Wedding Picture

 

Here is the first of three family pictures submitted by Shirley Ansley. This picture is of her maternal grandparents.
What a treasure!

Who Do You Think You Are?

You've probably already heard about the new television series called Who Do You Think You Are?, but if not, I wanted to tell you about it. The series is on KSL at 7:00 P.M. on Fridays. I watched it and was so impressed. The series spotlights different actresses, actors, etc., as they trace their family tree. I don't care so much about their fame, but any search for ancestors is interesting to me. This week it was Sarah Jessica Parker's search. I loved the things she said because they were just what we feel when we find another piece to our family puzzle. She commented that,"These are my people," and, "It changes everything about who I thought I was." It also made me realize how one pivotal day in a family's history can change generations. If you haven't watched it, you'll definitely want to!

Next Meeting

The next chapter meeting will be March 20, 2010, at:

American Heritage Retirement Community Clubhouse
3040 Homecrest Street
West Valley City, Utah

The board will meet at 12:00 noon,and the general meeting will start at 1:00 P.M.

Food assignments are:
Salad: A-Ha
Entrée: He-R
Dessert: S-W

Pfeifer, Russia

 

 

Pfeifer is located in the Saratov gubernia, on the hilly side of the Volga River, along the Ilavlya River and Gnilushka Creek. It was originally inhabited entirely by those of the Roman Catholic faith. Small children were taught reading, writing, and religion by a schoolmaster under the supervision of a priest in a special building. The land of Pfeifer is sand, clay, and saline. Because of that, in even the most fruitful years, there were no harvests of any sort of grain. As a result, they farmed on state owned steppe lands adjacent to the colony. The hay lands were in abandoned wasteland. They pastured livestock on their own lands. There were no forests, so they used mostly dung for fuel. Because of inadequate hay for livestock, they sometimes purchased it. All of the colonists engaged in farming and were favorably disposed toward work. The buildings for the most part were old, but repaired. Their yards were fenced with wattle, and their kitchen gardens were close to the banks of the Ilavlya River. They had no orchards or aviaries, but they did have two flour mills. Their harvests were only mediocre, and every year a large quantity of the harvest was consumed by gophers. The only means they had for destroying the gophers was by flooding. Pfeifer was founded in 1767 by 328 persons. The Russian name for the colony is Gnilushka, meaning "dead tree stump."

The house shown on the top was my Grandpa Burghardt's family home.

Warenburg, Russia

These pictures were taken by my son while he lived in Russia, about ten years ago. He was able to visit our ancestral villages. In the top photo he is visiting with Leongadnya Peterson from the village of Warenburg, who knew the Constanz and Miller families (two of my family names.) She has Bier and Lehman ancestors on her mother's side. Her father came from Riga, Latvia. He came to help build the church and stayed. Because of her father's nationality, her family was not deported with the others. She had written the date of their exile to Kazakstan in her bible, September 17, 1941. She corresponded with them for a long time after they were shipped off. The next picture is a view of Warenburg with her house in the front of the picture. In the bottom picture my son is standing along the shore of the Volga River.

If you would like to spotlight your ancestral villages, please send me the information, and I will add it to the blog.

February Meeting

Saturday, February 20th, was the monthly meeting for the Intermountain Chapter of AHSGR. Both the conversation and food were great! Plans continue for the AHSGR Convention to be held in Salt Lake City in 2011. Gwen Oryall gave the "Bits 'n Pieces" on the tradition of bread and salt, and showed a beautiful cross stitched bread linen from the Ukraine. Other valuable and interesting information was shared by members. Three new positions were filled by appointment:

Corresponding Secretary- Shawnette Malan
Publicity and Membership- Dee Hert
Chaplain- Darrell Weber

My Grandfather

 

I need your help. I have been able to go back many generations on my grandmother's German Russian line, but I am stuck on my grandfather's line. I feel confident that if I could get back a couple more generations on his line, that I could easily link into several more generations. If anyone that visits this blog comes across anything on him, I'd greatly appreciate any clues you might have for me. The information that I have on him is as follows:

Joseph George Burghardt
Born: 17 May 1876, in Pfeifer, Saratov, Russia
I believe his parents to be George Burghardt and Mary Kisner, but have no other information on them. He had brothers and sisters, one who immigrated to Argentina. My grandfather came to the United States in October of 1900, and had relatives in Pfeifer, Kansas. My grandmother was Catharina Elisabeth Klamm (aka Mary.)

If you have any information for me, please comment on this blog so I can give you contact information.

Reminder

Just a reminder of the next AHSGR Intermountain Chapter meeting. It will be Saturday, February 20--weather permitting. It will be at the home of Carol Harless and Shawnette Malan--10001 Hook Drive, South Jordan. The officers will meet at 12:00 noon and the general meeting will start at 1:00 P.M.
Food assignments:
A-Ha--Dessert
He-R--Salad
S-Z--Entree

We have added $78 to the Chapter treasury thanks to the November, December and January raffle drawings. Tickets are $1 each or 6 for $5.
Gwen Oryall won the raffle in January and will bring the February raffle surprise.

