothammel, Saratov, Volga
Rothammel 2007 Village Report
The transliterated Rothammel/Seewald church records are continuing to
arrive, due to the diligent work of Mila and Sergei Koretnikov and Tanja
Schell. We appreciate the work they are doing, as the records will help
villagers who don't have surname charts determine their heritage. Thank you
very much.
The 1834 Seewald census will be available soon which help make connections
between the 1798 and 1857 census records that are currently available.
Currently census records for the years 1798, 1845, and 1857 are available for
Rothammel.
We've had over 35 inquiries for research related to our villages, of which
most weren't members of AHSGR, but were able to help them and hopefully
inspire additional work and interest in joining the Society. Jim Osborne has
been doing significant research in South America regarding relatives of our
villages and will have quite a few updates soon. He also has been researching
movement to and from our villages. We have incorporated over 50 obituaries
into our database, which has added almost 1,000 names. We continue to clean up
some of the errors within the database.
Please contact Kathy Jones to subscribe to our free mail list: kmjones@netins.net
Goals for 2008:
Continue to work on the input of approximately 1,000 obituaries related to our
villages.
Continue to collect pictures related to our villages.
Develop a website.
Put together a useful presentation and have our database and other materials
ready for the 2008 convention.
Respectively submitted,
Joe Gertge, and Nick & Barbara Bretz
Schilling, Samara, Volga
Schilling Web Site
See Alt-Schilling Saratov, Volga for combined report.
Schilling, Saratov, Volga
Schilling Web Site
See Alt-Schilling Saratov, Volga for combined report.
Schlangendorf, Swedish Colonies, Nikolaev and Kherson
See Swedish Colonies, Nikolaev and Kherson for combined report.
Schönchen, Samara, Volga
Schoenchen Web Site
Schönchen, Russia 2007 Village Coordinator Report
This year has seen new researchers for Schönchen. From one or two a year,
we now have five or six. That may not sound like many researchers, but for the
two of us, it's gives us hope there will be more families from this Russian
village who will start to inquire about their ancestors. Having the AHSGR
Convention in Hays, Kansas helped us in this regard since many of our
Schönchen ancestors immigrated to Liebenthal or Schoenchen, Kansas, which is
south of Hays.
We have been acquiring census data for 1816 and 1834 with the help of Kevin
Rupp. This, added to the 1798 and 1854 census, should help us greatly.
Among the additions to the Schönchen website this year are extractions of
passenger list for several ships and a translation of the Schönchen Parish
information from the book, Die Kirchen und das Religiöse Leben der
Russlanddeutschen. A translation was also made of the Maria Bär letter in the
AHSGR headquarters Schönchen village file and will be sent to headquarters.
Thanks to Steven Grau and Tanja Schnell for providing translations.
Terri Dann and Denise Grau
Village Coordinators for Schönchen
Schöndorf, Samara, Volga
Schoendorf Web Site
2007 V.C. Report for Schoendorf, Schoental, Neu Jagodnaya, and Strassendorf.
There has been mild interest in these villages this year. See Pobochnoya or
Yagodnaya Polyana for more annual report information.
Laurin Wilhelm
Village Coordinator
Schönfeld, Samara, Volga
Schoenfeld Web Site
See Pobochnoye, Saratov, Volga for combined report.
Schöntal, Samara, Volga
Schoental Web Site
See Schöndorf, Samara, Volga for combined report.
Schuck, Saratov, Volga
Village of Schuck 2007 Annual Report
We have had several requests for help with finding ancestors from Schuck
this year. Fortunately, for most people, we have been able to shed some light
on their requests. We have the 1850 Census now and that has been most helpful.
Lola Stattelman, VC
Schwab, Saratov, Volga
Schwab Web Site
Village Coordinator Report for Schwab
Schwab is a smaller village with very little activity. Since August 2006,
there have been queries from nine different people, approximately half of whom
were from South America.
No new data or research reports, etc. have been compiled. I continue to
publish the Lower Volga Villages Sheet twice a year, in November and May. We
have requested data, but to date there has been no information as to when it
will be available for our use.
I also started a newsletter through RootsWeb that can be found at: RUS-SARATOV-SCHWAB@rootsweb.com
So far, there are two subscribers, one other person and I.
