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 Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2007 8:53 am |
My mother-in-laws family is of German origin (as is my mother's immediate family), but they lived for 4 generations in Russia. The family here in Canada knows very little of their history except that they came from Bavaria originally and lived in Russia before many of them were sent to Siberia or escaped to Canada.
Today I received a letter from Robair's great aunt. I had spoken to her briefly at recent family affair about the family history. She indicated she had some details she would share with me since I wanted to try tracing their family history. While she does not have a large amount of data, it is a wealth of knowledge.
From her letter I've learned that the family lived in Russia for 4 generations and came from Bavaria, which no one had previously seemed to be certain. Her parents were among the family that immigrated to Canada from Russia. The family had been living in Sewalt, Saratov, Russia. Knowing the dates of birth and marriage will help tremendously in my search. It seems that her ancestors were lured to Russia by an invitation from Catherine the Great, during a time of great hardship in Germany (1764-1800). Unfortunately, while many families survived the harsh environment, disease, and loss of community, it appears they did not necessarily live happier lives in the long run. The Volga River area is where her family had settled and during the Revolution, many residents, including (we believe) her relatives, were sent to work camps where many died.
http://www.rollintl.com/roll/grsettle.htm
I just find genealogy really, really cool....Robair says it's like crack cocaine for me....if I have free time to waste I'm "ancestrying"....I think it's the whole mystery and trying to fit puzzle pieces together thing....ANYWAY....I'm looking forward to searching for info for their German Russian roots and also his father's English roots.
_________________
Think of the ripple effect -- how a stone thrown into a pond creates increasingly larger circles. Your impact on people can have the same effect. So the question is: What kind of impression do you want to leave?
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Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2007 9:25 am
Genealogy is a cool hobby... well, hobby doesn't seem the right word, It can be more of an obsession.  I made up a family tree when I was in grade 10. My family is so large, and I was fortunate enough to have grandparents I could talk to, so I wrote the tree up on a roll of freezer paper. I kept rolling it out as needed, and the line connecting my parents was about 17' long.
Nice redecorating.
Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2007 10:30 am
thanks! i like the tanish color...
yes, genealogy is becoming an obsession....one link leads to another and another and....I'm a dork I know.
I've only been into it since April but i LOVE it....17 pages is a great line. It's amazing some of the stuff you learn about your family!
_________________
Think of the ripple effect -- how a stone thrown into a pond creates increasingly larger circles. Your impact on people can have the same effect. So the question is: What kind of impression do you want to leave?
Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2007 10:43 am
not 17 pages... 17 feet.  And I might be mistaken... that might have been the line connecting my grandparents. My own parents might have been closer to 34'... I should find it and check.
The trouble with drawing up a tree is where some lines cross - my Gramma and her cousin married brothers, and on the other side, a brother and a sister married a brother and sister... I have a few criss-crosses.
I think computers make the search a lot easier, but it's more fun to talk to relatives and get the info first hand. Have fun digging!
Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2007 10:49 am
17 ft! you nerd  ...
yes, computers make it MUCH easier...otherwise you have binders full of papers, not that I would know
_________________
Think of the ripple effect -- how a stone thrown into a pond creates increasingly larger circles. Your impact on people can have the same effect. So the question is: What kind of impression do you want to leave?
Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2007 10:56 am
My neighbour gave me a book with pages to fill out. It was all cross-referenced. It looked so confusing, but once I started filling in some of the pages, it made more sense... just like putting the tree itself together.
Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2007 11:57 am
It's great that you're researching you family's history.
It sounds as though your new relatives might be Mennonites or at least be descendants of. I say that because my family is the same way. My ancestors were German, were invited to Russia by Katharine the Great, left when the Bolsheviks took over.
If you're interested, there are quite a few books that have been made by Mennonites tracing all the different genealogies through Russia and before as well as well as their experiences. And quite a few by non-Mennonites as well.
I remember in my family, my great uncle (who died two years ago) had a horrible experience with the Bolsheviks. He was in the Ukraine, in a city called Zaporizhia when the NKVD came through and rounded up all the able bodied men they could find a few minutes time. All of the ones they could find were loaded onto trucks, except for my uncle. The rest were never heard from again.
_________________
Banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.
-Thomas Jefferson
The men the American people admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth.
-H. L. Mencken
Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2007 12:56 pm
Yes, I believe the Bolshevik revolution is when many in this family were sent away...no one knows what became of them.....I don't think they were Mennonites, but I can't say for sure. The family is Roman Catholic here in Canada....I'm hoping I can trace them via church records, but it can be hard to do online. I've heard about some books about the group called "The German Russians" hence the topic name, but I don't know the names of any of them....do you happen to recall them?
_________________
Think of the ripple effect -- how a stone thrown into a pond creates increasingly larger circles. Your impact on people can have the same effect. So the question is: What kind of impression do you want to leave?
Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2007 5:16 pm
I'm afraid not, sorry. Most of the books regarding German descendants in Russia are Mennonite in origin and theme.
_________________
Banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.
-Thomas Jefferson
The men the American people admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth.
-H. L. Mencken
Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2007 10:21 pm
Well, I have some good news...I did some research and found that Seewald was a Catholic colony on the East side of the Volga river in Russia, so now I feel confident these families were all Catholic while in Russia. I have found some websites to be helpful in my search so far, though I have no more hard data than before....
www.volgagermans.net
www.ahsgr.org
http://esask.uregina.ca/entry/german_settlements.html
The FSL (first settlers list) is similar to a census and was taken when the colonies where first settled....was able to link some surnames to an origin in Germany so will try to track those leads to see if I can find any matches....if the data is correct, his family emigrated to Russia from the Fulda, Brandenburg, Worms, and Pfalz areas of Germany. 
_________________
Think of the ripple effect -- how a stone thrown into a pond creates increasingly larger circles. Your impact on people can have the same effect. So the question is: What kind of impression do you want to leave?
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