Folklore for the AHSGR Convention

The Intermountain Chapter is preparing the Folklore segement for the upcoming convention. Handmade quilts made by Volga German families are needed for display at the event. If you have one of these treasures and are willing to share, please write up an article about the quilt's history and family connection. Include details such as who made the quilt and the family village if known. You can be present at the recording of the project if desired. Further information on date, location, and time will be coming. If you have questions, please contact Dee Hert.

Family History Update

When the library opens you will notice numerous changes; increased number of computers, table space, scanners, etc. The greatest change will be location of materials. 1st. Floor: Is more open. 2nd Floor Home to Canadian and US microfilms along with new and original scanners. 3rd Floor: Additional bookshelves, collection expanded by 40 thousand books. New scanners. B1: British Films: Maps relocated to new map cases. Additional desks, computers, and microfilm readers. B2: International books, no longer housed in high density. Guests may bring personal books in for scanning. Details coming soon. Library opening date remains uncertain. Consideration for safety is a huge factor; all staff must be fully vaccinated. Construction and re-signage must be completed. Websites and social media to be updated. In addition to this heavy staff workload the library continues to offer online classes and webinars. Continual appreciation to the library and staff for their efforts to provide improved service to the public. The services to the Germans from Russia culture are outstanding. Dee Hert

Seeking Donations

We as a group are very blessed and fortunate; we are also aware of others who have great needs.  Tabitha's Way 2021 is in need of donations for the population they serve.

It is proposed that our chapter support those in need. 

Plan A:  We gather numerous items and present them to the Ansley's when/if we have our traditional Christmas Party at the Springville church.

Plan B: We gather extensive supplies.  I propose we load them into my truck and transport several loads before December.  I am willing to come to you if you have several boxes of donated items.

Downsizing- is it time to donate items you no longer need?

Retired-is it time to empty that closet of unused items?  

Outgrown- do you and yours have a ton of clothing that no longer fits?

Children- diapers, food, children's clothing and books.

If you have an item you would like to donate but are unsure if it qualifies, contact Shirley Ansley.  For a complete list of items, contact Dee Hert.  Emails for both are in the in the right hand column of this blog under chapter officers.

Historical Timeline

The following two timelines are part of a presentation by Annette Adams, given at our latest Intermountain Chapter meeting.  You will find the information helpful if you are researching ancestors who came through Lincoln, Nebraska, on their journey in America.  

Saratow, Russia

1762: Catherine the Great issues first manifesto inviting foreigners

to settle Russia. No response.

1763: The second Manifesto issued. Thousands of colonists come

from Germany.

1764- 1768: German colonies are founded along the Volga River.

1861: Emancipation Reform of 1861 in Russia abolishes serfdom.

1871: The Imperial Russian government repeals the manifestos

of Catherine the Great and Alexander I. The German colonists

were to lose their special status and privileges and become subject

to Russian military service after a ten-year grace period.

1872- 1873: Several groups emigrated from the Odessa area to

Nebraska and the Dakotas. Scouts from other Black Sea

colonies and the Volga Colonies investigate opportunities in

America.

1874: The Imperial Russian government amends the 1871

decree and institutes compulsory military conscription

of German colonists immediately. 375,000- 400,000 died.

1914: World War I begins.

1917: Political unrest in Russia leads to two revolutions

and the beginning of Soviet communist rule.

1920- 1923: Famine in Russia. Over 150,000 Volga

Germans die of starvation.

Historical Timeline

Lincoln, Nebraska

1760s:  Thirteen British Colonies contained 2.5 million people.

1776:  Founding of America.

1860s - 1870s:  Federal Policy favored immigration.  

1862:   Lincoln, Nebraska was founded on the wild salt marshes of Lancaster County.

1870:  Burlington and Missouri River Railroad’s first train arrived June 26^th.

1871:  Midland Pacific

1872:  Atchison and Nebraska

1872 – 1885:  About 30 Germans from Russia arrived per year.

1877:   Union Pacific

1886:  Chicago and Northwestern and Missouri Pacific

1886 – 1887:     Severe Winter of the Great Plains

1886 – 1892:     Opportunities arose in America.

1892:  Lincoln became a rail hub.