Rolene Eichman Kiesling, VC Schwab
Editor, Lower Volga Villages Sheet
Seewald, Saratov, Volga
Seewald 2007 Village Report
The transliterated Rothammel/Seewald church records are continuing to
arrive, due to the diligent work of Mila and Sergei Koretnikov and Tanja
Schell. We appreciate the work they are doing, as the records will help
villagers who don't have surname charts determine their heritage. Thank you
very much.
The 1834 Seewald census will be available soon which help make connections
between the 1798 and 1857 census records that are currently available.
Currently census records for the years 1798, 1845, and 1857 are available for
Rothammel.
We've had over 35 inquiries for research related to our villages, of which
most weren't members of AHSGR, but were able to help them and hopefully
inspire additional work and interest in joining the Society. Jim Osborne has
been doing significant research in South America regarding relatives of our
villages and will have quite a few updates soon. He also has been researching
movement to and from our villages. We have incorporated over 50 obituaries
into our database, which has added almost 1,000 names. We continue to clean up
some of the errors within the database.
Please contact Kathy Jones to subscribe to our free mail list: kmjones@netins.net
Goals for 2008:
Continue to work on the input of approximately 1,000 obituaries related to our
villages.
Continue to collect pictures related to our villages.
Develop a website.
Put together a useful presentation and have our database and other materials
ready for the 2008 convention.
Respectively submitted,
Joe Gertge, and Nick & Barbara Bretz
Shcherbatovka, Saratov, Volga
Shcherbatovka
Web Site
Shcherbakovka Village Report for 2007
I have had some inquiries during the year that I feel I have been able to
help with their ancestors who were from Shcherbakovka / Tscherbakowka. Some of
these inquiries came from my listing as a Village Coordinator on AHSGR's
webpage and others from my own webpage and information I have posted. See
above.
I have merged the 1798 census index of my village with 8 neighboring
villages (that we refer to as the Lower Volga Villages), which I think is
helpful. We have grouped these villages because of the movement between
villages, their close proximity, and the fact that they were all Lutheran
villages. I have set up a Family Tree Maker file for the individuals in the
1798, 1834, 1850, and 1858 census. I have also set up a FTM file that includes
all of the individuals who are listed on any of the surname charts from
Russia, which we have received for Shcherbakovka (3731 individuals), as well
as one that has that information plus the census information merged together
(5853 individuals).
At the AHSGR convention this summer in Hays, KS, we had our usual good
turnout for Village Night with an attendance of 22. There was a lot of good
conversation and sharing.
A couple of months ago, I became aware of Mila Koretnikova and her work in
Russia. She checked and found that church records for Shcherbakovka are
available in Volgagrad Archives for the following:
Births: 1809-1867, 1902-1903 Deaths: 1809-1867, 1904 Marriages: 1809-1867,
1894-1895, 1905
On Sept. 13, 2007, I committed to $1000 worth of copies. That should be
450-copied pages (plus fees), so I am anxious to see how far the money goes.
Hopefully, it will buy the majority of what is available and I hope to be able
to place a second order to get the rest of the records soon. I am so anxious
to receive these copies. She thought they would be ready in five or six
months. That sounds like a fast delivery time compared to our experience with
Dr. Pleve. I pray that all goes well and that the "doors" don't
close before we get copies of EVERYTHING available in the archives.
I am researching the surnames LAUBHAN, WASSENMILLER, MEIER, NUSS, HANSCHU
and HAFFNER from Shcherbakovka, Saratov, Russia, and BATT and BAUM from Frank,
Saratov and Brunnenthal, Samara, Russia.
Janet Laubhan Flickinger
V.C. for Shcherbakovka
Solodyri, Volynsk, Volhynia U
Solodyri 2007 Village Report
Although I am not actively doing research on the village of Solodyri, I am
always eager to hear from people with an interest in that village or area or
who would like to share information they have found.
Richard Benert
Village Coordinator, Solodyri
Stahl am Tarlyk, Samara, Volga
2007 Annual Report Village of Stahl am Tarlyk
I had four inquiries this past year and I was able to help three of them
along their research journey. The Stahl am Tarlyk database has over 9000
entries and continues to grow.
Paul Koehler
Village Coordinator for Stahl am Tarlyk and Bangert.
Strassendorf, Samara, Volga
Strassendorf Web Site
See Schöndorf, Samara, Volga for combined report.
Straub, Samara, Volga
Straub 2007 VC Report Sharon White, AHSGR Village Coordinator
I have had only one inquiry this year about Straub families. It was from
Germany and was about the Steitz and Schroeder families who moved from Straub
to Neu-Straub in the early 1800's.
