Several years ago I discovered a village in northern Kazakhstan named Karamyshevka that was started in 1906 by Germans. Karamyshevka was also the Russian name of Bauer, the village in the Volga region that was home to my German Russian relatives. I suspected residents of Karamyshevka in the Volga region started the village in Kazakhstan and wondered if my own relatives were involved.

 A few years later a paper was published in the AHSGR journal by Araylym Mussagalieva and Roza Mussabekova, two scholars from the Eurasian National University who study German Russians in Kazakhstan. I contacted Araylym and suggested that if she ever went to Karamyshevka she might look for the name Bruch or Brug, my relatives. She responded, “I’m there now,” and sent me the names of half-a-dozen Bruchs from a 1920 census.

On a visit to Kazakhstan this past September two Kazakh friends offered to take me to Karamyshevka, Kazakhstan. I expected a simple visit. Then Araylym and Roza offered to come with us. Finally, a news crew from Kabar.tv, the national television network of Kazakhstan, thought it would make a good story and offered to come as well. I set off for Karamyshevka in a news van with my friends, two experts on German Russians in Kazakhstan, and a news reporter and videographer. My Treffen Tuesday presentation recalls this adventure.