Schönfeld, Samara, Volga

Schoenfeld Web Site

Laurin Wilhelm W022 / L

I have received some 25 inquires regarding Schoenfeld this year. Mostly they were to share information and to seek family connections. I was not successful in connecting any relatives this year.

Schoenfeld had a “daughter colony” around Otis, Kansas. A few miles to the northeast of Otis was the Schoenfeld Gemeinde, or community. The cemetery is well kept up and being used today. It is worth a visit. The Church, which was located c. 1.5 miles to the south, was closed and moved away in the mid 1950s. In the mid-1990s, the church books were translated and sent to the Historical Museum in Topeka, KS.

Schöntal, Samara, Volga

Schoental Web Site

Laurin Wilhelm W022 / L

I have received a dozen or more inquiries regarding descendents of Schoental folks. The most interesting and extensively pursued was from Waldemar Weigandt of Hamburg, Germany.

Waldemar was born in Kazakstan, and he is about 55 years old. He is an electrician or electrical engineer in Hamburg. His parents lived in Schoental before 1941, before they were deported to Kazakstan.

After pursuing many leads and with the help of others, we located Waldemar’s cousin in Minnesota. He lives there with his wife during the summer and in Arizona during the winter. Like the typical Volga German, he worked hard, saved his money and made some good business decisions. He has prospered in America. His two sons are professional men.

Lyle Rupp and Waldemar have exchanged many pictures and family stories. They are positive of the family connection. They are very happy to have found each other, and they will continue to communicate with each other.

Most other letters have been a sharing of information about the village, its location, people etc.

Schuck, Saratov, Volga

Lola Stattelman

5-2-03 - Note from Kay Lagreid trying to locate cousins in USA - Sieben, Feser and Schachtel lines. There was a Stattelman who married a Schechtel, but I could find no connection to her Schachtel line.

7-2-03 - Note from Joseph Falkenstein requesting more information of the village of Schuck, other than the village census from 1798. I informed him that the census was the only info that I had.

8-15-03 - Note from Ted Gerk asking if anyone had visited the village of Schuck in the past few years, and if there are any photos that might still exist. I informed him that Joe Falkenstein had visited the village in 1999, and has learned that Schuck was mostly destroyed in 1965.

6-9-03 - Note from Jorge Gottig from Argentina trying to locate relatives in Schuck. I sent him information about Heinrich Hettig and Johannes and Katherine Gotte.

Schwab, Saratov, Volga

Schwab Web Site

Rolene (Eichman) Kiesling B334

I do not much to report. I have continued with the collecting of data, as it became available, in whatever format, on the village. Schwab is one of the smaller villages. This year, I tried to keep a numerical count of the queries; I have had 11 since March 2003. We have not received any new family data from Russia that would substantially help with the database.

I am still editing the newsletter (May and November) for the Lower Volga Villages. Available information that is relevant and printable due to copyright restrictions gets harder and harder each year. I intend to honor Kathy O’Malley in the next issue. She was such a valued contact and friend and was a great help.

I also monitor the “Eichman” surname list through RootsWeb, which has surprised me; most of the Eichman(n) queries are NOT Volga Deutsch but German, in origin.

Next year the convention is in Modesto and I expect to be there for some, if not the entire convention.

Schwed, Samara, Volga

Schwed Web Site

Carolyn & John Gorr G156 / L

It's been a quiet year for Schwed with just 16 queries for 2003. However, only two of those were related to our village while the majority were related to Chicago GR questions. The most interesting query came from an Aussiedler in Germany. Alex Walth sent photos for identification. I suggested that he post his photos on his website and I sent his URL to the Volga List where several folks helped to provide insight.

 One of his photos was taken in the 1950s judging by the clothing the subjects were wearing. He did not know who the people were. It turned out to be the parents and siblings of two or our Northern IL Chapter members. The Internet helps us find amazing links.

Our most ambitious mission took place in Salt Lake City this September. We were there for a week of research at the LDS Family History Library. Our priority this year was to search the 1930 US Federal Census. We went through all the Schwed surnames and printed out all those that were born in Russia. Research was easy as LDS has the census computerized. After you select the name you want you can view the actual page on the computer screen and for five cents you can print the page.

We still await both the HOPPE and WIEGEL family charts.

Seewald, Saratov, Volga

Nicholas & Barbara Bretz B296

See Rothammel village for combined report.

Stahl am Tarlyk, Samara, Volga

Paul E Koehler K287 / L

This year I have spent considerable time adding data to the village computer data bank. It now has just over 17,000 individuals.