My husband gave me a one year subscription to Ancestry.com so I have been
able to find ship arrivals from all the major ports, family trees, some
obituaries, census records in the U. S. and Canada, some birth records, death
records and WWI draft registrations. These records have helped me find more
people from Straub. The ship arrivals and WWI draft registrations have been
the most helpful because the village of origin is often named.
I now have 238 obituaries of people born in Straub. A major project this
year was indexing, alphabetizing, and filing the 994 obituaries I currently
have (I have spouses from other villages, children born in the U. S. and
obituaries from Warenburg---the other village for which I am VC). I have
checked through all the 301 obituaries that SOAR brings up for Straub. Not all
of these are people from Straub---there were a lot of obituaries for the
Straub Funeral Home. I am now putting in the last names of Straub families and
searching SOAR in order to find more people from Straub.
I am still hoping to get the 1858 census from the Engels archive for Straub
but still there is nothing on this yet.
The Straub newsletter continues to be well received. I am also now doing
the Kinderzeitung (Children's Newsletter) for AHSGR. If you have any
interesting articles for either newsletter, I would appreciate getting a copy.
I am waiting for Volume 4 of Dr. Pleve's book about the original settlers
along the Volga. The Straub first settler's list should be in it and the
information will help with research.
I continue to go to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City as often
as I can to do research. I just found eight reels of obituaries on microfilm
for people who died in Fresno, California.
Swedish Colonies, Nikolaev and Kherson
2007 Old Swedish Villages Report Villages of Alt-Schwedendorf,
Mühlhausendorf, Schlangendorf and Klosterdorf.
I received seven inquiries on family names within the villages and have
helped some of them to further their research.
I organized a tour for a group of 23 descendants to visit the villages (now
called Zmiivka) this past spring. We spent three days in the village visiting
with the residents of this very poor area. Although only one German family
remains in the village, the older residents prefer to speak German or Old
Swedish when the opportunity arises. Most people here are unemployed and rely
on visitations from tourists to earn money. Although the Dneipr River borders
the village, water is scarce in the steppe and there is no irrigation. There
is no plumbing and the houses are heated with coal in the winter. They have
electricity, but no streetlights. The rain arrived in the village the same
time as we did and all the villagers said that we were good luck.
We attended a Sunday church service in the German Lutheran Church in the
Mühlhausendorf area. There were people from about 14 different countries
attending the service that was conducted in German, Swedish, Russian and
English. We visited Monastery that had been destroyed and 1,000 monks murdered
by the Communists. We celebrated Communion in the Russian Orthodox/Swedish
Lutheran Church in what was then Alt-Schwedendorf on May 1, the village's
225th birthday. Their faith is very strong and in the church services they
sang beautifully in tune with no musical accompaniment.
We attended a big dinner held in honor of our visit and the 225th birthday
celebration. There were many speeches and much gratitude for the gifts that we
brought with us. It was an emotional trip for the group and very rewarding.
I am now translating my Great-Uncle's memoirs about his life in the village
from 1900-1929. This has taken away my time spent on SOAR, which I plan to get
back to once I am finished with the translation.
Respectfully submitted,
Karen Wright
Tarutino, Akkerman, Bessarabia
See Kulm, Bessarabia for combined report.
Vollmer, Saratov, Volga
Vollmer Web Site
Volmer 2007 Village Report
This has been a very busy year. Our website (see above) now includes the
1834 and the 1850 Census Documents online. I have also added my personal
research database online. This database includes information on every person
whom I have come across who lived in Volmer, and/or descendants of those who
lived in Volmer. Before the above mentioned were added to the website I was
receiving about 20 to 30 requests weekly for research, which was too many for
me to handle. It is for that reason that I decided to make all my research
available online.
Two of our Volmer Researchers, who are from the Argentinean Lineage, are
currently working on making Spanish available on the website, so that we can
better inform our friends in South America, especially Argentina. I am still
looking for someone to do the same in German.
Family Trees for all the Volmer families that have been found on the 1766,
1798, 1834, and 1850 Census Documents are currently being added to the website
as well. As soon as this project is finished I will be formally starting to
hunt for more archived documents from the Russian Archives, as well as
bridging more relationships in South America.
Thank you for everyone's support and input into what has been a great year!
