Roots Tech

With all of the craziness in the world, here is a bright spot.  I attended Roots Tech for the first time this year.  My cousin from Colorado attended with me.  While there for only one day, it was a great experience. The Intermountain Chapter of AHSGR had an awesome booth with lovely give aways. We were able to slip over to the Family History Library and attend a class there, also do a little research,.  I loved the Find a Relative perk.  Not surprisingly, I only connected with three people on my Germans from Russia line.  One of them I could never locate, but in this picture I'm with my cousin and another relative of mine whom you might recognize from the Intermountain Chapter.  It was so fun!

Katharinenfeld; Southern Caucasus Village

Katharinenfeld was established in 1818 by Swabian German settlers and was known as; Luxemburgand Boinisi. The village was located in the District of Tbilisi in the present country of Georgia as a Mother colony. The Volga German Institute stated the Volga villagers of Fisher relocated to the Caucasus. It is likely that many other villagers from the Volga also took advantage of the newly available land. 

Two great maps for Katharinenfeld are; map 13 from AHSGR and the “Germans from Russia Settlement Locations, hosted by Sandy Schilling Payne (https://wwww.germansfromrussiasettlementlocations.org).

Latitude/Longitude is listed as 41.4502, 44.5489

My favorite Caucasus gazetteer is, “Atlas of the Ethno-Political History of the Caucasus” by Arthur Tsutsiev.

The vast area of the Caucasus was controlled by numerous tribes and countries, conflict was common as each struggled to maintain control of this resource rich area.  The first stage of Russian colonization of the Caucasus was a period of military absorption of local groups.  Russia instilled their form of government upon the newly acquired lands.   Later German peasants were encouraged to establish villages in the North and South Caucasus areas.

Life for these newly arrived farmers varied from location to location, some fared better than others.

August 27, 1826 hundreds of Kurds, Turks, Persians and Tatars raided Katharinenfeld and murdered a large portion of the population. Surviving villagers rebuilt Katharinenfeld.  Winegrowing was a very successful endeavor and resulted in prosperity.

In 1941 villagers were forcibly deported to Kazakhstan and Siberia. The Wilhelm Biedlingmaier family was able to survive and wrote about their experiences. I recently gained access to, “Das Ahnenbuch Von Katharinenfeld in Georgien, Kaukasus Chronic  Der Familien”  Contact me if you need a look-up.  I was thrilled to see the family name of Stark.

The search continues for any information on this and other villages.  Please share what you have learned. Contact me anytime.

Dee Hert, Village Coordinator

deeehert@gmail.com