1893:  Worldwide Economic Depression            

1893:  US Depression

1898:   Floodgates opened with 100-576 Germans from Russian individuals

1907:  Naturalization Records

1909 - 1913:  3000 Germans from Russia arrived.

1914:  The First World War begins.

1919:  The United States Government enacts strict immigration laws which

greatly slow the tide of immigrants.  Canada continues to receive German

immigrants from Russia.

1920:  End of German publications.  Twenty-five percent of Lincoln population

are Germans from Russia.

February Chapter Meeting

 Saturday, February 20th, 10:00 a.m.

All current members will receive a zoom contact address.  If you are new and would like to join us, please text (319) 631-9701 for the link.  We hope to see you all!

I'm Still Here

Today I started reflecting and realized that I miss my Intermountain Chapter family.  It's been such a crazy year, something out of the Twilight Zone or Jumanji.  Spending so much time at home has made me aware that I need all of you and what you've added to my life.  It has given me time to dig into my research and get to know my ancestors better.  I have become grateful for all of you for the information you've shared with me.

If I'm honest, I had only small and occasional successes until I joined AHSGR.  Without all the work of others, I'd still be stumbling around in the dark.  Having the resources available through the organization has helped me locate censuses and church records. I better understand the social history of my people.  

In a more personal way, even very brief associations have enriched my life and research.  At the convention in Kansas, I met a man whose great-grandmother was a sister to my great-grandmother.  I'd known of the sister and had so many questions.  He filled in the story for me and went home for pictures that he gave to me for keeps.  I discovered a distant relative, related through both my German Russian heritage and my LDS pioneers.  What fun that was for me.  One chapter member, Sharon White, is related through several lines.  She freely shares information, allowing me to make breakthroughs. She and many others have contributed so much to other's research.  

I could mention many chapter members who helped reorganize and bring back the Intermountain Chapter, but I'd surely miss someone.  Please, know how much you are appreciated. Thanks for all of your continuing hard work and effort.  I am anxious for the day that we can meet together in person and enjoy the fellowship face to face.   

Before this all gets too sappy, I'll stop.  Just a bit of information first.  I've been using my time at home to take genealogy courses online through Salt Lake Community College.  It's opened up some new interests and filled a lot of skill gaps for me.  If you're looking for something extra, check into it.  Even better, if you are of retirement age and live in Utah, classes cost a whopping $10 for a semester.  Here's hoping that you stay healthy, happy, and productive.

The Genealogical Proof Standard

 

The Genealogical Proof Standard is the process that genealogists follow to determine if they’ve done everything necessary for a credible work.  There are five essential steps to this process. 

1.  Reasonably exhaustive research is completed. 

2. Each fact has an accurate source citation.  

3. The evidence is reliable, correlated, and interpreted carefully. 

4.  Any contradiction in evidence is resolved. 

5. The conclusion is sound and written clearly.  

This process helps the genealogist determine what they need to learn and how to approach problems in their research to come to a correct conclusion.

Reading the Old Handwriting

 

I want to share a methodology for reading a document. This is helpful when transcribing documents in a foreign language.  A step by step procedure like this helps even those who are familiar with transcribing records. 

 1.  Identify all the names in the document. This will be the easiest thing to do.  I like to look for proper nouns that are capitalized, and names often look much the same in different languages.  

2.  Identify dates, beginning with the month followed by the day and year. (I didn’t realize that sometimes the day and year are written out and sometimes they aren’t.) This can be used as an answer key for how the letters were written in other words in the document.

3.  Identify action verbs and relationship words such as married, born, and died.

4. Identify places.  This is the most difficult because of all the variation. Use gazetteers, online maps, and Wikipedia articles to help with this.

 

 An article was published in the Die Wilt Post, 1938, about the village of Anton.  

Refer to the AHSGR Journal, Vol. 6, No. 4, Winter 1983, for a more detailed 

account of the village.

Anton was located along the Volga River.  One of the industries of the area 

was a sugar beet factory.  In 1875, the sugarbeet factory closed and the 

people had to resettle to other areas for work.  A group of Antoners went as 

far away as Baku, in the Caucusus, to find work.

I have been the Village Coordinator for Anton for many years and also have 

a passion for the movement to The Caucasus.  The Stark family resided

in Anton and are related to the Hert family. 