Angie Gartner
Village Coordinator, Volmer
Walter, Saratov, Volga
Walter Web Site
Walter and Walter Khutor 2007 Village Report
This has been an average year for requests. We have had some researchers
actively adding information to the database maintained by Mary Mills of
Denver. The database now has about 33,350 entries with more to be entered as
time permits. We continue to collect obituaries for people with Walter
ancestry. We are losing many of our people who came from Walter as small
children or were born to the immigrant generation.
Several new surname charts have been ordered, others are still on order.
Jean Roth continues to try to discover German origins from our First
Settler's list.
We have had the opportunity to order a number of birth, marriage, and death
records from the Volgograd Archives, which we hope will fill in a number of
generations from after the 1798 census to the 1880's.
Jean A. Roth
Village Coordinator for Walter and Walter Khutor
Walter Khutor, Saratov, Volga
See Walter, Saratov, Volga for combined report.
Warenburg, Samara, Volga
Warenburg Web Site
Warenburg 2007 VC Report Sharon White, AHSGR Village Coordinator
I have had inquiries on the following Warenburg families this year: Becker,
Boos, Constanz, Diener, Eisner, Funkner, Gerhardt, Hartwig, Hubert,
Kaiser/Keiser, Kinzel, Krikau, Lehman, Pfeifer, Schiffman, Schmall, Seibert,
Spomer, Stumpf and Trippel.
Ron Brott, co-Warenburg VC, and I have been sharing information about
Warenburg families and records about Warenburg. We have been concentrating on
different areas of research.
My husband gave me a one year subscription to Ancestry.com so I have been
able to find ship arrivals from all the major ports, family trees, some
obituaries, census records in the U. S. and Canada, some birth records, death
records and WWI draft registrations. These records have helped me find more
people from Warenburg. The ship arrivals and WWI draft registrations have been
the most helpful because the village of origin is often named.
I am still hoping to get the 1858 Warenburg census from the Engels archive
but there is nothing new on this yet.
I now have 335 obituaries of people born in Warenburg. SOAR has 100
obituaries listed for Warenburg and 92 from Warrenburg and I have gone through
all of these. I have also found other obituaries with the spelling of the
village as: Vaughnborg, Vonburg, Privalnaja, Wanberg, Wahrenburg, Warnnerberg,
Varnburg, Privolnoe, Vanburg, Wanburg and Warnburg. I have been going through
all the last names of people from Warenburg trying to find more obituaries. A
major project this year was indexing, alphabetizing and filing the 994
obituaries I currently have. I've also found a lot of obituaries for people
from Warenburg in the Ritzville, Adams County, Washington website. Presently,
the newspaper obituaries start at 1898 and go to 1964, but more are being
added all the time. You can search the obituaries by last name so this saves a
lot of time.
The Warenburg newsletter continues to be well received. I am now also doing
the Kinderzeitung (Children's Newsletter) for AHSGR. If you have any
interesting articles for either newsletter, I would appreciate getting a copy.
Volume 4 of Dr. Pleve's book about the original settlers of the Volga is
due out soon. It will help with research since it should have all the original
Warenburg settlers.
I continue to go to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City to do
research as often as I can. I find more useful microfilm all the time.
Wiesenmüller, Samara, Volga
Lower
Jersulan River Colonies ~ Wiesenmueller Web Site
Village of Wiesenmüller
I have been Village Coordinator for about a year now and have just started
getting a database built with the assistance of Betty Ashley. When I signed on
and got a data dump from ASHGR headquarters, I was stunned to see that I had
more in my personal files than HQ had in the village file. With Betty's input
my Wiesenmüll database now has risen to 3,400 souls. It is still far too
small and is missing quite a large number of the surnames that were found in
Wiesenmüller in 1858.
I've had a number of interactions with Wiesenmüller descendants in the
last month and have actually assisted at least one person. With the assistance
of a cousin in Germany, I've made contact with a family from the Caucasus that
came from Wiesenmüller.
Another cousin in Germany (also a late returnee) contacted Betty Ashley and
Betty put me in contact with her. This cousin is also descended from
Wiesenmüller ancestors.
I continue building the database and have ordered data from the Volgograd
Archive...I'm finding that a lot of the data I have on order is already out
there in the hands of various researchers, something that I find annoying. I
don't mind buying information from Russia but I do mind buying information
already in the hands of researchers. It seems to me that VCs, and for that
matter, everyone else should be made aware of research data already translated
and held by individual researchers. If the Archives can make a list of
holdings (i.e. Volgograd) then researchers associated with AHSGR should also
be able to do so. That would be us.
