Village Coordinator Reports 2007 M-R
Villages M-R
VC Newsletter Editor Michael Frank
| M | N | O
| P | R |
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
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