Thanks to Diana Bell for the help in getting the data bank to where it is today. She was able to extract most information from the records of now deceased village coordinator, Joanne Kleim.

Diana Bell continues with the publication of the newsletter der Stahler. It is available during the months of May and November.

I have had three inquires for information during the year, with help going to all three.

There were five of us at the village night for Stahl am Tarlyk at the Yakima Convention.

Strassendorf, Samara, Volga

Strassendorf Web Site

Laurin Wilhelm W022 / L

Strassendorf had no activity this year.

Susannental, Samara, Volga

Susannental Web Site

Susannental Mail List

Kerry S. Thompson

The year 2003 has been busy and productive. The data base for Susannental continues to grow and now has reached over 3,000 names. Information on specific surnames is available upon request. Our search for ship record information continues. The list now contains 54 families and it will continue to grow as we search the Ellis Island site and the Baltimore sound-ex films. We have been actively searching out obituaries and our list now contains 110 individuals.

Many of these were obtained at the AHSGR convention this summer. The list of subscribers for our newsletter continues to grow. We now have a few members in Germany. The Bi-yearly newsletter contains family histories, ship record information, obituary information, census information, research information, queries, recipes, etc. Back issues are available upon request. We are currently tracking immigrant members’ travels through the U.S. via 1910-1930 census information. We continue to gather information on the R/G of Big Horn County, Wyoming. We also have information on the Villages of Kind and Meinhard - families, ship record information and obituaries.

Warenburg, Samara, Volga

Warenburg Web Site

Sharon White

Ronald E. Brott B310

Submitted by Sharon White

I visited Warenburg and my three other ancestral villages (Laub, Straub, and Dinkel) in August 2003. I went with ten others whose ancestors also came from Laub, one with ancestors from Kukkus, and one who had no ties to the villages but wanted to practice her Russian. The person who coordinated the trip was Dodie Rotherham, the new Laub village coordinator. It was a trip I had been wanting to make my whole life.

The plane ride to Moscow took 15 hours. We visited Moscow first, spending four days there. We saw many of the famous sites. We tried to see as much as we could and were very tired at the end of every day. We traveled by train from Moscow to Saratov. It was 15 hours one way. We stayed at an old hotel, “The Volga,” in Saratov. It was on “Old German Street.” The drive to the villages took about an hour and a half each way. The paved roads were pot holed and traffic was a single lane each way. I was in the villages for three days.

There were no paved roads in the villages. We were told that when it rained, the dirt roads were hard to travel on. There were some cars in the villages but I saw lots of horses with wagons.

Most of the houses were very old wooden ones. Some had the “typical German windows.” Some houses were painted, but others were very weathered. Most of the houses had fences around the house and yard containing the outbuildings and outhouses. There was no running water in the houses. I was in several of the homes and they had electricity. They also had small refrigerators and small televisions. The television reception was very poor.

There were a lot of cows wandering around grazing in the villages. The cows were not fenced in anywhere. They were even on the paved road from Saratov. I was surprised that cars didn’t hit any cows. The Russian drivers were driving very fast and crazy. There were also chickens and ducks near some of the homes.

In every village, the people I met were very friendly and helpful. In the Laub General Store, I got a hug and a blessing from an old Russian lady who told me, “you always come back to your roots.” This was after our translator told the villagers why we were there. In Laub, an older German man showed us where the cemetery used to be located. He also told us how the old Laub Church’s top was taken off and was now used for grain storage.

In Warenburg, I gave packs of gum to the village children I met. One boy, who was in the fourth grade, told me he went to school in the Miller School. I asked him how many students attended the school, and he said “very many”.  I also gave gum to three boys who were riding their bikes. Their mothers came out to see what we were doing. When the translator told them, the mothers told us about the “old lady who knew the most about the village.” The mothers had the boys show us where she lived. We followed them as they rode their bikes to her house. The older lady was a widow. She was very helpful and nice. She did know a lot about the village. She showed me where the cemetery was and where my Kisling family house was located. She also told me about some of the buildings. I met her late in the afternoon and would have learned more if I had found her sooner.

There were not many Germans still in the villages. The older German man in Laub was married to a Russian lady. The old German widow in Warenburg was married to a Russian man. The lady in Kukkus, who fixed lunch for us, was a Russian widow whose husband was German. She fixed a German meal for us.