I know there are lists of charts and other documents, but there are no
lists of individually ordered surname data. Even I am guilty of having one
that no one else has. This will be forwarded to the VC of the concerned
village as soon as I finish this missal.
Hugh Lichtenwald, from the farm in Monetta, SC
VC Wiesenmüller
Wittman (Soloturn), Samara, Volga
Wittman Web Site
See Ober-Monjou, Samara, Volga for combined report.
Yagodnaya Polyana, Saratov, Volga
Yagodnaya Polyana Web Site
2007 Village Report for Yagodnaya Polyana
AHSGR Village Night in Hays, Kansas was well attended. Villagers came from
Washington State, Virginia, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Canada. They shared
letters, pictures, newsletters, maps, computer records, and good conversation.
The Hays Daily News printed pictures of Yagodnaya Polyana descendants two days
in a row. The first was of one handsome YP couple dancing to lively German
music and the other of two YP researchers meeting for the first time (one
younger man, and one lovely older woman), joyously discovering they were
distantly related.
Kansas was frequently the destination for emigrants from Yagodnaya Polyana.
Groups from this mother village and her daughter villages settled in towns
like Otis, Bison, Russell, and in Wichita County. A large obituary index for
Kansas and area states from 1870-1999 recently came online. There are an
estimated 350,000 individuals and 700,000 index records (often obituaries for
the same individual appear in more than one newspaper). Accessing the index is
free, and complete copies of the obituaries can be ordered for $5.00 from the
Kansas Genealogical Society. The web site for the index is: www.dodgecity.net/kgs/obituaries.htm
.
Birth and Baptismal records from Yagodnaya Polyana have been compiled by
Patrice Miller for the years 1904-1919. A population explosion of sorts took
place during those years, and one surname can often yield over a hundred
babies. Descendants can email Patrice (see above) and for $10 per surname she
can send you the names of the babies, dates, and names of the father and
mother (often including maiden names).
Also available are descendant charts on many of the surnames of the village
covering the years 1767-1857. Some were compiled by Dr. Pleve and many more
were compiled by purchasing census extracts of the 1834 & 1857 census and
combining those with the 1767 and 1798 censuses. The cost per surname is $20.
Money from baptismal/birth requests or descendant charts is used to buy more
records from Russia and to support publication of the newsletter. Please
contact Patrice Miller.
The 1834 census for Yagodnaya Polyana is now for sale at AHSGR in Lincoln.
John and Cindy Brooks made a trip to Yagodnaya Polyana in 2005. Their
story, along with pictures, was published in the Usu Leut newsletter.
Names and death dates from the Krasnoturinsk Prison Camp Memorial Death
Book that are common to Yagodnaya Polyana, or that are known to be from the
village were published in the Spring 2007 newsletter. We are grateful to Kenny
Stugart for his translation skills and for making this available to all YP
descendants. Web Sites and books about the Soviet Prison Camps (also known as
Gulag or Trudarmee Trud Army) were also included with the list. These include:
Forced Labor Camps: http://www.osa.ceu.hu/gulag/index.html
Memorial Society, Krasnoyarsk: http://www.memorial.krsk.ru/eng/
~ with alphabetical listing of prisoners with German summaries, mostly
survivors, some with photos: http://memorial.krsk.ru/deu/Martirol/a.htm
- for the surname starting with A; http://memorial.krsk.ru/deu/Martirol/b.htm
- for the surname starting with B etc. Switch out the a.htm at the end of the
link to letter of the surname you are searching. Not too many surnames of
Yagodnaya Polyana listed there: Beifus, Dippel, Merkel, Repp, Waigant /
Weigant & others.
Memorial International Historical Enlightenment Human Rights and
Humanitarian Society Memorial http://www.memo.ru/eng/index.htm
Includes a museum of works of art created by prisoners http://www.memo.ru/museum/endex.htm
Gulag : A History by Anne Applebaum (book) http://www.anneapplebaum.com/gulag/gulag.html
The Gulag Archipelago: 1918-1956 by Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn (book) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gulag_Archipelago
Kris and Patrice have both started new jobs and Elizabeth has moved to a
new home. However, we continue to do our best to respond to queries as quickly
and completely as possible. We print queries in the newsletter twice a year
and also include many obituaries as we receive them.
Village Coordinators for Yagodnaya Polyana
Kris Ball, Patrice Miller, Elizabeth Meyer
Zug (Gattung), Samara, Volga
Zug Web Site
See Ober-Monjou, Samara, Volga for combined report.
|