I encourage fellow researchers to share any Caucasus information.  Thanks

for the support.

Dee Hert

VC:  Anton and other villages

History Repeats Itself

Yesterday I was on Facebook looking at the Volga German page.  One of the members had posted an interesting story about his grandfather, who was a victim of the 1918 Pandemic. As I looked at the comments I realized how many of us with that ancestry had similar experiences in our family history.  Some of the followers told about losing both grandparents.

This is a picture of my grandmother, Katharina Elisabeth Klamm Burghardt, born in Warenburg, Russia. The family was living in the Denver area at the time of her death in October of 1918. Her death was a result of the pandemic. It was during the second wave, between September and November of that year.  It proved to be highly fatal in the United States, with  195,000 deaths in October alone. My father was only two years old, and she left behind her husband and ten children.  As I've followed my family's story through the years, it is apparent how much that changed the world for them and their descendants.  That's just one family out of the millions of deaths.

The pandemic we are now experiencing has made me desire collecting the stories of my family.  I'd be happy to post any stories you'd like to share as well.  If you'd like to submit, please, send them to me.

Russian Empire Genealogy Research — Camille Andrus

How do I write an effective research query?

Genealogy is really just detective work. Clues lead to more information. When asking a research question, please include as much of the following information as possible:

• Full name of the ancestor (FamilySearch ID number [example: L7J4-V81])
• birth date, even if approximate, and place [as much as is known]
• residence(s) in the US or other country of immigration
• any details you have on parents, spouse, children, and where they lived
• known emigration and naturalization details
• religion
• anything else that might be helpful, like a known name change
• which records you have already searched and the results

How Are You Spending Your Time?

Life has changed so much over the past two months.  Of course we have plenty to do, but it seems to me there is ample time without the spring sports and school extra curricular activities.  Churches and other venues closed... so, what are you doing to be productive?  I have done SO MUCH research!  I am pouring over my Pleve Charts, Censuses, Church Records, family documents, keeping in touch with distant family.  I'm appreciating the time I never seem to find in other circumstances.  I decided to share my latest project, and I'm pretty proud of it. This is a huge chart that I purchased at Roots Tech.  It shows seven generations of our family, starting with our children.  Let's make the most of this strange situation we find ourselves experiencing. 

April Chapter Meeting

Changing times required adaptation, but it was a successful meeting of our Utah Intermountain Chapter of AHSGR.  Annette Adams gave a wonderful presentation to help us use the resources at Family Search. Even those who have used the different features benefited from the overview and reminder.  We are so lucky to have these great resources to use from home.  Thanks to Annette Adams, Cory Heizenrader, and our chapter leaders and their skills which made this possible. Not to mention, it was fun to see your faces and hear your voices.  What an awesome group of people!

Annenfeld, Elisathabethpol, Sud-Kaukauis

As the Village Coordinator for Annenfeld I am asking for your assistance with this Caucasus village and others; please share your finds, your family movement, immigration, any data.  My goal is to gather and share this challenging research project.

 

I set up a database and am entering information as it is received. 

I recently aquired a few records which were originally housed at the Stuttgart, Germany Archives.

I have located a few new sources of information which deal with the history of this village; often with the mention of movement from the Volga. Annenfeld was a farmstead founded by Volga German colonists before 1889.  Looking for a list of these resettles and more specific information.

Annenfeld is located in the Gandsha district, in the South Caucasus of Russia. Latitude and Longitude is 40.8294, 46.0167; founded in the year 1818.

Annenfeld was a mother colony of Protestant faith. 

The current Russian names are Shamkir, Samkir, Azerbaijan.

Wikipedia: Samkir is a city in and the capital of Shamkir District in western Azerbaijan, located in the northern foothills of the Lesser Caucasus, on the coast of the Chagirchay River on Tbilisi-Yevlakh highway, about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) from Dollar railway station.

In 1817-1818, a colony of Germans resettled from Wurttemberg, was established on the site of Shamkir under the name Annenfeld. In 1915 Assyrians from Turkey and Iran were resettled at this site.

Look-ups:  If you are curious if your family was among these Germans who resettled from the Volga or Wurttemberg I am willing to look for your names. Perhaps those family members whom you are unable to track are part of this history.

Thanks for the support.

Dee Hert

VC: 30 Caucasus Villages