The Warenburg cemetery was outside the village. There were only two German graves with tombstones. The grave of Johan Conrad Muller (1814-1859) was the grave of “a rich and important German.” There was another similar tombstone near his. Both tombstones had been knocked down or had fallen. The tombstones lay on the ground. Johan Conrad Muller’s tombstone had the side that had his name, birth, death dates and other information about him showing. The other tombstone had the backside with German writing showing. In the Dinkel cemetery, I saw a similar tombstone. It was the only German one. Luckily, it was upright and I could see both sides of it. It belonged to Jacob Wilhelm Muller (1799-1883). The old German part of the Warenburg cemetery was just mounds of the graves. It was a big area about the size of football field.

The Warenburg church was still standing. The roof was mostly collapsed—the wood was lying on the ground inside the church. The walls were still standing. Even though the church was crumbling, it was still majestic to see. I felt like singing a church song in German. My translator must have thought I was a little crazy to do this but I felt that it had been a long time since a German hymn had been sung there. A cow was lying inside the church in the shade of the church walls. There was a lot of debris on the ground. I had to be very careful as I walked inside the church.

Our translator and guide were both 22 and had recently graduated from college. They both had lived in Saratov all of their lives. They didn’t know that the villages, only 50 to 60 miles away from them, existed. The villages probably haven’t changed much since my grandmother and her family left in 1907. Some of the pictures I took in Warenburg can be seen at http://www.volgagermans.net/warenburg/ This is the Warenburg Website created by Steve Schreiber. Click on the photographs icon. I am hoping to put together a booklet about Warenburg and hoping to develop my own genealogy homepage about Warenburg.

Wittman (Soloturn), Samara, Volga

Kevin Rupp R311 / L

I just started the job as VC for Wittmann about a year ago, and things have been sort of slow. I have been getting some information from contacts from Russia. The biggest luck I have had was to get the 1890 village records from Wittmann. At this time that is all that has come in. I have started working on the web site for Wittmann and hope to get it completed soon.

Yagodnaya Polyana, Saratov, Volga

Yagodnaya Polyana Web Site

Kris Ball B465 / L

Elizabeth A. Meyer M368

Patrice (Morasch) Miller M410
Database coordinator

A team of three women serves the descendants of Yagodnaya Polyana:  Kris Ball, Elizabeth Meyer, and Patrice Miller. The year 2003 was a busy year for YP, as many queries were received and responded to.

The Summer 2003 issue of Usu Leut (Our People) was printed and distributed by US Mail, and is being increasingly delivered by email. One of the highlights of this issue was Elizabeth's interview with Viktor and Maria Scheuermann, and their heartbreaking story of their lives from Kazakhstan, back to Viktor's village of Yagodnaya Polyana, and ultimately to Germany. Their lives were filled with dreams of returning to YP, tragedy, prejudice, disappointment, and finally leaving YP to live more contented lives in the country of Viktor's ancestors. The question often arises as to why the deported German Russians did not return to their home colonies. This story is one example of the extent of the endless harassment of those who did manage to return. Because they were German, it was never easy, and the option offered to Maria, requiring her to divorce her husband, demonstrates the extent of this prejudice against German Russians.

Our village was well represented at the convention:
• Larry Bafus, was elected to the AHSGR Foundation.
• Judge James Lust, gave the welcome talk. He is a Judge and a farmer in Washington.
• Patrice Miller spoke on "Finding Germans from Russia on Passenger Ship Lists Using the Internet."
• Ruth DeLuca sang in the Sunday morning convention church choir.
• And the really big news was that Richard Scheuerman was the keynote speaker at the banquet on Saturday night. Richard gave a very animated, and dynamic speech on early Volga German pioneers in the Northwest, and hopes to be at the 2004 Convention.

Alexander Pfafenrot was a guest speaker at the Fresno Heritage Fest. Alexander Pfafenrot was born in the Volga in 1931. His family was from YP. He has worked on re-establishing the Lutheran church in Russia and has driven semis into Russia to deliver humanitarian aid and Bibles to the GRs.

Pastor Alexander Scheiermann of the Greater Saratov Lutheran Parish (a descendant of YP) toured the northwest this summer. Pastor Scheiermann (rus-scheiermann@overta.ru) spoke of the challenges he faces in his efforts to bring God's Word to the residents of the greater Saratov region.

Kris, Patrice, and Elizabeth continue to work with Bill Scheirman's widow to respond to queries, to work on Bill's files and to continue the great service he provided for many years. All three are planning to attend the 2004 AHSGR Convention in Modesto next summer.

Zug (Gattung), Samara, Volga

Kevin Rupp R311 / L

I have nothing much to report on Zug. I was able to get some census information from Russia, but only the 1798, 1816, 1834 and 1862 records are available. I will also be setting up a web page for this colony very soon.