Here are a few sites that I have recently been using with German from Russia ancestors. Maybe they can help you with research and finding family.
Soar will be moving to FamilySearch.org soon.
Did you know you can HELP index obituaries in SOAR for the whole world to find obituaries from SOAR file? It has started. I have been indexing obituaries in German and English from newspapers, catalogs, and family records. Each index is only about 10-20 names with information. You can do it anytime. Go to FamilySearch.org/Indexing to sign up and NO YOU DON"T need to be LDS. Anyone can volunteer time to indexing...
http://www.familysearch.org/
February 2014 courses include:
Thursday, February 20, 2014 11:00-12:00 Floor 2N Calendar changes in German, French and Dutch areas.
Tuesday, February 25, 2014 Organizing your Genealogy 1:00 p.m.- 2:30 p.m.
You can ride Trax or Front Runner within 1 block of library.
On-line learning activities for many countries and needs. German favorites include but NOT all inclusive of activities:
Reading Handwritten Records and Current Letters: view handwriting, current letters, upper and lower case, special letters and notes
Common words in German: abbreviations, symbols, etc.
German Documents and formats: formats, columns, paragraphs, phrases, dates, places, names, keywords.
Many more things: Basic German research, outlines, resources.
Address:
Salt Lake Family History Library
35 North West Temple Street
Salt Lake City, Utah
It's just West of the Temple, with parking in the rear. Trax, Buses, Front Runner are all nearby. Mon 8 a.m.- 5 p.m., Tues-Fri 8 a.m.- 9 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m.- 5 p.m. *This is a change for Saturday. It's closed holidays and Sundays.
http://www.ancestry.com/ Collection of records from members, churches, towns, countries. Indexed. Costs, but if you can get to a family history center it is FREE!
www.ndsu.edu/grhc/history North Dakota State University collection of GR archive. Food, fads, etc. Fun site to see historically sound info.
http://www.ellisilland.org/ Ships arriving in port of New York. Caution- many of our Germans from Russia last name spellings are "what the port authority heard", so try variations.
Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sources: Beginning records locations for various nations and information.
http://www.cyndislist.com/. Maps, records.
http://www.nara.org/ National Archives and Record Administration in Washington D.C. collection of EWZ records for Russia, Poland, Ukraine, Volga, Volhynia, etc. After war and for storage, German states gave USA records reluctantly. Some can trace 4 generations with records and pedigree charts.
http://www.feehs.org/ The Federation of Eastern Europe genealogy society. Next conference in Salt Lake City is
August 12-14, 2014. They have many maps, gazetteers, and info on European research. Helpful.
Classes on 2nd and 4th Sundays for public. FREE. Class schedule posted monthly.
February 23, or March 9, or March 23, from 1:00 p.m.- 4:00 p.m. GERMAN RESEARCH....BRING US YOUR GERMAN RESEARCH PROBLEMS, by Kim Harsara Smith and Eleonor Wollenzien. Note: These are Sunday afternoon classes.
To find tutorials online or courses in German research at BYU: byu.edu.courses.
Reading Old German Handwriting
German Basic Research
German Script tutorial
Town of origin
Beginning German Research 1 start, goals, tools
Beginning German Research 2 Historical info
Beginning German Research 3 Maps, gazetteers, etc.
Building a German Library
Learning about church books