Betty Muradian

This village doesn't have a large group of interested people. I would appreciate any information on any trips taken through the Anton area and also, any photos that people would be willing to share. I all ready have collected information and pictures on Anton from recent visitors there. I have been following up on the histories of Alexanderdorf in the S. Caucus, Baku, Gnadendorf, and Tashkent, as these areas were either settled or visited by workers from Anton in the past century. A genealogy database on Anton has been started, but it hasn't been completed at this time. Anyone with any questions or information on Anton may contact me.

BALZER

Balzer Web Site

Wayne Bonner

The Balzer group is alive and well. We maintain a subscription of 30+ to the Balzer Newsletter. At this time, the future of the newsletter seems secure. Just have to get people to submit articles and other tidbits.

In the past year we have obtained more pieces of the 1850 and 1857 census for Balzer. We now have about half of 1857. Have also been requesting abstracts of baptismal and marriage records.

Next May the California District Council will be having their annual summer meeting at the LDS Family History Center in Los Angeles. In conjunction with this meeting, I am proposing that ALL Balzer and Moor researchers and anyone else interested have a meeting where we can discuss the newsletter, future goals, and get a chance to meet. As May approaches, the details will be finalized.

Herb Femling is still doing a great job with the Balzer web Page. Dr. Darrell Weber continues to maintain the Balzer data base. He filled in for me at the Convention, then in August went to Budingen for research. The following is his report:

During the past year we have obtained from AHSGR the family history records of people becoming members of AHSGR from Balzer. I have been entering them into PAF to organize them into family groups. We are trying to tie groups together where a daughter marries a son from another family. At the convention, We had a number of people stop by and we used a portable computer to look up information on their families. In August I traveled to Budingen, Germany and visited the records department. They suggested visiting a man named Heuston in Budingen. When I visited him, I learned that 20 years ago he went to the churches in the different villages near Budingen and copied the church records. He is a great resource for checking ancestors that left the villages near Budingen to go to Russia. He is older but the records are in good handwriting. I also visited the village of Rohrbach where several of my ancestors left to go to Russia. They have a new young minister that was cooperative but was not interested in the old records. He did let us look and photograph from the 1700 church records. The ink is faded by we could still read the names of our ancestors. The records have not been microfilmed.

We learned something else about cemeteries in Germany. About 15 years ago I photographed some of the headstones in the cemetery near the church. This time I could not even find the old headstones. Apparently one rents a grave plot for about 25 years and then they sell the same spot to another family and bury their dead in the same grave. So one will not have much luck looking for old headstones of your ancestors in cemeteries in Germany.

BRUNNENTAL  (Kriwojar)

Brunnental Web Site

Sherrie (Gettman) Stahl

This year we did not have a newsletter, but I have continued to collect data from descendants of the village for our database. Currently we have over 25,000 names and are adding information daily. We are still in contact with descendants living in Germany thanks to the work of Arlene Rolfs, from Kansas. She is planning another trip to Germany in 2000.

We have received the 1850 & 1857 census information (17 pages) for those people going to Brunnental (Settlement Lists) from the villages of Norka, Kolb, & Walter. We are still looking for information on those families from Frank. Those lists are $10 each.

DOBRINKA

Web site has Ebenezer Lutheran of Sheboygan, WI deaths primarily and is in reformatted version and a little strange to read; but it works for a researcher to find an unknown GR family and they were here as I have helped others find MORE unknown family.

Web site above: also has Citizenship Data for Sheboygan, Wisconsin done by Ertel. My grandparents did not get naturalized and you will find their two sons on Ertel's work and the girls are married and appear later.

Will try to get more Ebenezer Lutheran names translated and