If you are visiting this blog but have never attended one of our meetings, please come and join us!

Family Picture

 

Here is a wonderful family group picture shared by Sharon White. It is of the Johann Conrad Kisling, Jr. family, her great grandparents. Thanks! Remember, I'd love to spotlight pictures from your family.

Next Meeting

The next AHSGR Intermountain Chapter meeting will be held on January 9. It will be held at the home of Shawnette Malan and Carol Harless: 10001 Hook Drive, South Jordan.
The board will meet at 12 noon and the general meeting will start at 1:00 P. M. If there is bad weather, the meeting will not be held. If you are not a member, but interested, you are invited to come to the meeting.

Family Heirloom

 

I wanted to share this picture of one of my family heirlooms. When my son was a missionary in Russia, he was allowed to visit our ancestral villages. I sent him a map of Pfeifer so he could find the family home. When he found the Burghardt home he asked the Russian woman who now lives there if he could look around the place. She was gracious and then said, "I have something that belongs to you." She went in the house and brought out this cross and gave it to him. She had found it while tilling the garden spot. What a treasure! If you click on the picture it will enlarge so that you can see the details. It is about 4 inches in height with a sunburst at the intersection of the cross. Above that is a scroll. It is obviously not Russian Orthodox because it is missing the foot bar at the bottom. It is wood inlayed in iron.

If you have something you'd like to share, please email it to me so that I can add it to the blog.

Christmas Party

I can't tell you how disappointed I was to miss our chapter AHSGR Christmas party. Besides great company and food, I was looking forward to the telling of stories about the Christmases of Germans from Russia. Hopefully, I can hear some of them later. Family commitments, health, and weather kept me from coming, but I still wanted to share my family's story. So, here goes...

When I was younger, my uncles shared this family tradition with me. The Burghardt family in Pfeifer, Russia, was so large that they actually occupied two houses that were next door to each other. They were located across the street from the Catholic Church. At Christmas time, a line was strung from the roof of the church to that of the Burghardt home. Candles were attached to that line to decorate for Christmas. I couldn't actually picture how that would work, so I sort of brushed it off as just a good story. Many years later when I obtained a copy of a map of Pfeifer which showed the village, complete with family names labeled on the homes, I was surprized. There were indeed two houses next door to each other that belonged to a Burghardt family. They were across the street from the Catholic Church. If that part of it was true, then maybe the story about the Christmas candles was also true. Now I treasure that story as part of my family's Christmas tradition.

Geneology and Medical History

First of all, I want to say thanks to my AHSGR friends and the thoughtful and cheerful gift that was sent to me at the hospital. Also thanks for the get-well cards. I am home and doing well. Modern medicine is amazing! My recent experience has certainly helped me to see the importance of knowing your family medical history. With that in mind, I'd like to share some archaic medical terms that you might find while researching your ancestors (Family Tree Magazine):

Rheumatic fever: Fever, swollen joints and inflammation of heart valves

Scarletina: Scarlet fever

Sugar diabetes: Diabetes mellitus

Pleurisy: Inflammation of the membrane around the lungs, often from pneumonia

Phytogenic fever: Typhoid fever

Cachexia: Wasting away from poor nutrition due to illness

Black lung: Anthracosis

Dry bellyache: Lead poisoning

Apoplexy: Sudden brain impairment, as in a stroke

Marsh fever: Malaria

Dipsomania: Alcoholism

Flux: Diarrhea

Here are two more that I've found in my family research:

Dropsy: An abnormal accumulation of fluid in the body, sometimes associated with heart or kidney disease

Pott's Disease: Tuberculosis of the spine

An Amazing Video

Once again Suzanne has shared something wonderful. Check out this site for a documentary on a Mennonite family during Stalin's reign:

http://www.throughtheredgate.com/?action=Home

Chapter Meetings

During the October meeting of AHSGR, plans continued for the 2011 Conference to be held in Salt Lake City, Utah. There are still several chair positions that need to be filled, so if you are interested please be sure to attend the next meeting which will be held:

November 14th
3040 Homecrest Street (in the clubhouse)
West Valley City, Utah

The officers will meet at noon and the general meeting will start at 1:00 P. M. Sharon White will be the hostess.

Food assignments are:
Salad: He-R
Entrée: S-Z
Dessert: A-Ha

The December 12th meeting will be at Carol Harless and Shawnette Malan’s house. There will be no Board Meeting. Everyone will meet at 12:00 noon. We will have a Christmas party. Bring a Christmas story pertaining to the Germans from Russia. The food will be a Christmas theme. We will have a gift exchange with a limit of $5.00. Karen Dellos will be in charge of games.

Bring your German recipes to the meetings. We are going to try to sell a chapter cookbook in order to raise some money.